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

[alekk]

@EMPIRETECANDY
Agreed that the 54PRO is warmer (both are set to Auto White-Balance) and I like that look.
Ditto that I too see more details on the trees and foliage in throughout the picture - might be some AI processing going on there(?) as these can be very difficult for sharpening algorithms, but I like the end result. Although it's approaching over-sharpened ... albeit both are setup to Sharpen=50, so I could scale that back if I wanted.

@bigredfish
Holy crap if you were getting 36" of snow - upstate NY or something like that?

BTW, I agree that the 5442 was slightly sharper than the 54PRO on the letters of the plow - I intentionally picked that snapshot as something interesting ... plus I could "line up" the position of the plow to get almost the exact same time. HOWEVER, I'm not sure if that is because there is more contrast from the black letters on the (more) white plow.

To continue the overly excessive pixel-peeping, take a look at the "driveway cuts" ... those look sharper to me in the 54PRO. FYI that the middle of the driveway is about 50' away and the camera is zoom fairly wide-angle ... so depth-of-field is decent and I do "Auto-Focus" several times and it hardly varies on both cameras.


Sun is going to come out, so more interesting scene once some of that starts to melt.

 

[bigredfish]

(30-36" cumulative in Dec/Jan/Feb north of Pittsburgh. Wasn't every year but wasn't unusual in the 70's. We'd have feet of snow linger for weeks at a time)



So seems like were migrating towards the "pretty picture" spec..

Like I've said, in daytime they're reasonably close.

To all who actually think they are BETTER than the 5442 S3, I'll gladly sell you my 54PRO's (1 ea. AS, ZE, Z4) at a discount

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Yes, daytime is close, but still a little soft, The night time still need more work, when I get beta fw, i will send guys for a fast testing next week.

 

[CamCrazy]

Yes, daytime is close, but still a little soft, The night time still need more work, when I get beta fw, i will send guys for a fast testing next week.

The daytime is pretty good so long as the light is bright enough, if it isn't, forget it, the S3 wins hands down. Similar in B&W, it isn't close to the S3 yet. Night requires a lot of work still, in both B&W and colour.

 

[Chokolinho]

I still have a 54pro ze. I'll probably sell that too.

 

[CamCrazy]

I still have a 54pro ze. I'll probably sell that too.

Join the queue

 

[Chokolinho]

Join the queue

 

[Tinman]

I am happy with mine. It helps keep my neighbor's fucking cat from spraying my tree or other items on porch. I wasn't expecting the 8th wonder of the world out of a $200 camera, and to me it works fine. But everyone has their right to your own opinion, and I'm cool with that. A very wise man told me once "opinions are like assholes, everyone has one" Btw its -8 here this morning and all my cams still working fine.

 

[Chokolinho]

I am happy with mine. It helps keep my neighbor's fucking cat from spraying my tree or other items on porch. I wasn't expecting the 8th wonder of the world out of a $200 camera, and to me it works fine. But everyone has their right to your own opinion, and I'm cool with that. A very wise man told me once "opinions are like assholes, everyone has one" Btw its -8 here this morning and all my cams still working fine.

The alarm function and the mic + speaker were the reasons why I bought it. Otherwise, I would have preferred the S3.

 

[CamCrazy]

The alarm function and the mic + speaker were the reasons why I bought it. Otherwise, I would have preferred the S3.

I bought mine, stupidly assuming the sensor would be identical to the S3 or better but with addition of white LED's. Well, assume makes and ass out of you and me, as it turns out.

For @Tinman (that cat comment did make me laugh!) I am pretty sure with that much light the 54Pro should be working OK, but for when the lights go out there is the 8th wonder of the world, otherwise known as the S3, happens to be almost $200, seems like Christmas miracles do happen

 

[alekk]

(30-36" cumulative in Dec/Jan/Feb north of Pittsburgh. Wasn't every year but wasn't unusual in the 70's. We'd have feet of snow linger for weeks at a time)



So seems like were migrating towards the "pretty picture" spec..

Like I've said, in daytime they're reasonably close.

To all who actually think they are BETTER than the 5442 S3, I'll gladly sell you my 54PRO's (1 ea. AS, ZE, Z4) at a discount

Average annual snowfall here is almost 100" ... but we get a lot of sun, so the non-shady parts melt down.

Didn't mean to imply it's just about "pretty pictures" ... since yea, gotta be able to capture movement ... and you/others have done some great testing in that area.

As you well know, the laws of optics says you need larger/better sensors with improved lens to provide "real" detail, as processing/AI ends up doing stuff like "transparent guy in golf cart" - that was a hilarious capture.

I've wondered how much "better" the AS can do in a direct side-by-side comparison ... since the lens is F/1.0 and fixed-focal is simpler so should be a little more transmissive to light. Unfortunately, even the 3.6mm is a bit wide for me ... and I doubt your AS would like to be "banished" to the colder climate.

