Help me decide on a camera: Empire Tech IPC-HFW1831E

[Recursive]

New here. I have a basic handle on most things that differentiate IP cams... but want to be sure I'm not missing something big before I start buying.

I'm just looking at stuff EmpireTechAndy has on Amazon right now (because I see that his stuff is well-regarded here, and because there should be some amount of price consistency if we're just considering one seller).

This camera: Empire Tech IPC-HFW1831E is about $140 at Amazon right now. Seems to have similar sensor and low-light specs to the Loryta IPC-T5442 cameras - and those Lortyas, unless I've read wrong, are often recommended as top-tier budget low-light cameras.

So, my questions:

1. I've read many times that sensors which work great at 4mp can choke on 8mp (in low light). Is this merely a rule of thumb, or it more or less certain that the 8k EmpireTech camera I'm asking about here will fare worse in low light than, say, the Loryta IPC-T5442 line?

2. Are there some other gotchas about this Empire Tech camera that I'm not seeing? Because on paper, it's similarly specced to several 4mp cameras offered from the same seller... yet it's a little cheaper than most/all of the 4mp cameras. Seems like I might be missing something big here, since - again, on paper - you're getting twice the pixels for less cost, while a lot of the other measureables (like sensor size) seem to be in the same ballpark. So, as long as the extra resolution isn't actually a negative, this camera seems like a great choice. Tell me what I'm missing!

3. Finally, most specific: does anyone here have hands-on experience with this specific model of EmpireTech camera?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SouthernYankee]

On cameras if the sensor size is the same an 8mp camera will have 1/2 the amount of light per pixel as a 4MP camera.
Most all the empiretTech cameras are Dahua camaera. Same as the Loryta it is also dahua.
General advice buy one good variable focus camera so you can check that you have the correct lens and have the correct mounting position. DO NOT buy all your cameras at the same time.
========================================
My standard welcome to the forum message.

Read Study Plan before spending money
Cameras are for surveillance to get information for after the fact.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. (read on a real computer, not a phone). The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.


Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras if you need good low light cameras.
3) Start with a good variable focus camera, so you test for the correct lens,lighting, camera placement.
4) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
5) Do not use wifi cameras.
6) Do not use cloud storage
7) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
8) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
9) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
10) Do not use reolink, ring, nest, Arlo cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
11) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
12) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
13) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
14) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 7ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
15) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
16) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3
17) POE list PoE Switch Suggestion List
18) Camera Sensor size, bigger is general better Sensor Size Chart
19) Camera lens size, a bigger number give more range but less field of view. Which Security Camera Lens Size Should I Buy?
20) verify your camera placement, have a friend wearing a hoodie, ball cap and sunglasses looking down approach the house, can you identify them at night ?
21) DO NOT UPGRADE your NVR or camera firmware unless you absolutely have a problem that needs to be fixed and known what you are doing, if you do you will turn it into a brick !!

Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED . Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+) - 4MP starlight
.................... Dahua IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED review
IPC-T5442TM-AS ..... Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-HDW5442t-ZE .... Dahua IPC-HDW5442T-ZE 4MP Varifocal Turret - Night Perfomance testing -- variable focus 2.7 mm-12mm 4 MP Starlight
IPC-B5442E-ZE ...... Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+ -- variable 2.7mm-12mm bullet
IPC-B5442E-Z4E .... bullet 8mm-32mm variable focus zoom 4MP
IPC-HFW7442H-Z ..... Review - Dahua IPC-HFW7442H-Z 4MP Ultra AI Varifocal Bullet Camera -- 4 MP variable focus AI
IPC-T2347G-LU ...... Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS .... Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 . Review-OEM IPC-T2231T-ZS Ver 2, 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE .... Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE ... IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I ... Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
IPC-T5241H-AS-PV ... Review-OEM IPC-T5241H-AS-PV 2mp AI active deterrence cam
IPC-T3241-ZAS ...... Review-OEM IPC-T3241-ZAS 2mp AI Lite series Varifocal -- 2mp AI Lite series Varifocal
IPC-HFW2831T-ZS ... Review-Dahua IPC-HFW2831T-ZS 8MP WDR IR Bullet Network Camera -- 8MP Bullet 1/1.8” sensor variable focus.
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
N22AL12 ............ New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry
IPC-T2347G-LU....... Review-Loryta OEM 4MP IPC-T2347G-LU ColorVu Fixed Turret Network 4mm lens & Junction Box -- 4MP ColorVu
.................... Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera.
SD49225XA-HNR ...... Review - Dahua SD49225XA-HNR 2MP 25x Starlight + IR PTZ AI Camera with Deep IVS & SMD Plus -- 2mp startlight AI

