What can I change to improve ability to identify teenage delinquents

[Cold-Lemonade]

The footage below was captured on a Dahua N43BU83 in ambient lighting conditions. The primary purpose of this camera is to watch the front facade of my rental property from the north side in case of property crime (I have a similar camera watching from the south). Because of the camera's perspective, I also capture stuff happening on the street. As you can see from the clip below, it is not easy to identify those engaged in criminal activity at night. What settings should I try to adjust to improve the ability of this camera to capture a crisper image at night? Would EmpireTech's IPC-Color8M-TL do a better job? I am open to all your suggestions.


View attachment front_north_21cm7j.mp4

 

[bigredfish]

Generally speaking two things

1- on that camera you need to run a faster shutter speed. Freezing the perps results in motion blur. It will get a little darker, that’s the tradeoff. What speed (exposure) is it set at now?
DNR (noise reduction) also plays a part. The higher the more blur. What is it set at?

By the way, thats a cheap camera with a cheap sensor.
I would look at one of the below models (* They each have bullet versions which in most cases are better in that they have added lights and better
DOF but many prefer the turrets due to aesthetics.)

Most popular

IPC-HDW5442TM-ASE - Dahua International

IPC-HDW5442TM-ASE

www.dahuasecurity.com

Normally we wouldnt suggest 4K becasue most have too small of a sensor, but this one has the big 1/1.2" sensor and should do well with that street lighting)

https://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/All-Products/Network-Cameras/WizMind-5-Series/Full-color/IPC-HDW5849H-ASE-LED=S2

New but solid performer and even better than the 5442 at light pickup at night

https://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/All-Products/Network-Cameras/WizSense-Series/3-Series/TiOC-PRO-WizColor/IPC-HDW3449H-ZAS-PV-PRO

2- more importantly you’re seeing why relying on a single camera to do too many things doesn’t work.
That camera is good for Overview but you need a 2nd camera with more optical zoom if you wish to ID people on the street.

Recommend this one

IPC-HFW5442E-Z4E - Dahua International

IPC-HFW5442E-Z4E

www.dahuasecurity.com

Most everyone gets to this same point. You can either live with just having ID coverage on your own property, or add cameras with more zoom if you want to cover the street

 

[wittaj]

+1 to all above.

You need more cameras.

Even with proper shutter speed, that is just too far to get clean ID captures.

 

[TonyR]

The image below illustrates very well what was said in the above 2 posts about a small sensor and a slow shutter speed.......motion blur.

Believe it or not, there's ghost perp inside the red box.......

 

[TonyR]

Also, regarding any overview cams.....if at all possible, mount lower (8 ft. min to 10 ft. max) unless your local PD has a database of images of the tops of perps' heads and ball caps.
I can see where this would be a challenge due to the property sloping upward as you go from the street level to your doorstep so I guess it's just not feasible.

 

[Ri22o]

Shutter and settings aside (which definitely need adjusted), you are not going to be able to watch the area in front of the house and also ID in the street.

Seeing someone is one thing, but identifying someone is another.

Below are captures from my 2MP B52IR-X3 that has 3.6mm, 12mm, and 25mm focal lengths. The three lenses in the camera all point at the same spot. In this case, the guy is across the street about 100ft away.

He is in every capture, but not all of the FOVs give the same detail.
One can Detect or Observe.
One can Recognize.
One can Identify.

3.6mm:


12mm:


25mm:

 

[PeteJ]

Before you spend the $, check with BPD to see if they care enough to watch your videos when it's just gun shots and not a murder. If your PD is anything like my PD, they'd just close the case and move on.

 

[AlwaysSomething]

Before you spend the $, check with BPD to see if they care enough to watch your videos when it's just gun shots and not a murder. If your PD is anything like my PD, they'd just close the case and move on.

It's sad but true that many places have come to this point.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

Thank you all for such valuable feedback. To answer @bigredfish, the exposure setting was set to "auto". I'll try to adjust it to see if I can get less motion blur.

The local police tell me that the videos from this property have been helpful in the past. I'm going to install two more cameras, one the north side and one on south to watch the sidewalk and street. I'll put them lower on the building so as not to get the top of any perp's head. Would this camera work? IPC-T5442T-ZE-Vari-Focal

 

[guykuo]

What? Nothing about the paintball gun to properly tag them for later identification?

 

[mat200]

The footage below was captured on a Dahua N43BU83 in ambient lighting conditions. The primary purpose of this camera is to watch the front facade of my rental property from the north side in case of property crime (I have a similar camera watching from the south). Because of the camera's perspective, I also capture stuff happening on the street. As you can see from the clip below, it is not easy to identify those engaged in criminal activity at night. What settings should I try to adjust to improve the ability of this camera to capture a crisper image at night? Would EmpireTech's IPC-Color8M-TL do a better job? I am open to all your suggestions.

View attachment 223943

Dahua N43BU83 specs .. image sensor is only 1/2.7" for 4MP resolution.

This is a great example of what we have all experience, besides tuning the camera to get better chances at a good ID image, you want larger sensors when attempting to get good low light images.

In your case, I would look at what others here have recommended, and get 2 good varifocal 4MP 1/1.8" sensor cameras, both focused to get a possible ID image on the street / sidewalks. Have each camera watch over one direction, with a cross over view.

( sort of like we do with drive ways )

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

@mat200 -- I hear you on the 1/2.7" sensor. That's why I asked about whether people think I should replace it with the IPC-Color8M-TL from Andy at EmpireTech. The IPC-Color8M-TL has a 1/1.8" sensor and otherwise seems rather similar.