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

[fenderman]

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.

You will not notice any more detail during the day with the 3mp..most of it goes to the vertical fov..there is very little pixel density increase.

 

[JR69]

You will not notice any more detail during the day with the 3mp..most of it goes to the vertical fov..there is very little pixel density increase.

Ok that makes sense. Is the 8232 so hot right now because it has a 1/1.9" CMOS? It's a older sensor but I am thinking it has a better picture than the 8231 which has a newer but smaller 1/2.8" CMOS I haven't seen them compared.

It's interesting that the IPC-HFW8231E-Z is quite a bit cheaper than the IPC-HFW8232E-Z.

 

[nayr]

Page 1 of this thread has a Comparison of the Ultra vs Ecco Starlights.. the Eco's have same Sensor as the Ultra 1/2.8"

 

[JR69]

Page 1 of this thread has a Comparison of the Ultra vs Ecco Starlights.. the Eco's have same Sensor as the Ultra 1/2.8"

I watched that earliers but it wasn't computing, haha The 1.9 is much better at capturing the light.

 

[JR69]

Page 1 of this thread has a Comparison of the Ultra vs Ecco Starlights.. the Eco's have same Sensor as the Ultra 1/2.8"

Quick question, have you looked at the HAC-HDBW2231F?
I am considering this for my front entryway. I have a low overhang (eve) and a bullet would be a waste as it would have to be positioned too low to see what's coming. I know you don't like domes but this might be a good alternative just for my front door.

Arg, nevermind it's CVI not POE.

HAC-HDBW2231F | Dahua Technology

 

[nayr]

There's plenty of discussions already on the: IPC-HDBW4231F-AS | Dahua Technology

 

[JR69]

Thanks, I searched the other part number.

 

[n0xlf]

Got this mounted at the end of my driveway to capture plates:

Overall, it seems very impressive. I'm still adjusting things - Here are a few notes for discussion if it helps anyone...

• This camera is fairly large - There are enough pics of it everywhere so I won't post one, but don't expect the size of your typical Costco box set NVR bullets. I knew this, but actually having it in hand gave a different perspective. The construction is very solid and heavy duty feeling.
• Unlike my Dahua PTZs which have a global exposure compensation adjustment, this one is missing that. My bright driveway with my dark/shadowed house results in a pretty dark image overall. Backlight compensation works to fix this for the most part, but it's really an exposure issue (setting it manually works and produces an image that is better than using BLC, but that presents other problems for outdoor installations obviously).
• The shutter speed at dusk is dropping too low for car motion (1/30s), thus plates end up blurry (although the rest of the image is beautiful with its low light abilities). If set for shutter priority, you can adjust the range to 0-16.66ms to get 1/60s on up. I need to play around with either this being the solution, or having IR coming on earlier. I'm sure I'll get it worked out though...You can go as low as 1/3s when manually adjusting, which produces some incredible night images. Not very useful for surveillance, but neat.
• Recording on Synology, which supports h.265 when using the generic Dahua profile. This generic profile does not have zoom control, not that you need it much for a fixed bullet, but...The camera isn't natively supported yet.
• The "anti-dither" setting in motion detection is the amount of time that continuous motion is required before a motion event is triggered. Took me a bit to figure that out. Synology understands these motion events, so I'm able to offload detection to the camera, which is nice. I'm currently testing 1 second - The default was 5.
• Day/Night profile switching (not to be confused with color/B&W mode switching) won't activate based on light, just time. Fairly useless unless I'm missing something here..

 

[hmjgriffon]

Got this mounted at the end of my driveway to capture plates:

Overall, it seems very impressive. I'm still adjusting things - Here are a few notes for discussion if it helps anyone...

