I purchased 2 x IPC-HFW2831T-ZS cameras from @EMPIRETECANDY about 6 weeks ago and have had them installed for about 5. I was about to put together a review on these and then heard that @looney2ns may be receiving a unit (after I posted, see that he has in fact now received 
) and will also be reviewing. Due to this I thought I would take a different tact and instead share my thoughts on these cameras from 5 weeks of daily use along with some pointers, discussion of issues seen, workarounds, potential use cases etc. This is going to be quite lengthy but hopefully helps others.
I don’t have a Youtube account so no vids yet but will look at adding some as well as some ID type of captures.
So here we go
First the specs:
Minimum Illumination
Quick Notes on Available Configurations
Installation Area
I have 1 mounted on the side of a house (pictured here pulling duty next to a 5231E-Z12E (2 different purposes) and another over a driveway (2nd pic). My driveway cam is currently a little high (will be dropping it down about 1.5 feet) while the side cam is positioned as a true overview cam.
On the driveway installation I use a number of cams but for this testing I have an 1831 on the other bay (3 car garage) which I purposefully run in color at night while the 2831 is in B&W. I also have next to the 1831 a Lorex 9232S (4K with audio) for comparative testing. Ideally want to switch the 1831 for a true Starlight to join my other cams in around the location once we see newer models to test against (turret with audio) and can review here.
The 2831 on the side is used strictly as an overview as I have other units in different locations pulling other duties.
Tried to make the installations looks as crisp as possible using conduit (painted to match trim) and junction boxes which I think help keep things nice and clean.
2831 over Driveway (Pic 1)
2831 on Side Next to 5231E-Z12E (Pic 2)
Camera Performance
Day
Day Pics - Side Cam
Night
Early Morning Pic - Still Using Night Profile Settings
Night Pics - Side Cam - No Light Except Occasional IR Splash From PTZ On Tour
Issues
SD Card Issue & Testing
Over the past 5 weeks I’ve tested with a number of cards (listed below for reference). My card of choice usually (and have these running in my other cams successfully) is the Samsung Evo Select 128 however the 2831’s do NOT like these at all. I’ve tested through all firmware, I’ve formatted outside vs inside cam, tried different cables etc and no joy. I’ve finally found just 1 card that offers some hope with these cameras below
You can read more about my testing and issues with the SD cards on my other thread if interested - Anyone Else Seeing Memory Card Issues With Dahua IPC-HFW2831T-ZS's ?
Fail Consistently With Hot Swap & Disk Errors Only in 2831 - 20 minutes to 9.5 hours (longest before failure)
Cards That Have Not (currently running for 4 days) Had Any Errors - Hoping These Will Remain Working After The Disk Fills Completely. This one and the Toshiba are the newest to the test pool but the Toshiba has issues almost immediately.
Firmware Can Make A Difference !
I’ve tested the following 3 revisions of firmware extensively over the past 5 weeks and there are some observations I wanted to share
Use Cases
So with everything said, who are these cams for in my opinion. Well that really depends on your installation
Primarily these are phenomenal, day time, overview and even focused cams (albeit hard to have these directly in the face as they are bullet cams). They allow for great facial quality when target is close to camera and therefore good recognition ability. They are also flexible with the vari lenses which I know a lot of us love for initial positioning.
For night time, these are better still IF there is enough white light OR IR illumination in the area of installation HOWEVER I feel I need to point out (as I know we’ve all spoken about before) that these are by NO MEANS Starlight replacements…….YET
I say YET because these 4K cams have come a long way. Personally, owning and using the following 4K models below I think these 1831/2831s are the best available in this class at this time. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for a ton of improvement such as:
Other 4K Cams I Own & Use (in addition to the other Starlights and further cams)
Summary
If you are looking for a great night time camera (and don’t have a ton of available light) then augment these (for day use) with the 5231s (or similar) for now. If you are looking for a great day time image, overview cam OR can make a bullet cam work in the installation area for true Face ID then consider adding a 1831/2831 to the mix. Understand the caveats I mentioned above and you won’t be disappointed.
As with others, I am waiting for a 2831 Turret/Eyeball with audio (a 5231R-ZE equivalent if you will) so that I can blend them in a little better plus give me the audio I look for (like to have 1 audio cam on each side of an installation). Also this firmware needs a lot of refinement and hoping that with the help of @EMPIRETECANDY that we can get some of this fixed with Dahua.
Hope this helps those considering these cams, hopefully we will have further choice in this line and others from Dahua this year.
Let me know with any questions
1 last pic of a photo bombing bird for your enjoyment (this one is cropped). Got so close it couldn’t focus
) and will also be reviewing. Due to this I thought I would take a different tact and instead share my thoughts on these cameras from 5 weeks of daily use along with some pointers, discussion of issues seen, workarounds, potential use cases etc. This is going to be quite lengthy but hopefully helps others.I don’t have a Youtube account so no vids yet but will look at adding some as well as some ID type of captures.
