Dahua 5442/T54IR vs the rest

when do you use the onboard lighting on your cams?

As per the post #11 above, I use it at my front door and the LED's (well actually "Smart Illumination") is set from 11pm to 6am.
What you see in the clip in post #11 above is the onboard LEDs kicking in when the camera senses motion using Smart Illumination and its own internal sensor. You can tell it how bright and how long you want the white LEDs to stay on
 
Functionally the 54PRO and the 3449Pro seem to be almost exactly the same.

The difference will be in the image quality, just not seeing it yet
 
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Functionally the 54PRO and the 3449Pro seem to be almost exactly the same.

The difference will be in the image quality, just not seeing it yet
Yes, that is a bit concerning, I have gambled a bit on these, wonder if this is due to them trying too much with the Pro models. IR only or Colour only may be much easier to nail down quality wise?



The video above seemed pretty good to me all be it the shutter speed would need to be higher for my taste, of course this would drop the light level down. Also iframe should really be matching fps so 15 and 15, bit rate maybe 10000-12000 and shutter at 0-12 or 0-16 potentially. Hopefully the firmware can improve things unless there are hardware hurdles which cannot be overcome. The 5442 cameras I have, particularly the 4x IR bullet models have been excellent in zero light, on par with high quality box cameras with fast lenses from pre 1080 cameras! with that being said, colour is much more useful for clothing and vehicles when bad things happen. I have a few 2MP which will get replaced by the 5442 S3 and 54Pro, have to see how the latter works out.

Assuming you ran manual settings along with pushing the bandwidth up when testing, not that those would really make huge differences, your video did look to show the 3449Pro making noticeable gains on the Pro
 
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I always use manual settings. I'm running 10240 bitrate (as I do on all of my 4MP cams) and 0-5 shutter at night , 0-50 gain
 
I always use manual settings. I'm running 10240 bitrate (as I do on all of my 4MP cams) and 0-5 shutter at night , 0-50 gain
Appreciate clarification, you gave the 54Pro the best chance :blankstare: - lets hope firmware comes to the rescue then. My use case tends to push these cameras to the limit and beyond in some locations at least, never enough IR power, nothing a few thousand lumens doesn't put right but this is not always suitable when you have neighbours or roads nearby.
 
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Appreciate clarification, you gave the 54Pro the best chance :blankstare: - lets hope firmware comes to the rescue then. My use case tends to push these cameras to the limit and beyond in some locations at least, never enough IR power, nothing a few thousand lumens doesn't put right but this is not always suitable when you have neighbours or roads nearby.

In that case, I think many are seeing the 5442 is the way to go if needing IR.
 
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And you can always add external IR floods for pretty cheap
 
Yesterday I installed one of Andy's IPC-B541R-S3 and it turned out to be better than I thought at night in that location. It replaced the $1200 Axios which I was not really happy about and considering the cost. When it gets dark I can see through the front window of the house across the street and see the banister railing on the stairs. I have never seen that before. If you look at the area with the naked eye it is pitch black.
 
In that case, I think many are seeing the 5442 is the way to go if needing IR.
Yes, I think that will turn out to be true for me. Ah well, I picked up a couple of the Pro models which of course will be an upgrade from the 2MP existing units. My theory was they would have more IR power than equivalent 5442 and the potential to use the LED also. With that being said, if final image quality suffers then I will move them to less critical (I know, I know!) location.
 
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Lots of cheap IR add-ons on Amazon if you need more
 
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Yesterday I installed one of Andy's IPC-B541R-S3 and it turned out to be better than I thought at night in that location. It replaced the $1200 Axios which I was not really happy about and considering the cost. When it gets dark I can see through the front window of the house across the street and see the banister railing on the stairs. I have never seen that before. If you look at the area with the naked eye it is pitch black.
I have been nothing but impressed with the original 5442 cameras so can imagine the S3 variant is quite something if it improves on these!
 
That is true, have used them in the past for older cameras, nice to get all in one solution with the camera itself. One reason I like the bullet models with the 4 IR lamps, had hopes the Pro would bridge the gap but that seems mixed at this point.

Bullet guy here too! We have to stick together, those turret guys geesh :rofl:
 
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Bullet guy here too! We have to stick together, those turret guys geesh :rofl:
Don't say that too loud, I just ordered 4 bullets and now wishing I'd got two of each! banking on the Pro IR being a bit beefier but in my heart I know the 4x will probably win. Does anyone know how many IR's are on the Pro's looks like 4x with LED and IR in each? ie multi?!?
 
I think both are 4 multi on the new model
 
I think both are 4 multi on the new model
Hopefully that is a good sign, the latest video from Andy looks promising to me at least. If the sensor hardware etc is same or close to the 5442 S3 then surely this can be polished with firmware. I guess at some point I will try a Pro bullet when they come in stock, hold on...I just realised the bullet Pro says 120m IR o_O but the wattage is the same as turret!!! how is this working out exactly, 120m has to be pie in the sky surely! Hmm, maybe should have waited on the bullet stock then.
 
It does. My original 5442's are now in storage. I also use four S3's for license plate coverage.
Now that is just showing off :lol: but also makes me wonder exactly how bad my current 5442's will look in comparison!! Seems like I am a bit behind, still got half of mine running 2MP starlight from the dark ages. Getting there slowly, once the incoming batch get swapped in then most will be running 5442 variants :thumb:

Due to distance I have to use the 2MP 60mm bullets for license plates, annoying because I would like to switch to 5442 for the daytime image quality at least, otherwise the 2MP are fine for this and work a treat at night.
 
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Sorry for lack of knowledge but am I right in assuming with the 54Pro series you can leave them in IR mode until someone gets close enough to trigger the LED's using IVS rules, then it switches back to IR afterwards? just working out where to put which camera!