>>Part of the problem here is people NOT using the correct hardware for the correct location.
Exactly, yet in these shots this is just proving what I've been saying all along, installation of noisy cams with awful night image quality in a business environment which were sold for 3x the price. If I would be a customer, I would be very pissed with paying the high price and would never hire this "professional" again or consider his recommendation.
Did you miss the above point - those are $79 cameras...
Also there point is daytime business hour captures, not nighttime closed hour monitoring - its also for traffic flow and business saturation monitoring remotely - not looking directly at someones face, shoulder level which is why the high mounting works.
There are 4mp dual matrix IR cameras outside on entry points for night time & daytime identifying capture should someone try to enter, once inside its not about "identifying" them, that was done at the entry point outside. As stated above - for a $79 camera (139 turret) these are fair and solid images from a trusted manufacture with a 3 year warranty and there likely hood of failure is low.
There is LITTLE risk, unlike the cameras from over seas. Sure anything can happen to anything at any time, however the risk is less.
So this hardware was used for the proper use in the proper location. Sometimes the goal needs to be to find the most reliable camera with feature set and warranty for a specific application. Not everyones goal is to try a dozen different AE cameras until they find something amazing. Is that worthwhile - for some - yes. Does that benefit others here - of course. But sometimes people need a more broad feature and reliability set for a specific application and that is where HIK and Dahua can come into play. We are not talking about Pelco, Bosch, or Axis here which has the same quality night image in some lower end models and are $500-$1000 per camera. By all means if you can show me a camera $79 or less that can provide me these quality daytime images, perfect night time images, and carries a 3 year warranty which will ship replacements next day please let me know and I will gladly purchase now and post updated pictures from my business with side by side images with the ones above.
This is another issue here I didn't hit above - people can purchase cameras for specific purposes - night time images or licenses plate reading for example - thats great. But when that doesn't work for you, don't bash the brand entirely. My guess is for a 2mp camera you have no complaints about the daytime images I posted, which is why you removed them. Yet in this application that IS what I purchased the cameras for, thus my goal was accomplished. I simply provided the night time images above so people could form there own opinions - which is another thing VERY few people do here. There are only a handful of users that post pictures so that others can form there own opinion because what you or I think looks like s* might look acceptable to another user and thus fit his needs.
People have specific needs
1. primary objective - must be 110%
2. secondary objective - really would like
3. Be nice if it also....
4. Price Point - can very quickly change the above 3 answers
5. Feature set
There is NO one perfect solution UNLESS money is no object and 99% of instances must be fluid and able to compromise and adapt.
So many times people come here and say "Hey I want cameras to use for home security" then everyone says - Go buy XXX - Wait... Are you putting cameras inside, outside, whats your price point, whats your main objective?.?.?. Several people are here just to shit out the first thought that comes to mind - vs providing examples with the recomendation so that the end user can then make a determination of "will this work for me". This isn't a personal attack at you, this is simply an observation of several responses here lately. However, in the example of you saying HIK is shit, based on your feeling of night time IR capture and camera noise is fine, but don't tell someone HIK is shit when night time IR is secondary concern if a concern at all to them.
