How can I improve the night image or have I reached the limits of the IPC-T5442T-ZE?

[mikey299]

I have 5442 varifocal set to 2.8mm which was meant as an overview camera and to identify people at distances under 10 feet (as you will see in the pictures perps can come from 4 different directions so I wanted to have that "intersection" covered). It's my first dahua / empire tech. I only recently (when I started playing with different settings) figured out how much light this camera really needs. It was shocking. Anyway in the attachments there are a few pictures: first one is a screenshot of how it looks at night (it's almost pitch black), second one is how it looks with motion detection floodlights on (together more than 5000 lumens) - btw I'm not standing still, I'm walking at normal speed, I just freeze framed it so you guys can see how my face looks , third and fourth are the settings I have right now and fifth is the screenshot from yesterday when I slowed down the shutter / increase gain quite a bit (my face was too blurry so I changed it back to how I have it now). My question is how (if) can I still see the background (like in attachment 5) and still be able to identify someone at 10 feet? I've been playing with settings and annoying the neighbours for a while but can't make it better than that. For example if I increase the gain just a little bit (not more than 30), the face is still too blurry for my taste.
Have I reached the limits of this camera or can I still improve the picture somehow? I've been thinking about buying these IR lights (

https://www.amazon.com/Tendelux-Illuminator-Infrared-Security-Adapter/dp/B09FQB2K78

) but I'm skeptical if and how much they would help (I mean if 5000 lumens don't do the trick...). I was also thinking about replacing this camera with another one (I was looking at Color 4K-T 2.8mm but have read that they have focusing problems up close) and use this one to zoom in on my yard entrance instead. What do you suggest I do?

 

[Ssayer]

Do you really need 2ms (1/500)? I found that 4ms (1/250) does even quick moving cars ok.

 

[Mike A.]

Yeah, step it back up to ~1/60 or 1/120 and work from there. That's usually good enough to get people. Gain back up to no more than ~50. Set exposure compensation back to the center (though don't think it does anything in manual mode with these cams). Sharpening to 20-25-ish. SmartIR off for now. IR set to manual and at ~75%. That should get you a decent overall view and you can tune for better motion from there.

 

[bigredfish]

^^^^^
This

Exp Comp back to 50
All of your image settings back to 50 except sharp. I run 40ish but thats about max for these
Shutter Manual 1/120
3DNR maybe 35-40
IR manual 75
NO Backlight
Video bitrate 8192 min, CBR

 

[mikey299]

The background is now bright enough for me. But the face capture could still use some more tweaking I think. I know it's better than 95% of people have it and who mostly use reolink, ring etc. but I'm a perfectionist and if there is room for improvement, I'm all ears

 

[Mike A.]

That looks pretty good overall and motion looks good. A little blur on your foot but that's OK and the rest of you is nice and clear.

First, try taking contrast up to 55-60. Might be able to just stop there.
You're pretty close to the cam in your case which washes things out so maybe take IR down just a bit. Try 65 -70.
Can play with Gamma a little either way depending on how dark. Maybe try a little lower. Not a lot, just to tweak things and see if you get any benefit. Too much and you'll lose contrast. Too little and you lose more of the darker areas. You can slide it back and forth and see the effect.

Another way you can try it is to take shutter a step faster and turn IR up to compensate. Then adjust brightness/contrast to fit. Being close to the cam there though that might blow out faces too much if they get any closer.

 

[bigredfish]

Much Better!
When making adjustments from here, do one thing at a time. Then test. You're in fine tuning mode now and plan to put in the hours.
Too many try and make 3-4 or more changes at once and then it becomes impossible to know what made the good/bad difference.

Agree with @Mike A. above on most

• a touch more contrast. Test
• Possibly back off IR a bit or now that you're in the zone, try Auto IR
• Then as @Mike A. says, test small changes with brightness, Gamma, Gain- one at a time
• Any reason you have Auto-Iris off?

 

[mikey299]

Much Better!
When making adjustments from here, do one thing at a time. Then test. You're in fine tuning mode now and plan to put in the hours.
Too many try and make 3-4 or more changes at once and then it becomes impossible to know what made the good/bad difference.

Agree with @Mike A. above on most

• a touch more contrast. Test
• Possibly back off IR a bit or now that you're in the zone, try Auto IR
• Then as @Mike A. says, test small changes with brightness, Gamma, Gain- one at a time
• Any reason you have Auto-Iris off?

I'll try it later tonight. I thought smartIR off (as Mike A. suggested) meant auto iris off I'll take it I should turn it back on?

 

[bigredfish]

Yeah two different things. Turn auto Iris on

As to IR, while it looks pretty good, manual won’t allow it to adjust for objects coming closer to the camera and you’ll get white out.

In THEORY , Auto IR will self adjust intensity for close in objects. It used to be called SmartIR.
I say in theory because different models handle it differently. Some do great some not so much. The angle to the subject makes a difference also. Your angle looks to be pretty good so I’d test Auto IR to see how it does.

 

[Mike A.]

SmartIR/AutoIR/whatever they're calling it now should keep the IR from washing out when things come closer to the cam. But as @bigredfish says, how well that works varies among camera/firmware/scene from lousy to (more rarely) pretty well. The reason that I said to turn it off earlier is that it will try to balance out the overall scene based on whatever it's keying on for brightness and will auto-adjust things in a way that affects a lot of what you're changing as far as settings. Sometimes can end up looking a lot like the very dark image with you in it that you posted above even with exposure, brightness, etc. set so that the overall scene would be much brighter without it. Once you get things where you're happy without it, you can toggle the IR modes and try it that way.

Generally, since it usually doesn't work all that well, I try to adjust manually for a worst case within reason for the area where I want to try to capture someone without making the rest too dark. If they get too close then it's going to be blown out either way so I don't worry about that too much. I should already have them before that. Also when you start adding external IR, that changes things and the cam can't adjust it so needs to be good independent of it.

 

[bigredfish]

Yup yup and yup