Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+

I need to order two more of these cameras as soon as Andy gets them back in stock. Interesting thing happened today. I received the Dahua IPC-B5442E-Z4E to replace a Hikvision camera that is also wired to a Hikvision NVR. Normally I have to change the NVR port over to ONVIF in order for the port to "see" the Dahua camera. Well low and behold it came up and the port automatically switched over to ONVIF. I have never seen this happen before. Almost plug and play as I did have to enter the current address for that NVR port into the Dahua camera, as I was setting it up using the Dahua tool box.
 
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@Parley tis the season ;)

Parley said:
I need to order two more of these cameras as soon as Andy gets them back in stock. Interesting thing happened today. I received the IPC-B5442E-Z4E to replace a Hikvision camera that is also wired to a Hikvision NVR. Normally I have to change the NVR port over to ONVIF in order for the port to "see" the Dahua camera. Well low and behold it came up and the port automatically switched over to ONVIF. I have never seen this before. Almost plug and play as I did enter the address for that NVR port into the Dahua camera as I was setting it up using the Dahua tool box.
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Wildcat_1 said:
comes with its base which you can either mount directly to wood etc or buy a junction box (the way I prefer to mount) and mount the base to that to hide wires and have less impact when installing (only need cat 6 cable drill hole etc)
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Is the base pictures in the first post? Also what junction boxes are compatible with bullet 5442E-Z4E version?

EDIT: Is 5442E-Z4E version capable of capturing number plates?
 
For these cams I use the PFA121s (Loryta PFA121 Water-Proof Junction Box Amazon.com : Loryta PFA121 Water-Proof Junction Box : Camera & Photo).

The 5442E-Z4E is certainly capable of capturing plates from a focal length perspective if you can make it work in your install location to get close enough to the target vehicles. With that said, remember the B5442 doesn’t do ANPR / LPR processing. Therefore you could use the object filtering on capture to limit to Vehicles but would then have to manually review for plates.

HTH. Let me know with any other questions

xtropodx said:
Is the base pictures in the first post? Also what junction boxes are compatible with bullet 5442E-Z4E version?

EDIT: Is 5442E-Z4E version capable of capturing number plates?
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EMPIRETECANDY said:
Yes, next week should be ready, i will post it here, thanks for your attention!
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Well -- It took me long enough.. I just place an order on Amazon for this on Andy's page .. listed as a Loryta B5442E-Z4E model. I hope it comes in soon :) its the last one in stock.
 
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holiday gift for yourself ;) you’ll love it !

juliand said:
Well -- It took me long enough.. I just place an order on Amazon for this on Andy's page .. listed as a Loryta B5442E-Z4E model. I hope it comes in soon :) its the last one in stock.
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juliand said:
Well -- It took me long enough.. I just place an order on Amazon for this on Andy's page .. listed as a Loryta B5442E-Z4E model. I hope it comes in soon :) its the last one in stock.
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should be there on Thursday i think, will process it on Monday.
 
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Thanks Andy. I'm looking forward to adding this gem. I have a small lake out in front of my house, so beyond my look at my driveway from the rear of my yard, is the lake with some nice wild life that come into view. - Yes, merry Christmas to me on this one. ;)

b-t-w- should I be looking for new firmware for this?, I have B.I. running the show.
 
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Yes, no problem to update it, this one has newer firmware too, i will post on the forum too when we make some testing on it.
 
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I need a consult on setting up the Dahua IPC-B5442E-ZE Varifocal Bullet.
I got this new camera direct from Andy a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to turn it on yesterday.
This cam is going to be my test camera to determine which fixed lens models I need to add.
Having never configured a camera before, I wasn't sure what to do for a few of the initialization settings.

I did a web browse to 192.168.1.108 to get into the camera's initialization menu. Simple process.
Attached is a PDF showing the settings that I went through and the question areas are highlighted in yellow.
Sorry in advance if I'm asking questions already asked and answered. I tried to search the forum.

