IPC-T5442 (4MP) vs. new IPC-Color4K-T?

camviewer43

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I guess some time has passed since the new IPC-Color4K-T came out. I was wondering if anyone went from the 4MP IPC-T5442 to the 8MP IPC-Color4K-T? What was your opinion of the nighttime performance? Was it worth the upgrade for you? Any gotchas with the upgrade that wasn't obvious in the reviews? Were you able to mount the new IPC-Color4K-T on the same flange thing as the old IPC-T5442?

Greater daytime clarity is a nice plus. But I'm hoping the night time sensitivity with the 1/1.2" sensor would make up for the greater megapixels.
 
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Santeesticks

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I guess some time has passed since the new IPC-Color4K-T came out. I was wondering if anyone went from the 4MP IPC-T5442 to the 8MP IPC-Color4K-T? What was your opinion of the nighttime performance? Was it worth the upgrade for you? Any gotchas with the upgrade that wasn't obvious in the reviews? Were you able to mount the new IPC-Color4K-T on the same flange thing as the old IPC-T5442?

Greater daytime clarity is a nice plus. But I'm hoping the night time sensitivity with the 1/1.2" sensor would make up for the greater megapixels.
I set up an IPC-T5442TM-AS 2.8mm in my driveway as an "overview" camera. I have since replaced it with an IPC-Color4K-T 2.8mm and moved the 5442 to a different location and absolutely do not regret making the "upgrade." I feel the additional cost of the 4K-T is definitely worth it and in my view was even worth the cost of outright replacing the 5442, but I understand everyone's situation will be different. Reading the last sentence of your post, I imagine you understand a bigger sensor equates to more capturing ability but more megapixels results in the total captured light being increasingly divided amongst each pixel. More factors come into play with a camera's performance, but that is an important initial guideline to keep in mind. For the lighting present in my driveway (2 60 watt sconces and nearby streetlight,) I still felt I had to run the 5442 in IR at night to get acceptable captures at the shutter speeds and gain I like to run. The larger sensor size of the Color4K seems to more than offset the increase in MP and allows me to run color at night with no changes in the lighting; however to allow me to further reduce my shutter speed and gain, I do run the Color4K's built in spotlights. Subjectively, the Color4K is absolutely better at night in color than the IPC-T5442TM-AS!

My cameras are mounted directly to the walls of my house and I don't use junction boxes or wall mount brackets. The Color4K is larger than the 5442 and uses a different base plate, but from what I've read, that base plate affixes to the junction boxes and wall mount brackets just fine.

The "gotcha's" I've run into with the Color4K are the inability to have the camera automatically switch between day and night profiles, the shallow depth of field, and possible hot pixels. Again, I'm new to this stuff so it's very possible that I'm overlooking something, but I haven't figured out how to get it to switch day/night profiles using it's onboard light sensor like I can with the 5442. I have a nearby streetlight so I need to run an appropriate anti-flicker shutter speed at night, but want to have full control over my shutter speed range during the day. I can apply time plan settings to have it switch profiles and customize the times for each month, but sometimes it's cloudy in the morning when I have it switch profiles so the streetlight is still on causing a bit of flicker until the sun gets high enough. I believe this is being discussed in @Wildcat_1's IPC-Color4K-T review thread, but the discussion is a bit advanced for me to understand quite yet. I highly recommend you read through that entire thread if you haven't already.

The depth of field for the Color4K seems to be shallower to me than the 5442 and as a result the factory focus setting prevents a short close focus distance. The close focus specification for the 2.8mm Color4K is 13.8 feet. I haven't pulled out a tape measure to check, but the two I have set up don't seem to have a good focus until a few feet further than that. The 3.6mm Color4K close focus is stated as 16.1 feet and that seems to be about where the two of those I have set up start to focus at. I suppose this isn't a "gotcha" but more to just be aware of when planning their use.

I've also noticed what appears to be quite a few hot pixels (little white dots) with each of my Color4K's. I've tried a few tricks to "reset" them to no avail. They don't significantly affect the image for my purposes, but they are a bit annoying and your standards may be different than mine.

Last bit of information just in case you're not aware. The IPC-Color4K-T is a visible light only camera, it is not designed to work with infrared. The Color4K has built in white light spotlights to help it at night if needed. If you have enough ambient light you don't need to use the built in spotlights as the Color4K's do not need much light, but these are not "see in the dark" type of cameras that use infrared. I've read that their built in spotlights are similar to a phone's flashlight, but to me they seem quite a bit brighter than a phone and put out about the same amount of light as my solar motion lights, but the camera's lights are a bit more focused and intense than the solar lights.

