REVIEW: SD6AL445XA-HNR-IR 4MP 45x Starlight IR AI PTZ

@Jessie.slimer Might be worthwhile to add a, or even two, high power IR illuminators. I use this one and it lights up the whole back yard, say 250x250 feet. I think this one is the most powerful one they make, at least CMVision makes.

 
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sebastiantombs said:
@Jessie.slimer Might be worthwhile to add a, or even two, high power IR illuminators. I use this one and it lights up the whole back yard, say 250x250 feet. I think this one is the most powerful one they make, at least CMVision makes.

Click to expand...
Good lord. Saving that to my cart. Thanks.
 
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@Jessie.slimer - You will want the 49225 then to have any chance at 325 feet with IR. You have to remember the 4MP on the same sensor as the 2MP will need double the light than a 2MP, and it holds true for IR as well. My Sunba PTZ was a better IR light cannon at distance than this one. Or maybe because the Sunba was 2MP versus this at 4MP.

@sebastiantombs - I am glad that IR model works for you. I have that exact one and was useless with this PTZ. Certainly not appreciable difference to justify adding it to the front of the house.

I added it to the back and seems to perform better with total darkness, but I am still disappointed in that I thought it would produce a better IR coverage. I don't know if the lumens on the front of the house was "blinding" it or what was happening but watching playback I couldn't really tell when it was on or off past 50 feet.
 
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It's soffit mounted, say about 10 or 11 feet above ground level. I originally had it pointed at a slight down angle but that gave me a big hot spot down the middle so now it points straight out. There's still a hot spot but not very pronounced or very big. There are virtually no lights in the backyard, unless we have the floods on, and I can see the slats in the cedar fence at 250 feet away with a 2231 series camera with the zoom at 340. The screen grab is from UI3 on my laptop. As with everything, YMMV.

2231 cmvision.JPG
 
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I am not very impressed with my 49225XA in B&W with the camera's IR TBH. I find it very hard to get a good image but put it in colour mode and I like it. I run mine in Auto ( I Know ) but I find this setting pretty much the best with the LED street Lighting I have outside.
 
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Yeah, I force my 49425 in color because even though I get a bit of ghosting with the higher gain, it is still a much better picture than B/W with the IR.
 
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So here's 3 clips of the only dark spot I can see with the current location of this PTZ. Its not ideal as there are plenty of IR reflections and bright lights that mess with the IR image. I mentioned in the opening of this review that the 1/2.8 sensor on a 4MP camera just isnt big enough for low light in my opinion. Reminds me of the 5231 series struggling at night when in IR at distance. Like @wittaj and @ljw2k say above, I get a better image in color than B&W

That said, Andy sent this to me for testing because the location has good light. Daytime, Awesome. AI Tracking, Awesome. Night color, pretty good if you have enough light. But for low light, Im going to want the 1/1.8 sensor. I think and hope that the larger sensor will make a big difference in this camera.

First clip in color at 1/60 with 60 Gain where I run it covering the entrance at night just to set the stage.
The front door of the house opposite the camera is 105ft. 200ft to the backyard (first) fence, then across a retention area you cant see at night that is 200ft across, and finally to out buildings of the property behind our street. Say 450ft total
View attachment HOA Entr_ch1_20210202193214_color-1-60.mp4
















Next is in B&W IR (set to max Zoom Priority) running the same 1/60 with 60 Gain. You can see there just isnt enough light
View attachment HOA Entr_ch1_20210202194056_1-60.mp4
















Next I change the exposure to Auto
View attachment HOA Entr_ch1_20210202194140_Auto.mp4
















And Finally 1/30
View attachment HOA Entr_ch1_20210202194244_1-30.mp4
 
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Exactly. Even at 1/60 there is still motion blur just like the old 5231's. Not bad, but its there. In Auto, its pretty noticeable.
 
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bigredfish said:
So here's 3 clips of the only dark spot I can see with the current location of this PTZ. Its not ideal as there are plenty of IR reflections and bright lights that mess with the IR image. I mentioned in the opening of this review that the 1/2.8 sensor on a 4MP camera just isnt big enough for low light in my opinion. Reminds me of the 5231 series struggling at night when in IR at distance. Like @wittaj and @ljw2k say above, I get a better image in color than B&W

That said, Andy sent this to me for testing because the location has good light. Daytime, Awesome. AI Tracking, Awesome. Night color, pretty good if you have enough light. But for low light, Im going to want the 1/1.8 sensor. I think and hope that the larger sensor will make a big difference in this camera.

First clip in color at 1/60 with 60 Gain where I run it covering the entrance at night just to set the stage.
The front door of the house opposite the camera is 105ft. 200ft to the backyard (first) fence, then across a retention area you cant see at night that is 200ft across, and finally to out buildings of the property behind our street. Say 450ft total
View attachment 81367

Next is in B&W IR (set to max Zoom Priority) running the same 1/60 with 60 Gain. You can see there just isnt enough light
View attachment 81368

Next I change the exposure to Auto
View attachment 81369
And Finally 1/30
View attachment 81370
Click to expand...

Wow, that's some very weak IR.
 
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Yeah it’s odd. I’m not sure if all of the bright lights around are messing with it or what? that was using zoom prio at 100...

I hope to move it in the coming weeks to the culdesac where I have a much larger low light area behind it and test more....
 
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Just a thought..

This is connected to a HI-POE ? In the past I had to make sure one of my HI-POE cam was actually being powered by a Dahua injector vs my POE+ Switch.

The injector I use now is the Dahua PFT1200 for all my HI-POE PTZ cams.
 
PFT1200
 
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I’ll try again tonight using manual IR. The problem with that is you can’t have both near and far IR at 100%. It only allows a combination of 100% between the two.
 
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bigredfish said:
Yeah it’s odd. I’m not sure if all of the bright lights around are messing with it or what? that was using zoom prio at 100...

I hope to move it in the coming weeks to the culdesac where I have a much larger low light area behind it and test more....
Click to expand...
When zoomed all the way in, the other lights should not have been affecting it.
 
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One would think.
But I tried with manual 100% far last night and no real improvement.

I think it’s more IR reflection from signs and poles that is causing it.

Im going to try B&W with no IR tonight looking down the street. Will post samples
 
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Ok so a bit of a major discovery.

Last night I tried various exposure settings and without exception, every one, 1/30, 1/60, 1/120 was far too dark and greatly diminished the IR effect as shown in the previous videos,

So after an hour of playing with it I set it to AUTO exposure, IR=SmartIR, DNR 45, all other settings to default except I added HLC at 70.
And damned if AUTO exposure didnt do pretty darn well.! I could lighten it a bit by reducing HLC, but wanted to minimize the bloom of the car headlights.
You'll see there is minimal motion blur and not too much noise. So it looks like nighttime AUTO exposure is the way to go.

View attachment HOA Entr_ch1_20210205221340_auto-dnr45-hlc70-smartIR.mp4
 
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That is crazy. Did you leave it at that setting long enough to see if you could get a plate of someone at the stop sign or a person walking?
 
Yes, It won’t get plates, too much IR reflection, but I knew that. That’s why I’m running color at night.

Unfortunately no humans last night, will leave it that way tonight and likely catch a couple. Will post here.
 
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