Review-I'll be the guinea pig for the new SD59225U-HNI PTZ.

[beingaware]

I still have mine rigged up in testing state as I haven't had time to mount it yet. But with my limited testing and the fact it's indoors and I can't zoom that far I don't seem to have any issues.

How many people are actually having issues?

I know @ljw2k has been having issues and he too has been comparing like me with the huisun which many are now discarding as rubbish.

I can see massive benefits in image quality especially at night but if that's the only benefit due to buggy software and what seems like poor quality control. What's the benefit of paying a fair chunk of price over a fixed camera.

Heck even the huisun seems to be doing a better job at focusing according to a few people. Surely this can't be right.

Is it something @EMPIRETECANDY can jump in and get direct to dahua about?

But like I say my cam is still on the bench in test as I haven't mounted yet but I don't seem to be having the problems others are.

I think some of the issues is the configuration while some of it is location.

Focusing the camera at long range can be tricky with many different objects at different depths, but they could be lazy and set the focus to a fixed point or presets...

Try changing the focal limit, should speed it up.
Again, try different distances.

Another thing I've noticed is the IR long throw spot light can throw it off if it's set too bright.

 

[Shockwave199]

Auto focus shouldn't be such a chore to get working, generally. However, there are times you need to manually adjust if it's being pissy. That's just the way it is. One of the best ways to improve a quick focus is stronger ir at distance. Blast that ir up full at distance. Also, I see an awful lot of processing smear in people's video. Pictures are great, video of moving targets is terrible. I have no experience with these cameras but one thing that was always necessary to clean up the old cnb starlight cameras was to remove all noise reduction settings and processing and slowly bring them back up until you hit the balance of noise verses ghosting. All that noise reduction crap makes for great pics but bad video. Also with the dahua ip cams I do have experience with, lower frame rates help improve things as well. My opinion remains, 15fps is the sweet spot for surveillance. All else fails, try a reduced frame rate and see if it helps, not the focus issues, but the smear and ghosting.

 

[ChooChooman74]

I am working on getting my issue working. Is there a factory reset method on this?

 

[hmjgriffon]

Auto focus shouldn't be such a chore to get working, generally. However, there are times you need to manually adjust if it's being pissy. That's just the way it is. One of the best ways to improve a quick focus is stronger ir at distance. Blast that ir up full at distance. Also, I see an awful lot of processing smear in people's video. Pictures are great, video of moving targets is terrible. I have no experience with these cameras but one thing that was always necessary to clean up the old cnb starlight cameras was to remove all noise reduction settings and processing and slowly bring them back up until you hit the balance of noise verses ghosting. All that noise reduction crap makes for great pics but bad video. Also with the dahua ip cams I do have experience with, lower frame rates help improve things as well. My opinion remains, 15fps is the sweet spot for surveillance. All else fails, try a reduced frame rate and see if it helps, not the focus issues, but the smear and ghosting.

I did not know fps could make things worse, I run 20fps because it gives me a pretty good smoothness and does not seem to take any more cpu than 10fps, I don't notice issues with cars driving by and stuff so I guess I am okay.

 

[ChooChooman74]

I was able to factory reset the cam. Don't ask me how, as it took me several attempts on a ladder cycling the power through my Unifi App. While I was at it, I added an SD card, because with the soft screws on the cover, 1 is already pretty messed up.

Anyways, still have the issue, as it will not return to preset 1 if idle on any other preset. @EMPIRETECANDY, do you have any different firmware that I can try?

 

[hmjgriffon]

I took the small panel off with the phillips screws one time, and then never again, once I got it back on the next time I needed to get inside I removed the 4 star head bits and remove the big panel that the small one sits inside of. I dunno why anyone uses philips for anything, they strip so easy if you don't have the perfect fitting screwdriver, I have a bunch of different philips bits so when I have to use one I can try different ones until I get a tight fit in the screw and even then I'm careful as fuck lol.

 

[NoloC]

Get a set of Wiha Phillips. Best there is.

Amazon.com: Wiha 26194 Screwdriver Set, Phillips With Precision Handles, 4 Piece: Industrial & Scientific

 

[ChooChooman74]

Updated to the latest Dahua NTSC Firmware (instead of Generic) and also updated the PTZ Firmware. Found out upgrading is only possible when the NVR is NOT recording. Well, no change. On any Preset, it will not idle to the desired home preset.

