IPC-T5442TM-AS 2.8mm

[itstreasury]

Dear forum,

I've bought an EmpireTech IPC-T5442TM-AS 2. 8mm from Andy. It arrived couple days ago and I got busy playing around with it yesterday and today. I am a total beginner when it comes to cameras in general so I might have messed up some things such as placement, camera model etc. but the problem I am facing is that the quality of my main stream, as well as snapshots quality is very poor. Its not the promising T5442 quality that I've seen some members have with this model.

Could someone perhaps help out a bit to see if I can make the quality better or if it just needs to be returned?

Note, currently i havent touched the firmware at all as of right now. Also the image seems quite out of focus on the but its hard to tell since the overall image is quite poor. What do you think?

These are my settings and a snapshot of the live view:

























Please let me know if any information is missing. Thanks a lot!

- T

 

[Justin Blackburn]

Try changing your bitrate type from VBR to CBR. Also I’m not sure what your biggest disappointment is. The image quality looked okay, but you are using a super wide field of view camera and if your hoping to read license plates or something at that distance, it won’t happen. Placement also isn’t great. I see soffit or a support beam at the top, and that pipe on the right side will catch so much ir at night that it may blind the camera. Half your camera view is also wall. I think you would benefit from a camera with a narrower field of view. You could also rotate the camera 90 degrees and their is a setting in the web interface to rotate the image back. This will give a portrait mode instead of the landscape mode you currently have, but I think happiness will come from a different lens(zoom) configuration. Just my 2 cents.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Spot on comment above.

the problem I am facing is that the quality of my main stream, as well as snapshots quality is very poor.

What specific aspects of the image do you consider poor?
The focus and fine detail looks good as far as I can see.

What's not good though, and will seriously impact especially the night time image, is the field of view.
Over 50% of the horizontal field is consumed by the walls, to the detriment of the presumed area of interest.
And the height of the install further reduces the usability of the area of interest, though I don't suppose there is much choice in that.

 

[Mike A.]

Yeah, you're kind of neither here nor there as far as the image goes... Too close to get great focus on much of the wall and not of interest anyway. Much of the rest is at the point where you'll lose detail with the 2.8. The area straight down below looks OK but even that's still fairly far away to pick up details well.

Agree try CBR to improve things some. Up FPS also since you're just dealing with one cam and don't have to worry about overall load much. On the same basis you could take bit rate up some too.

Variable focus version probably would have been a better choice. As above, changing the orientation will help too.

 

[bigredfish]

Agree with all of the above.

Id also set gamma and Exp Comp back to 50 and make small changes on those one at a time. Those are rather extreme settings

 

[tibimakai]

You need a 6mm camera there.

 

[johnnyappleseed]

Roughly 50% of your image is "wasted" by brick wall, which really negates any advantage that the 2.8mm would bring. You'd be much better served to have a narrower FOV from a 3.6mm, 4mm, or possibly even 6mm depending on what you are really after.

 

[paul@austins.tv]

Not a optimal position/location of the camera in any way at all. No wonder your disappointed. Looks like a camera hidden in a wardrobe looking through a key hole!

 

[itstreasury]

Oh wow, can't thank you guys enough for all the help/advice! I really appreciate it. There have been lots of burglaries going on lately so I would love to have a good setup going. Will be going back to the drawing board!

I know this position is super awkward, but kind of don't want the cam to be visible since people get offended really quick over here by the way. Also will be going through the recommended settings and rotating the cam!

Attached is a image at night time. This thing performs really well even at this situation.

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, that is the wrong camera for what you are trying to accomplish. It is a great camera, but being used in the wrong situation.

At best it is a DETECT and OBSERVE location. You will not RECOGNIZE or IDENTIFY strangers with that field of view.

You need to identify the areas you want to cover and pick a camera designed to cover that distance. In some instances, it may be a 2MP or 4MP that is the right camera. DO NOT CHASE MP!!!

It is why we recommend to purchase one good varifocal and test it at all the proposed locations day and night to figure out the correct focal lengths and cams.

