I have a LOT of S3s and none look as bad as that
Can you provide setting screen shots of those?
Maybe you need to return your S3 because I think you got a bad one
Dahua WizColor 5x59-PRO and SmartLight 5x59-IL new series
- Thread starter steve1225
- Start date
I have a LOT of S3s and none look as bad as that
Can you provide setting screen shots of those?
Maybe you need to return your S3 because I think you got a bad one
One of my 5442 S3's. I chose this one because:
Seriously I would try working on the settings or return your S3. Its not right. Its soft, lacks contrast and sharpness, and and overall bad image
I will admit as we showed in the 54PRO testing, the newer AI cameras do provide a slightly better still image, until there’s movement
This Camera is a VF but barely zoomed, maybe 3mm
Edge of the neighbors porch is 55ft
The other IR you see top right is another 5442 pointing at the dock and angled toward this camera.
Still shots
IVS which gets ZERO false alerts from wind blowing ferns
View attachment NVR_ch10_main_20260421204244_20260421204258.mp4
Small critters picked up by IVS out to distance of 55+ft *Granted its at the far reach of its usable image and IR with that small of a target
View attachment 192.168.1.110_ch10_20260419050938_20260419051002.mp4
View attachment 192.168.1.110_ch10_20260420020824_20260420020859.mp4
here's my settings
- it shows small critters at 50+ft and routinely detects them
- it does NOT have a floodlight? like yours out at 50 ft or so
- It shows blowing ferns across multiple IVS lines and I get ZERO false alerts from them
- It shows a clear difference from your sample at relative similar distance and lighting
Seriously I would try working on the settings or return your S3. Its not right. Its soft, lacks contrast and sharpness, and and overall bad image
I will admit as we showed in the 54PRO testing, the newer AI cameras do provide a slightly better still image, until there’s movement
This Camera is a VF but barely zoomed, maybe 3mm
Edge of the neighbors porch is 55ft
The other IR you see top right is another 5442 pointing at the dock and angled toward this camera.
Still shots
IVS which gets ZERO false alerts from wind blowing ferns
View attachment NVR_ch10_main_20260421204244_20260421204258.mp4
Small critters picked up by IVS out to distance of 55+ft *Granted its at the far reach of its usable image and IR with that small of a target
View attachment 192.168.1.110_ch10_20260419050938_20260419051002.mp4
View attachment 192.168.1.110_ch10_20260420020824_20260420020859.mp4
here's my settings
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Techie007L
Getting the hang of it
You are sadly talking to a troll. I will not be wasting my time trying to prove anything to him—the cameras are cheap enough he can buy one of his own to test to his satisfaction if he really cared to know more. I did my testing a year ago, came to solid, factual conclusions, returned the Color4M-T (TiOC) piece of junk, and have been buying Color4M-TL's ever since instead of 5442's. Based on the imagery you were kind enough to provide in your thread, it appears the IL series cameras also provide a sharp picture, having decent results with moving objects in low light, unlike the 54PRO and Color4M-T (TiOC) cameras.
I find it very ironic that his signature reads "Once loyalty becomes mandatory, honesty becomes dangerous." It is a true statement: He is loyal to the 5442 camera, and any honesty about a potential successor is dangerous. In expected fashion, he then pounces on your image saying you got a faulty camera. I've installed over 100 of these, and that's EXACTLY what their image normally looks like at night with the default settings. I tediously have to remotely access new installs in the middle of the night to carefully tweak the Brightness, Contrast, and Defog options in the Night profile to dial in a good, contrasty nighttime image. Part of the issue is Blue Iris's use of Full range decoding when the 5442 cameras output TV range streams. The rest is a matter of IR flare on the lens, dependent on how reflective the scene is and how much distance is involved (close, low reflectivity scenes produce a better image; while a far, high reflectivity scene results in a very gray image prior to adjustment). Oh well—you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink!
Here's to hoping the cameras coming out this year have meaningful improvements in sharpness and low light performance over those currently available, and that they be readily available at an affordable price. And then we can argue about all this all over again...
You gave away your ignorance multiple times
I've installed over 100 of these, and that's EXACTLY what their image normally looks like at night with the default settings. I tediously have to remotely access new installs in the middle of the night to carefully tweak the Brightness, Contrast, and Defog options in the Night profile to dial in a good, contrasty nighttime image.
You seem to think that Default settings on ANY camera should produce great images without tweaking settings? Do you mean the -IL doesn’t require same?
This “tedious” effort is the difference between a lazy trunk slammer installer and someone who knows it takes effort to dial in most any camera in low light scenes.
Also odd you don’t mention the far more important settings like Exposure, Gain, NR, bitrate, encoding, backlight … are you even aware of those settings?
I feel sorry for your clients.
I've installed over 100 of these, and that's EXACTLY what their image normally looks like at night with the default settings. I tediously have to remotely access new installs in the middle of the night to carefully tweak the Brightness, Contrast, and Defog options in the Night profile to dial in a good, contrasty nighttime image.
You seem to think that Default settings on ANY camera should produce great images without tweaking settings? Do you mean the -IL doesn’t require same?
This “tedious” effort is the difference between a lazy trunk slammer installer and someone who knows it takes effort to dial in most any camera in low light scenes.
