Dahua Bullet (IPC-HFW4431R-Z) First Thoughts

c hris527

c hris527

Known around here
Oct 12, 2015
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NY
Well I'm very pleased so far. I got the cam today but had limited time to do a lot of testing. I had it on the bench and grabbed a long cable and out the basement door I went. I hooked it up first directly to my laptop with a power injector, like the other 3mp bullets from dahua it does not need a crossover cable. I think it has a auto sensing ability, Other dahua domes need the crossover so you can come to your own conclusion on how that is working.The IR function of this cam is REALLY good. In My pics (1080p) stock settings in total darkness. To be fair we have about a inch of snow here now but the tree line is about 90' away and lit up nice. The second pic is another tree about 60' away. Pic 3 and 4 are in my basement. Its pretty impressive compared to Other bullets I have been using. I then hooked it up to my 4k NVR all went well. BTW its all English firmware with a default ip of 192.168.1.109. I will post some daytime pics as time permits.
ir2.jpg IR1.jpg stove.jpg bench.jpg

The motorized zoom is really fast compared to the other bullets I have. I cannot wait to get this mounted. The screen grabs are from SmartPss. Pardon the condition of my shop, it is a work in progress.
I got this on Amazon for $125 shipped. 2 day turned into 3 days oh well. Thanks for looking.

Chris
 
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alastairstevenson said:
Is it just me or does pic#2 (the furthest tree) look out of focus?
And pic#1 but less so.
Is the camera set to auto-focus?
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Yes it was autofocus. I will play more with it and tune it in, I was pretty excited about the IR distance, they are claiming 80 meters and its looking like it will be close. Will report back..getting ready to carve my turkey ;0
 
It is looking like the this camera is a IR rocket with a camera built into it. Having some issues with the Super bright Ir cannons built into this. I think I need to re position it. It does have a IR sub menu in it that lets you turn it up and down or go into 'SMART IR" but I have not be able to get this to work correctly.

cannon.JPG setup.JPG
 
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Well it turns out that the IR "SMART" function is not very smart. I have tried this camera in smart Ir in many different positions. It will turn you into a washed out light being. I purchased this camera in hopes of increasing my night vision and boy does it ever do just that, To get this to work as a face recognizable camera at night I have to switch to the IR manual mode and turn it down very low. Long story short the Ir rocks and would be used as a good long distance back yard deer cam but do not think in this mode you will have the best of both worlds.

Ghost1.jpg host.jpg

I moved the camera so the Ir's were not bouncing off the garage, the second pic is zoomed in about 30' from the house, the cam is mounted under the eaves. The daytime quality is very good but my nvr will record in 4mp but will not play back. Anyway I adjusted it down but am somewhat disappointed with the ir function.
 
LOL I will tell you this, The 4 ir's get the UP'S guys attention in a hurry, saw it half way down the driveway, myself and my daughter watched him look up at them, he knew for sure.
 
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are you running a fixed shutter speed or what? you should be able to fix that with exposure settings.. try reducing gain and running it on auto exposure
 
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I will go back and try that again , seems I have thrown everything at this when the IR is set in Smart mode, If I change the IR light setting to manual mode I can make adjustments, this is the first camera (Dahua) I have used with a IR setting you can adjust manually with a sliding scale. In smart mode seems all bets are off. I will check tonight, thanks
 
Here is my last word on this Chinese re-branded piece of crap. Its a $125 Dollar ir cannon with a crappy camera build into it with re-branded crappy firmware and NO support from the seller at ALL. Stay away from it, you will not be happy. I may have got a bad one but others have had less than stellar reviews also. Good thing Amazon will take it back and its going this week If I get my butt out in the cold and dismount it. The only thing I can say positive is the daytime pictures are pretty good when its not dropping out and the IR range is very Good. I have had had a host of different issues with this camera from crappy video when large objects are close, re booting and lost video. I have other dahua cameras NO issues with my NVR.
 
