Is Dahua the best bang for the buck?

[K175un3]

From what I've been brushing up on bigredfish, is that full frame (equivalent to 35mm film) or larger sensors are the ones we'd really like to play with. But the size of the cameras and optics would be very large and they'd also be very heavy.

And I always like to know what components are used as at least you can find the data sheets, not declaring is a little suspect at best. What do they have to hide.

And yes, there's plenty of manufacturers of CMOS and CCD sensors out there. Cannon, SONY and Fuji come to mind off the top of my head, I believe Cannon were one of the first to really push low light performance limits.

But you've got to admit bigredfish that it's a little shady that all those cameras in the .PDF don't have Starvis even though the product selector says that they do.

Shouldn't they match their description and not have two different descriptions?

 

[fenderman]

Here is my Lorex 8 MP with a 1/1.8 sensor. At night it's pretty good and during the day its amazing. It's a good bang for your buck. I never buy the ones from Costco like everyone else, all the high end ones are on their site or Amazon.

View attachment 52705

like I said, very limited low light cams selection. This is likely the only one.

 

[aristobrat]

Shouldn't they match their description and not have two different descriptions?

Should they match? Yes. Are Dahua and Hikvision both known for having obvious errors on their specs pages? Unfortunately, also yes.

Like @bigredfish mentioned, being able to see it with your own two eyes is a big thing. The Dahua forum here having a big review thread for just about every popular camera where lots of owners share pics/videos from that model camera for folks to see is (to me, anyway) just as important as the manufacturer spec page for the camera.

 

[bigredfish]

The HiK ColorVue and Darkfighter series are equally good in low light.

The way the technology has raced ahead in the past 3-4 years or so, we’ll probably be throwing stones at both in 2 years time

 

[Canuckz]

Getting the least amount of blur when someone is moving at night is the challenge most here have. Even a little bit of blur can sometimes mush up someone’s face to where it’s significantly harder/impossible to ID them.

Dahua’s 8MP 1/1.8” cameras weren’t as good in low light as the popular 2MP 1/2.8” Starlight models, and now those are becoming second fiddle to the newer 4MP 1/1.8” models.

Curious, I am currently running IPC-HDW5231R-Z, IPC-HFW8232E-Z and IPC-HDW5231R-ZE cameras. Regarding night time recordings. I do find I deal with the blurring issues at night. These cameras are outside around barns/sheds on my farm with minimal light from a couple of yard lights. A couple questions I have are: any suggested settings to improve blurring such as in camera settings, Blue Iris or both? Should I invest in IR emitters? Is it worth it to change these cameras to the 4mp 1/1.8" models? Any help to improve night videos is appreciated.

 

[bigredfish]

The 8232 is a great low light camera. The new 4MP 1/1.8 sensor cameras are the latest affordable low light kings imho.

Generally speaking to reduce motion blur you need light and a fast shutter setting. Beyond that it will depend and vary greatly by location.

 

[Canuckz]

Generally speaking to reduce motion blur you need light and a fast shutter setting. Beyond that it will depend and vary greatly by location.

Yes, variables will certainly come into play with regard to perfect settings but do you have a recommended baseline to try based on details I have provided? I wouldn't mind a suggested starting point for settings and tweak from there.

 

[aristobrat]

Curious, I am currently running IPC-HDW5231R-Z, IPC-HFW8232E-Z and IPC-HDW5231R-ZE cameras. Regarding night time recordings. I do find I deal with the blurring issues at night. These cameras are outside around barns/sheds on my farm with minimal light from a couple of yard lights. A couple questions I have are: any suggested settings to improve blurring such as in camera settings, Blue Iris or both? Should I invest in IR emitters?

Any image settings change you make should be on the camera, not in BI. I agree with @bigredfish about using a faster shutter speed to help reduce that motion blur. If you're using default settings, shutter is probably 1/25 or 1/30. Try 1/50 or 1/60 and see how that goes. The side effect of the faster shutter speed is that the image becomes darker. Extra light (IR or visible) can help with that.

Noise reduction can sometimes cause blur too. You can try reducing the 3DNR slider to as low as you can go before the image starts to get too grainy for your taste.

Is it worth it to change these cameras to the 4mp 1/1.8" models? Any help to improve night videos is appreciated.

The 4MP 1/1.8" models look to have the same min illumination rating (0.002 Lux) as your 8232 which are both a bit better than the 5231s' 0.006 lux ratings.

Based off of just that, I would expect a new 4MP 1/1.8" model to perform about the same as your current 8232, so not sure you'd gain anything by a change there. If your 8232 currently does better than your 5231s (i.e. less motion blur), there might be an opportunity for a change there. But it sounds like more light might have the biggest impact in your situation.

 

[Canuckz]

Awesome, thank you very much for the suggestions. I will try your recommendations. Yes, I am very happy with the two 8232's that I have. Too bad they are so expensive though. I will tweak the camera settings and likely experiment with an IR emitter as well.

 

[bigredfish]

I’m running 1/120 now on my driveway cameras, but I have good light with two 1200 lumen coach lights and a streetlight about 250ft away

 

[Parley]

Awesome, thank you very much for the suggestions. I will try your recommendations. Yes, I am very happy with the two 8232's that I have. Too bad they are so expensive though. I will tweak the camera settings and likely experiment with an IR emitter as well.

I have 3 of the 8232's and I have already changed one out to the newer B5442. My 8232's came with the 1/1.9" sensor. Eventually I will change them all out but I have bigger fish to fry for now. To answer the original question, yes I believe that Dahua is the best bang for the buck. Hikvision also has very good cameras, but they cost more.

 

[mark_whocares]

I have 3 of the 8232's and I have already changed one out to the newer B5442. My 8232's came with the 1/1.9" sensor. Eventually I will change them all out but I have bigger fish to fry for now. To answer the original question, yes I believe that Dahua is the best bang for the buck. Hikvision also has very good cameras, but they cost more.

do you have less digital noise with the B5442 than with the 8232's ? I've got to run, IMO, a LOT of 3d NR to make the 8232 a palatable driveway cam at night with a lot of carriage lighting and a strreet light within ~ 150 feet.

 

[Parley]

I do not have much digital noise with either of those two cameras.

 

[bigredfish]

Not smart enough to go into the technical difference but the 5442 does seem to be “over-sharpened” a bit out of the box. There are some artifacts that are tamed by reducing sharpness slightly and fiddling with gain... but not enough of an issue to dwell on for me

 

[xtropodx]

Da wa

I thought it was more like Da who'a.

 

[tigerwillow1]

I thought it was more like Da who'a.

I thought the same until I watched a video where the employees consistently said da wa. But I still say da who'a most of the time.

 

[Tokens]

Is Smart IR working on the new 4MP 1/1.8 Dauha ?

 

[bigredfish]

Hit and miss for me. Fiddling with gain and exposure compensation can help.