Dahua IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E with Hikvision NVR

[Maximo101]

Currently testing Day/Night schedule, sunrise is about 6:30am here atm, but camera seems to stay in a sunset mode until 9am, then switch, im not too fussed. i recall yesterday it went from day to night mode about 5:30pm, but sun didnt set until about 6:30pm.
For now im not too fussed, but as with you @wittaj, i may revisit this in the future when i resetup a new nas/server and look at adjusting camera via the api.

Daytime results are great, even in night mode. Looks like the pesky magpies fly by and land on the letterbox all the time. I am quite impressed with the zoom and quality of the magpie in motion (flying past was a clean swoop prior to landing)

 

[wittaj]

Those look good. I am glad the Z12 and our recommendations worked out for you!

 

[Maximo101]

Thanks for all the advice and special thanks to @EMPIRETECANDY for the camera! Hopefully this thread helps others too.
Probably worth noting all the images i've shown are a 'snip' / screen shot from IVMS-4200 screen, a downloaded 'capture' image (HIKvision_IP file) from hikvision is a bit clearer. Can even read the advertising of this truck.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Thanks for your help for posting this, i will keep this link and show other people if they use hikvision NVR with dahua cams.

 

[Maximo101]

Looks like my camera also lost focus.
Ill try the "Schedule" profile instead of Day/Night.
Otherwise ill look at using the api /script or sunrise utlity, but i wanted to avoid the extra steps...

 

[bigredfish]

I use Schedule and make the switch from color to B&W 45min before sunset, and switch back to color 45 min after sunrise in the morning.

 

[biggen]

Looks like my camera also lost focus.
Ill try the "Schedule" profile instead of Day/Night.
Otherwise ill look at using the api /script or sunrise utlity, but i wanted to avoid the extra steps...

The issue with hard coding a schedule is sunrise/sunset changes a few minutes every day or so. You really need to a script to automate this. I do what @bigredfish does and change my LPR cam over 45 minute before sunset and 45 minutes after sunrise. The other cams change over at sunrise/sunset exactly.

 

[wittaj]

Or just run it 24/7 B/W - I did that for a year before I utilized the utility that was posted here.

 

[bigredfish]

^^^^^
This, I do that with one of my cameras and never have a problem with it. No focus shift. And really as long as you have a companion overview cam there’s really no need for it to be color.

 

[Maximo101]

My night setting testing last night was all bad before i realized it was just out of focus! So ill revert back to working settings and tinker again once I know its in focus.

I have read up on these forums for the 4 options to fix this. I have conceded that turning it to B/W all the time will resolve this as my last option, but the zoomed day image of a car and people walking past is so clear and nice! I have 2 overview cameras so not really a big deal.
I had it on Day/Night originally, from today I'm trying the 'schedule' and i have set the day schedule about an hour after sunrise (for winter in the southern hemisphere) and an hour before sunset.
This will change alot for summer though as the sun sets in winter about at 6:30pm but in summer its like 9pm down under... I see why people learn towards a script using the api, or an installed service which does it for you.
I did want to sorta set and forgot once it was working as required.

 

[Maximo101]

I am sorta surprised after reading threads from years ago on the same issue that Dahua hasnt address it with a firmware fix.
Eg. ability to set Manual focus for day and night separate. / turn off auto focus.
I get bugs flying past my cameras all the time, especially in summer, hope that is not going to trigger the auto focus continuously over night.

Now that I think about it though, last night it was in focus after switching to night around 5:30pm, i think when i turn it off and on by changing from power adaptor to POE it auto focuses again, but didnt do this the night before when i did this several times with the first two nights testing...
The reflective tape on the letter box was fine for all other nights testing.

 

[oknoob]

I just receive the same.camera from Andy. And I try with my lorex nvr.And I log in thru explorer browser and I have all those options. Tomorrow I'm planning to install, if you have more good settings to share would be great. Thanks

 

[wittaj]

@oknoob - Lorex is a rebranded Dahua, so it will work fine!

 

[oknoob]

@oknoob - Lorex is a rebranded Dahua, so it will work fine!

Thru the nvr have some basic settings. But thru explorer browser there is a lot of cool settings. The rest of my cameras are lorex, I want start with the 5241 and go from there into making a better camera system.

 

[wittaj]

@oknoob - yes, any changes you make to the camera should be made thru the explorer browser.

 

[oknoob]

Once I do any changes or adjustment thru the browser it will stay or the nvr will overwrite those changes?

 

[wittaj]

They should stay in the camera setting. My neighbor has the Lorex Costco kit and has replaced 3 of the cams with cameras from @EMPIRETECANDY and the settings remained as long as he didn't make a change in the NVR, so just be careful not to adjust any NVR settings as that may then override the camera settings.

 

[oknoob]

Ok thanks.

 

[Maximo101]

I think the settings are very individual to the location, angle and specific installation conditions.
I used settings others suggested they use and they did not work for me at all.
I had a good picture as above, and subsequently worse pictures, and changed so many settings i lost track of what does what! Eg. changing Iris, HLC, gain, grade all at once! I currently have it set to BW (Night) mode and not change for schedule.
I also for some reason played with the network settings in the camera then locked my self out! So I reset my camera, and worked with basic tweaking again.
I found the default settings (with everything about 50), provides the ability to read the license plate even though not 100% clear, eg picture attached is grainy and has over saturation. I am now just working on testing one setting at a time to see what each variable actually does to the image. And actually keeping a log, since I couldn't remember what i change as i had been changing so many so much!
Eg. Just tweaked Iris from 50 to 45 last night, made picture more blurred. Then reverted iris to 50, then tweaked HLC from 50 to 70 and also made more blurry,
Initially i just went and changed 4-5 variables at once and then wasn't really sure what did what.
For me I need the gain to be at 65, and have IR (far/near) at 100, while others suggest 30. But I am also trying to capture over 50m which may be more than others, plus i have 2 overview cameras which have IR light on them, and my neighbor on the other side of the road has IR lights on his cameras.
So i suggest starting with all defaults, take test image, then move 1 variable at a time up or down +20 and see if it improves or reduces clarity. As i learned when i recently learnt 3d printing and all the slicer setttings! Just tune one variable at a time and in the process you really learn what each variable does!

 

[Maximo101]

For others reading and installing a camera like this for LPR, when you first try, try the default settings, drive your car past and get a base line test image. Then you will be able to work on improving it.
I went a bit to hard to fast changing too many things!
Key part to getting plates (for night as day is pretty easy with default settings) is to
1. reduce glare from headlights, the night mode HLC should be set to help with this, start at 50, then you can test higher/lower to see what improves.
2. light up the plates with IR (i set mine both to 100 for near and far)
3. slow the shutter speed to 1/2000 (works for day and night) to allow the low light to collect to build the image

These should be good starting points for others I believe.

If your image is dull, try increasing the Gain from 0-50 to 60 and test, then higher if needed. I havent really learn much more as yet, but hopefully that helps others.