IPC-T5449H-ASE-D2 Question

[CaptainCrunch]

I will be using the upcoming sale to add cameras to my back yard. I currently have no cameras there so I know I have a lot of options. The back of the house is about 55 feet across. There is a 14 foot x 14 foot alcove in the middle of the back wall. The back door is in the alcove. I will be getting a IPC-T5442T-ZE for the back door so I can get the narrowest fov needed. I considered getting either 2 more IPC-T5442T-ZE or 2 of the 2.8mm IPC-T5442TM-AS for backyard overview. Because there is a break in the roofline for the alcove, the cameras cannot be mounted side by side. They must be at least 12-13 feet apart so they need to have about a 110 degree fov to cover the back yard. I considering adding a 3rd overview camera in the middle. If I did that, I could use 2 of the 6.0mm 5442's and a 3.6mm 5442.

When looking over the sale list, I saw the IPC-T5449H-ASE-D2. The (world's first) review seems to indicate it's a pretty good camera with a good color/b&w mix. From the thread, it seems from the thread there were some issues in the beginning but they seem to have gotten sorted out with firmware updates. We keep the back porch (the alcove) lights on at night. Some of the light spills out to the side so anyone walking up would have a little bit of front lighting. It seems there are two versions of the hardware. Version 1 had a 1/1.8 and a 1/2.8 sensor and version 2 has two 1/1.8 sensors. The link on the sale sheet looks to point to a version 1 description. Is this a camera I should consider? I don't remember seeing this camera recommended in any of the other threads. Or should I stick with the "gold standard" 5442?

 

[wittaj]

While all cameras are "niche" cameras in the sense that it has to be used in the situations that the camera was designed for (think someone complaining about the gold standard 5442 2.8mm camera cannot read plates at 60 feet away LOL - yeah a great camera used in the wrong application results in poor performance), the IPC-T5449H-ASE-D2 is very much a niche camera that works well in certain situations.

I think the dual lens camera works well in the following conditions:

• An overview camera where IDENTIFY is not the primary purpose, but want the ability to obtain color video without a lot of ambient light. I can run this at a much faster shutter than other overview cams and get color with minimal/no blur.
• A camera with light sources that are way in front of the camera and behind the person. Any situation where a backlight situation happens that would provide a dark/black silhouette. Perhaps an offset of a house where the floodlights would be well ahead of the camera. My last example and Wildcats are great examples of a situation that this camera would do very well in.
• An area that you want color, have a little bit of ambient light, but do not want the LED camera lights on like what is needed for the 4K/X or 4K/T.
• Those wanting a turret version for the smaller form factor.

You obviously cannot go wrong with the 5442, but it would probably have to be run in infrared if you don't have the light or just get behind the object spillover. Depending on the amount of light, this camera may be able to give you color because of the dual lens because basically one of the lens obtains the color so it slows the shutter down in low light and the other camera can speed up the shutter and use IR and then it blends the two together. In many instances it will provide a color image, but if the light is too low, it would then give a B/W image.