So here we go
First the specs:
- 1/1.8” 8Megapixel progressive CMOS
- H.265 & H.264 dual-stream encoding
- 25/30fps@8MP(3840×2160)
- WDR(120dB), Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
- Multiple network monitoring: Web viewer, CMS(DSS/PSS) & DMSS
- Micro SD card slot, up to 128GB
- 3.7~11mm motorized lens
- Max IR LEDs Length 60m
- IP67, IK10(optional), PoE
Minimum Illumination
- 0.004Lux/F1.9( Color,1/3s,30IRE)
- 0.09Lux/F1.9Color,1/30s,30IRE)
- 0Lux/F1.9(IR on)
Quick Notes on Available Configurations
- There ARE 2 versions of this lens, 3.7mm to 11mm and 2.7mm to 16mmmm. Andy currently only stocks the 3.7 to 11 so my thoughts here are based on 2 of those that I purchased.
- Audio (external to cam) is an option available with the IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS through external RCA jack and external mic power.
- No turrets/eyeballs available yet only domes unfortunately (hope we see some 1/1.8” 4K turrets soon)
Installation Area
I have 1 mounted on the side of a house (pictured here pulling duty next to a 5231E-Z12E (2 different purposes) and another over a driveway (2nd pic). My driveway cam is currently a little high (will be dropping it down about 1.5 feet) while the side cam is positioned as a true overview cam.
On the driveway installation I use a number of cams but for this testing I have an 1831 on the other bay (3 car garage) which I purposefully run in color at night while the 2831 is in B&W. I also have next to the 1831 a Lorex 9232S (4K with audio) for comparative testing. Ideally want to switch the 1831 for a true Starlight to join my other cams in around the location once we see newer models to test against (turret with audio) and can review here.
The 2831 on the side is used strictly as an overview as I have other units in different locations pulling other duties.
Tried to make the installations looks as crisp as possible using conduit (painted to match trim) and junction boxes which I think help keep things nice and clean.
2831 over Driveway (Pic 1)
2831 on Side Next to 5231E-Z12E (Pic 2)
Camera Performance
Day
- During the day, the cameras really do shine and the extra resolution does allow more flexibility depending on your application, your need to zoom (after the fact when reviewing captures) and area in which these are installed.
- Speaking of zoom the 3.7 to 11 was a little strange to me, personally I wanted the other lens which is more in line to what we’re used to seeing (focal length wise) from the 5231’s etc but these were not available at the time.
Day Pics - Side Cam
Night
- At night these cams do surprise you with how well they perform within reason. The cam on the side is in a completely dark (no light except for occasional IR flash from PTZ on tour, and as you can see from the image below does quite well. The problem is trying to balance a usable (motion blur free) image at night when light is at a premium for 4K sensors whereas Starlights really come into their element when the lights go out
- One of the big problems with the 2831 (mentioned about the 1831 by @wopi82 in his excellent review) is the noise seen on the camera. This is noticeable during the day but even more so at night. Turning down the gamma, the noise reduction and increasing the bitrate (more on this in firmware section below) does help but it needs more. As wopi mentioned, the codec in place does not seem to be as efficient in crushing noise as in other cams like the 5831. Therefore you do find yourself making compromises with this cam trading shutter speed with available light vs noise. It would be great to see some work on future firmware here that a) allows higher bitrates to be set again to help compensate but b) ultimately look at improving the codec algorithm of this camera and its future releases to assist in this area.
- Night is where its important to point out that the biggest compromises with this camera take place. At night with the light situations I mentioned you will find it hard to push shutter speeds above 250 (and that is stretching it based on distance) which depending on your use may be an issue (motion blur on cars etc). I find that 1/120 is about the sweet spot in the lighting situations I am in currently.
- Therefore a huge takeaway here is that these 1/1.8” sensor cams still absolutely need light and a lot of it at night. In comparison to the Starlight 5231’s and the SD6CE225 PTZ, these cams still play second fiddle to them at night.
- Also worth pointing out, I see a difference between the 1/2.5” vs the 1/1.8” in some of the other 4K models such as the 5831 (have a few of these as well) and earlier versions of the H265 lite series.
Early Morning Pic - Still Using Night Profile Settings
Night Pics - Side Cam - No Light Except Occasional IR Splash From PTZ On Tour
Issues
- SD Card Errors In Cam / Compatibility
The biggest concern I have with these cameras at this time is the issue with SD cards. A number of us use these for secure backup / dual recording and in some installations that’s a hard set requirement. I’ve had issues on both of these cams since day 1. Specifically within 20 minutes to 6 hours the camera will throw out Hot Swap Remove / Hot Swap Insert entries in the log and lose sight of the SD cards. They never see the cards again unless you reboot. I’ve tested the following cards below and all have the same issue which leads me to believe this is either a flaky card reader on the cam board (maybe down to build revision) OR more likely a firmware issue as seen with the 5231. I’ve reported this to Andy & Dahua and provided logs and information so this may be resolved in future FW. For reference, the issue still exists in all 3 FW’s I mentioned below and have tested thoroughly against.