 

[nayr]

im failing to see any problem in that video.. shrug, I think I can see the camera in the reflection.

 

[reeves1985]

I must admit in that video I didn't see anything wrong.
Try something further away as I know with my huisun if I zoom fully to something quite close the focus doesn't focus because I think it's too close

 

[ChooChooman74]

Well, I found a workaround. I enabled a "Time Task", on 24/7, that seems to do the same as idle motion. The nice thing, unlike idle motion, you can select schedules and choose a different time out. I did a little experimenting by changing the presets around. Idle motion still only works when not on a preset.

 

[hmjgriffon]

Well, I found a workaround. I enabled a "Time Task", on 24/7, that seems to do the same as idle motion. The nice thing, unlike idle motion, you can select schedules and choose a different time out. I did a little experimenting by changing the presets around. Idle motion still only works when not on a preset.

View attachment 17126

just tested that myself with the same result, weird, I wonder if they made it work like that on purpose.

 

[TheSuperServer]

Is there a way to set motion detection for a select preset? When I set motion detection it doesn't matter what the preset is the trigger area is always in the same place.

 

[nayr]

Understanding Depth of Field for Beginners

Large aperture = Small f-number = Shallow (small) depth of field

this is pretty typical for large aperature starlight, if you want a deeper DOF then use aperture priority and close it up.. but your low light performance will go out the window.

 

[nayr]

your ghosting because there's no light on his face and its all noise, this is where your B&W videos were alot stronger.. and IR would really help, but then its going to flare up all your license plates.. when your running color at night your a slave to ambient lighting, your onboard lighting is disabled.. If you want to read parked plates and get good IR then you should consider a big honking IR spotlight installed far enough away from the camera not to flare up plates at those distances.

 

[reeves1985]

All I had to go by is my last camera which as you know was a Huisun which IMHO did a much better job at night time in colour. I will try the camera in B&W with IR bollocks to the number plates as long as I can capture faces as lately we have lots of rats ( scumbags ) in the area. Daytime I am more than made up with the quality I just have to configure how to get good captures at night and if I got to have it in B&W then so be it.

I'm hoping to run mine in colour as I've got around the same ambient light as you but they just upgraded it to white leds so that will help!

I'm sure it will be a setting thing.

Although my huisun won't focus on 2 things at once when they are at different points in the fov e.g. 1 static 1 moving

 

[beingaware]

All I had to go by is my last camera which as you know was a Huisun which IMHO did a much better job at night time in colour. I will try the camera in B&W with IR bollocks to the number plates as long as I can capture faces as lately we have lots of rats ( scumbags ) in the area. Daytime I am more than made up with the quality I just have to configure how to get good captures at night and if I got to have it in B&W then so be it.

The huisun most likely had a small aperture (higher f/stop) thus it was able to focus quickly.
The ability to see OK in colour at night would have been due to max iso and back light.

I've found with my Dahua that using aperture priority mode really helps with focusing quickly but you also need to adjust the IR Compensation levels otherwise it will wash out the target with light causing the AF to spaz.

It's all a settings balancing act.

You just have to keep adjusting until you get it perfect for your primary goal, in this case, picking off faces quickly, which means black and white with IR.

 

[beingaware]

I have had DSLR camera's in the past where Daytime they took great images but once the light drops the sensor could not perform well in low light conditions or at higher ISO. Then again I have had camera's where they performed very well in low light and focused pretty good. The huisun did a great job at night I think with low light in colour where this is just not having it. I have just been playing about with it in B&W and Yes indeed in some circumstances with IR the image ( Still ) looks fantastic but when zoomed back out and it hits all the cars reg plates and the street signs it sort of washes everything out too many cars and signs spoiling it.

I think if I lived in an area more remote and not much street lighting the B&W and IR would be fantastic but as it is the camera is not working for me and will probably never will.

@ beingaware you seen the footage from my huisin of the rats and how it captures their faces so well in colour but this camera would struggle at the same objects and at the same focal length and lighting.

You can adjust the IR levels for zoom and wide.
Adjust them and see how you go.

Re the focus in colour, try setting the focal point and see how you go.

 

[Hound Dog 911]

What would cause my SD59 to drop from 20 fps to 15 fps almost daily? It's set at 20 with constant bitrate.

 

[hmjgriffon]

What would cause my SD59 to drop from 20 fps to 15 fps almost daily? It's set at 20 with constant bitrate.

bitrate can change dramatically between daylight and night time, etc. is this the case?