Mini-Review - 5442-Z4E-S3 AKA B54IR-Z4E S3 - Replacement to the 5442-Z4E

So I now have a B54IR-Z4E S3.
It's temp mounted, as I need to experiment to find the best location for it.
Anyway, after throwing it up quickly, and doing some rudimentary setting changes, we have this.
Distance to target is a bit too far at 150' but still getting decent results.
Currently using the same settings day & night.
1/2000
H264H
8192
15FPS

These are stills captured by BI via tripwire.
View attachment 181266 View attachment 181267 View attachment 181268
View attachment 181269
Wooo, that is great 150ft at @looney2ns deep dark place, that is really a nice result.Thanks for sharing!
 
Very few cars went by last night and that made it hard to dial in the camera for full color license plate gathering. Right now, I have a 1/500 shutter speed and the HLC is at 99. The other problem is my city streetlamps. They like to pulsate their light at a faster shutter speed. Anyways here is a picture of a rear license plate from last night. I am going to up the shutter speed for tonight and hope there is more traffic. I also zoomed in the camera some more and I will have to adjust the camera today.

01152024 Camera 1F Licence.jpg
 
I would try with HLC turned off.

Like I mentioned, I have a lot less light than you so headlights would be an even bigger issue.

I was experiencing the pulsating thing as well, but all I care about is the plate so I will take some pulsating if I could capture color plates. I just need a tad more light. So I am trying different things to see if I can make it work.

Try zooming more as well.
 
I would try with HLC turned off.

Like I mentioned, I have a lot less light than you so headlights would be an even bigger issue.

I was experiencing the pulsating thing as well, but all I care about is the plate so I will take some pulsating if I could capture color plates. I just need a tad more light. So I am trying different things to see if I can make it work.

Try zooming more as well.

I did have the HLC off. Then I went to 50% and then 99% to try and cut down on some of the glare from the license plate. Looks like I will just have to up the shutter speed. The shutter speed on my LP3 camera which covers the same area is 1/375. Of course that is black and white. I just came back in from raising the camera a tad. We will see what tonight brings. Here is picture from my LP3 camera with the car in about the same spot.

01152024 Camera LP3.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have some results from last night. Also, a lot more cars went by and that made the tuning easier. I upped the shutter speed to 1/600 and that helped me get the rear license plates. The front plates are iffy and I think I know the reason why. I am using the 1F camera which I normally use for general surveillance and have it temporarily set it up for license plate duty in color. I think the problem is that it is a little too far away from the sight line of the security light. Same problem I had with the IR light. The closer the camera is to the light source the better. In the pictures the cars on the right {rear plates} are closer to the line of sight with the camera and the light source. The cars on the left (front plates) in the picture are further away.

So today I will return the 1F camera back to general surveillance duty and use my LP3 camera for getting license plates in color. The LP3 camera is only 8" from the light source, center to center and 12' closer to the intersection. Here are some pictures from last night with commentary.

A New Mexico "chili pepper" plate.

01142024 New Mexico Plate.jpg

Front plate that I had to let the car get to the right side of the picture for the best view.

01142024 Front 7MPY480.jpg

Another front plate that I had to let the car get to the right side of the picture for the best view.

01142024 Front Plate 8YPF272.jpg

Rear plate of a pickup truck with the lights from another car shining on it. Otherwise I would not have been able to get it in that spot.

01142024 PU Rear  Plate.jpg

Another view of a rear plate.

01142024 Rear 8JVV460.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great job and thanks for posting pics with great descriptions.

I upped the shutter speed to 1/600 and that helped me get the rear license plates.

Parley upped his shutter speed.

Up yours!
 
Here are last night's results from my LP3 camera that is now in color 24/7. The pictures are now much better across the spectrum because my LP3 camera is right next to the security light. The main problem I have was the lack of cars going by last night. Especially ones with a front view. However, I did have a truck come by with an old California plate with the orange lettering on a black background. California has reintroduced the plate and I call it the "retro-plate". I will make a separate thread on that one. Shutter speed at 1/400 and HLC still at 99. Still needs some fine tuning. Here are some photos from last night.

Another New Mexico "Chili Pepper" plate.

01162024 Rear New Mexico Pepper Plate.jpg

Front plate while I was tuning the camera.

01162024 Front Plate 7FTA361.jpg

Here is a photo of a rear plate with the console of the car showing.

01162924 Rear Plate With Console.jpg

Another rear plate at a little further distance.

01162024 Rear Plate 8UHP043.jpg

And one more rear plate.

01162024 Rear 7FTA361.jpg
 
Here are last night's results from my LP3 camera that is now in color 24/7. The pictures are now much better across the spectrum because my LP3 camera is right next to the security light. The main problem I have was the lack of cars going by last night. Especially ones with a front view. However, I did have a truck come by with an old California plate with the orange lettering on a black background. California has reintroduced the plate and I call it the "retro-plate". I will make a separate thread on that one. Shutter speed at 1/400 and HLC still at 99. Still needs some fine tuning. Here are some photos from last night.

did you try WDR (yes WDR) with values below 40? In low value mode WDR on Dahua cams one video frame is taken from one (not two or three) exposures.

It simply works by using more advanced gamma mappings/manipulations compared to colour or HLC mode.

It can help with your problems with different plates and low contrast. WDR increase local contrast a lot.