• This camera is fairly large - There are enough pics of it everywhere so I won't post one, but don't expect the size of your typical Costco box set NVR bullets. I knew this, but actually having it in hand gave a different perspective. The construction is very solid and heavy duty feeling.
• Unlike my Dahua PTZs which have a global exposure compensation adjustment, this one is missing that. My bright driveway with my dark/shadowed house results in a pretty dark image overall. Backlight compensation works to fix this for the most part, but it's really an exposure issue (setting it manually works and produces an image that is better than using BLC, but that presents other problems for outdoor installations obviously).
• The shutter speed at dusk is dropping too low for car motion (1/30s), thus plates end up blurry (although the rest of the image is beautiful with its low light abilities). If set for shutter priority, you can adjust the range to 0-16.66ms to get 1/60s on up. I need to play around with either this being the solution, or having IR coming on earlier. I'm sure I'll get it worked out though...You can go as low as 1/3s when manually adjusting, which produces some incredible night images. Not very useful for surveillance, but neat.
• Recording on Synology, which supports h.265 when using the generic Dahua profile. This generic profile does not have zoom control, not that you need it much for a fixed bullet, but...The camera isn't natively supported yet.
• The "anti-dither" setting in motion detection is the amount of time that continuous motion is required before a motion event is triggered. Took me a bit to figure that out. Synology understands these motion events, so I'm able to offload detection to the camera, which is nice. I'm currently testing 1 second - The default was 5.
• Day/Night profile switching (not to be confused with color/B&W mode switching) won't activate based on light, just time. Fairly useless unless I'm missing something here..

You just need to find out if switching profiles right at sunrise and sunset will be good enough or if you need an offset, say 30 minutes before sunrise or whatever, then you will need a way to switch the profile remotely, a script of some sort most likely running on something that is aware of sunrise and sunset.

 

[n0xlf]

I don't think I'll need to switch profiles if I specify a minimum shutter speed that is global. I was just mentioning that their method of switching profiles is time based and not light based...I suppose it may be useful for an indoor installation where a business has a particular closing time.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

This model get another 10pcs, any guys sent message before, can talk with me. Before ordered can ship out today.

 

[n0xlf]

This model get another 10pcs, any guys sent message before, can talk with me. Before ordered can ship out today.

And that's where I got mine...Andy's shipping was insanely fast to Colorado via DHL.

 

[Hickory]

Just received mine from Andy. Shipped to CA in less than a week. Setting it up now, first time with a Dahua camera, so this thread has been very helpful!

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Just received mine from Andy. Shipped to CA in less than a week. Setting it up now, first time with a Dahua camera, so this thread has been very helpful!

Yeah, get 20pcs and nearly sold out in 1 week, if stock in everything is fast!

 

[Jeroen1000]

I saw only a brief mention of it but it didn't get picked up: has anyone spotted the what I call ' the out of focus bug'. When the camera is focussed at day time, it will be out of focus during night time. So one hits autofocus at night to wake up to an out of focus image during day time. Hence, it is either focussed during the day or during the night, which is quite annoying.
Image it not at all unusable but the difference is very obvious. I'm talking about
Device Type IPC-HFW8231E-Z
Software Version 2.420.0000.22.R, Build Date: 2016-12-09

Maybe it is fixed for the NOVA hardware? I'm trying to raise this as a bug with Dahua via my distributor.

 

[n0xlf]

I don't notice this with the 8232. It struggles with focusing in low light, but it doesn't change between day/night, especially if you have the IR enabled.

 

[Jeroen1000]

I can give you an api link if you are interested in verifying? It shows the current zoom and focus settings numerically. So you have to check once during daytime and once during nighttime and the numbers should be different hence, Unless it has a very good ir corrected lens, it should refocus. Or maybe it does but the numbers should reflect that if that is the case.

 

[n0xlf]

Sure, post the details or PM me.

 

[Jeroen1000]

So you are looking for this output, more precisely the line I put in bold

status.Focus=0.417337
status.FocusMotorSteps=3230
status.Status=Normal
status.Zoom=0.109924
status.ZoomMotorSteps=1310

You can get the info via this http call: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/cgi-bin/devVideoInput.cgi?action=getFocusStatus

Of course you need to replace "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" with the ip address of your Dahua cam. Your username and password will be required. So 0.417337 is my daytime focus value. I will refocus in about 2-3 hours (= night time) and then that value will change. So Dahua never changes this value whengoing to night mode, which causes the slightly blurry picture at night (if you have focussed during daytime).

 

[n0xlf]

Ok, putting up two more cams today but I'll get you some stats in the coming days.