To identify someone with the wide-angle 2.8mm lens that most people opt for, someone would have to be within 13 feet of the camera, but realistically within 10 feet after you dial it in to your settings. You have lost all of that just in the vertical.

My neighbor was bragging to me how he only needed his four 2.8mm fixed lens 4k cams to see his entire property and the street and his whole backyard. His car was sitting in the driveway practically touching the garage door and his video quality was useless to ID the perp not even 10 feet away. Meanwhile my 2MP varifocal optically zoomed 60 feet away to the public sidewalk provided the money shot to the police to get my neighbors all their stuff back. Nobody else had video that could provide anything useful, other than what time this motion blur ghost was at their car.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision works as well. These cameras meet all your requirements.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great auto-track PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A wide angle 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who.

One camera cannot be the be all, see all. Each one is selected for covering a specific area. Most of us here have different brands and types, from fixed cams, to varifocals, to PTZs, each one selected for it's primary purpose and to utilize the strength of that particular camera.

So you will need to identify the distance the camera would be from the activities you want to IDENTIFY on and purchase the correct camera for that distance as an optical zoom.

If you want to see things far away, you need optical zoom, digital zoom only works in the movies and TV...And the optical zoom is done real time - for a varifocal it is a set it and forget it. You cannot go to recorded video and optically zoom in later, at that point it is digital zoom, and the sensors on these cameras are so small which is why digital zoom doesn't work very well after the fact.

 

[itstreasury]

Wow, wittaj! Thanks SO much for the information provided. Man, you guys are awesome! Don't have much to say.. enough information to absorb! Ill be testing lots of different stuff right now. Thanks a thousand times.

 

[johnnyappleseed]

• 49225 PTZ - great auto-track PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but are there any threads you can point me to that gives more detail on configuring the above? I did a search and haven't found anything yet. I am interested in playing with this. I have an Andy 49225 and Dahua NVR. Thank you!

 

[Mike A.]

Oh wow, can't thank you guys enough for all the help/advice! I really appreciate it. There have been lots of burglaries going on lately so I would love to have a good setup going. Will be going back to the drawing board!

I know this position is super awkward, but kind of don't want the cam to be visible since people get offended really quick over here by the way. Also will be going through the recommended settings and rotating the cam!

Attached is a image at night time. This thing performs really well even at this situation.

View attachment 117610

Not using IR saves you there. It does well given some light below. Not a bad image at all for the first row of cars.

Probably should have asked earlier... What are you trying to watch?

If just he balcony as an entry point there and the rest beyond is just coincidental, then you might be OK with some minor adjustments. Rotate it, give it some white light if you want color or use IR if you don't want light there all the time.

If trying to watch a car in the lot then probably should look at swapping/adding something else.

 

[wittaj]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but are there any threads you can point me to that gives more detail on configuring the above? I did a search and haven't found anything yet. I am interested in playing with this. I have an Andy 49225 and Dahua NVR. Thank you!

Here you go:

SD6AL433XA-HNR Laser PTZ Tracking Issue

Sounds good - Ljw2k means setting up the IVS rules and what not within the camera GUI itself for the spotter cam like you did the PTZ. It is hard to tell if the NVR interface is pulling in what you set up within the camera itself or if you setup the IVS at the NVR level, but it should be setup...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[itstreasury]

Yeah the street light really helps a lot! So lets say burglars have broken in to my home, then with a camera at this position I hope to be able to at least get some footage from the thieves (posture. identification would probably be impossible as they usually wear ski masks) and the vehicle they are using. At least some kind of useful information.

So with the 5442 fixed lens I could get a posture and get their vehicle of course (no license plate). Basically covering my needs. But, since im really starting to enjoying this ip cam "hobby", I maybe will look at getting something better. Perhaps the 5241-Z12E. Of course, ill be doing more research and messing around with this cam first.

I was just a bit disappointed at the image quality during the day. But because of all the help it now makes much more sense as I was comparing my image to other 5442 fixed lens cams that actually have proper placement and not using it like the 49225 PTZ, haha.

