Hi from CA. Test locations w/ 1 camera, no NVR, questions

[Barryman]

Hello and greetings. Let me open with my great appreciation and thanks for all of the incredible folks here who take the time to help us technically challenged & inexperienced noobs. I have spent many hours here and learned SO MUCH. Based on all of my research here I have decided to do the following but have run into some problems and have questions.

I purchased the highly recommended Empiretech IPC-T5IR-ZE-S3 2.7-12mm camera and a 4 port PoE switch to power it. No NVR. I installed a high endurance MicroSD card. My plan is to mount it to a 2"x4"x 8' board with the intent to temporarily place it at various locations 8' high around my house and lot to come up with a camera shopping list. I have lots of Ethernet cable and extension cords to drag the camera and switch around with me.

I am testing the cam in my home office and am having problems. BTW, I am running Windows 10 and can successfully view the Live feed with Firefox browser, IE (original), DMSS and SmartPSS lite. I am using IE for setup. So far, so good,

I set some simple 'Human' tripwires and disabled Event/MD & SMD as suggested. The Tripwires are triggering fine (turning red) but nothing is recorded or at least nothing shows up in 'Search Video' under the Record menu. Research here says I should be able to access video on the card via IE or SmartPSS without having to remove the card.

I have Record/Storage set to local and the card shows up in the list. Does the card need to be initialized or formatted? I reset the cam (10 sec hold) after installing the card per instructions. I have enabled Record under AI. The AI Time Plan is set for 24/7. Record mode is Auto. Record Time Plan is 24/7 for Events and Alarms only. What the heck am I missing?

BTW, it will record (only to hard drive) if I set Record Mode to manual and click the videocam icon in Live view. The file is stored on the PC hard drive though to my designated folder.

BTW, BTW, I am looking forward to doing some night/low light testing using Wittaj's recommended exposure settings!

While I have you on the line, how the heck do you change the focal length for this camera? I can't find it!

Thank you kindly in advance

 

[bigredfish]

Zoom is set on the LIVE tab

Recording- see if this helps

Thread 'How to record moving images from IPC-B54IR-ZE-S3 to PC'

Saturday at 1:35 PM

Hi,
Just received a week ago an IPC-B541R-ZE-S3. Update the firmware. Can save images to my PC.
However it won't save images of humans/animals when passing by.
What steps are needed to acceive this achieve this.

regards

• jarwha
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Dahua

 

[Barryman]

Thank you for getting back so quickly! I will review that thread later tonight.

Apologies but I still don't see where to set zoom.
In the Live window I drop down the Zoom & Focus menu and only have the following choices:
Zoom Speed & Focus Speed
Buttons for: Auto Focus, Reset, Refresh, Area Focus

Under Image Adjustment: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation & Hue.

This can be set via the camera GUI using IE?
Appreciate if you could point me a little closer to the zoom setting

 

[Revo2Maxx]

Your camera is newer and might have PTZ controls and not zoom and focus like this old Dahua camera but have you from the WebUI of the camera click on the + if you see the picture below at the bottom you can see what button I click to get the zoom and focus to show up. ON some it might be on the right it self with a little button in the center to open it either way it would be on the right

 

[Barryman]

Thank you Revo,

Here is what my GUI looks like under IE. Ignore the image, I covered the camera as it is in my office and I'm not looking very pretty today

 

[NoloC]

Did you click on "Search"? Blue button under the record tab. It will search the dates selected. Default is the current day.

 

[wittaj]

That is it.

The slider and +- move the focus and zoom.

 

[Revo2Maxx]

Slider is there just pull it right little dot, the speed is numbers you click, slider is how you zoom

 

[bigredfish]

Thank you Revo,

Here is what my GUI looks like under IE. Ignore the image, I covered the camera as it is in my office and I'm not looking very pretty today

View attachment 216464

The + and - signs zoom in and out.

Set it to 1 not 20

California? or Canada?

 

[Barryman]

From California, sorry LOL But I do love Canada, been many times.

Ok, I guess I'm a bozo. I clicked on the + and - under 'Zoom Speed' many times and it would just refocus, no zoom. So I presumed the + and - were related to the 'Speed'. Tonight I held down the '+' and it did indeed zoom with a slight delay. Thanks for setting me straight on that.

