Yeah and that sensor is no more sensitive than non-starlight 2MP Cameras; and it has DWDR.. its just a 6MP that they didnt absolutely ruin the night capacities of like the 4MP and 8MP cameras; but Starlight it is not.
Please distinguish sensor and camera. Dahua don't call this cams Starlight, thats right. The sensor itself is in the Sony starvis line, like the IMX291:
STARVIS is a trademark of Sony Corporation. The STARVIS is back-illuminated pixel technology used in CMOS image sensors for surveillance camera applications. It features a sensitivity of 2000 mV or more per 1 µm2 (color product, when imaging with a 706 cd/m2 light source, F5.6 in 1 s accumulation equivalent), and realizes high picture quality in the visible-light and near infrared light regions.
The IMX291 has a back-illuminated structure with 2.9 µm-square unit pixel, the IMX178 has a back-illuminated structure with 2.4 µm-square unit pixel. It's smaller, but not so much.
You can not compare the DWDR of the IMX178 with the one of the cheap 4MP and 8MP sensors. The IMX178 uses a 14 bit a/d converter not a 10 bit a/d converter like the cheap ones. With the 14 bit resolution you can do much better wdr. Do you know RAW-format in photo-cameras?
Axis newest 6MP lightfinder-cams seems to use the IMX178 and delivers their best wdr (wdr forensic capture). Mobotix moonlight-sensor also seems to be the IMX178.
The cheap longse cams uses the IMX178 sensor but a standard hisilicon soc and dsp (that's the reason for the 5MP). Axis, Mobotix, Hikvision and Dahua develops their own soc and dsp.
Don't compare the Dahua 6MP Ultra-Smart-Series or Hikvision 4-series with the really cheap 4MP Hikvision 2-series or Dahua eco-series. The picture of both will be much better than the longse imx178 or the cheap 4MP-Cams, but it is not as light sensitive as the 2MP Starlight (with IMX291-starvis). ;-)
