T58ir ze s3 image settings help-recommendations

[camarolt1guy]

I have 2 t58ir ze s3's and I can't seem to get them dialed in that well. I can adjust shutter, gain, wdr and they still seem to either get washed out or just look off. I'll include a few pics of them. The one dark picture of the store is with these settings 1/60 shutter, 38 gain and contrast bumped up by 5. I could have done a few other things but that's what the picture at 1am with the white truck in it is based on. I tried WDR but it seemed to make like a fake color look to everything. Also what causes the blueish line around cars/objects. I'm sure I'm way off on the settings so any help would be greatly appreciated.

They are currently using H.264H
3840x2160
20 - 15 fps. Depending on where the camera is.
CBR
12288 if I lower it I get pulsing
The rest of the settings are stock so everyone can see what I'm working with. Those store lights are on all night. The left store goes off between 12am and 2am.

The red car camera is a T58ir SE but it's on stock image settings too.

I tried Wittaj's starting settings and they didn't do much here so I put everything on stock so everyone can see what they look like.

My goal is to be able to see and get a good still snapshot. If anyone has an idea on how to minimize those parking lot light starburst, that would be awesome too.

 

[camarolt1guy]

Im still trying to figure out how to get a good picture on these. Im impressed by everyone who can zoom in on a blade of grass lol . Anyway, these are my night settings for tonight. The image actually looks ok but its extremly dark and if i change anything then the image gets way off. I have a ton of light but it seems i can either have a very dark ok picture or a way too bright pic. I included a screenshot of the settings that im sure could be improved and of a 4 cam setup from the display monitor to show how much light i have. All the cameras are default auto except this one. I know its bad and im trying to find something that works. If anyone has any suggestions on how to maybe get a middle ground with the camera that would be great. Its a T58ir ZE S3.

The darkest pic is the one that the settings are on. The other 2 pics just show what i mean about the pic getting washed out if i change anything. Thanks for any help

 

[bigredfish]

Default Auto= Pretty static image, nice and bright, with a shit ton of blur when anything moves. You can make any cheap camera look nice with no movement.

I would have gone for 5442 4MP S3's over the 58 series 4K with the same sensor...
Takes a lot of hours to dial in a camera well.

I think we discussed your backlight situation some time ago. That makes things 9X harder. You need a light on the house shining out or your vehicle is going to be too dark. If you try to adjust for that, the background will be too bright.

WDR might work, but I hate it at night especially. Is AI SSA Off I hope?

I'm guessing the dark image is closer to reality, ie what you see with your eyes...

Gamma and brightness pretty low, I start with both at 50. ("but its too bright..") Then drop Exposure to 0-8 and see what that does.

 

[camarolt1guy]

I have a 54ir that I could swap there. I got a ZE, 2.8, 3.6 or a 6mm. I got the 58's of the refurbished page and they were too cheap to pass up.

I bought all my cams from reading all the reviews, watching videos and seeing and those zoomed in grass pictures lol. when they got here i just piled them up until I could install them all at once since I had to take the old system offline.

We did discuss the backlight but that was for the other driveway that has a T180 overhead. It works OK, the camera likes to lag though. Like a car will just appear in midscreen.

Yeah that's my problem now. I can get a great Pic of the store but then the yard is almost black or I can get a great Pic of the yard and car but the store is extremely bright. I've tried various modes, WDR and all that. WDR makes it look like a watercolor painting. AI SSA is off.

This is a phone Pic of what it looks like.

When I get this figured out then I get to learn blue iris. That should be fun

 

[bigredfish]

Gamma and brightness pretty low, set both to 50. Then drop Exposure to 0-8 and see what that does.

 

[camarolt1guy]

its a good picture. Just dark

 

[steve1225]

You have there a tons of lights...
Question what You want to record?
Driveway around the house or petrol station/public road?

To record both with this light situation Full WDR (with values >= 50) is the only solution.

 

[bigredfish]

Agree. I just hate what WDR does at night, but its that or adding light to the house shining out to compensate for the backlit condition.

Leave your other settings alone and try WDR at 51

 

[camarolt1guy]

I try to catch both the Driveway and the station.

WDR is bad. It didnt really do much but heres a pic with it set on 51. I can change the shutter from 0-8 to 1/60 and then its ok but that would cause motion blur right? Maybe I should swap it for one of the 54ir's.

 

[bigredfish]

You really need at least 1/120 to reduce motion blur. 0-8.33 is 1/120

You might experiment with Backlight/Backlight.

At the end of the day the problem is choosing your priority, close in, which which will require either IR or white light, or the traffic further out, which you can easily do now,. Even a 5442 will have the same struggle.

 

[camarolt1guy]

Yeah I was messing around with that until the kids started bugging to use the pc. Apparently Minecraft is more important. I was getting some decent results except for some bad strobing/pulsing from the bright lights.