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A

https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/review-dahua-ipc-k35a-3mp-cube-camera.37581/#post-373517

IPC-K42A

If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Newbie Starter Guide to IP Cam System – VPN setup – Computer Hardware – Blue Iris – Dahua Cameras

This is an intermediate / newbie guide for people just starting out looking for a surveillance setup. I know this setup might not be for everyone and there are many options. You can find a lot of this information in the Wiki: IP Cam Talk Wiki | IP Cam Talk A great place to start in the Wiki...

ipcamtalk.com

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

 

[Rob2020]

I followed the forum advice and I am happy. Cam one, was a varifocal Starlight IPC-T2231T-ZS (Gen 2 Cam) this was very helpful in getting a feel for the focal length for future cams.

I have now expanded into the IPC T5442 AS Cameras .

This approach mirrors the general advice I have read here. All of my purchases are EmpireTech purchases. The forum has been very helpful to avoid junk, yet not overspend.

 

[Recursive]

Thanks, both of you. I was thinking about getting a variable focus camera to start with, for that reason... to dial in the right distances. But I might have been tempted to just guess,, since the fixed lenses are cheaper.

I'll probably start with variable, then. And probably not 8mp. Daytime footage can be useful occasionally... but almost all of the serious things (car break-ins, etc.) that I'd really want to capture on a camera tend to happen at night.

 

[Rob2020]

One more thing, if you search in the archives you can find multiple reviews of the IPC-HFW1831E that you first mentioned. I just spent the past hour reading three reviews with a lot of information. Enough that I might add one to my cam "to be purchased" list.

 

[zape]

I have this camera.
Can not recommend it, The CPU is not fast enough to handle 4K resolution
I had dropped frames before I switched to NVR recording

 

[Recursive]

OK. Thanks for the extra input.

I'm new at this; could you clarify the part about dropped frames before switching to NVR? Are you saying that there was a frame rate problem under some circumstances (like watching a live view of the camera, or saving directly to memory card onboard) which do not occur when recording to, say, Blue Iris? Or vice versa?

 

[mat200]

FYI - dropped frames.. could be a number of issues.

For the cameras, yes all cameras have processing limits.

H.265 encoding = more compute
Advanced feature ( IVS ) on = more compute
More frames = more compute
HDR, WDR = more compute

a 8MP has more compute needs vs 4mp for the same fps

NVR limited processing power units.. can see drops on live views due to this. Thus consider a better NVR when purchasing ( look at Bandwidth rating )

PC .. also.. get a more powerful one, newer gen cpu i5/i7 typically recommended for Blue Iris, check for news on support for newer AMDs

 

[zape]

This is my experience with this camera IPC-HFW1831E broken image
I tried to record from the camera itself to a NFS share and it didn't work well. Recording to a SMB share didn't work at all.
I thought it's a bad cable or switch, spent like hours troubleshooting and even got a replacement camera but nothing helped
And I only have one IVS rule enabled

 

[zape]

PC .. also.. get a more powerful one, newer gen cpu i5/i7 typically recommended for Blue Iris, check for news on support for newer AMDs

I don't use a PC or Blue Iris. And no, you don't need a i5 for hosting a file share.
You may need it if you use it as VMS which I didn't.
I had a Synology NAS which I used as a NFS/SMB share and had all my cameras record to that share. Only had issue with this model.
Later I purchased a Dahua NVR

 

[zape]

OK. Thanks for the extra input.

I'm new at this; could you clarify the part about dropped frames before switching to NVR? Are you saying that there was a frame rate problem under some circumstances (like watching a live view of the camera, or saving directly to memory card onboard) which do not occur when recording to, say, Blue Iris? Or vice versa?

Problems with both Live view and recordings
there is no SD card in this model.