- Codec Efficiency & Noise
As mentioned above, this definitely needs work. Could workaround in allowing higher bitrates to mitigate albeit that is not the end solution. Codec algorithm needs to be looked at by Dahua and compare to the 5831 which handles noise much more efficiently.
- Camera Adjustment Mechanism
This is a minor one in the grand scheme of things but having to adjust the camera with 3 separate screws is a pain in the a**. The adjustment mechanism on the 5231 bullets is way better. Hopefully Dahua doesn’t adopt the 3 screw adjustment for future cams.
SD Card Issue & Testing
Over the past 5 weeks I’ve tested with a number of cards (listed below for reference). My card of choice usually (and have these running in my other cams successfully) is the Samsung Evo Select 128 however the 2831’s do NOT like these at all. I’ve tested through all firmware, I’ve formatted outside vs inside cam, tried different cables etc and no joy. I’ve finally found just 1 card that offers some hope with these cameras below
You can read more about my testing and issues with the SD cards on my other thread if interested - Anyone Else Seeing Memory Card Issues With Dahua IPC-HFW2831T-ZS's ?
Fail Consistently With Hot Swap & Disk Errors Only in 2831 - 20 minutes to 9.5 hours (longest before failure)
- Samsung EVO Select 128 - 6 different cards tested, 4 brand new, 2 being used in other cams without issue
- Samsung Plus 128 - 4 cards tested again each of these brand new and work fine in other cams
- Toshiba M303 (replacement for the M302) - 1 card tested
Cards That Have Not (currently running for 4 days) Had Any Errors - Hoping These Will Remain Working After The Disk Fills Completely. This one and the Toshiba are the newest to the test pool but the Toshiba has issues almost immediately.
- Samsung Pro Endurance 128
I’ve tested the following 3 revisions of firmware extensively over the past 5 weeks and there are some observations I wanted to share
- 2.622 with build date 7/31/18 - The only 1 of the 3 that allows you to set a 15k bitrate (useful in helping with the noise issue), seems to have less issues with SD Cards (although still present)
- 2.622 with build date 11/02/18 - This and the FW below can only have their bitrate set to 11264, although close to 15k I still found more noise in this FW
- 2.622 with build date 01/09/19 - Not as stable as the first 2 from an SD card perspective (didn’t like a larger number of cards), again cannot exceed 11264k bitrate, saw more instances of Disk Errors in this FW.
Use Cases
So with everything said, who are these cams for in my opinion. Well that really depends on your installation
Primarily these are phenomenal, day time, overview and even focused cams (albeit hard to have these directly in the face as they are bullet cams). They allow for great facial quality when target is close to camera and therefore good recognition ability. They are also flexible with the vari lenses which I know a lot of us love for initial positioning.
For night time, these are better still IF there is enough white light OR IR illumination in the area of installation HOWEVER I feel I need to point out (as I know we’ve all spoken about before) that these are by NO MEANS Starlight replacements…….YET
I say YET because these 4K cams have come a long way. Personally, owning and using the following 4K models below I think these 1831/2831s are the best available in this class at this time. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for a ton of improvement such as:
- Available models such as turret
- Onboard audio
- Improved codec to reduce noise
- Improved firmware for SD card compatibility issues
- Higher bitrate options (definitely needed for 4K content)
- Improved optics in time to allow for Starlight designation and performance
Other 4K Cams I Own & Use (in addition to the other Starlights and further cams)
- Lorex LNB-9232S
- Lorex LNB-8963B
- Dahua IPC-HFW5831-ZE
- Dahua IPC-HFW1831E
- Dahua IPC-2831T-ZS
Summary
If you are looking for a great night time camera (and don’t have a ton of available light) then augment these (for day use) with the 5231s (or similar) for now. If you are looking for a great day time image, overview cam OR can make a bullet cam work in the installation area for true Face ID then consider adding a 1831/2831 to the mix. Understand the caveats I mentioned above and you won’t be disappointed.
As with others, I am waiting for a 2831 Turret/Eyeball with audio (a 5231R-ZE equivalent if you will) so that I can blend them in a little better plus give me the audio I look for (like to have 1 audio cam on each side of an installation). Also this firmware needs a lot of refinement and hoping that with the help of @EMPIRETECANDY that we can get some of this fixed with Dahua.
Hope this helps those considering these cams, hopefully we will have further choice in this line and others from Dahua this year.
Let me know with any questions
1 last pic of a photo bombing bird for your enjoyment (this one is cropped). Got so close it couldn’t focus
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. May I ask what NVR you're using? Also, how much did Andy offer you for the camera? I do plan on getting this camera too haha.