Good luck...
 

mcfly76

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I wanted to ask about the visible lights during night. Do they attract bugs more than IR and/or overall camera "warmness"? I live in a place surrounded by woods, and insects are an issue. For now I have 5442s onlz, but I'm evaluating to expand my system with Color4K-T.
 

Santeesticks

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I wanted to ask about the visible lights during night. Do they attract bugs more than IR and/or overall camera "warmness"? I live in a place surrounded by woods, and insects are an issue. For now I have 5442s onlz, but I'm evaluating to expand my system with Color4K-T.
I don't know much about bugs, but I imagine different bugs are attracted to different wavelengths of light so it may be very location specific. At my location I get a few flying things that occasionally flutter around the cameras. I just always hope probability is on my side instead of Murphy's law and in the event an incident occurs I don't have a bug flying in the wrong place at the wrong time blinding the money shot. Even if it does, hopefully I'll have a good enough image a few frames before or after the fly by. Personally, I haven't noticed a difference between the number of bugs that fly around my Color4K's using the built in white light spotlights and my 5442's using the built in IR spotlights, but the ones that fly in front of the infrared cameras seem to introduce quite a bit more glare and have considerably more impact on the image than the ones that fly in front of the color cameras. It's possible the white lights do attract more bugs than the infrared, I just haven't noticed it at my location. It's also possible they're attracted to the heat, not the light, but based on touch, I don't notice any difference between either camera's heat output. I suppose if I were in an area where flying things did significantly impact my videos I would try to negate the issue by turning off the built in infrared lights on a night vision camera or the built in white lights on a color camera and mount an appropriate wavelength external light. Perhaps I'd try putting up a bug zapper somewhat nearby that the insects might be more attracted to than the cameras. I do get occasional spiders stringing up webs and when I notice them I just go out with a Swiffer and brush them off, but similar to the flying insects, I notice the reflected glare impacts the image quite a bit more on the infrared cameras. Hopefully someone living in a more bug laden area who has experience with both visible and infrared cameras will chime in...
 
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sebastiantombs

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I, too, replaced a 5442T-AS with a 4K-T but both are 3.6mm. The video from the 4K-T is even better than the 5442 and, with some tuning, color registration is quite good as well. The location does have some ambient light and I could "force" the 5442 to remain in color all night but at the expense of motion blur due to the extended exposure time, around 20ms. The 4K-T can run color at night with a 1/60 exposure time and, by turning on the warm LEDs to 5%, the exposure is 10ms which is quite good IMHO given the lighting. They do attract bugs, I live in a rural area, and they also make rain pretty visible.

I'm controlling the day/night profiles using Blue Iris. The API calls, and instructions, are in the review thread of the 4K-T.

Every camera needs light to see, especially in color. If you have some ambient light the 4K-T can be an excellent choice, however if the lighting is questionable you're probably better of with a camera that can see IR.
 

camviewer43

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Thanks to @Santeesticks and @sebastiantombs for the comparison. I wonder if the LED lights built into the camera can be controlled via API? So instead of the LED being on same brightness all the time, I can dim them or brighten them using a command sent to the camera?
 

camviewer43

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I wanted to ask about the visible lights during night. Do they attract bugs more than IR and/or overall camera "warmness"? I live in a place surrounded by woods, and insects are an issue. For now I have 5442s onlz, but I'm evaluating to expand my system with Color4K-T.
I think IR light reflects more strongly than visible light. So the bugs flying near an IR camera messes with the image a lot more than visible light camera. It's like a strong glare.
 

Santeesticks

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@camviewer43 perhaps @DidyouDahua has more challenging lighting conditions than I do, but I thought you might like a sample video from the Color4K-T 2.8mm I have set up for overview in my driveway as a vehicle passes by at night. I'm on a residential street with a 25mph speed limit, but it looks like this vehicle is going by a bit slower, maybe 15mph or so. I'm running an anti-flicker shutter speed of 1/120 with a gain setting of 0-35, 3D NR at 35 and 2D NR at 30, and the illuminator at 50. For additional lighting, I have two 60 watt wall sconces lighting the driveway and a streetlight at the end of the driveway. Additionally, I have a cheap
View attachment Driveway.20221025_011535_1.mp4
solar motion led light that goes off as the vehicle passes by and there are two additional Color4K-T 3.6mm's at the same location pointed at about 45 degrees up and down the street with their illuminators set at 50.

Hope it helps...
 

