Dahua Ultra Starlight Varifocal Bullet (IPC-HFW8232E-Z)

bug99

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I need some help understanding the focus on this camera. I have it zoomed all the way (which is not enough by about 50%) to see a car on the far side of the road in front of my house clearly. When I go to the zoom & focus setup tab, I see this image, with the “speed” always on 20, which appears to be the word used for the step size when selecting + or -. It seems that the focus is always at 80 when I return to this page, no matter what I select when I leave (no save), or an increment of 20. There seems to be a range of around 70 to 85 where things are not too far out of focus while in preview mode, but as I said, it reverts to 80 when I go to/from Live view. I am not even sure it is in or out of auto focus.

I tried having someone hold a broom head still 3 ft from the camera. It did not appear to focus on that on its own. If I tweaked the preview focus to 85 it was much better.

One odd thing was after removing the broom and going to live view, the focus appeared to stay at 85, but returning to the settings showed 80 as it normally was, but it was clearly not (in this case not clear).

Selecting auto focus changed the true focus to what is below, all the while showing 80.

A minor oddity is that going from 80 to 85 is in the direction of “FAR”, but it is actually the opposite affect with the broom focus.

I think the focus is a compromise in the frame, trying to have the most stuff with a clear high frequency signal at the image sensor. I think the tree limbs etc. make that compromise sub-optimal for the car across the street. Is there a normal way to change this and save it? Is the camera actually in auto-focus mode, or is that just a button push?
upload_2017-3-4_17-50-5.png
 

nayr

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auto focus only occurs when you change zoom or press the button.. if you want to manually focus, click +/- on focus after autofocus done its thing.. leave the speed settings alone
 

bigredfish

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Not sure if it operates same as my 8231 but I found all kind of weird shit happened if I tried to manually adjust the bottom "focus" slider. As long as I leave it in auto focus and just use the Zoom slider, the Focus slider seems to do its own thing and adjust appropriately..
 

Arjun

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That second video in the OP is amazing! Meteor showers caught on camera, haha :D
 

Dodutils

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GO
Ah you europeans know how to use roundabouts thats for sure; when we slap em up here in the states its never that organized.. usually a bunch of confused people driving in circles trying to figure out how to get out an endless loop.
We got plenty and no problem ;-)
 

nbstl68

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A 1 lane round about was put in place outside my company....They distributer a multi page pdf to all employees explaining how to use a round about...sheesh.
Since then there have been multiple crashes, people running over\through the middle, (w=hich is raised landscape) and at least 1 death I know of when a huge paper shredder truck took it too fast, flipped and crushed another car waiting to enter....people are idiots
 

TechBill

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A 1 lane round about was put in place outside my company....They distributer a multi page pdf to all employees explaining how to use a round about...sheesh.
Since then there have been multiple crashes, people running over\through the middle, (w=hich is raised landscape) and at least 1 death I know of when a huge paper shredder truck took it too fast, flipped and crushed another car waiting to enter....people are idiots

Wait until they start putting in diamond interchange in your town. We were the first to have diamond interchange and lots of folks were confused about driving on the wrong side of the road :) Now we have over 15 of those in our states with most of them in my town. We like it because there no left turn signal to wait for and no long left turn traffic backing us up.

Home - The Diverging Diamond Interchange Website
 

cybermech

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Just got a shipping notice, so I will have one of these in hand in a few days.
 

BLKMGK

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Got mine today thanks to Andy! Take me a little while to get it setup but I'll try to bench test around the house ASAP!
 

redfive

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Anybody know if this firmware ( which is here) applies to the IPC-HFW8232E-Z ? One bux-fix ....
Thanks !
Cheers,
jonatha
 

nayr

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Yeah these are Nova's, that should be applicable..

FIrmware files come with a list of compatible models it checks before applying, Ive tried to feed the wrong firmware to a camera before and it just error'd out before bricking it.. YMMV
 

dalepa

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Is the 8232e still the leader ~$300 for ulta low light? I'm looking for a dedicated astro - star cam to record star timelapse like is your video above.
 

JR69

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Yeah these are Nova's, that should be applicable..

FIrmware files come with a list of compatible models it checks before applying, Ive tried to feed the wrong firmware to a camera before and it just error'd out before bricking it.. YMMV
Nayr, there is so many versions and wanted to ask you a question about the best low light performance. I need bullets and a dome for my home but I live in an area with no street lights and little ambient light, especially on moonless nights. Any experience you have with suggestions would be fantastic. You can PM me as well. Thanks.
 

JR69

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Dahua Starlight Varifocal Bullet Z5 7-35mm (IPC-HFW5231E-Z5)
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

Dont do domes.. Turrets are far superior outdoors.. If your extremely dark consider supplemental lighting w/external IR illuminators, espically if your wanting to observe anything at a distance.
Interesting, I didn't know that, thank you! Yes, my neighborhood can get very dark and we don't live in the sticks.

Are the 4MP versions better with resolution? How about IPC-HFW5431E-Z5 and IPC-HDW5431R-Z?
 

JR69

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4MP versions are terrible; stick w/the Starlight capable cameras
Nayr,
Since you've evaluated the 8232, any thoughts on the DAHUA IPC-HFW8331E-Z5 3MP? I know you haven't tested it but any thoughts? I was trying to compare the 8232 with the 8231, which is newer but has a smaller sensor. As for the 3MP, I would like a little more detail during the day and this one is Starlight. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
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