Rotated 90 degrees:

 

[Justin Blackburn]

I think a varifocal would be your best bet. IPC-T5442T-ZE would be the one I would recommend, but their have been a lot of great cameras come out lately. That would allow you to dial in and eliminate 50% of your image being wall. If better day image is what you want, 8MP will look better during the day. It of course will look worse at night most likely as it takes more light. The newer bullet 4K-X is fantastic but way more noticeable because it’s a bullet as opposed to a turret style.

Hot Selling IPC-T5442T-ZE 4MP Starlight IR Vari-focal Eyeball Network Camera , free DHL shipping - IP Cam Talk Store

4MP WDR IR Turret Smart Network Camera 2.7mm - 12mm motorized varifocal lens Outdoor Rated - IP67 PoE (802.3af) or DC 12V (±30%)

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IP67 Weatherproof (Outdoor / Indoor) Warm LED Bullet SMD 3.0 2-way Audio ePOE and POE Face Detection Fixed Lens ( 3.6mm / 2.8mm available)

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[wittaj]

But the 4k camera doesn't have a high enough focal length and would suffer from the same problem.

That view needs more zoom than the ZE as well.

 

[wittaj]

Oh wow, can't thank you guys enough for all the help/advice! I really appreciate it. There have been lots of burglaries going on lately so I would love to have a good setup going. Will be going back to the drawing board!

I know this position is super awkward, but kind of don't want the cam to be visible since people get offended really quick over here by the way. Also will be going through the recommended settings and rotating the cam!

Attached is a image at night time. This thing performs really well even at this situation.

View attachment 117610

Keep in mind that you are running on default/auto settings, so motion is probably a blur at night. It is a great camera, but all cams need light. Once you dial it in to eliminate blur, it will get a lot darker. But then again, at that distance as an overview, you won't identify much anyway, so a little blur is probably ok. Can still make out color of car and probably type with some blur.

People are oblivious, so if you need a camera and it isn't violating any laws, who cares. Paint it to match the brick/trim and nobody will even notice it.

 

[itstreasury]

I think a varifocal would be your best bet. IPC-T5442T-ZE would be the one I would recommend, but their have been a lot of great cameras come out lately. That would allow you to dial in and eliminate 50% of your image being wall. If better day image is what you want, 8MP will look better during the day. It of course will look worse at night most likely as it takes more light. The newer bullet 4K-X is fantastic but way more noticeable because it’s a bullet as opposed to a turret style.

Hot Selling IPC-T5442T-ZE 4MP Starlight IR Vari-focal Eyeball Network Camera , free DHL shipping - IP Cam Talk Store

4MP WDR IR Turret Smart Network Camera 2.7mm - 12mm motorized varifocal lens Outdoor Rated - IP67 PoE (802.3af) or DC 12V (±30%)

store.ipcamtalk.com

Ultra Low Light Full-Color 4K, 8MP Smart AI Bullet IP Camera IPC-Color4K-X - IP Cam Talk Store

IP67 Weatherproof (Outdoor / Indoor) Warm LED Bullet SMD 3.0 2-way Audio ePOE and POE Face Detection Fixed Lens ( 3.6mm / 2.8mm available)

store.ipcamtalk.com

Thanks a lot Justin! Doing some research on these models. Don't quite get the advantage a varifocal would have with the optical zoom. So the walls will be gone, but because it will just be zoomed in more? (and better quality then digital zoom of course)

You cannot go to recorded video and optically zoom in later, at that point it is digital zoom, and the sensors on these cameras are so small which is why digital zoom doesn't work very well after the fact.

Very interesting point here.

 

[itstreasury]

Keep in mind that you are running on default/auto settings, so motion is probably a blur at night. It is a great camera, but all cams need light. Once you dial it in to eliminate blur, it will get a lot darker. But then again, at that distance as an overview, you won't identify much anyway, so a little blur is probably ok. Can still make out color of car and probably type with some blur.

People are oblivious, so if you need a camera and it isn't violating any laws, who cares. Paint it to match the brick/trim and nobody will even notice it.

Very true, currently its really hidden and I don't think anyone will notice it any time soon. Hence the awkward position its a white model and the wooden backplane where its attached at is also white, only the lens is what's keeping this cam from a good blending in.