anyone use a high res (12+ MP) outdoor camera in SecuritySpy?

UrsaGrey

I would like to add a high-res outdoor camera for wildlife. My 8 MP Dahua is too pixelated. Anyone have a recommendation?

killerdan56

Did you try messing with bitrate/compression first?

UrsaGrey

To: killerdan56

Thanks for reply.

Yeah, I played a lot with the images, but 8MP is just a little too low for crisp views. I have fuzzy views of deer, bear, fox, etc. that I'd like to be sharper. My 12 MP iPhone does a better job than the video camera, but of course it has a lot of fancy processing.

Anyway, thanks for the comment.

killerdan56

Maybe go to ipcamtalk . c o m and ask there

T1533

It should look like a UHD 4k picture display because that's the same number of pixels. Try using a constant bit rate set as high as it will let you.

I also always skip fixed focus, fixed iris, fixed lens cameras. I have two 2MP Dahua and three 4MP Dahua and I think they look pretty good and I'm looking at these on a 77" OLED.

Do 8 and 12 MP cameras do well in the night now? I thought anything over 4MP was not the best for night viewing.

Ben

As mentioned above, resolution isn't the only thing that matters - the optical system matters just as much. @UrsaGrey if you can post an image from your camera, we will be able to tell whether the issue is resolution or optics. Right-click on the video image in SecuritySpy, choose "Save Image", and then post it here.

UrsaGrey

I really appreciate everyone's comments -- thank you! I will try max constant bit rate and see how that looks. This image is from a motion-capture vid a couple of months ago. I had been hoping for sharper images from an 8 MP camera at only about 10 meters.

killerdan56

That does look bad

What camera model is it?

What your camera web settings like?

What's your security spy camera settings at?

UrsaGrey

It's a Dahua N84CL52, about 3 years old. Encoding is H.264H, 3840x2160 @ 8 f/s, otherwise all defaults.

My SS setting is plain ONVIF, RSTP, no options, no recompress.

The image above was at a lower bit rate but I'm now set to CBR at 8192KB/s, the max it allows. Picture now is a little better, but no where near as clear as other 8 MPx images from various sources. It's wide angle so I don't expect perfection, but it's fuzzier than it should be for the pixel count, I think.

UrsaGrey

By the way, I don't think it matters, but my cameras are all hardwired MB ethernet on a separate subnet --no router, just smart switches. I run 14 cameras at once and don't have any network problems.

killerdan56

can u post a screenshot of the Dahua web config- video section?

UrsaGrey

I've never used web setup, I have Dahua's SmartPSS app, so it's dozens of separate config panels. But I think it's about the same as web setup. Here's the main camera panel. Are there other settings you are wondering about?

killerdan56

what's smart code??

UrsaGrey

I have no idea. Tried to look it up once but the Chinese to English translation was so poor it was no explanation at all. It seemed to be related to some kind of automatic choice of resolution by the firmware.

The only other choice besides the default "Close" is "Open". I left it at the default "Close" on all the cameras.

UrsaGrey

I'm going offline for the evening. Thanks for your input and good suggestions.

Ben

The image does look substandard, but I don't think this is down to a lack of resolution per se. For a start, the left/top of the image is significantly out of focus. This can happen with fixed-lens cameras, where there is no possible adjustment of the lens, so if it arrived slightly out of alignment, or becomes that way after a few years, this leads to blurry images that can't be fixed. Notice the nearer fence on the right is in focus, but the further fence on the left is significantly out of focus - this means that either the lens is focussing too close, or that the plane of the lens is out of alignment with the plane of the sensor, so that one side of the image has worse focus than the other.

Then there is a general lack of contrast, which could be simply down to the cheap lens, or could be dirt on the lens - it's possible that a good clean of the lens will improve things.

Finally, there are some compression artefacts, so boosting the data rate may help a bit. I would recommend VBR encoding, with a high quality setting.

If you don't get significant improvement by adjusting the encoding and cleaning the lens, I would recommend replacing this with a new 4K camera. The image quality has improved for these Dahua cameras over the years, so you will get much better image quality from an entry-level 4K camera purchased now than one purchased three years old. Or, ideally, get one with a better lens (auto-focus and auto-iris) as this can improve the image quality significantly.

"Smart Codec" is a Dahua-specific scheme where the camera can adjust certain parameters such as frame rate and key frame interval in order to reduce the data rate. This can lower quality and produce unexpected results, so I would recommend leaving this turned off.

UrsaGrey

Thanks for the insight, Ben -- very helpful. Your suggestion about a focus problem seems most likely. I will look into replacing it.

UrsaGrey

Just FYI, I replaced that questionable camera with a GW Security GW 12577MIC 12MP. It's still fixed lens but not wide angle, so the focal area is much better for my target zone. It looks very sharp and clear. Setup in SecuritySpy was easy. Thanks again everyone for the comments on my original problem.

killerdan56

what frames u running at?

and does SS AI pick up the deers as animals?

Ben

That image looks vastly superior - nice and sharp from edge to edge and front to back. You made a good choice.

UrsaGrey

Thanks, Ben. It seems like a good camera. It cost about 360 USD. I'm not sure but I think GW Security is just reselling Hikvision cameras, but they did a good job with some technical questions I had during setup.

Killerdan56: I run it at 8 frames/sec. I don't know if the motion detection was for animals, humans, or just the general setting. I turned on AI detection (with defaults) but I don't know which triggered it. It did detect several foxes and a skunk the first night, so it might be animal detection.