I have both the colorvu and dark fighter on my house and the colorvu is better.Thanks Alastair
I have both the colorvu and dark fighter on my house and the colorvu is better.Thanks Alastair
The "powered by Darkfighter" isnt as good. If you want to see a comparison between a powered by Darkfighter vs Darkfighter vs ColorVU take a look at this youtube video. These guys talk a lot before the actual comparison starts at about the 23:32 mark:Thanks Coney. That leads the murky subject of whether cameras are genuine DF or "powered by..". I was looking at these which all look like the powered by, although Hikvision are pretty deliberately confusing on the issue in my view!
In really dark situations I think that’s the best way to go.I use a lot of IR and its very dark here so I am gonna stick with Darkfighters, whether powered by or proper.
Precisely why my next purchase will be the DS-2CD5A46G0-IZHSIn really dark situations I think that’s the best way to go.
I wish Hik made more affordable models that use the 4MP 1/1.8” image sensor that’s in the ColorVu (like the Dahua 5442 series). That sensor in camera models that use IR is hard to beat.
I'm sure that will be a great camera, but the $519 price just seems bonkers to me.Precisely why my next purchase will be the DS-2CD5A46G0-IZHS
I also agree the price is much higher than the 5442. It would be nice to have a "Andy" that supplied Hikvisions at a reduced rate like Andy does. In the end I've only used Hikvisions and plan on sticking with them. I will use one of my suppliers from China when they are out of quarantine and get a substantial discount when purchasing the DS-2CD5A46G0-IZHS compared to B&H or another online retailer. I might even consider purchasing the 5442 at $229 and compare it to the DS-2CD5A46G0-IZHS.I'm sure that will be a great camera, but the $519 price just seems bonkers to me.
Hikvision:
$209 = 4MP 1/1.8" ColorVu model
$519 = 4MP 1/1.8" varifocal bullet model (DS-2CD5A46G0-IZHS)
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$309 difference between the models
Dahua OEM equivalents:
$150 = 4MP 1/1.8" "Full Color" model (IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED)
$210 = 4MP 1/1.8" varifocal bullet model (IPC-B5442-ZE)
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$60 difference between the models
To me a $60 upcharge to go to a model that has IR and a varifocal lens sounds more reasonable. Maybe even $100 more. But $309 more just seems really high, IMO.
It would be good if they showed someone walking around in the area in that footage. In my experience, you need a minimum 1/50th (or 1/60th) exposure time to have any hope of getting a meaningful picture of a person (eg. a still shot from the video for ID purposes) at night. My Hik cameras all seem to have a factory default of 1/25th (or 1/30th). I haven't got a proper Darkfighter or ColorVu, so don't know if they're the same.The "powered by Darkfighter" isnt as good. If you want to see a comparison between a powered by Darkfighter vs Darkfighter vs ColorVU take a look at this youtube video. These guys talk a lot before the actual comparison starts at about the 23:32 mark:
One thing I will point out is in this video you may notice a purple cast in a grassy area when they show the ColorVU in darkness. They accidentally had an IR light source turned on and this is what happens. As has already been mentioned, the ColorVUs dont like external IR lighting and this is why. Otherwise the ColorVU looks very good.
I don't have that camera, but I would think they'd need to be on in the dark all the time. They operate like IR light sources on other cameras and enable the camera to see in the dark. It can't detect motion if the light isn't on (it would need some kind of PIR motion detector to do that.)I'm curious, is there no way to set the LED lights to auto turn on when motion is detected? Or do they simply turn on when there isn't enough light detected?
Do you have a fair amount of ambient night lighting e.g. street lights? Can you post some footage with movement?the quality in motion at night with the LED off at 1/250 seems to instantly beat my trusty 5231 sat in the same location