This is perfect for what I need for several low light areas but I only see 1 left in stock on pretty much every link. Any recommendations for a good alternative?
Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
- Thread starter aristobrat
- Start date
2.8mm we still have 4pcs, 3.6mm has only 1 left now.
| IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED | 2.8mm | 4 |
| IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED | 3.6mm | 1 |
Hey guys - I just can't decide which camera to try first. This IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED reviewed on this thread or the IR version IPC-T5442TM-AS... I am setting up my first system in the coming weeks.
For those that have both of these cameras can you please provide input and best use cases? I'm still a little unclear if the LED models are better for complete darkness or somewhere you have a decent amount of floodlight/streetlight.
I have Hue floodlights in a few locations around my house where I plan to use the cameras. I don't plan to use external IR anywhere. And nowhere around my house is "pitch black". I live in the city on a 1/4 acre lot. On a busy street with streetlights out front. I feel like my floodlights will provide a lot of help for my cameras in most of the locations I care about. So I'm leaning in the direction of the LED model to get color. But I don't want my Identification to suffer...
Now that people have used both is there a general consensus? I can see that the review thread for the IPC-T5442TM-AS from @looney2ns is 50 pages and this thread is only 6. Does that mean anything???
For those that have both of these cameras can you please provide input and best use cases? I'm still a little unclear if the LED models are better for complete darkness or somewhere you have a decent amount of floodlight/streetlight.
I have Hue floodlights in a few locations around my house where I plan to use the cameras. I don't plan to use external IR anywhere. And nowhere around my house is "pitch black". I live in the city on a 1/4 acre lot. On a busy street with streetlights out front. I feel like my floodlights will provide a lot of help for my cameras in most of the locations I care about. So I'm leaning in the direction of the LED model to get color. But I don't want my Identification to suffer...
Now that people have used both is there a general consensus? I can see that the review thread for the IPC-T5442TM-AS from @looney2ns is 50 pages and this thread is only 6. Does that mean anything???
While I do not have the LED version, I do have the IPC-T5442TM-AS in both a 2.8mm and 6mm lenses. I too live on a 1/4 acre suburban lot with a street light at the end of my driveway. I also have coach lights on my garage pillars. Below is a night time shot of me in the driveway testing the 6mm.
OK So do yours just stay in color mode because they have enough light? Or do you have it set that way
I have the same camera with 2.8 and 3.6 mm lens and 2 on order with 6mm lenses for my garage. I wish I had them installed already as the neighbor across the street just got their car stolen this morning. I could see the silhouette of a guy walking down the street and the car leaving from my entry cam, but that's it. My wife now gets it when I tell her to stop leaving the garage door opener in her car. She fully supports me installing more cameras now!
Slugger, you can run them in color mode at night if you have some ambient light and lower your exposure settings accordingly. I have three in color mode with lights dimmed to 30%. If they see motion, it sends an alert to my Hubitat to increase the lights to 100%.
Even if they were installed, I doubt you would have any video of the guy's face good enough for an ID. If this is across the street, even the 6mm will not get you enough at that distance. The 6mm shot I posted above is me at less than 20 feet away.
Agreed on a facial ID, but he walked right past my driveway, so we might have caught something of interest. The neighbors got lucky as the Police found the car at a nearby hotel yesterday. I guess they took it for a quick joy ride.
Yes, at least a description of clothing. We have had a few door checkers come through the hood and each time my overview cams got enough to give a clothing description, and other info like complexion, facial hair, riding a bicycle, rough height and weight, etc.
Both cameras use the same image sensor/lens. You can get color out of both ... if there's enough ambient white light at night, both cameras stay in color mode just the same (without having to use their built-in lights).
When the ambient white light level goes low enough at night, the two models act differently. The LED model creates its own ambient white light (by flipping on the built-in LEDs) and keeps on trucking in color mode. The non-LED model flips the IR cut filter, turns on the IR lights and switches to b/w mode... IR lights don't help cameras when they're in color mode.
You can change settings on either model to override defaults. You can set the non-LED model to stay in color mode all the time if you want. You can set the LED model so that the LEDs don't turn on when it gets dark outside. Interestingly enough, then the LED model will switch to b/w mode when it gets dark out (although you can override that with a setting, too).
For me, color is a "nice to have", but I do NOT want it if it means having two bright-ass lights on the front of my cameras turn on and run all night long (making the camera look like an always-on flood light). Again, that's just me. I happened to get lucky. I have both a 5442 LED and non-LED model and there was enough ambient light in both areas I mounted them that they stay in color all night long without having to use the built-in lights on either camera.
I'm not sure if you've seen Mech's 5442 LED review thread, but the way he's using his, the LED light being on all night makes perfect sense:
Installed a IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED
Got one of these, or considering one? Quick summary: This IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED cam has white-light LEDs and can't see infrared light, only visible light. It combines extra low-light sensitivity with substantial "enhancement" abilities to boost dark scenes. It's a variant of the other 5442...
