Day/Night settings on new 5442 cams

[rdxny]

I have two Andy cams... T54IR-ZE-S3 running the newer web 5 interfaces, and firmware V3.100.0000000.5.R 2023 -05-09

One goes back and forth between Day (color) and Night (B/w) at dusk, flashing back and forth until it gets dark enough to stay B/w). The other is more stable.
What I can't figure out is how to set the Day/Night settings. "Mode" is unavailable (says "AUTO") if I have "Day/Night Switch" selected. So I change to "Customized Scene", then change the "Day" to Color, and "Night" to B/W, apply, then change it back to "Day/Night Switch". That seems to work, but later I come back and it looks like it went back to "Auto" (though those settings are grayed out unless I go back to "Customized scene").
So is the bouncing from color to b/w at dusk related to these settings? What's the best way to do this?

 

[TheOtherMike]

I've had to do the same ritual for day/night settings. I have the same camera but flashed V3.100.0000000.6.R, Build Date: 2023-08-02

You probably already know, but just in case, remember to hit "Apply" before leaving the settings page. I now do it habitually for every individual adjustment.

On edit, my setup is working well for me. Here are my settings:




One other thing I had considered is whether or not there is sufficient light for the mode following transition.
So here's more of my setup - I am letting the system deal with daylight mode.




2nd edit: Illuminator settings may be a factor. Mine:
Day: Off
Night: Auto, Illum Over... Off

 

[rdxny]

Thanks, I will try those settings this eve and see if it helps. The "0" for sensitivity and using "auto" for daytime are different, so I shall see. I'm considering updating the firmware, but hesitant

 

[rdxny]

I've had to do the same ritual for day/night settings. I have the same camera but flashed V3.100.0000000.6.R, Build Date: 2023-08-02

You probably already know, but just in case, remember to hit "Apply" before leaving the settings page. I now do it habitually for every individual adjustment.

On edit, my setup is working well for me. Here are my settings:

View attachment 180665
View attachment 180666

One other thing I had considered is whether or not there is sufficient light for the mode following transition.
So here's more of my setup - I am letting the system deal with daylight mode.

View attachment 180667
View attachment 180668

2nd edit: Illuminator settings may be a factor. Mine:
Day: Off
Night: Auto, Illum Over... Off

Reporting back: I had to mess with the settings some: the "0" for sensitivity prevented it from changing to b/w at dusk, so I raised the setting one notch every day, until I had it at 4 today, when it behaved and changed without cycling back and forth. But I realized I was changing the "day" portion of that day night/switch.. the night was still "0". I didn't know they were separate settings. So I still have no clue how this is supposed to work, but for now, it seems ok with the "Day" part at "4" and "night" at "zero". Dunno why!

 

[TheOtherMike]

Good info. I too am just experimenting to see what gets close to what seems to work.
I went with "0" for both day & night as the little help popup implies "0" would bias the system toward color which is the behavior I needed.

The bigger the value is, the earlier the image will be switched to B/W and the later the image will be switched to Color.

What I don't know is if the image is B/W whether the camera is in the Day profile or Night profile. I cannot be certain by viewing recordings. I think I'd have to monitor the camera during transition.
I normally tend to assign B/W to Night profile and color to Day profile, but that isn't possible with Day/Night switch.

 

[CCTVCam]

@ the other Mike. I'm not sure I'd run Auto exposure even in the day - I use manual. Dark stormy days I take care of with a gain setting of 0-12 instead of 0 many use. So far it seems to work well. Enough gain to maintain a light enouigh picture but low enough not to cause visible issues, whilst shutter can remain pegged at 4ms, at least on the 4kt. Might differ slightly on 5442 although I doubt it will struggle in daylight. Once you give the camera Auto, it can do anything with the shutter speed.

 

[TheOtherMike]

Thank you @CCTVCam. I'll try those settings and see how it goes.

 

[TheOtherMike]

not trying to hijack, but here is the scene just before & after switching. The night/BW image is too blown out and there's plenty of light for a good color image long before the switch.
This is using my settings above.





On edit: another screenshot from full dark with some rain/fog streaks thrown in. For reference the far end of the privacy fence is about 160' away.
This is mostly a dog & critter cam.

 

[TheOtherMike]

Back-to-back comparison. I could go with any of these for today.




My previous day settings:



Suggested settings:



Fixed gain & shutter:

 

[CCTVCam]

When I said 4ms use 0-4ms. That way the camera can set faster if it's very bright but cannot go slower.

With the 2nd picture, you may find faces a little dark if under hoodies etc. That said it's acceptable. The onylr eason I use 0-12 on gain instead of a fixed 0 is o for my driveway cam, it's under a car port so slightly light reduced anyway, but if you get a really dark stormy day, then faces can get a little dark and sometimes a little noisy. Upping the gain to 0-12ms I'm finding just lifts the picture enough to get good facials and banish the noise whilst allowing me to maintain a 4ms max shutter to prevent motion blur. Obviously you can experiment with your own settings. Just beware clothing shaded faces, dark stormy days, twighlight (can use another setting here if you so desire in the schedule of twighlight) and anythign else that may lead to slighly dim picture. The trouble with auto is whilst it can look great in some shots, it can totally ruin others either because it gets it wrong or because it has total free reign with shutter settings leading to motion blur and ghosting through brightening the picture by slowing the shutter.

 

[TheOtherMike]

Many thanks to you for the guidance on the settings @CCTVCam.

My biggest challenge with this setup is the Day/Night transition as shown above and here.
Here is the most recent day-to-night transition (with day exposure set to auto - not ignoring your advice, just maintaining for apples-apples).
Actually, this may be a bit too dark prior to switching - more tweaking to do.

 

[CCTVCam]

Two options are either set up a twighlight setting in the schedule. You can set this somewhere between night and day settings so it provides a transition period, or alternatively just extend the night period longer. Provided you set the shutter 0-X, then the shutter can go faster if there's tooo much light before it switches to day. If running B&W at night this will extend the B&W period longer. This is the advantage of mnaual control although you will have to set up schedules by hand and dark stormy days can extend night / shorten day which is where a twichlight period setting might help. The settings ultimately are what you make them. It's finding what works for you although the Wiki remoccmendations are pretty much spot on for most situations and adding a lot of gain or slow shutter you do at you peril. I think the Wiki recommends up to 12ms but I personally found this too slow on my cameras to guarantee motion blur avoidance.