Nolo, yes I did click 'Search' many times last night. HOWEVER when I got home tonight and logged into the cam the 'Search Video' window has lots of thumbnails (of a mountain peak) and these are indeed 'Event' recordings from last night and today. I played with this for hours last night, triggers working fine and nothing. Tonight I log in and they magically appear! Like 40 of them! Go figure.

There is a timeline on the bottom of the screen. Is there a way to show the events on that timeline?
Is there a way to easily 'scrub' the video with the mouse back and forth?

Once again, thanks to all. Stay tuned!

 

[Barryman]

From California, sorry LOL But I do love Canada, been many times.

Ok, I guess I'm a bozo. I clicked on the + and - under 'Zoom Speed' many times and it would just refocus, no zoom. So I presumed the + and - were related to the 'Speed'. Tonight I held down the '+' and it did indeed zoom with a slight delay. Thanks for setting me straight on that.

Nolo, yes I did click 'Search' many times last night. HOWEVER when I got home tonight and logged into the cam the 'Search Video' window has lots of thumbnails (of a mountain peak) and these are indeed 'Event' recordings from last night and today. I played with this for hours last night, triggers working fine and nothing. Tonight I log in and they magically appear! Like 40 of them! Go figure.

There is a timeline on the bottom of the screen. Is there a way to show the events on that timeline?
Is there a way to easily 'scrub' the video with the mouse back and forth?

Once again, thanks to all. Stay tuned!

How do you know what focal length the camera is set so I know which cameras to add to my shopping list?

 

[Revo2Maxx]

So I guess your main playback would look like the one picture. Then if you click on the day on the right, then click the list button under the area of the box on the right it will load them all in the area on the right and you can just play them back by double clicking the event in the list, then move to next page and keep playing. If not what you are looking for just double click the next one in the list.. Faster then trying to play from play bar below..

 

[Revo2Maxx]

So to know of the focal of your camera you would need to have a camera with the ability to see x1 to xX what ever your last digit is for zoom. So on lets say my Uniview I have the ability to see when my camera is at 10x zoom of the 22x that it offes. So I know that my camera is xy by AB and can take the x10 to know that I am 10 times zoom of the normal 6.5mm so at that point I would be at 65mm zoom.. So if your camera don't offer a x factor then no real way to know what zoom you are at. Some things to keep in mind as well. When you are looking at zoom cameras if you know you need a set focal length. At times it is better to buy a set MM camera rather then using a zoom camera because even on my 6.5 x 143mm camera that has a 1.5 f/stop that is only at 6.4mm when the camera is zoomed to 143mm it is something like 3.4 f/stop meaning that the 1/1.8in sensor is going to get less light and might cause noise in the video/pictures.. So if you know you need a 16mm lens it is best to buy that size camera for best view at night day time with loads of light no issue..

 

[Barryman]

Hey Revo,

Your GUI looks much nicer than mine. That must be your NVR. I am only using the camera GUI through Internet Explorer right now to learn and test. Your screenshots look great and appear to show what I would be looking for as to control over playback, etc. Very nice. I will look forward to a much nicer GUI when I get a NVR. Here is what my cam GUI looks like and what I am working with right now..

 

[Barryman]

Revo,

I have a 2.7-12mm camera. I have been an avid hobby photographer for decades and do understand the relationship between zoom, f/stop, shutter speed, light gathering, etc. This is why I want to know the focal length of my zoom cam at a particular location. I wholeheartedly agree with you that I would prefer a fixed focal length cam at any given location to take full advantage of the maximum f/stop thereby maximizing the light gathering.

I also agree with your calcs that I could multiply x-factor by the 2.7mm and get the focal length. Unfortunately I don't see any feedback or display of the focal length, % or X-factor.

I just discovered that the Zoom slider goes from 0-2275 (weird). So i guess I can do some math and work with that.

Just an FYI, I am hoping to put a camera and NVR bundle together with Empiretech Andy and maybe save a little money. Hence no NVR yet until I figure out my camera list. The EmpireTech NVR16CH-16P-2AI NVR seems to be the recommended sweet spot here.

Thank you again sir!

 

[wittaj]

You will find there is no real comparison between the focal lengths of these cameras and "real" cameras. All the manufacturers play games with the focal lengths, even within the same series of camera. They tend to go a little higher than reality. Throw in different resolutions or manufacturers and look out lol.

Heck even taking the 5442 6mm fixed lens and setting up the 5442-ZE to the equivalent 6mm and you will find the field of view is different for both. The 5442-ZE had to be set to a 9mm equivalent to get the same field of view as the 5442 6mm fixed lens.

