Door checker and how to improve the 5442-ase night time captures

[IAmATeaf]

Recently put up a pair of 5442-ase 3.6mm turrets and captured this car door checker, wondering how I can improve the capture as well so any advice would be welcome. Both cams are on default settings at the moment.

Didn't know how to upload so have shared from my Dropbox

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[sebastiantombs]

The best improvement I can think of is to get them down lower. You almost got a good face shot in the second video but if they both were lower you'd have multiple face shots from both angles.

 

[cyberwolf_uk]

Like @sebastiantombs said, drop the cameras I'd say about 1ft and not sure if you already have it, but I'd throw a LED PIR on the front or if you have one a brighter one. Also what are you settings like? as there is slight blur with his movments when you are trying to get the money shot. With more light you could increase the exposure and get that perfect face ID.. I've attached the best stills I could, but not sure if you didn't know him would you be able to ID him? But I'd say you are nearly there.

 

[IAmATeaf]

He’s a repeat door checker, captured him before with my 2Mp starlights which I forwarded to the police, he then disappeared for a few months but is now back.

 

[looney2ns]

Default settings are never the best option.
Light on the front of your house would help a lot.
Common issues with camera image | IP Cam Talk

 

[Buttan Butt]

Looks like the "usual suspect" ?!

 

[IAmATeaf]

Forgot to mention that I can’t really move them down although I’d really like to move Drive1 down buy a foot or two.

 

[wittaj]

Light is certainly a much needed friend to these types of cameras!

As you have seen, auto settings in most situations for shutter will produce a great picture, but motion is complete crap with blurring and ghosting.

In my opinion, shutter and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-30 (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night image results in Casper during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

So if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 30ms as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 25-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

 

[CCTVCam]

Lower but also try replacing the 2nd camera with the 8mp Hik everyone's raving about. A faster shutter, more Mp's for a face capture and better low light enabling the latter may help get a better still.

Might also be worth considering a narrower lens on the 2nd camera if you do repalce it as the 1st gives an overiew. I believe the Hik is a 4mm as standard so slightly narrower but if you have anyway of tying out 6mm eg varifocal on your existing cams, then it might be worth giving it a go.

 

[mat200]

I would be tempted to add another camera which just got a close up of the area currently where this suspect is.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Thanks peeps, @wittaj I’ve set the camera to your suggestion and got a clip of my son on the driveway and although it’s no in b/w the recordings are much more clearer.

Think I got over excited with running in colour through the night.

This is the same guy captured on my 2Mp 5231-ze cams last year.

 

[wittaj]

@IAmATeaf - Yeah, it is easy to get fascinated with the color at night, but it is a static image and motion suffers.

However, you do have enough light at that location and in my experience, we can run the 5442 gain a lot higher than some other cameras, so you might be able to do that and get it back in color. The key is to not then compensate for the noise by taking NR up as that will then result in blurring.

After initially being disappointed that my 5442 wouldn't run in color and running it in B/W for awhile, I took another shot at the settings again to try color and when I tried higher gain, I was shocked for the better that it didn't respond the same way as the older 2MP on the 1/2.8 sensor. Gain at the level I am running the 5442 at would be a horrible picture on the older 2MP cam. But you do have to watch the NR.

 

[bigredfish]

The best improvement I can think of is to get them down lower. You almost got a good face shot in the second video but if they both were lower you'd have multiple face shots from both angles.

Agree. Height is your biggest problem. Mine are at 7ft

Beyond that agree a PIR motion flood light can make all the difference and allow you to run a fast 1/120 or even 1/250 shutter to freeze the subject.

 

[mat200]

This is what I am thinking:
Add a camera with a zoom by the front door and frame the image capture area tighter like this for anyone coming by to check the driver side doors

 

[CCTVCam]

This is what I am thinking:
Add a camera with a zoom by the front door and frame the image capture area tighter like this for anyone coming by to check the driver side doors


View attachment 87292

I agree Mat. I thought about it overnight and this is what I was coming back to suggest. From the looks of the house, the corner camera which seemed the best one to drop in height is actually on a road corner making it vulnerable to off camera inteference by someone at the side of the house if lowered. Also as It gets such a good overview shot, it would be a shame to move it.

I'd stick one of the low light 8mp Hiks right by the door at 6-7 foot looking between the cars. It's a pity the side of the drive nearest the Toyota is open, but in the absence of being able to safely drop the corner cam, which will get a decent shot down that side anyway, I'd go with your Matt's suggestion of a 3rd camera down the middle, maybe even a 6mm as the corner cam also covers what happens at the front door.