Dahua 4MP w/IR Cannon Before.. After

[nayr]

Standing at the trailer hitch dock, which is the area of most importance.. I am standing in basically total darkness, only the IR cannon and the LXIR in the Camera are providing ANY illumination.. have to let your eyes adjust to move about over here.. This is my worst spot to cover, no security lighting and everything I've put over here has struggled at night.. there are no windows, a high value target, and my gate so I've been keen to get this point performing better.

exact same settings used (auto exposure/wdr@50%), only difference is I unplugged the IR cannon and stood in same spot after the camera auto adjusted.. grabbed from recorded stream, full res VBR max quality.

IR Cannon: Adjustable Focus 4500mW Surveillance IR Illuminator LED Array 850nm 10-100M ($60 Shipped on Sale)
Camera: Dahua HFW4421D-AS 6mm ($95 Shipped, Discontinued replaced by much better: HFW4431M-AS-I2)




I'll let the images speak for them selves.. killer combination.. this is rivaling big sensor (DarkFighter/Starlight) for a fraction of the cost.

 

[smoothie]

That is a profound difference indeed. The detail one image to the next is very striking.

I am curious, how bright is that IR cannon to the naked eye in this situation ?

 

[nayr]

not as bright as visible lighting heh.. who cares with the results, but yeah if your in the FOV you can see the lights.. no matter how far away you are.. if your outside that fov, nada.. nice thing about the adjustable focus.. IMHO I'm not going to pay $500 or more to avoid a few red lights.. when thats all thats needed to do the trick.

using same IR cannon on my ALPR Camera and reading plates @ 180ft w/4MP Dahua.. you can see that one lighting up some of my neighbor's tree branches.. its such a tight focus that in a car it looks like a reflector blinking by.

i'll be getting a few more of these babies, love em.. they take quite a bit of power though 10W of PoE according to my PowerDsine.. keep that in mind.

 

[bike_rider]

Very impressive. 10W power draw?

 

[Kawboy12R]

Nice before/after. One of these days I'll have to do a Darkfighter vs "a bunch of other stuff" comparison after I get the network wiring in the garage up to snuff and a mix of different uninstalled cameras available. I agree with you though. If your night vision sucks, add light. It's cheaper to add lights than an expensive camera. There's a BIG difference between most cheap IP cams of a few years ago and today's IMX322 crowd or even the 4mp Hik/Dahua variants. Add some decent light and they're really quite good.

I just wish there were a better way to set-it-and-forget-it in every firmware to get a faster exposure at night and on cloudy days in auto exposure mode with the camera auto changing day/night. That way, those with good lighting can REALLY get good motion pics of people moving around. Say, whatever the current algorithm is arriving at but two or three or four steps faster. Axis has a nice set-and-forget way of getting a fast night exposure although they make you go looking for the faster options in an unintuitive spot. The programming can't be THAT hard for Hik/Dahua/Huisun/Herospeed, etc.

 

[nayr]

@bike_rider, yeah 10W easy.. its been a trick getting these online sometimes, the cheap 12v PoE Splitters can really be taxed by this thing.. by its self its fine but if it also tries to provide network for my LPR camera I drop packets.. ended up running 2 runs to my LPR camera.. native PoE for cam and then just a splitter for IR, and I had to put the splitter inside and run a pair of wires up into the birdhouse as the IR+Splitter inside that box almost put everything into meltdown mode.. now it gets ~110F tops inside there when sun is banging on it, completely acceptable (140F before everything thermally reset).

this location i have a big junction box w/2 cameras on it already, I am thinking of running 2 12v splitters in here.. one to power the cameras/mic and the other for the IR, to keep the draw down..

my next one of these wont have a 2nd cable run, so going to have to spend a bit more on the 12v splitter and get a PoE+ one that can output 2A @ 12v (24W) just to be safe.

They do make lower power versions of this IR and versions w/out adjustable focus, and also 940nm but puke on that.. the exchange is less noise for more light.

@Kawboy12R, I'd love to see some more sample imagery from Darkfighters, not enough of it out there for the cost of the things.. but yeah if I was interested in seeing that yard across the street (im not, even with lighting its too far for ID), or the clouds/skyline at night, or any other place that external illumination was really not going to happen.. then the the big CCD security cameras would be where I'd start off at.. otherwise, despite some people's opinions that the only thing that matters is sensor size and low light performance, Ive learned the hard way over the years.. if low light sucks, then add light.. pretty simple huh?

These cannons give a nice even spread without a hotspot, this helps auto-exposure alot; it does have a sharp fall off point but thats okay if you are not using a wide angle camera since its adjustable.. you can just make the circle bigger than the FOV.. I didnt want that down spout lit-up so bright so I'll live with the circular edge on the sides.

 

[nayr]

and to be fair, I was not running this camera on auto at night prior to this experiment.. because I have the capabilities to switch profiles at night, here is a previous shot I took w/tuned settings.. but anyone forced to run auto mode day/night would not have got this good, and its really not much of an improvement, just a slightly lower noise and less bright version of auto.

so here was the best I could get this camera to perform w/tuning vs the untuned image above w/IR cannon

 

[nayr]

pix of IR cannon installed, pardon the cop webs.. the spiders love this corner hah

just a cheap ass aluminum mount i got free w/something else, riveted to the front lid and painted to match.. this is why I like turrets, you can hang multiples off the same box.

being on the back corner side of the house this is more discrete than this looks.. only looks intimidating once you get close enough to catch it.. from curb its practically invisible, hard to get a side view on it like this, dont let form beat function.