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c hris527 said:
Here is my last word on this Chinese re-branded piece of crap. Its a $125 Dollar ir cannon with a crappy camera build into it with re-branded crappy firmware and NO support from the seller at ALL. Stay away from it, you will not be happy. I may have got a bad one but others have had less than stellar reviews also. Good thing Amazon will take it back and its going this week If I get my butt out in the cold and dismount it. The only thing I can say positive is the daytime pictures are pretty good when its not dropping out and the IR range is very Good. I have had had a host of different issues with this camera from crappy video when large objects are close, re booting and lost video. I have other dahua cameras NO issues with my NVR.
Click to expand...
Actually speaking, the cams for the CHINESE market quality as not good as the international ones. Dahua not perfect, but have to choose an original english one this is important. Most sellers they just watch on their profit, they won't care too much about the warranty or support. You can use a IPC-HFW5232E-Z cost little more, but reliable.
 
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EMPIRETECANDY said:
Actually speaking, the cams for the CHINESE market quality as not good as the international ones. Dahua not perfect, but have to choose an original english one this is important. Most sellers they just watch on their profit, they won't care too much about the warranty or support. You can use a IPC-HFW5232E-Z cost little more, but reliable.
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Andy,

Tried to Google "IPC-HFW5232E-Z" and did not find anything about it. Is this a new Camera? Or should it be IPC-HFW5231E-Z?

Do you carry these, and if so, are they available?
 
c hris527 said:
Here is my last word on this Chinese re-branded piece of crap. Its a $125 Dollar ir cannon with a crappy camera build into it with re-branded crappy firmware and NO support from the seller at ALL. Stay away from it, you will not be happy. I may have got a bad one but others have had less than stellar reviews also. Good thing Amazon will take it back and its going this week If I get my butt out in the cold and dismount it. The only thing I can say positive is the daytime pictures are pretty good when its not dropping out and the IR range is very Good. I have had had a host of different issues with this camera from crappy video when large objects are close, re booting and lost video. I have other dahua cameras NO issues with my NVR.
Click to expand...

Just goes to show megapixles aren't everything, ESPECIALLY in varying lighting conditions, you're better off with a lower res camera that has good SNR, low lux, good sensor, etc. what good are all those pixles if they turn into grainy crap in low light.
 
EMPIRETECANDY said:
Actually speaking, the cams for the CHINESE market quality as not good as the international ones. Dahua not perfect, but have to choose an original english one this is important. Most sellers they just watch on their profit, they won't care too much about the warranty or support. You can use a IPC-HFW5232E-Z cost little more, but reliable.
Click to expand...

it's funny that a chinese company makes crappy versions of their cameras for the chinese market, I hope the only ones you sell are for international lol.
 
hmjgriffon said:
Just goes to show megapixles aren't everything, ESPECIALLY in varying lighting conditions, you're better off with a lower res camera that has good SNR, low lux, good sensor, etc. what good are all those pixles if they turn into grainy crap in low light.
Click to expand...
hmjgriffon said:
Just goes to show megapixles aren't everything, ESPECIALLY in varying lighting conditions, you're better off with a lower res camera that has good SNR, low lux, good sensor, etc. what good are all those pixles if they turn into grainy crap in low light.
Click to expand...
Yes , ipc-hfw5231e-z. Sorry these days talked too much about the IPc-hfw8232e-z.lol, have some at my side.
 
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hmjgriffon said:
it's funny that a chinese company makes crappy versions of their cameras for the chinese market, I hope the only ones you sell are for international lol.
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All markets are using price to kill others, you know only down the quality can do this.lol
 
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EMPIRETECANDY said:
Actually speaking, the cams for the CHINESE market quality as not good as the international ones. Dahua not perfect, but have to choose an original english one this is important. Most sellers they just watch on their profit, they won't care too much about the warranty or support. You can use a IPC-HFW5232E-Z cost little more, but reliable.
Click to expand...

My guess is they knew Damn well the USA and International markets would NOT put up with this crap full of malfunctions so they release these into the chinese markets in hope of recovering some of their loss of R&D and let it roll, hell what do they care at this point knowing they do not have to support it. The company selling these on Amazon has already changed names. In this case its Amazon problem and I have let them know it about letting these International sellers putting this crap for sale on their site.
 
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