 

[Clark Griswald]

I've wondered how much "better" the AS can do in a direct side-by-side comparison ... since the lens is F/1.0 and fixed-focal is simpler so should be a little more transmissive to light.

+1

 

[bigredfish]

Average annual snowfall here is almost 100" ... but we get a lot of sun, so the non-shady parts melt down.

Didn't mean to imply it's just about "pretty pictures" ... since yea, gotta be able to capture movement ... and you/others have done some great testing in that area.

As you well know, the laws of optics says you need larger/better sensors with improved lens to provide "real" detail, as processing/AI ends up doing stuff like "transparent guy in golf cart" - that was a hilarious capture.

I've wondered how much "better" the AS can do in a direct side-by-side comparison ... since the lens is F/1.0 and fixed-focal is simpler so should be a little more transmissive to light. Unfortunately, even the 3.6mm is a bit wide for me ... and I doubt your AS would like to be "banished" to the colder climate.

View attachment 233775

The AS is the only one I intend to keep for now.

As you know I have it at the back door supported by other lights and in a confined space so I get a lot of light bouncing off stuff.
Much like @Tinman's porch, it goes to show what I constantly repeat, Enough added light can fix anything. A Reolink will do in many such cases.

But on the 54PRO its not a matter of opinion, the camera image is inferior to existing 5442 S3's period. There is no real debate.
I have $750 invested and can still be honest about it. I didn't expect the world out of it, but I did expect it to be at least as good as the 5442
Dahua would have sold many more had they just taken the existing 5442 S3 and added white LEDs and the ability to activate them with IVS rules.

If what you want is a pretty bright picture, and if you dont have experience with a 5442 in the same exact scene with the same lighting conditions, then bless your heart.
The blurry cat magically turns crisp and clean.... when the porch light comes on

Of course to each his own. If image quality takes a back seat to other features, then its great.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Dahua would have sold many more had they just taken the existing 5442 S3 and added white LEDs and the ability to activate them with IVS rules.

On paper, the IL-series kinda-sorta looks like the 5442 S3 with white LEDs. The fixed focal turret even has the same mickey-mouse mounting base as the S3. No actual info, however, other than what's in the data sheets.

 

[bigredfish]

Funny you say that, many moons ago I said the same thing and was told they weren’t going to sell them here.

Now it may have the same AI juju that the 54PRO and to a lesser degree the 3449 TIOC Pro have but I don’t know.
@steve1225 outlined the difference a while back if I could find it ..

 

[tigerwillow1]

Funny you say that, many moons ago I said the same thing and was told they weren’t going to sell them here.

I'm expecting a 6mm IL sometime this month and will put it up next to my one and only S3. My priorities aren't the same as most of you and I won't be deeply analyzing the image quality. My thing is reliable animal detection without a zillion false positives. The location sees tall grass and the shadow of a waving flag, both of which drive the S3 batty with false triggers when the wind blows. My belief is that the ILs use the same firmware as the PRO, but have a different sensor, but I'm not sure those are verified facts.

 

[steve1225]

The AS is the only one I intend to keep for now.

As you know I have it at the back door supported by other lights and in a confined space so I get a lot of light bouncing off stuff.
Much like @Tinman's porch, it goes to show what I constantly repeat, Enough added light can fix anything. A Reolink will do in many such cases.

But on the 54PRO its not a matter of opinion, the camera image is inferior to existing 5442 S3's period. There is no real debate.
I have $750 invested and can still be honest about it. I didn't expect the world out of it, but I did expect it to be at least as good as the 5442
Dahua would have sold many more had they just taken the existing 5442 S3 and added white LEDs and the ability to activate them with IVS rules.

If what you want is a pretty bright picture, and if you dont have experience with a 5442 in the same exact scene with the same lighting conditions, then bless your heart.
The blurry cat magically turns crisp and clean.... when the porch light comes on

Of course to each his own. If image quality takes a back seat to other features, then its great.

Reading this forum thread and post like that I see two problems:

1. AI-ISP and the beautiful, colorful, bright static images this technology can generate have incredibly inflated the expectations you and several similar people on this forum have.

The truth is that the 5459-PRO uses the same generation/sensor technology as the 5442-S3 from four years ago. OK, it has a brighter aperture (F1.0/F1.2), but I've had many special versions of the 5442H and 7442 with F1.2, and they weren't particularly brighter / better at night than the classic 5442.

The main differences in the 5459-PRO are the AI-ISP, which handles colorful static scenes fantastically at night. And the rather good hybrid lighting, which can activate white lighting for motion. Which looks especially good in comparison to very bad / non uniform IR lighting in 5442 turrets.

The result is that you and many others on this forum now expect the same progress for moving objects. That there will also be bright, colorful people in motion, with all the facial details.