Here's my 5442TM-AS-LED at night... I use this camera as an overview cam, just to get an idea of what's happening on that side of the house, not to ID anyone. The streetlight gives enough ambient light that it stays in color mode without having to turn the LED lights on. I do have the LED lights disabled (via settings) because if that street light ever goes out, I do not want the camera becoming a bright light that beams from the side of the house. Mounted like this, the cameras LED lights wouldn't be much of a help even if it ever did get dark enough for them to turn on. If you're wondering why the heck I even have a LED model, it's because I thought I had a good place to use it (with its light), but that didn't turn out like I thought, so now it's doing a good job as an overview camera w/o using the light.
Here's my 5442TM-AS (not LED). The only setting change on this camera is that the shutter is 1/60 to help reduce motion blur. Between the 60W light on the garage and the street light about 100ft across the street there is enough ambient light to keep this camera in color mode on its own at night.
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I have hubitat as well. And I'm planning to connect my hue floods to it. Along with a couple Hue motion sensors I got.
I didn't realize you can have the cams send motion alerts to Hubitat. Let me know how well that works for you... I may do the same in addition to my sensors (they won't cover everywhere)
Thanks so much for this technical breakdown. I understand now.
From what I read here it sounds like the LED model does NOT have the feature to turn the LED light on and off based on motion. Is this correct? If so, then what if another motion detector sends a signal to BI. Could the light possibly be driven by another sensor? (I'm guessing not but I had to ask since I will have motion sensors around my house and I've just learned Hubitat and BI can talk...)
I realize there are use cases for the light on ALL night but it just seems stupid they made it that way or no light...
You have to install the BI app in Hubitat first. You then set up a trigger in rule machine using a local endpoint, copy the URL that Hubitat generates and paste that in the camera's alert screen in BI. The alert is the MQTT one or something like that. It seems to be working well so far, but it depends on how you have IVS or motion set up. I currently have my exterior lights turn on at 30% brightness at night that increases to 100% if IVS is tripped.
Correct. Dahua has a separate line of "Active Deterrence" camera models that can do that, but none use the 4MP 1/1.8" image sensor that the 5442 models use.
Most IP cameras let you control at least some of the settings through an HTTP API. I thought there was an HTTP command to turn on/off the IR light <which is how the LED lights are controlled on my 5442-AS-LED model>, but I haven't found an example of anyone getting that to work. There are a few examples of HTTP commands that switch the camera between Day/Night profile that I was able to successfully manually test. I temporarily set the IR light setting (which actually control the LED) on the Night profile to "Manual, 100%", and on the Day profile, I set IR to Disabled. I then used a web browser (easy to manually test with) to switch the camera to Night profile, which caused the lights to come on. Switched it back to Day mode and the lights went off. Don't let the Day/Night names of those two profiles trip you up, you have full control over just about every camera setting in each profile, .. for this use, think of Day as the "LEDs disabled" profile and Night as the "LEDs manually turned on" profile. So as long as BI or Hubitat can be automated to send the command over to switch them between those two profiles as you want them, you can drive the light yourself.
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Actually, stumbling across this post, it looks like the command below can toggle on/off the LED lights without having to flip between camera profiles.
X is the profile that your camera is running in at the time:
1=Day
2=Night
3=General
Y is the command:
Off
Manual (turns on the LEDs)
Auto
I run my AS-LED in the General profile all of the time, so to turn the LED lights on is:
... and to turn them off:
Here's a dumb video showing toggling it on/off from a browser. Camera is in upper middle, easier to see when the LEDs toggle on. I'm basically holding the phone in one hand and the other hand is trying to toggle between two browser tabs (where I've got the on/off commands typed) and hit Refresh.
https://youtu.be/aJGyod-Nof4
Testing in a browser is easy because it handles authenticating into the camera for you. Scripting these commands to run in BI or other systems will need to take the authentication piece into consideration but shouldn't be a big deal.
Code:
http://192.168.1.108/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Lighting[0][X].Mode=YX is the profile that your camera is running in at the time:
1=Day
2=Night
3=General
Y is the command:
Off
Manual (turns on the LEDs)
Auto
I run my AS-LED in the General profile all of the time, so to turn the LED lights on is:
... and to turn them off:
Here's a dumb video showing toggling it on/off from a browser. Camera is in upper middle, easier to see when the LEDs toggle on. I'm basically holding the phone in one hand and the other hand is trying to toggle between two browser tabs (where I've got the on/off commands typed) and hit Refresh.
https://youtu.be/aJGyod-Nof4
Testing in a browser is easy because it handles authenticating into the camera for you. Scripting these commands to run in BI or other systems will need to take the authentication piece into consideration but shouldn't be a big deal.
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ok thanks for all the info. I may try one of these in a dark area where I don’t need light all night but would like it on motion. If I do I’ll try to get it working via hubitat motion sensors driving the light. I might be able to skip BI and have Hubitat issue the HTTP commands direct. The Hubitat community is full of smart developers writing code so I’m pretty sure it CAN be done but not sure if I can find anyone that is motivated to help. And I don’t really have that skillset. If I get it working I will report back here
Maybe 300-400ish lumens in a flood pattern. Here's some video from mine, and also a camera that's diagonally opposite in the same laundry room, showing manual settings including maximum and minimum output. The companion camera is a Bosch Starlight 6000 dome and is able to switch to color mode with light from the Dahua. Anyone who steals my socks is going to be in big trouble
