Had one more question. By focusing on night-time quality on the Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE varifocal turrets am I really losing out a lot on daytime quality? If I am going to have enough lighting around the house where I won't really need to rely on black and white IR pictures, is there a better camera that will give me better daytime quality than the 5231s? Thank you.
One of these pictures is 2MP, one is 6MP.
If you're like me, you'll end up watching the majority of your cameras from your phone (when you get a motion alert). Download the full-sized versions of both of these attachments to your phone, and then flip between them and see if you notice a meaningful difference.
I don't. I'm not saying I don't see a difference, I'm just saying that I don't consider the difference useful, especially if the tradeoff for those extra pixels during the day is a camera that performs a lot worse at when the light is low.
Also, don't discount B/W pictures. As good as the 5231s are in low-light, I personally think they can stay in color mode a bit too long as the light fades, and the image (especially motion) isn't as good as if the camera had switched to B/W a bit earlier. So while you may have enough light around your house to keep them in color mode at night, you're really going to need to evaluate the video and see what you think (esp motion... motion can blur a lot during this time).
If you want a higher-resolution camera, there are 5631 (6MP) and 5831 (8MP) models. They have Sony STARVIS image sensors like the 5231, but Dahua does not call them Starlight models because even with that great image sensor, with that many pixels they simply don't perform as well at night. They do, however, perform better at night than 6MP/8MP models that don't have use the Sony STAVIS image sensor, so if you're going to get a higher MP camera, definitely get one that has a STARVIS image sensor. There should be reviews for both the 5631 and 5831 here on the forum.
If I were you, I'd start with just two cameras -- one 5231 varifocal turret and one 5831 varifocal turret. Get them installed and play around with them for a week or so and see what you think. Honestly, this all comes down to how bright the lighting around your house will be. A recent 5831 review was just posted and the guy did a sample of him outside ..at midnight .. underneath a street light that was so bright his shadow looked like it was daytime. Needless to say, this guys impression of the 5831 was that it was just as good as a 5231. In reality, that streetlight he was under was probably giving off 50x more light than what most of us have to work with at our houses, and a 5831 at night there would be an entirely different story!
