Dahua 4MP Varifocal Bullet (IPC-HFW5421E-Z)

[nayr]

I present Dahua's Eco Savvy 2.0 4MP UHD Varifocal Bullet:


Potential Uses: License Plate Reading / Overview / Indoor Industrial (Garage/Warehouse)

Verdict: Not yet rendered, check back again soon.

Disclaimer: This camera was provided to me in exchange for a fair and unbiased review by @EMPIRETECANDY

Features

• 1/3” 4Megapixel progressive scan CMOS
  
• H.265/H.264/MJPEG triple-stream encoding
• 25/30fps@4MP (2688×1520)
• Minimum Illumination: 0.01 Lux/F1.4 (Color)
• Smart Detection supported (Facial/Tripwire/Intrusion/Audio)
• WDR(120dB), Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
• Multiple network monitoring: Web viewer, CMS(DSS/PSS) & DMSS
• 2.7mm~12mm motorized lens (4x Zoom), 100°~33° HFOV
• EXIR LEDs Distance: 50m
• IP67, PoE (802.3af)
• Micro SD card memory (128GB Max)
• External Audio and Alarm IO

Product Page: IPC-HFW5421E-Z | Dahua Technology

Retail Price: ~$240 from @EMPIRETECANDY

Downloads:

• User Manual
• QuickStart Guide
• Spec Sheet
• PAL Firmware: DH_IPC-HX5X2X-Themis_Eng_P_Stream3_V2.600.0005.0.R.20161219.bin

This is an international model camera, comes unmodified with english translations and is upgradable.

Shipped Firmware:


This Model came to me in NTSC and does have an analogue video output for use in setup.
Location of MicroSD Card Slot on underside under a panel:

you can see ports in here for the analogue video, zoom controls and perhaps serial.

Pigtail/Wiring:


Label:


Videos and Test Images are gonna have to wait for the snow to melt; at least night time comparisons..

 

[ldasilva]

looks like it good be a nice camera may not be a starlight but maybe has his home somewhere

 

[nayr]

I think this one will live in my garage watching the cat door, so I can hookup a cheap motion sensor and have it just record when the cats are eating or coming/going.. right now im using a very old 2MP Dahua there and its noisy and very low quality image.. Last summer a cat got injured and we wanted to see when it happened but the video quality was far too poor to tell.

Indoors I think is where you'll find the best places for these Eco 4MP's, Garage bays will be ideal and the ability to wire up a motion sensor will be very nice.. but these could also make fine LPR cameras if you can get it within range.

I ordered a modern/undamaged colorado license plate off ebay for $5, I'll be doing alot of testing on this for LPR use since having the ability to adjust the focus along with legacy MJPEG streaming for OpenALPRd are required for LPR reading.. A starlight camera for LPR is pretty unessicary and the extra pixels will prove more useful for automatic number reading.

here's a daytime shot outside:

and here's a shot from last night quick testing at the catdoor:

 

[hmjgriffon]

I await the comparisons with starlight turret, and starlight bullet.

 

[ldasilva]

that sounds like a good plan
what motion sensors do you use on ur cameras

 

[nayr]

for this specific location, probably one of these: Amazon.com: BOSCH SECURITY VIDEO ISC-BPR2-WP12 Blue Line Gen2 PIR Motion Detector for Security Systems: Camera & Photo

just because they are cheap, I prefer to use the TriTech sensors typically but I dont think this place needs it.. its going to be installed on the underside of shelf above facing straight down with of course pet-immunity disabled.

 

[nayr]

here was the old catdoor camera.. I think this is a 2100 Series Dahua:

 

[hmjgriffon]

I think this one will live in my garage watching the cat door, so I can hookup a cheap motion sensor and have it just record when the cats are eating or coming/going.. right now im using a very old 2MP Dahua there and its noisy and very low quality image.. Last summer a cat got injured and we wanted to see when it happened but the video quality was far too poor to tell.

Indoors I think is where you'll find the best places for these Eco 4MP's, Garage bays will be ideal and the ability to wire up a motion sensor will be very nice.. but these could also make fine LPR cameras if you can get it within range.

