B54PRO-Z4E first impression

[bigredfish]

"...Obviously a different scene, about 50ft, but the 5442 S3 Z4 as far as I'm seeing right now, is superior in B&W/IR to the 54PRO Z4"
Yes, that's exactly what I think also. This B54PRO-Z4E makes me want to like it, but the B54IR-Z4E-S3 beats the stuffing out of it in terms of low-light capture, sharpness, evenly lit IR, and lack of digital artifacts. Since I have a 4K-X on my driveway, I use it for color identification, but if someone was only able to use one camera for a particular placement, I can see how this could serve double-duty with both IR and warm LED (smart illumination). As an example, I did a search for "Guitar Man" on my NVR and found these clips from a few weeks ago. The B&W of the B54IR-Z4E-S3 is superior to the B54PRO-Z4E, but the latter has it beat for color in the daytime.

I obviously don’t have the distance here at the swamp that I did at our previous house, I wonder if you could zoom the 54PRO Z4 to a face at that sign in bright daylight and do same with the 5442 Z4

What I’m seeing is that as you describe the new Z4 appears brighter with better depth and more rich in daytime (as I myself also noted in the plain ZE thread) than the old model, but once you actually zoom enough for facial detail, is it really superior?

(I can and will do this in the coming days but can only do to 56ft)

Unless someone finds the magic switch, my take and intuition based on just a few short 2 weeks of testing all 3 models, AS/ZE/Z4 , is that most if not all of the perceived enhanced brightness and image richness of the new series vs the 5442 S3 is digital AI manipulation and not the actual optics. As to IQ, we’re seeing AI attempt to tell us “don’t believe your lying eyes” which can work in certain scenes at certain distances, but is not an upgrade in image quality.