Review-Dahua IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E AI Varifocal Bullet

looney2ns

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Update on this. I've not posted any video's of night LPR because for one, it appears to have the same exact focus issue as the previous model at full zoom at night.
I got tired messing with it, and moved on for the time being. I will give it another shot at night for LPR in the next few days.
As can be seen in videos already up, daytime LPR is no problem.
 

looney2ns

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@looney2ns in the daytime full zoom no out off focus right? So it's not hardware defective, maybe the firmware problem.
Correct, it is fine in the day time.
It has basically the same focus issue at night as the Review-Dahua SD6CE245U-HNI Starlight PTZ 45x Zoom | IP Cam Talk.
And this one I'll be the guinea pig for the new SD59225U-HNI PTZ. | IP Cam Talk had this issue for a long time, until the latest firmware improved it tremendously. And of course the IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 that is popular for LPR focus issue at night still has the same issue.
 

ThomasPI

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Correct, it is fine in the day time.
It has basically the same focus issue at night as the Review-Dahua SD6CE245U-HNI Starlight PTZ 45x Zoom | IP Cam Talk.
And this one I'll be the guinea pig for the new SD59225U-HNI PTZ. | IP Cam Talk had this issue for a long time, until the latest firmware improved it tremendously. And of course the IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 that is popular for LPR focus issue at night still has the same issue.
Looney at approx what distance out does it lose focus at night? I.e how far away from cam is object when focus goes bonkers?
 

iseeker

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So, am I reading correctly that BI does not support the advanced AÍ features of this camera and you would need a Dahua NVR to take advantage? Too bad the older model is only $5 difference in price.
 

aristobrat

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So, am I reading correctly that BI does not support the advanced AÍ features of this camera and you would need a Dahua NVR to take advantage? Too bad the older model is only $5 difference in price.
With a little workaround, BI should support the advanced AI features. I tested with the “people” alert and it worked fine, but that particular AI is part of IVS, which was already known to work with BI. I haven’t tested all of the other AI features, but I’d assume they work as well.

In BI, you just check the box for BI to subscribe to the camera’s PullPoint subscription (this is how BI will know when the camera itself has triggered an alarm), then you click the box in BI that tells BI to trigger an BI alarm whenever the camera indicates it has one.

Looks like a Dahua bug, but there is an issue that when anything subscribes to a Dahua camera’s PullPoint subscription, the camera’s basic motion detection feature (ewww) gets enabled. I can’t imagine anyone wants that, so not sure why that happens. My workaround is to have BI send an HTTP command to the camera to disable the basic motion detection.
 

looney2ns

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Ok, after much futzing around with settings and cam placement, this is what I came up with for LPR testing. This is my first attempt at using a cam for LPR, so take for what it's worth. I mounted the cam in an entirely different location than when I first tested it, and the focus at night behaved better this time around. There is a LOT of IR spread from the emitters and it is easy to get IR reflections into the lens if your not real careful with placement, I'm guessing and simply guessing that this may have negatively impacted the night time focus in my first round of testing, as I was getting some IR reflection in the first location used.

Sunset was at 8:10pm when these where taken. Distance to plate capture from cam is 168ft according to google maps. Distance from cam to trashcan in video is 107ft. Cam settings after sunset, shutter 1/2000, gain 95%, NoiseRD 44, Zoom 100%, when LPR was taken.
@EMPIRETECANDY

Z12AICam.20190607_150606_1.jpg Z12AICam.20190607_201817_1.jpg Z12AICam.20190607_210000_1.jpg

 

ThomasPI

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Thanks looney that’s better. I’m not concerned with LPR but the distance is of interest. Our street mucin like yours doesn’t have a great deal of light at night and I’d be looking at the 150’ mark max to capture night time activity in the immediate area of the house at a distance.
 

Nyghthawk

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thanks for that update, when I first looked at the amazon page, the cam existed, when I look now, the cam does not exist, does this mean its already not being sold?
 

Nyghthawk

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Looking to see if anyone can help with settings to get this to work properly at night.

During the day everything seems to work okay, its at night I am having trouble. Trying multiple different settings.

Stationary Plate at night is fine

I get either

A) (Bright) but can read stationary, moving is bright blur

or

b) (Dark) station can read, moving, doesn't show up

 

bigredfish

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No WDR

IR Max manual if you have that setting. Cant have too much IR. Really at anything over 80-100ft or so you're probably going to need additional external IR.
I run a Tendelux BI18
 
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bigredfish

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By the way, you are using different settings for Day/Night using the "Schedule" profile right? You will need different settings for daytime.
 
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