camera for a lighted front door

[JasonS]

I am looking for the right camera for my front and back doors... both doors have an overhang with an LED flood bulb just above the door pointing straight down... at night time, the 8 feet in front of the door is well lit, but beyond that is pitch black.

I was thinking another dahua 5231, but not sure that it worth putting that there and instead going for high megapixels... idk

your thoughts????

 

[Tygunn]

The 5231 is what I'm using at my lit front door. People show up nice and clear when they approach.

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[nayr]

rotate that 90 degrees @Tygunn

Megapixels dont mean shit.. I say for the 100th time this month.

 

[Tygunn]

rotate that 90 degrees @Tygunn

Megapixels dont mean shit.. I say for the 100th time this month.

Aaaah perfect I never even thought of that! I had been meaning to play with focus but rotating would do it too! Thanks!

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[JasonS]

idk.... based on that picture, I feel like a $50 swann could do just as good. no need to invest the $200 under these conditions.

 

[Tygunn]

The $50 Swann will likely not pick up things as well in this low light. My old Hikvision would definitely have troubles with this scene.

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[Tygunn]

...And that is the substream at low nitrate and resolution. And a. Screenshot of it at that.

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[JasonS]

So are you saying that the 5231 is well worth it even though your night vision does not even turn on?

 

[aristobrat]

$40 of the 5231's cost is because it's varifocal. You can zoom the lens to precisely what you need. If a fixed lens suits your needs, you can get the low-light performance of a 5231 for about $40 cheaper with a4231...

If you have any questions about the 5231s performance in low-light, check out the review thread for it here. You don't have to read every post, but starting from the beginning and just looking at the pictures and videos folks have uploaded should give you a good idea regarding how it performs.

Personally, during the day, I find the 5231's IQ (when zoomed out and used as an overview camera) slightly less crisp than a 3MP 2.88mm HIK I have. But at night, the 5231's IQ absolutely smokes the 3MP HIK, even in areas with some decent ambient light (i.e. I have an exterior garage light that is always on at night, plus I'm between street lights).

If you're truly going to have great light (that covers the entire area of what you're looking at 24/7), then the low-light magic of the Starlight cameras might not be a benefit to you.

 

[JasonS]

$40 of the 5231's cost is because it's varifocal. You can zoom the lens to precisely what you need. If a fixed lens suits your needs, you can get the low-light performance of a 5231 for about $40 cheaper with a4231...

If you have any questions about the 5231s performance in low-light, check out the review thread for it here. You don't have to read every post, but starting from the beginning and just looking at the pictures and videos folks have uploaded should give you a good idea regarding how it performs.

Personally, during the day, I find the 5231's IQ slightly less crisp than a 3MP 2.88mm HIK I have. But at night, the 5231's IQ absolutely smokes the 3MP HIK, even in areas with some decent ambient light (i.e. I have an exterior garage light that is always on at night, plus I'm between street lights).

My question was specific to a lighted overhang at the front door.
The night vision will never turn on.
The infrared lamps will never turn on.
The Awesomeness of the starlight will never turn on.
(see tygunn's picture and how it is still a color image)

So again my question remains... what is the best camera for this specific application ???

 

[aristobrat]

Maybe @nayr can chime in. IIRC, his opinion was that the IQ from the 5231 was better than some of the 4MP Dahuas that he had before. So simply going for a higher-resolution camera doesn't sound like it's guaranteed to get you a better image. Your front door cam is also going to be close to the subject, so the PPF is going to be high even without a higher mega-pixel camera (assuming you pick an appropriate lens).

Personally, I'd still keep the turret form-factor. My front porch cam is currently a HIK dome, and the dome needs cleaning about once a month. Turrets aren't supposed to need that regular of maintenance. I don't like the look of bullets, but YMMV.

But if you're fine with the IQ from a $50 Swann, I don't think anything recommended here is going to beat that price.

 

[JasonS]

even a $120 low profile dahua like the HDBW-4231F-AS seems like a nice option.

was really looking for agreement that the 5231 seemed like wasted talent at a lighted front door

 

[JasonS]

@nayr in this lighted porch situation where I want to see farther into the darkness, is there a way to force the camera into night vision mode at nightfall and then have visibility beyond the lighted porch?

 

[Tygunn]

My question was specific to a lighted overhang at the front door.
The night vision will never turn on.
The infrared lamps will never turn on.
The Awesomeness of the starlight will never turn on.
(see tygunn's picture and how it is still a color image)

So again my question remains... what is the best camera for this specific application ???

I don't know that the infrared is what makes the starlights as good as they are. Its the fact that they use a bigger imaging sensor, so they can capture more light. I will pull out my old Hikvision and put it in roughly the same spot and take a comparison shot. There's no way its going to touch the clarity I get with the Dahua.

I actually didn't want the camera to go into night-vision. The sole purpose of this camera is to get a clear, high quality face/head shot of someone approaching the front door. Once I rotate the camera per Nayr's suggestion, I will probably zoom it in even further.

 

[nayr]

@nayr in this lighted porch situation where I want to see farther into the darkness, is there a way to force the camera into night vision mode at nightfall and then have visibility beyond the lighted porch?

You can force the camera into B&W mode, but I think your wanting too much out of the camera.. if you have a porch light screwing with exposure it dont matter the camera.. its going to under expose whats off in the distance.. either shut off the light, or install another camera.

 

[darrenph1]

@nayr in this lighted porch situation where I want to see farther into the darkness, is there a way to force the camera into night vision mode at nightfall and then have visibility beyond the lighted porch?

Are you keeping your light on all night? I also have a 5231 at my front door with an LED light. My light turns off though at 10:30. I actually turn off the night IR because there is pretty good street lighting and I was getting a lot of reflections from car plates.

 

[nayr]

I shut my lights off at night.. so my cameras can see further

 

[fenderman]

My question was specific to a lighted overhang at the front door.
The night vision will never turn on.
The infrared lamps will never turn on.
The Awesomeness of the starlight will never turn on.
(see tygunn's picture and how it is still a color image)

So again my question remains... what is the best camera for this specific application ???

The benefit of starlight does not require IR...even in a lighted area it will provide an image with less noise and be able to see further out where light diminishes...

 

[JasonS]

I shut my lights off at night.. so my cameras can see further

I love this forum... you guys prove me wrong everyday. bwahahaha
I see Darren is using 5231 and nayr is using 4231... besides for the verifocal is there any difference in the image quality?
(both my front and back door will be set wide open)

 

[JasonS]

I love this forum... you guys prove me wrong everyday. bwahahaha
I see Darren is using 5231 and nayr is using 4231... besides for the verifocal is there any difference in the image quality?
(both my front and back door will be set wide open)

@nayr just read your entire thread on 4231 vs 5231 and will go with the smaller 4231 for front and back door. thanks for being thorough.