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

wittaj · 2023-09-28T00:50:08+00:00

As many of us are aware, Dahua decided to keep the same model numbers of some of their most popular models like the 5442-Z12E and the 5442 series cameras, but they have been updated with a newer GUI and specs that on paper show better than the previous version as was discussed in this thread even though they have the same size sensor as the previous generation. I previously did a mini-review of the new 5241-Z12E here, so now it is time for the 5442-Z4E comparison between the old Z4E and the new Z4E. Many of the specs remained the same. Similar to the 5442 series with the new chipset, the minimum illumination was the biggest change: Minimum Illumination old Z4E: 0.002Lux/F1.5 ( Color,1/3s,30IRE) 0.020Lux/F1.5 ( Color,1/30s,30IRE) 0Lux/F1.5 (IR on) IR Distance Distance up to 200m (656ft) Minimum Illumination new Z4E-S3: 0.0007 lux @ F1.5 (Color, 30 IRE) 0.0004 lux @ F1.5 (B/W, 30 IRE) 0 lux (Illuminator on) This new version can be purchased from @EMPIRETECANDY at his EmpireTech website or Amazon. I know many of us hated the GUI change and like the simplicity of the old GUI, but the more I play with the new GUI on my other cameras that have the new GUI (4K-T, mini-PTZ, T180) the more I start to like it. It has way more options and flexibility. It still has some quirks as well LOL. But is also has some cool new features. The first one I noticed when I went to set up IVS rules was AcuPick. I had to look it up what that was LOL and it is a cool new feature that when you select a picture of a person or a vehicle, it will pull up all the other times that person or similar vehicle was recorded. That is a cool feature. Unfortunately I found out that this is only available when paired with a capable NVR. Bummer. But a cool feature for those that have a capable NVR. This version also comes with a microphone and an array of all the additional wiring one would need for alarms, I/O, audio in, audio out, etc. So as I am playing with the new GUI and looking for changes, I came across this cool option of different ways for the camera to trigger based on sound: Unfortunately it requires the use of the audio input with an external microphone, so I haven’t had a chance to try that out yet. Maybe a firmware update will allow the internal mic to be used! But this would be cool to trigger your cameras to start recording based on an audio event where the visual would be outside of your fields of view. So since the GUI is different and the minimum illumination specs indicate a better performing sensor, I thought what better way than to hang the new one up next to the existing one and compare the old versus new side-by-side. As you may recall from the Z12E mini-review, the new and improved optics during the daytime were fairly significant and while the nighttime was an improvement, it appeared that the improvement was more during the daytime. For the 5442-Z4E I found the opposite to be true. The daytime performance was fairly comparable, but at night is when this thing shines. They have made some significant improvements under the hood in the algorithm and/or better sensors because I can run way faster shutter speeds at night. Let’s take a look. So those that follow my threads know that I am a big believer of making things bigger, so I opt for a higher focal length as I do not want to rely on digital zoom because we have all seen how that only really works in TV and the movies, especially at night. So my existing 5224-Z4E is set up to basically just get me the size of a vehicle in the field of view, or a person walking down the middle of the street. I want the best chance to pick up distinguishing feature of the vehicle, plus if the light is right I may get the occasional capture of the driver or the passengers. As such I have it zoomed in fairly tight. So here is a typical capture during the day with my existing Z4E. Now here is the typical capture with the new Z4E during the day. Comparable enough that I wouldn’t say swipe out your existing Z4E for the new one, but there is some improvement, especially when looking at the driver you can see a little more detail. I still have to adjust saturation on this one. So at night, I couldn’t get enough light (white or infrared) on the field of view with my existing Z4E to run faster shutters, so I instead opted to tweak the settings right to their limits in order to capture color, recognizing that I would have some blur of a moving vehicle. So I ended up running my existing Z4E at a 1/125 shutter, but was running gain at 70 and brightness and gamma at 69 in order to still be in color. I was at the point that moving any parameter up 1 more number resulted in crappy video, so I was right at the verge and could probably get comparable results with a slower shutter by the other parameters closer to the middle settings. Those of us that have spent any time with these types of cameras recognize that the further you get away from the default setting, the more opportunity for artifacts and ghosting to start. So then I set up the new Z4E next to this camera and put in the same settings and it was a lot brighter, indicating to me that I could dial down the brightness, gamma, gain and speed up the shutter to get a comparable image to the older Z4E. I could now run the camera at a 1/300 shutter, but more importantly keep brightness and gamma in the 50s, resulting in a better image. So then I wanted to see could I go to infrared with the new Z4E and do an even faster shutter to get more details. So I wanted to run my existing Z4E and the new Z4E at the same settings to demonstrate the differences. So these examples are each 1/500 shutter with gain at 58 and all the remaining parameters in the 50s. Here is my existing Z4E – it is a dark image and just not very useful. And if I try to adjust the other parameters to make it brighter, I get the ghost/tails that we see when trying to push the limits too far. Here is the new Z4E – the image is so much brighter. Clearly there are improvements in the sensor and firmware. I still have some tweaking to do, but I am impressed with these newer chips/firmware that Dahua is putting out in the popular models we are used to. So in summary, there are clearly improvements between the sensor and the firmware as the newer one definitely produces a better image at night. And it can be ran at a much faster shutter speed. At night looking at the Jeep wheels, it doesn't even look like it is moving. The old Z4E is too dark and running it in color I cannot get a fast enough shutter to freeze frame it to that detail. This is great for adding more details for that questionable vehicle.