I'll try to contain my excitement for this low light BEAST. This freaking thing can see in the dark, without the IR's. Frankly, I'm in disbelief how Dahua was able to pull this off. Attached are some pictures from this camera at full zoom where I plan to keep it, this camera to match the FOV and settings of my current camera (
Q See Dahua 3mp mini bullet), just mentioned current 3mp camera view, and pictures with the most equivalent actual stills camera I have (Sony RX100iii) to match current darkness and view from the 5231. I didn't want to bust out the dslr b/c that wouldn't be fair, but my RX100iii has a 1" sensor and is one of the best, albeit expensive, point and shoots around. Sorry if that's alot to digest, but soon it'll make sense.
A little background, I realize I could go a bit slower on my shutter in order to drop the gain but the cars in the neighborhood are on the accelerator as they pass my house so I need to keep it at 1/60 at a minimum to get decent identifiable vehicles.
Without further ado.....
The scene, as seen from my RX100 and as close as to the current brightness of the street. Sorry I didn't have my ladder so I tried to recreate the FOV as best as possible.
EXIF: 1/30s, f/2.8, ISO 3200
Dahua 5231 current view fully zoomed in...
Shutter - 1/100, Gain 0-90, NR 40
RX100iii trying to match the 5231 for scene brightness. Had to go to 1/20, f/2.8, ISO 6400.
RX100 matching the 1/100 shutter speed, I had to go to ISO 12800 to get anywhere close to the same exposure. No noise reduction.
Current 3mp Q See Dahua mini bullet fixed lens at 3.6mm from same location
1/50, Gain 0-95, Noise Reduction 50, HLC 5
Dahua 5231 matching the same settings as above, hahahhahahahahhahah
5231 zoomed all the way out....
It's amazing what this thing is capable of. I realize I don't have much to base my opinion off of since I've only just gotten into security cameras, but damn if this thing isn't awesome..