Assistance Finding a Dahua 180° FOV POE for use as a SkyCam

lasakro

Young grasshopper
Oct 1, 2017
39
4
Upstate NY
Greetings,

I'm looking for my 9th camera that I can mount to my deck, upside down, to monitor the increasing sky events we are seeing (You know what I mean :) ). Requirements I'm looking for:

1) Dahua firmware (My NVR is Dahua)
2) Tracking with autozoom after IVS detection (EPTZ)
3) IP66 or higher
4) Something off of Amazon would be great so I can set this up this weekend

I've purchased from Andy at Empire Candy many times in the past and now see that EmpireTech is on Amazon. I'm guessing these are Andy's unmarked cam's running Dahua firmware.

After quick search the EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-T180 looks like it might fit my requirements. It has a video showing Dahua firmware.

Are there any comments as to that this might be a wrong selection? Is there anything that might be better? Maybe 180° is too much and 120ish might be better? I'd like to stay below $300.

Thanks.
 
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Yes Andy's camera is Dahua OEM.

EPTZ is a gimmick and is simply digital zoom. Most here don't use it. Save the resources for something else. Especially as a skycam.

That is a perfect camera for a weathercam.

 
I moved too quick on that and canceled the order. I haven't reviewed or ordered a camera in several years and the EPTZ caught me off balance.

Now looking for a real PTZ with SW Tracking with the widest FOV. Need object detection, zoom and track. It's probably going to be in the $500 range.
 
Keep in mind the PTZs track for vehicles and people, so not sure how valuable that would be as a sky cam.

It may track an occasional airplane, but not a lot.
 
The Color4K-T180 would probably do a really good job for weather cam / sky watching purposes, thanks to its relatively high pixel density (versus other super wide cameras) and very good low light performance. But they did some aspect ratio weirdness with it. It outputs a roughly 20:9 aspect ratio video, but the natural aspect ratio for its field of view is 32:9 so it is rather strongly squished.

There is also this fisheye which Andy recently got: EmpireTech IPC-F56IR-AS 1/2.5" CMOS 6MP IR Fisheye Network Camera I don't know how long it would last pointing straight up, but if water doesn't pool and seep in over time, it could be a good option for viewing the entire entire sky all at once.