Combining Dahua SD6C430U-HNI with BI4 for auto-tracking

You are almost always better off with more properly chosen and installed fixed cams than a PTZ.
Study this: Cliff Notes.

@looney2ns, thanks for your reply. A second reason why i liked that camera is because of the 25x zoom.

I know you can set CAM B to preset 1/2/3 when CAM A detects motion, but is it also possible to do this with one camera? So when this camera detects motion can i make it automatically zoom to a preset distance?

No one?

Side question, i have read that 2MP is often better in the dark compared to 4MP. But 2MP vs 4MP Starlight, is the 4MP Starlight the better choice or still the 2MP ?

There are quite a few videos on YouTube which would give you some idea of how Dahua cameras work in relation to auto tracking, tutorials etc. You could probably get hold of the manual for this camera too.

Auto tracking is not so popular here, for a number of reasons, but I assume largely as it is quite flaky and easily confused and even if it does work properly may well not give you as good an image as several static cameras might give you. Obviously you can buy several good quality static cameras for the cost of a fully featured PTZ.

I use Hikvision PTZ’s and yes you can set a zoom level for when it detects motion. It will zoom in, follow the subject and then when the subject goes out of view, it will return back to a park position (so I assume it is likely the Dahua will work in a similar way). However, even though mine support auto tracking, I don’t tend to use it, as I use mine to watch wildlife most of the time, and I am far better at tracking than auto tracking will ever be!

Operations said:

I know you can set CAM B to preset 1/2/3 when CAM A detects motion, but is it also possible to do this with one camera? So when this camera detects motion can i make it automatically zoom to a preset distance?

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In general you can set the rules on a PTZ camera itself to zoom in on a target (by going to some pre-defined preset) that it sees itself (via an event), but to be effective the PTZ should default to a zoomed-out state to be able to get an overview for the entire area.

With auto tracking (which is hit or miss and a source of frustration to even work properly from what I can tell), the PTZ may be chasing some target that's not important while some important events are happening outside it's view.

For both the above scenarios it's best practice to have fixed cameras constantly looking over critical areas, for example some area where the PTZ is not typically looking but is able to pan to, or an area typically covered by the PTZ's default/home position but where it might not be looking if it's looking somewhere else. With this fixed camera scenario you can typically have the static camera tell the PTZ to go to some preset if it observes some event of important that the PTZ may be able to get a better view from.

I'm learning the ropes on this type of advanced setup but this is my gathering so far. In summary and in best practice, don't depend 100% on only PTZ and always use static cameras in critical areas, look at autotracking as a nice-to-have-if-it-works feature but not as a solution to solve all your monitoring goals.