Dahua WizColor 5x59-PRO and SmartLight 5x59-IL new series

Thanks! Do you have any recommended image settings to start with? It's an outdoor camera looking over a sidewalk/road with some street lighting at night. It's not that defaults are all that bad, but a decent place to start would be super helpful - I can usually tweak from there.
 
All these cams run warm. It is basically a computer without a fan.

People have recorded cam temps over 140 degrees in Florida heat working just fine for years.

160 degrees here on a mini PTZ
 
Thanks! Do you have any recommended image settings to start with? It's an outdoor camera looking over a sidewalk/road with some street lighting at night. It's not that defaults are all that bad, but a decent place to start would be super helpful - I can usually tweak from there.


In terms of getting the most out of the camera, here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures and help the camera recognize people and cars.

Start with:

H264
8192 bitrate
CBR
15FPS and iframes (30FPS and iframes ok if just the camera or NVR)


Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.

We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared or white light.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.

Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image. But try not to go above 70 for anything and try to have contrast be at least 7-10 digits higher than brightness.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
 
Ummmm ... so which firmware should we be using for the T54PRO-ZE's we have ordered from @EMPIRETECANDY - direct from Dahua or the EmpireTech website?

Can you comment/recommend Andy?
Since I buy from Andy, I always let him recommend which firmware to use. Just good practice since he is your dealer and the one who will warranty it. Also, the latest isn't always the greatest :)
 
Since I buy from Andy, I always let him recommend which firmware to use. Just good practice since he is your dealer and the one who will warranty it. Also, the latest isn't always the greatest :)
If I recall properly, Andy stated that he had new firmware and would be sending it out directly to the people who receive the camera.

There's a possibility he put the newest firmware on first before sending, but... :shrug:
 
Ummmm ... so which firmware should we be using for the T54PRO-ZE's we have ordered from @EMPIRETECANDY - direct from Dahua or the EmpireTech website?

Can you comment/recommend Andy?

It will be best to review this thread for which one is suggested. As someone else pointed out, latest isn't always the greatest.

Personally, I try the camera with the firmware it came with and if it meets my needs, why fix what ain't broke!

You have been around here long enough to know that firmware updates don't always go as planned and sometimes removes features you use.
 
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Just received the new cam via UPS, and the good news is that the driver didn't throw it over the fence this time. Opened the box and was surprised to see power cables instead of paper or styrofoam pellets padding the inside. Can't ever have too many power cables, but I am wondering...WHY? ha ha
 

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Just received the new cam via UPS, and the good news is that the driver didn't throw it over the fence this time. Opened the box and was surprised to see power cables instead of paper or styrofoam pellets padding the inside. Can't ever have too many power cables, but I am wondering...WHY? ha ha

China’s 2018 ban on plastic waste imports didn’t solve the problem—it just shifted it. A big share of China’s own plastic now leaves the country through exports. Goods are heavily over-packaged, so when they’re shipped abroad, the packaging waste is exported too.

The economic logic is simple: disposing of plastic at home costs money, but sending it out with products creates profit. In other words: better to get one cent than to pay one cent.

It’s not the main motive, but it’s a very convenient side effect that often gets exploited.

Don’t know why all functions are grayed out at text editor.. so please, don’t take it to seriously :)
 
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Ummmm ... so which firmware should we be using for the T54PRO-ZE's we have ordered from @EMPIRETECANDY - direct from Dahua or the EmpireTech website?

Can you comment/recommend Andy?

On Dahua website there is stable DH_IPC-HX5XXX-Fourier_MultiLang_PN_Stream4_V3.146.0000000.2.R.250827


Newer BETA firmware with some fixed auto-settings for night (V3.146.15OG000.0.T.250928.bin) You can get from Andy by DM... But it don't have new firmware.bin, so you must install it over upgrading to .2.R from Dahua website (or if you had .2. from Andy)..

PS. Please remember that on 5xxx cams you have to instal TWO firmware files.. One main with firmware first (with name of firmware/chipset line, version and date - so here it's Fourier), then after camera reboot You need to install firmware.bin which contains AI Algorithms..

If you will not install matched firmware.bin, then will be algorithm mismatch reported on camera system info page.

NEW FEATURE:

If you do firmware update using camera web page, there is new option (select box) where you can switch selecting one FILE to selecting FULL DIRECTORY before selecting file. If you will switch this to full directory, then you select only directory with both files and camera will UPLOAD TWO FILES at once..

But I found that after reboot (which will install first file), there is algorithm mismatch reported and you need to do second reboot (which will do second one install) manually. No need to upload second file (FULL DIRECTORY option sent both)..
 
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My first Dahua camera is out for delivery to me now. What do folks here recommend for setup of their cameras? DMSS, NVR, etc.?

edit: going to read the DMSS privacy policy

That is a loaded question LOL.

DMSS is used to view a single camera or if using a Dahua OEM NVR.

Then there are other VMS programs like BI.

If you don't care about remote viewing or push notifications at the moment, just use the web GUI.
 
Well, I managed to get the cam mounted and just started playing with the IVS rule and the warning light. It works really well, still hoping to find the API command to control the warning light time period. My goal is to have BI send the API during Sunrise/Sunset schedule. BTW I also got a bunch of power cords in mine, Thanks Andy !

Screenshot 2025-10-02 164357.jpg
 
Well, I managed to get the cam mounted and just started playing with the IVS rule and the warning light. It works really well, still hoping to find the API command to control the warning light time period. My goal is to have BI send the API during Sunrise/Sunset schedule. BTW I also got a bunch of power cords in mine, Thanks Andy !

View attachment 229143

post some video samples, and lets see hot the camera looks mounted.
 
Received mine, set up in the basement until tomorrow.
Running video metadata, but I can't remember how to get a e-mail to send for people detected.

Bigger than the normal 5442, but not huge by any means.
 
Well, I managed to get the cam mounted and just started playing with the IVS rule and the warning light. It works really well, still hoping to find the API command to control the warning light time period. My goal is to have BI send the API during Sunrise/Sunset schedule. BTW I also got a bunch of power cords in mine, Thanks Andy !

View attachment 229143


I would think that like my 3449PRO you should be able to control the warning lights by either A) drawing another duplicate tripwire and making one activate and one not using a separate schedule for each, or B) setting an interim block of time (extra profile) where you want different light behavior.
I use a Custom 3rd profile beyond Night and Day to allow for the lights to not be enabled in the evening when we use that area as a smoking lounge for example

(No I havent reset the monthly estimated sunrise/sunset times on that cameras as I was using it to test to sort out a plugin issue)

custom1.jpg
 
Received mine, set up in the basement until tomorrow.
Running video metadata, but I can't remember how to get a e-mail to send for people detected.

Bigger than the normal 5442, but not huge by any means.

do u have a side by side pic of the new cam and the 5442?