But there's no such progress here – AI-ISP works hard, but it can't generate bright & colorful moving objects from a very noisy image sensor's data in very dark conditions at very short shutter speeds (I've seen attempts at 1/100-1/250s on this forum). This works only for static image (using AI 3D-NR big trickery)

For me, these cameras represent progress. They offer a lot of new functionality, and better color image at night. You simply need to remember how it was achieved (better image processing, not a better image sensor) and not overdo it with the camera's requirements.

2. I wouldn't make such sweeping conclusions like yours and hard statements yet. Dahua just launched this line of cameras; they're just BEGINNING to appear in Dahua's regular distribution (it is in price list, but not available yet). We, exceptionally, had access to them much earlier than the rest of the world.

Current firmware versions still look like early BETAs. Dahua is clearly still learning how to use the magic box called AI-ISP. Personally, I think Dahua, if it wants to, can significantly improve firmware and solve many bugs & problems we found here.

So we should wait 6-12 months to firmware stabilize before we will put the final decision / statment on this model of Dahua cams.

 

[bigredfish]

@steve1225
I had no inflated expectations. I simply assumed they’d produce an image equal to the 5442 in quality. They do not.

I was among the first if you go back and look, that questioned the “brightness” feature vs image quality. I’m not about the brightness, if you read the many posts I've made I don’t care about brightness. I put out $750 of my own money to test because nobody wanted to show their video. Now I know why .We’ve now been testing with FW that can disable AI-ISP and it’s still not on par with the 5442.

I have also said they’re fine in daylight, and that the AS I have in a confined space with added lighting is doing fine.
You must have missed that

In B&W IR we have a number of videos, not just mine, that show head to head the 5442 beating the 54PRO. I've not seen any videos that show the opposite? You?

5442 S3


54PRO



This is false. I specifically have said the exact opposite. I was skeptical from the beginning as my posts #13, 51, 64, 79, 131, 244, 252, your post #251, shows. I never did think we'd see that bright colorful image with good clean moving face detail. Thats the entire point
“The result is that you and many others on this forum now expect the same progress for moving objects. That there will also be bright, colorful people in motion, with all the facial details.”

And this. Again not the case. I run 0-4 to 0-6 on many 5442's.
"But there's no such progress here – AI-ISP works hard, but it can't generate bright & colorful moving objects from a very noisy image sensor's data in very dark conditions at very short shutter speeds (I've seen attempts at 1/100-1/250s on this forum). This works only for static image (using AI 3D-NR big trickery)"
- I went out and bought a 5442 Z4 (another$250) specifically to show their video difference in the same location. In B&W AND Color without the added onboard lights it clearly bested the 54PRO with less light at 0-6 ms and is a great image as seen above.


"2. I wouldn't make such sweeping conclusions like yours and hard statements yet."
Like this? - "I didn't expect the world out of it, but I did expect it to be at least as good as the 5442"
Or this? - If what you want is a pretty bright picture, and if you dont have experience with a 5442 in the same exact scene with the same lighting conditions

I think you may have missed a lot of posts of mine as well as @tmxv4128 showing the head to head comparisons with the 5442 in B&W/IR as well as daylight color.
I would love to see others but there don’t seem to be many...

Also, I don't believe it is the exact same sensor as the 5442.

Sorry but I’m not paid by Dahua. I have made no claims that are much different than your own. Go back and look. You have expressed disappointment in the camera as well.


If it takes them 6-12 more months to make it equal the 5442 in image quality I’ll revisit it then. I’m out of pocket $1000 to try to see what the advantage of the 54PRO is. I get a better image with a 5442 S3 even in color at night by adding ambient light to equal the onboard light of the 54PRO.

And as I've said many times already, if a Bright colorful image is whats important to you, and especially with the AS in a confined space, and the onboard lights and Smart Ilum features are the most important requirements, Great.

 

[wittaj]

As I have stated many times, for surveillance cameras, most of us here want the ability to obtain a freeze frame clean capture of a perp in motion, not nice bright static images.

I wouldn't use these cameras to take pics for the county fair competition LOL as there are other cameras designed for that purpose.

This camera does make nice bright static images though....

 

[bigredfish]

@steve1225

Have you looked at the Color and B&W/IR samples of the 5442 S3 on this thread I did with very little image tweaking?

Post#267

Post in thread 'B54PRO-Z4E first impression'

Monday at 9:08 PM

Improvement on night color, changed some settings... still some work to do but I think its better?

Tomorrow night I'll work on new settings for B&W/IR

(j/k This is a New - bought from Amazon yesterday - 5442 Z4 S3 with a whole 30 minutes of image tweaking)

*Added B&W/IR test sample. Still needs tweaks but for 30 whole minutes of testing its close.
Running 3-5ms Exposure vs 8.33ms on the 54PRO

View attachment Night1-192.168.1.110_ch5_20251201204837_20251201204917.mp4

View attachment 192.168.1.110_ch5_20251202182904_20251202182939.mp4

View attachment 192.168.1.110_ch5_20251202190747_20251202190754.mp4

• bigredfish

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