IPC-T5442T-ZE - issues

d5775927

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I have IPC-T5442T-ZE mounted on a pole.
I have two main issues:
1) When the street is very dark (no external light at all), people faces are washed out if they are quite close to the camera - 2 meter ( I expected a ~$200 camera to not have this issue)
2) When I watch the recording on Dahua NVR the camera marked the timeline in yellow - motion detected, however, I cannot see any motion (nothing moves, and the camera/NVR reports motion for 3 hours)...
 

sebastiantombs

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The first thing to do with any camera is to use the GUI of the camera and get the settings off of auto. Exposure, shutter speed, gain, compensation, saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpness all need to be set manually for both day and night simply because every installation, and every camera (even two of the same model) are different. It's also a good idea to avoid using WDR, BLC and HLC unless absolutely necessary, and then keeping them as low as possible to reduce motion blur at night. You also need to enable a schedule to take advantage of those settings. Cameras like the 5442 series are not "plug and play" consumer grade cameras and do need to be optimized at the time of installation.

Another thing to do is look here, in IPCT, for threads on the 5442 talking about firmware. There have been several releases available here that may not show up on the Dahua site. Those updates address the washout problem with IR.
 

d5775927

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The first thing to do with any camera is to use the GUI of the camera and get the settings off of auto. Exposure, shutter speed, gain, compensation, saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpness all need to be set manually for both day and night simply because every installation, and every camera (even two of the same model) are different. It's also a good idea to avoid using WDR, BLC and HLC unless absolutely necessary, and then keeping them as low as possible to reduce motion blur at night. You also need to enable a schedule to take advantage of those settings. Cameras like the 5442 series are not "plug and play" consumer grade cameras and do need to be optimized at the time of installation.

Another thing to do is look here, in IPCT, for threads on the 5442 talking about firmware. There have been several releases available here that may not show up on the Dahua site. Those updates address the washout problem with IR.
Thanks, I will try to upgrade the firmware and adjust the camera video settings.
 

wittaj

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You need to dial the camera in to your field of view. Staying on auto/default will never result in acceptable performance, especially at night. Ghost and blur and IR washout is common with auto/default settings.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

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.

But first, run H264, smart codec off, CBR, and 8192 bitrate to start. This should make it more crisp.

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 and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

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 16.67ms (but certainly not 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 20-30 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.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
 

d5775927

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You need to dial the camera in to your field of view. Staying on auto/default will never result in acceptable performance, especially at night. Ghost and blur and IR washout is common with auto/default settings.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

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.

But first, run H264, smart codec off, CBR, and 8192 bitrate to start. This should make it more crisp.

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 and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

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 16.67ms (but certainly not 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 20-30 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.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
Thanks for detailed instructions I will try it soon.
I saw the official manual for IPC-T5442T-ZE is:
Do you know if there is any section that is worth reading before trying to tune the camera configuration ? Or I should simply follow your instructions and it should be good enough?
 

d5775927

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Posting pictures of the images from the cameras.
The hard part is that the street light are working inconsistently, that is, is some days the street light is off am in some days it's great (no need for IR, today the lights work):

south_2021-11-24_213434.jpgnorth_2021-11-24_213425.jpg

Will wait for other time, when all the street lights are off (not sure when).
 

okestone

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You need to dial the camera in to your field of view. Staying on auto/default will never result in acceptable performance, especially at night. Ghost and blur and IR washout is common with auto/default settings.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

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.

But first, run H264, smart codec off, CBR, and 8192 bitrate to start. This should make it more crisp.

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 and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

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 16.67ms (but certainly not 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 20-30 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.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
I can't find shutter settings. Can you elaborate? Thanks.
 

d5775927

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Then come back here and ask questions ;)
Eventually I saw that even with street lights on, I cannot identify faces.
I follow the instructions and made a day and night profile (switching to night profile at sunset and day profile on sunrise).
Example for face capture when using night profile:
night2.jpg

These are my current settings (IPC-T5442T-ZE):
1639667815832.png
1639667853012.png
1639667882957.png
1639667906703.png
1639667929060.png
1639667944329.png
1639667958731.png
1639668102718.png
1639671891836.png
The images are much better now, is there anything I can improve here to be able to identify faces even better?
 
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Sphinxicus

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The images are much better now, is there anything I can improve here to be able to identify faces even better?
What are your bitrate settings? Perhaps increase those if they are low. Try 8192 and CBR (go to Camera > Video)

Also, if you want to identify faces more - use the optical zoom to tighten the view in more. Do you really need to see the hedge on the left?

Do walk tests > adjust angle and zoom > rinse & repeat. Its worth the effort.
 

d5775927

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Try 8192 and CBR (go to Camera > Video)
Yes, this how it is configured now (added a bitrate configuration screenshot to my previous message).
Also, if you want to identify faces more - use the optical zoom to tighten the view in more. Do you really need to see the hedge on the left?
I care about the area in the yellow polygon, so I prefer not to zoom more (but will keep this in mind).
1639671357930.png
Do walk tests > adjust angle and zoom > rinse & repeat. Its worth the effort.
The problem is I don't know what to adjust, since there are a lot of different configuration (i'm trying to optimize for the best face picture of moving people).
It is possible this is the best result I can get and in order to get better results I need to use an external IR light (and disable the camera builtin IR).
 
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Sphinxicus

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personally (and please dont take offence at this) i think you are trying to do a little too much with one camera. Where you have it now is covering quite a wide distance. If it were me, i would tilt the camera up more, zoom in and pan left so that the bush on the left is just out of vew and you are looking straighter down the road. Of course doing so, will probably take a good chunk of that yellow box and the gate across the road out of view but it would give you a better angle for a facial shot rather than looking down and across at a wider angle .

I would also try reducing the amount of WDR you are using. You have a fast shutter (about 1/120) but the legs appear a bit smeared. This could be the WDR. So try fialling that back below 30 MAX.

You are never going to get consistant IR exposure across such a wide distance so you will either need supplimental light to illuminate the other side of the road, or focus the camera in on a specific area that gives you a higher "hit rate" for people walking past and accept the losses when people crawl right next to the wall/bush on either side.

My 2 cents.
 

sebastiantombs

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Shut off WDR. If anything use HLC with the glare you have from the streetlight and then only use enough to reduce the glare somewhat. Raise the shutter speed to 12.5 or even 16.66. Raise brightness and contrast. Cut gain and compensation as much as possible.

As others have noted at the distance you're working at without more zoom it will be hard, or impossible, to get enough detail for a really good identification shot.
 

NightLife

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What does the easy focus do .. or how would it impact with your focus issues? Page 13 in the manual .pdf linked above? Is your AF Peak close to your AF Max value?

Screen Shot 2021-12-21 at 00.08.25.png
 
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