You can see a member here demonstrated this:

Thread 'Comparison of a Fixed Lens and a Varifocal Lens Camera's FOV'

Jan 6, 2021

I was testing out a new Dahua T5442T-ZE 2.7-12mm Varifocal camera (from @EMPIRETECANDY ) and was going to compare it's performance to the Dahua HDW5231R-ZE and the HDW5431R-ZE cameras, which are 2.7-13.5mm varifocals, along with the T5442TM-AS fixed lens at 6mm camera. The HDW5431R-ZE has been covering my driveway from the left side since 2018. The HDW5231R-ZE was covering my driveway from the right side since 2018 until I replaced it with a T5442TM-AS in 6mm this past June.

So I placed the HDW5231R-ZE and the T5442T-ZE on my test rig and set that rig next to the T5442TM-AS in 6mm...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 26
• Forum: Camera Installation Questions

• 

 

[Barryman]

Thanks for that great info wittaj. Yeah I was afraid of that. That thread looks like my near future LOL. Funny he is using the same method I was going to attempt using the same camera I believe. Makes it hard to set my temp rig, zoom to the ideal FOV and note the focal length only to order that same focal length in a fixed lens camera and then find it is NOT the FOV I was counting on. What's a fella to do?

I have some distant areas I may want to cover beyond the 12mm reach of my VF lens. I guess you just order some random long reach cameras and return the ones you don't want? I hate doing that but what else can you do?

Thanks again for the heads up.

 

[Revo2Maxx]

No mine is from my 8mp Dahua IP camera.. So here is what a NVR a Ei version of Dahua in the 4216 flavor.. I have this camera setup in the camera level with a few tripwires that you could see in other format for the 10th that don't show up in the NVR because I have the NVR setup to give that camera a Human detection on Tripwire only going up the or down the street there. So your Camera has a newer format WebUI. So my camera is older with a 2021 FW. The NVR has a 2024 or 25 FW I can't remember right now to lazy to look lol.. But you can see it does also have the bar below but can do a search that shows up in the right and lets you playback really fast to get to the footage you are looking for right away..

Edit, I did add in a picture of the info from the NVR..
Edit again lol.. Added another picture from NVR level doing Ai search for IVS of yesterday..

 

[wittaj]

Thanks for that great info wittaj. Yeah I was afraid of that. That thread looks like my near future LOL. Funny he is using the same method I was going to attempt using the same camera I believe. Makes it hard to set my temp rig, zoom to the ideal FOV and note the focal length only to order that same focal length in a fixed lens camera and then find it is NOT the FOV I was counting on. What's a fella to do?

I have some distant areas I may want to cover beyond the 12mm reach of my VF lens. I guess you just order some random long reach cameras and return the ones you don't want? I hate doing that but what else can you do?

Thanks again for the heads up.

Many of us have found that distance to IDENTIFY is an important factor and we have developed a go-by as to the distance for the common cameras.

As far as cameras, without knowing what your goals of the camera is, this thread is used as the go to for the new person here outlining the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value/best bang for the buck in terms of price and performance day and night. It might be a 2MP camera in some instances.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

And coupled with that thread is this great thread which will show why all of the same 2.8 or 3.6mm cameras is the wrong choice:

i-want-2-8mm-cameras-everywhere-to-see-everything-this-is-why-you-need-specific-fovs-with-purposeful-focal-lengths.70053/

One thing you will notice is we all tend to go to full zoom at some point lol. So I assure you if you buy a larger focal length varifocal, you will find a use for it!

We would encourage you to look at those threads in detail.

It will probably raise more questions than answers LOL.

 

[Barryman]

Update... For those who may have the same problems I had starting this thread (no recording on MicroSD with good triggers) I may have found the problem. If you read above you will see that after much fiddling with settings last night I still didn't have any recordings. This eve when I logged into the camera GUI I magically had a bunch. I THINK one of the last things I did last night was to reset the camera, as recommended after inserting MicroSD card, by holding the reset button 10 seconds and PERHAPS that is what did the trick.

To test this theory I tried it on another camera that was also not recording with good triggers after hours of fiddling with the settings. An EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-T 4K. Tonight I reset the camera by holding down the reset button 10 seconds, set a tripwire and other settings and boom, it's working! Recording on the microSD card just fine.

I hope this will possibly help others with this problem.