Image quality problems on T5442AS

P

PierreG

n3wb
Jan 1, 2022
6
2
France
Hello,
New to the whole security camera scene got baited into buying reolinks but swiftly returned them and bought a couple of 5442 from Andy. Only had time to set one up for now and I can't seem to the image settings right..
I've read a bunch of posts on here there's some great info but I don't know if I'm asking too much from the camera or if I'm just going at it the wrong way.

Settings are as follow:
h264
2688*1520
15fps
iFrame 30fps
CBR 8192
SVC 1(off)

Day :
Shutter: 0-4
Gain: 0-30
Exposure comp: 50
3D NR: ON
3D: 30
2D: 30

Picture is at default, tried fiddling with it but can't get a good image.
Backlight is off

Night:
Shutter: 0-12
Gain: 0-35
Exposure comp: 50
SmartIR: off (makes the picture very dark when on)
3D NR: ON
3D: 50
2D: 50

Picture is default same as above.
Backlight is off

I think placement is not ideal, going to move it to the right under the eave when I get a junction box delivered.

Exposure is South, camera is facing east.
I've attached a screenshot and here are 2 motion clips 1 day and 1 night.
When I turn on the lights on the balcony at night sometimes the camera stays in BW even though they're pretty bright 1150lumens 2700k temp, when it does go into color the image is very noisy. If i push up NR I start to get ghosting.





Any help is appreciated !

Edit : broken links.
 

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The best thing you could do is to drop the camera down at least 0.5m. At night you are getting a lot of IR light reflection from your narrow walls, which will cause a hazy look to the video. Drop down enough to get below this side interference, and you will have a better FOV in daytime too.
 
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I agree with the 90 deg corridor / image shift and the moving down and away from the white walls. The camera FOV is too wide for this location. Is this a 2.4mm lens version? Ideally, you should not see the walls or door at all in the image, using all the useful pixels on target.
 
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handinpalm said:
The best thing you could do is to drop the camera down at least 0.5m. At night you are getting a lot of IR light reflection from your narrow walls, which will cause a hazy look to the video. Drop down enough to get below this side interference, and you will have a better FOV in daytime too.
Click to expand...
Getting junction boxes delivered today so I will move it around and see it should definitely be better ! Will repost when it is mounted better.
 
bug99 said:
I agree with the 90 deg corridor / image shift and the moving down and away from the white walls. The camera FOV is too wide for this location. Is this a 2.4mm lens version? Ideally, you should not see the walls or door at all in the image, using all the useful pixels on target.
Click to expand...
It's the 2.8mm, going to order more cameras in the future so switching it around won't be a problem. Do you reckon a 3.6mm would be better here ? Or maybe a varifocal to fine tune ?
 
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Always test a proposed location for a minimum of 24hrs using a test rig, 8ft 2x4, 5gal bucket, rocks for ballast before permanent mounting.
I would say either a 6mm lens or a varifocal.
You will always have issue's at night with so much walls visible and the IR bounce off of it.
Also appears to be mounted too high, keep it no higher than 8ft. Lower is better.
 
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PierreG said:
It's the 2.8mm, going to order more cameras in the future so switching it around won't be a problem. Do you reckon a 3.6mm would be better here ? Or maybe a varifocal to fine tune ?
Click to expand...
Inside Corners near doors are particularly hard to predict placement angle of pivot and FOV. One thing that amazes me is how almost every single time i try to pre-determine the exact perfect spot etc, it is not true after i power it up and play with it for a while (see @looney2ns suggestion). When i have a section that has wood trim, i now tend to guess and use one mount screw, and then dial in the direction. After some time with power and active display on my laptop, i then ask myself some questions like: would it be slightly better 4" left, right up - down, etc? I always seem to say yes and then move it (one screw). rinse and repeat. It helps to have a varifocal version for FOV adjustment, even if you eventually drop in a fixed lens option in the last step. when you are done with the varifocal, you measure the minimum FOV that you can stand (shoot for no adjacent walls or doors or ceilings). Most inside cameras locations like yours can best be served with a 6mm lens, but the 3.4 will be a big improvement over the 2.4mm at 20 ft and to reduce IR bounce. by the way, the walls screw up auto focus for the varifocal options, so they are not a panacea either.

It has been my experience, that after you spend the time dialing in the camera location over hours if not days, you will be amazed at how much better you coverage is with one camera, reducing the need for other cameras. YMMV.
 
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So I got the junction boxes and am trying out a new placement, I put it closer and lower, it's about 7.2 feet off the ground, I cut down the FOV with LDC turned on and feel like it's better.

Night time image has improved a lot without all the IR bounce back ! I got to fiddle around with it a little more to get it the way I want, will try and capture some footage tonight for comparison.

I feel like the image is kinda blurry though, grabbed a capture from the mainstream and I feel like it should look better.. is it just me ?Screenshot 2022-01-10 at 09.20.26.png
 
LDC is a digital correction, so it can add some unwanted blurriness or artifacts to the picture in some field of views, especially one like this where there is a wide range of objects across all distances. In the optimal distance for focus, it appears to be fine, but it is the surrounding portions that LDC may be impacting it a bit.

Try with it off and see which focus looks better overall.
 
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