New PTZ installation

Sybertiger

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I finally got around to installing a new Dahua SD49425XB-HNR I recently purchased from Andy. Nothing earth shattering and a relatively easy install especially since with cold weather the attic was nice and cool. I mounted it as high as I could (lens is only 8 feet off the ground) but there's only so much you can do with a single story home. I mostly installed it to watch the wild life in the creek behind my house but it does add coverage for the backyard which was missing a cam view. It also allows me to see what/who is coming across the field next to my house. Just default settings right now and need to set up auto-tracking and presets, etc. It'll be interesting to find out if it can even see much at night in the back since it's very dark. I do have low voltage lights along the creek edge and a few in the creek but I typically do not keep those on all night long. I'll probably be installing some IR lighting on the house pointing outward into the backyard and creek areas.

That's a fixed position Dahua T5442T-ZE that is mounted above the PTZ. Originally, I had a Dahua HDW5231R-ZE mounted in that spot but I wanted some better IVS features so I swapped it out. I'll probably mount the old HDW5231R-ZE on the opposite corner of house in backyard looking back toward the PTZ.

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Sybertiger

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Forced Color - Low Voltage Lights ON - Factory Settings

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Forced B&W - Low Voltage Lights ON - Factory Settings

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Forced B&W - Low Voltage Lights OFF - Factory Settings

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Forced Color - Low Voltage Lights OFF - Factory Settings

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Sybertiger

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I'm actually pleasantly surprised that the IR mode works as well as it does for this 4MP PTZ. That last pic shows it in forced color without the low voltage lights on. It pretty well represents what you'd see with the naked eye standing there. Truly dark back there....just the way all the slithering creatures of the night like it. :eek:
 

wittaj

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Here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures. These are done within the camera GUI thru a web browser.

Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.

We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters 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.

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 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (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 or white light.

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 static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.

Then at night, 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.


And then with a PTZ, it adds another dimension to it since it will be looking in all kinds of light conditions.
 
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I'm actually pleasantly surprised that the IR mode works as well as it does for this 4MP PTZ. That last pic shows it in forced color without the low voltage lights on. It pretty well represents what you'd see with the naked eye standing there. Truly dark back there....just the way all the slithering creatures of the night like it. :eek:
The slithering creatures at night around my area must be blasted with as bright a light as i could find.
 

Sybertiger

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I got around to mounting that extra Dahua HDW5231R-ZE that I ended up with after I upgraded one location to a Dahua T5442T-ZE. It's now on the opposite backyard corner of the house pointing toward the new PTZ. You can barely see the PTZ on the far side. Had to make a trip to the far side of the attic to run the new Cat6 for it but it was easy-peasy. You can see that I already had another Dahua HDW5231R-ZE previously mounted to point toward the street from the rear sideyard corner. Both of these Dahua HDW5231R-ZE look new just like the day I had first installed them 4 years ago. Going strong! Now the backyard has some pretty good coverage.

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