Also odd you don’t mention the far more important settings like Exposure, Gain, NR, bitrate, encoding, backlight … are you even aware of those settings?
I feel sorry for your clients.
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Some of us are not YouTube influencers, so we are not going to buy and test every camera that comes out.
We have plenty of times accepted/acknowledged that @tigerwillow1 is using the cameras with a different goal than most of us here, so his cameras are set up for what he is looking for (animals), whereas most of us what to get IDENTIFY quality snapshots of a human or vehicle. If someone comes here looking for a good animal camera, we will direct him to his comparison thread.
I apologize if he thinks our comments about lack of examples are a knock on him, but that wasn't the intent. Just like the intent of his setup wasn't clean captures of a perp at night.
I would set my cameras up differently if animals were my priority and yes a brighter static image would be of benefit.
But when I have a 2.8 or 3.6mm camera, unless I am using it for OVERVIEW, all I care about is getting great captures at the sweet spot of 15ish feet away from the camera. Anything beyond that is just OBSERVE or DETECT and I have OVERVIEW cameras for that.
Knowing that we cannot force an animal where to go, many of his examples are of animals 50 feet away or so. He could give us an example of a person walking past the camera at say 15 feet. Or he can say all he cares about is animals and not do that test.
Or if you are the installer you say you are, wouldn't you want to give your clients examples of the quality of these cameras. It doesn't take too long to open one of these hundreds of boxes you have and set it on a table and set the shutter to 1/120 and walk by it at night. If you are concerned about privacy, throw a mask on and hat and glasses. That simple test that would take less than 10 minutes is all we are asking for. Prove your wall of texts to us.
Or you are a trunk slammer and don't really care about freeze frame and just throw up whatever cams you can with the highest markup available.
You would have a lot more credibility with a few examples proving your wall of texts.
You say the 4M-T is junk, and I find this image to be more than adequate for surveillance purposes and not suffering from what you say it does. I can clearly tell that is my two-faced neighbor and ID the jacket logo. Please prove the cheaper 4M-TL can do better....
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@tigerwillow1 I do agree with @bigredfish on your 5442-S3 - something is out of whack there.
Maybe it is all that foliage wreaking havoc on the exposure or too low bitrate and H265 or some other setting issue, but that image just doesn't seem to be what we would expect a 5442 to look like.
Maybe it is all that foliage wreaking havoc on the exposure or too low bitrate and H265 or some other setting issue, but that image just doesn't seem to be what we would expect a 5442 to look like.
Just to follow up on digital zoom question with examples so that we are not hypocrites asking for examples LOL.
Here is the full image from my 180 OVERVIEW camera. I have blacked out all but the subject to show how one can provide images while still respecting privacy issues.
Since all I care about are people or vehicles, I can tell from that tiny blip that it is a person and not a dog, so I don't need digital zoom to confirm it.
But if I do digital zoom, it is a pixelated mess with lots of artifacts introduced.
If that is someone I know, that might be good enough quality to tell it is a neighbor. But a total stranger, not a chance the police could do much with it. And that is what my OPTICALLY zoomed 5442 camera is for - to get that good detail.
If I were interested in animals, at that scale, you probably cannot tell if it is a wild cat or a fox at that tiny of an image, so yeah someone may digital zoom to try to figure that out, but the quality goes to crap, so you won't be able to make out much details.
So in this example, maybe I cannot quite tell what that is.
OK so I will digital zoom to try to see if that is a dog or a mini horse LOL.
But even then it is still hard to tell. One of the reasons why I don't care about capturing animals, because I would want more details and that would require even more cameras LOL.
I leave my OVERVIEW camera on default settings because that will produce the brightest image. I just accept/acknowledge that the camera allows me to see greater distances, make out color of cars, clothing, etc., but will not provide IDENTIFY quality and that is what another camera is for.
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Chokolinho
Getting comfortable
I know him.
Right, some noseless Amish dude LOL
This is why we use multiple cameras with some zoomed and dedicated to seeing detail past the normal range of an overview cam.
Otherwise, why bother with z4s, Z12s, etc just slap up some wifi overview cams.
Otherwise, why bother with z4s, Z12s, etc just slap up some wifi overview cams.
Chokolinho
Getting comfortable
Chokolinho
Getting comfortable
flynreelow
Known around here
- Dec 12, 2016
- 1,616
- 1,485
Chokolinho
Getting comfortable
In the release notes for the firmware it says: optimized features = none, fixed bugs = none; but it does support triggering alarms for cats, dogs, cattle, sheep, horses, bears, deer, birds, monkeys, elephants, lions, and tigers. Ok
I think you will have to put that in as a special order.Still no Gator filter....
Even though animal detection is my priority, that doesn't mean I don't notice other things. For instance, the IL's human detection is not as good as the S3's. It occasionally totally misses a human that triggers the S3 almost instantly, and when it does detect, it's slower, sometimes up to a few seconds. I would think that almost everybody here would be concerned about that. A lot of forum members have PRO cameras. For anybody who has one side-by-side with a 5442/541R, if you look at human triggers with both cameras, is the PRO sometimes slower at the detection?
Yes, it is slower. I think the added sensor noise is a contributing factor in its detection, or lack of. For me the decreased IR range, when compared to the S3, is what made me switch back to the S3's.