I ordered a modern/undamaged colorado license plate off ebay for $5, I'll be doing alot of testing on this for LPR use since having the ability to adjust the focus along with legacy MJPEG streaming for OpenALPRd are required for LPR reading.. A starlight camera for LPR is pretty unessicary and the extra pixels will prove more useful for automatic number reading.

here's a daytime shot outside:
View attachment 14183

and here's a shot from last night quick testing at the catdoor:
View attachment 14184

Cat door, heh heh

 

[ldasilva]

for this specific location, probably one of these: Amazon.com: BOSCH SECURITY VIDEO ISC-BPR2-WP12 Blue Line Gen2 PIR Motion Detector for Security Systems: Camera & Photo

just because they are cheap, I prefer to use the TriTech sensors typically but I dont think this place needs it.. its going to be installed on the underside of shelf above facing straight down with of course pet-immunity disabled.

looks good enough to me and its just for the cats

 

[ldasilva]

here was the old catdoor camera.. I think this is a 2100 Series Dahua:
View attachment 14185
View attachment 14186

you would think that picture would look just a *little* bit better

 

[ldasilva]

does the cat come in/out from a window(made into a cat door) ? hard to tell from pic

 

[nayr]

we've got Coyote/Racoon issues so its nice to be able to keep track of the cats coming/going.. also if one drags a kill into the house we know whom to place the blame heh.. nothing like coming home from vacation and finding a several week old carcass of a rabbit rotting/wiggling on the garage floor.

I also use it to monitor the feed levels and to chase off the nighbor's cats from time to time that know about the feeder.

I didnt pay for this camera, someone on these forums purchased it and then wanted to return it.. so Andy had em send it to me instead.. I already ordered another Starlight Bullet to replace my last 4MP outside.. that one was going to watch the cat door, but now its going to watch the whole garage interior once its taken down.

yeah its a window, in the back yard the window is at ground level.. so I took out one of the sliding glass panels, replaced it with a heavy piece of plywood and then screwed all into the frame on the inside so it cannot be removed.. then I put a privacy film on it so you cant see inside then built a bunch of shelves infront of the window to hold crap in the garage and give the cats a platform to walk into.. behind the feeder and infront of that outlet is a ramp going down to a lower shelf that has a cat tree in it so they can get up w/out climbing on cars.

 

[ldasilva]

nice i like

 

[nayr]

One thing this camera has is the ability to clip the 2nd substream so its not scaled but actually zoomed in.. this is very neat and could be very awesome for LPR use.. You can record the main stream but only pipe the area of the screen containing license plates to OpenALPRD, reducing hardware requirements.\



You can see the 720p cropping cuts the FOV in half nearly, making this like a 720p equivlant substream with much greater than 12mm optics.. If done right 720p is plenty for ALPRD to get a plate read.

Main Stream/2nd Substream


If you disable the first substream you can have up to 20fps for the 2nd substream.. or 16fps with both enabled..

 

[ldasilva]

same thing as area of interest (AOI) ? or is this something else

 

[nayr]

entirely different, that just changes encoding priority.. this actually gives you zoomed in substream.

I have not seen this feature on any other Dahua.. this is kinda a game changer, might be using this camera for LPR use afterall.. we'll have to see how far away this thing can ID plates

 

[nayr]

put a license plate about ~80ft away and put a CIF substream on it..


Full Image:


I can pass this on to ALPRD in a MJPEG stream and since it is zoomed in on the area with the plate it can process the images with much less hardware than I'm using right now.. and then record the full 4MP Stream.

 

[nayr]

Welp, its no starlight.. as I expected, even with a larger aperture 4MP is kinda suck for ID purposes at night:


both are running autoexposure

 

[nayr]

here is 1/500 Shutter, Gain: 50, 3DNR: 50.. Distance to plate ~40ft, Maximum Zoom

Full:

 

[tangent]

put a license plate about ~80ft away and put a CIF substream on it..

I can pass this on to ALPRD in a MJPEG stream and since it is zoomed in on the area with the plate it can process the images with much less hardware than I'm using right now.. and then record the full 4MP Stream.

I wonder how something like a pi3 would handle a sub-stream like this. I might be playing with one these in an off the grid location on a 1 lane dirt road. Wonder how it would handle -20F though.