Q1 - Under DEVICE INITIALIZATION - EMAIL ADDRESS, is it necessary to enter a valid email address? I did but I question if that was a good idea.

Q2 - After the initialization was complete, the P2P message popped up. I skipped over this part. Is it necessary?

Q3 - After P2P, the next message was about ONLINE UPGRADE. I also skipped over this part. Is it necessary?

Q4 - After logging back into the camera with the new password, I went to SETTING TAB / NETWORK / TCP/IP setting.
The last setting was for "Enable ARP/Ping to set IP address service". I left the box checked. Is that correct?

Not sure if I can go back and modify the initialization settings without having to set the camera back to factory defaults and starting over, which isn't a big deal.
I realize I can modify the TCP/IP settings at any point after logging in.
Thanks for the help!

BTW - the camera image is wonderful. I briefly checked out the video in my office and it was clear before I removed the protective plastic coverings.
Looking forward to moving the camera outside to do some actual live testing with my yet to be assembled test rig.
 

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All of the settings done during the activation process can be changed later, so no worries there.

For the recovery email, I’ve always entered mine. Not sure if it’s a good or bad idea, but Dahua already has my address from other things so I wasn’t too worried. I’m sure others feel the exact opposite. I have not tested this but I guess it’s only used locally but would only work if the SMTP settings on the camera have been setup.

P2P allows the camera to connect to Dahua servers for the purpose of you being able to connect back to the camera using Dahuas DMSS smartphone app without having to setup a VPN or port forwarding on your end. This is similar to how Ring, Arlo, etc work. If someone gets your Dahua P2P credentials, they can connect to your cameras, just like the recent case where someone was talking to the kids through a Ring camera. For that reason, most here recommend disabling P2P.

I’ve never seen the auto update feature work, so I have it disabled and get my firmware updates from Andy’s forum here. It’s not necessary.

I’ve not played with Q4 so I’ll have to check it out.
 
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IAmATeaf said:
General advice here is to not give any cams direct access to the internet so updates wouldn’t work if you’ve done this. I have a different model but have it disabled and have my cams on a different subnetwork which doesn’t have internet access.
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Thanks IAmATeaf - appreciate the advice. Yes, all cams will be on their own subnet connected to a second NIC on the BI server through an 8-port POE switch, as recommended on this forum. Actually, I'm using the computer's embedded NIC for the camera subnet and the second NIC (Intel EXP19301CTBLK) for BI web access. That method was recommended on this forum. I just want to make sure I'm setting up this first camera correctly and understand what the settings mean so I have a template for the rest of the cams going forward. Thanks!
 
Curious about the dimensions shown on the spec sheet for this cam.
PDF attached below and screen shot of just the dimension section.
Is the dimension for the length 100mm (3.94") a mistake or am I not seeing it correctly?
Seems like it should be around 6.32". Thanks!

bullet dimensions.jpg
 

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windguy said:
Curious about the dimensions shown on the spec sheet for this cam.
PDF attached below and screen shot of just the dimension section.
Is the dimension for the length 100mm (3.94") a mistake or am I not seeing it correctly?
Seems like it should be around 6.32". Thanks!

View attachment 52911
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I just got my first camera in today (this model) and that is a typo on the spec sheet. My wife gave me the disapproving look based on the size of this camera. She was thinking it was going to be smaller (reference items in photo).

Now I have to figure out if she will let me install it to test it out.

0.jpg
 
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Rich.L said:
My wife gave me the disapproving look based on the size of this camera. She was thinking it was going to be smaller (reference items in photo). Now I have to figure out if she will let me install it to test it out.
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Ha ha! See all along your wife has been telling you that size doesn't matter, but it really does. :rolleyes:
I got this camera model for two reasons: First, I wanted a varifocal as my first camera and my preference was the 4MP Starlight+ series. Second, this will be the primary camera someone will see when they approach the house coming up the driveway. I want them to see it in hopes it will be a deterrent. Tell your wife that's a primary objective for just this one camera and you will get smaller turret cameras for the rest of your system that will be very compact and discrete. Good luck!
 
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