 

[klasipca]

I'll let the images speak for them selves.. killer combination.. this is rivaling big sensor (DarkFighter/Starlight) for a fraction of the cost.

So basically what you are saying is that you are trying to compensate for lack of large penis sensor by using extension dildo IR light.

Seriously though at 10w might as well just use external light or motion light

 

[nayr]

ive got another 4MP with external motion lights and it simply does not compare.. but im getting another giant dildo for it, but yeah..

sorry your penis cant satisfy me, there's more than just length.. also need some girth, like decent firmware, io, audio, etc.. so had to go for the dildo.. its got enough wattage to go all night and your done in 2mins.

 

[klasipca]

I don't need to think about getting giant and expensive dildos to go with my equipment to satisfy the needs...

 

[bike_rider]

I was surprised at how small that looked in the image on the purchase link you had. You want big, try a Raytec or Larson Electronics.

 

[nayr]

got these results for bout same price as a 'low light destroyer' shipped.. so comparable in expense.

also IIRC dont the HuiSun mini PTZ use about 10W @ idle w/IR on? hrmm

 

[nayr]

here's as good of a comparison as I can get to the difference between visible IR on the cannon (left) vs the LXIR on the camera (right).. keep in mind this is just a photograph from another camera, objects in image may not be as bright as they appear.

perspective: cropped image taken from dead on at the other side of my trailer.

 

[Brad_C]

otherwise, despite some people's opinions that the only thing that matters is sensor size and low light performance, Ive learned the hard way over the years.. if low light sucks, then add light.. pretty simple huh?

Light performance obviously matters to them. That it doesn't matter to you does not lessen or invalidate their perspective. Supplemental illumination is not always the solution, and thankfully there are real low light cameras for the times it's not appropriate. Of course you don't get them for a "buck fiddy" on alibaba, but that's ok too.

As for the available Darkfighter footage. Well to be honest they're not that great. Sure, better than most of the bottom of the barrel stuff, but still markedly inferior to cameras they claim to compete against. People doing shootouts on big $$ cameras don't tend to post on youtube for a number of possible reasons, so there's just not much around. I plan on doing some later in the year, but it will have to wait until I get a chance to move my kit to a local park or wildlife reserve. I'm not putting my house/yard out there, so that adds a level of effort I need to get motivated to overcome.

I've been offered a PTZ to test a little later in the year that has a 35mm imager. Quoted light performance is some 1000x better than the Darkfighter (and about 50-100x better than the GBO I have here with the 1" imager). That should be an interesting test if it comes off. Not a $200 camera however).

 

[fenderman]

Light performance obviously matters to them. That it doesn't matter to you does not lessen or invalidate their perspective. Supplemental illumination is not always the solution, and thankfully there are real low light cameras for the times it's not appropriate. Of course you don't get them for a "buck fiddy" on alibaba, but that's ok too.

As for the available Darkfighter footage. Well to be honest they're not that great. Sure, better than most of the bottom of the barrel stuff, but still markedly inferior to cameras they claim to compete against. People doing shootouts on big $$ cameras don't tend to post on youtube for a number of possible reasons, so there's just not much around. I plan on doing some later in the year, but it will have to wait until I get a chance to move my kit to a local park or wildlife reserve. I'm not putting my house/yard out there, so that adds a level of effort I need to get motivated to overcome.

I've been offered a PTZ to test a little later in the year that has a 35mm imager. Quoted light performance is some 1000x better than the Darkfighter (and about 50-100x better than the GBO I have here with the 1" imager). That should be an interesting test if it comes off. Not a $200 camera however).

Yes we get it, 200 dollar cameras are beneath you and your home is covered in 1500-3000 dollar cameras. For the rest of us living in the real world its not feasible . You dont need to focus on trashing 100 dollar hikvision/dahua cameras in every one of your posts, they do quite well with good lighting which acts as its own deterrent and makes the area visible and provide a nice color image.

 

[klasipca]

Light performance obviously matters to them. That it doesn't matter to you does not lessen or invalidate their perspective. Supplemental illumination is not always the solution, and thankfully there are real low light cameras for the times it's not appropriate. Of course you don't get them for a "buck fiddy" on alibaba, but that's ok too.

I don't know anyone who would not care about light performance for IP camera, I mean this is the the main reason we are getting the cams is to be able to record things happening at night. Daytime hasn't been an issue on most modern cams.

BTW I actually opened the two images posted in the first post expecting to be blown away and I am not sure what's the fuss is all about. Especially considering the cost of this expensive dildo IR light. Perhaps try to buy another one to get on the same level as those junk cameras.

 

[nayr]

thats because I post full resolution snapshots, not scaled down ones like you.. but if you want to compare your scaled 5MP longse shot to a my 4MP of same scale here you go

if not for q2u and his over-exposed deer all we'd have to go on is landscape shots w/no id comparisons..

 

[klasipca]

It was scaled because I couldn't figure out how to get the full size photo when I first got the cam and this is actually a bad shot from Longse, q2u had better sample shots anyway. But even using this comparison look how much IR light your cam needs vs built in two IR lights on Longse in pitch dark.

 

[nayr]

and its not much more IR power than your beloved Huisun uses..

I've also got Line cross detection running, Audio, a contact switch hooked up to my gate that tells my other PTZ to change presets, and rock solid stability.. I didnt make this thread to trash Longse, just to show that big sensors are not nessicary the only solution get a great ID at night w/UHD Cameras

I considered longse long and hard, but if I bought cameras just for sensor size I'd end up like you and brad.. either with a bunch of cheap shit, or over-priced shit..