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I am considering replacing my 5442 3.6mm driveway overview cam with an IPC-Color4K-X from Andy's lottery giveaway. Would this be a good location for this? I am trying to think of places to use it, and this is about the only location I have that would have adequate ambient light.

The snapshots are from this morning, one from last night with my IR floods, and one from just before the camera switched over to B/W night profile.
 

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wittaj

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I am considering replacing my 5442 3.6mm driveway overview cam with an IPC-Color4K-X from Andy's lottery giveaway. Would this be a good location for this? I am trying to think of places to use it, and this is about the only location I have that would have adequate ambient light.

The snapshots are from this morning, one from last night with my IR floods, and one from just before the camera switched over to B/W night profile.
Looks like a good place for a 24/7 color overview!
 

Ri22o

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Looks like a good place for a 24/7 color overview!
That was my thought, especially with having just installed the LPRs, but I wasn't sure how much light was needed for adequate images. Our neighborhood relies heavily on coach lights and only has street lights at intersections. There is typically better lighting, but everyone has switched their lights over to green/purple/orange for Halloweeen.

I think staying with 3.6mm would be ideal and going to 6.0 for the overview would lose too much FOV.
 

wittaj

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These cameras need such little light to be good and I wish I had the light you do! I would agree on the 3.6mm.
 

wittaj

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I'll be curious to see how you feel once installed. Your 5442 is putting in WORK right now. I don't see it getting much better. In my opinion. I wish I would have kept the 5442 and returned the 4kX. Simply because the motion blur and visible gain at night. Those images you shared are reason why I want to switch to yours.
Again, are you on default settings? Even great cameras on default will be blur at night with motion.

You need at a minimum manual shutter at 1/60s and gain less than 60 or so.

Post a video and screenshots of your settings because what you are experiencing is not what the rest of us with that camera experience.

And you need some light either ambient or the white LED from the camera. If you don't have the ambient light or don't want to use the built-in white LED then yes you need to stick with cameras with infrared capabilities.
 
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IAmWatchingYou!

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@Santeesticks I just acquired one of these 4k-T 2,8mm . I have a short distance to cover and like you I'm struggling with depth of field issues and trying to decide if I should send it back home and get a 5442T since the 4k-T is nearly useless with the distance I have to cover and the amount of blur. Have you opened it and tried adjusting the focus to see if you can improve the close focus better without without affecting the longer focus range you need? Is the low light sensitivity of the 4K-T that much better than the 5442T that you would take a blurry image with the 4K-T over a clean image from the 5442T?

Are you using the AI car / human detection? If so, I'm just wondering how it's been working out as far as false alarms and misses.
 

flynreelow

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@Santeesticks I just acquired one of these 4k-T 2,8mm . I have a short distance to cover and like you I'm struggling with depth of field issues and trying to decide if I should send it back home and get a 5442T since the 4k-T is nearly useless with the distance I have to cover and the amount of blur. Have you opened it and tried adjusting the focus to see if you can improve the close focus better without without affecting the longer focus range you need? Is the low light sensitivity of the 4K-T that much better than the 5442T that you would take a blurry image with the 4K-T over a clean image from the 5442T?

Are you using the AI car / human detection? If so, I'm just wondering how it's been working out as far as false alarms and misses.
can u post some pics or video of this "blur" u have
 

wittaj

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@Santeesticks I just acquired one of these 4k-T 2,8mm . I have a short distance to cover and like you I'm struggling with depth of field issues and trying to decide if I should send it back home and get a 5442T since the 4k-T is nearly useless with the distance I have to cover and the amount of blur. Have you opened it and tried adjusting the focus to see if you can improve the close focus better without without affecting the longer focus range you need? Is the low light sensitivity of the 4K-T that much better than the 5442T that you would take a blurry image with the 4K-T over a clean image from the 5442T?

Are you using the AI car / human detection? If so, I'm just wondering how it's been working out as far as false alarms and misses.
Are you testing it with default settings or have you dialed in the parameters for your field of view? I noticed a difference between default settings and dialing it in. YMMV
 

camviewer43

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Are you testing it with default settings or have you dialed in the parameters for your field of view? I noticed a difference between default settings and dialing it in. YMMV
When you change the focus slider, is it changing the depth of view or maintaining the same depth of view and just adjusting the focal distance? I'd imagine any changes to the depth of view would require changing the aperture, which means that more depth of field would result in less light right? Is that the give-and-take that you'd be sacrificing to get more depth of field?

I'm going by what I know about photography concepts and don't know if they apply the same way to security cameras.
 
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