Looking for 4K 8MP camera

M

MakeItRain

Pulling my weight
Aug 7, 2017
418
225
Hi Everyone

I realized that everybody raves about the Starlight Dahua cameras and how 2MP is great at night time. But in our city, 99% of all burglary crimes happen between 10AM and 4PM and rarely do we have break-ins at night time.

It's also nice to be able to capture license plate with better clarity and to be able to identify the bad guys than have better night time shot. For these reasons, I think night time clarity is second in priority for me and I am looking to spend some money for higher resolution cameras at the expense of sacrificing night time performance.

I am coming from Amcrest 3MP cameras and they are pretty decent for the money, but at 30ft away, I can't make out the license plates anymore even at 1296P.

Can anyone give a shout out as to which of the top 3 turrent-style 4K 8MP are the best on the market right now?

I need to have the following requirements:
1) Support POE
2) White color base to match house
3) 4K resolution
4) Support push notifications
5) Support FTP uploading
6) Good iOS app

I've been hearing good stuff about the Hikvision DS-2CD2385FWD-I ? Is that one good?
 
While there is nothing wrong with 4K, it sounds like what you need is more zoom and coverage of choke points. People have been doing license plate capturing since before 1 megapixel cameras were cost-effective.
 
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bp2008 said:
While there is nothing wrong with 4K, it sounds like what you need is more zoom and coverage of choke points. People have been doing license plate capturing since before 1 megapixel cameras were cost-effective.
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Hard to have choke points when your entire front of your house is on a busy and wide street with multiple approaches.
 
Have to agree with @bp2008 , sounds like you need variable focus cameras first. 8K seems like overkill for plates. I think a lot of folks have it in their mind that you can cover a lot of different areas with equal detail from just one camera.

(Make sure and set Youtube player to 1080p)

1MP Axis @ 95ft


2MP Axis @ 50ft


1MP Axis @ 120 ft (60mm lens)
 
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colmcille said:
I don't know what your exact layout is, but the front of my property was also completely open at one time. I planted different varieties of Berberis and Pyracantha in order to funnel access to one choke point, the front door. Look at defensive planting. The windows all have at least 5ft. deep thorn plants to get through before they can be accessed. Anyone trying it will be leaving ripped clothing and a lot of blood behind and have a lot of thorns embedded in them, and that's before the dogs get to them.
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Appreciate the experience. The challenge is that there is not enough parking on property and thus often have to park on the street in front of the house, as do the neighbors and visitors. Cars have been vandalized in the past, and it would be good to be able to ID anyone by the cars in the street within the front arc of the house. May have to add additional starlights to the mix and/or abandon some desired coverage.
 
Our front of the house faces a flat street. We have a two story house and a balcony, so I do have quite a bit of mounting options. Of course a car that is parked sideways directly in front of our house will have very little chance of me getting the license plate until he/she drives away. The front of the house to the street is about 15-20 ft. So I need to be able to capture it from atleast 30-45 feet.

Maybe you guys are right, I need to have a variable zoom. It sounds like I need to place 3 cameras for the same angle.

Thanks for pointing out those Lorex's. They seem pretty good except their lens size seems a bit smaller the competitors.
 
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Hi everyone, so I have attached a picture of one of my Amcrest 3MP 2304x1296P image and as you can see, it is very, very difficult to tell what the license plate is of certain cars, even in broad day light, that is parked in front of the house. It seems like I need to upgrade these cameras to 4K pixels.

Unfortunately, these Amcrest bullet cameras do not have optical zoom at all. The wide 100degree angle seems nice but terrible for plate capture.

What do you guys think?

resized.jpg
digital zoom.jpg
 
Wide angle fixed lenses are good for overview, they're not designed for LPR or great detail beyond say 10-20 ft..
If you go to a 4K camera with a fixed lens in that location, sure you'll get better detail, during the day, and you may get a few plates, but you still wont have a reliable plate camera.

Look at your two images- one camera simply isnt going to do both things well. This is I think one of the biggest newb mistakes for most folks, trying to do too many things with a single camera. It just doesnt work like on TV. Getting plates from a camera attached to a home in most cases doesnt allow for a good angle on plates - too far setback from the street.

If that car was moving at say 35mph, you still wouldnt likely get a good plate read, too much angle. Moving plates are MUCH harder to read than stationary ones. You're only able to get even close because the car is sitting still.

In my limited experience, the things that are most critical to capturing plates are, in order:

*Zoom (In most cases a dedicated plate camera that is zoomed about 2x the width of a vehicle max. It wont see much of anything else)
*Angle (anything more than 25-30 degrees makes it much harder to read a plate on a moving car. Ideal angle is straight on, like those used on toll roads)
*Shutter speed- particularly at night and low light, you'll want a shutter speed between 250 and 2000 depending on the light, angle, and vehicle speed

You dont need much more than a 1-2MP camera to get good plate reads, but you must have the 3 things above.

Best location for you 2nd camera dedicated for LPR would be a little lower than the height that camera is mounted, zoomed with about a 22-25mm lens, and focused on the street width closer to that big tree on the left. Better yet, mount one on that light pole in the front yard!
 
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Thank you for the response. It sounds like I'm a total newb when it came to IP cameras. I now have some basic understanding about 2.8mm, 4mm, 6mm, and 12mm lens and it's clear that 2.8mm (the one i have) is wide angle and is terrible for capturing details but good for capturing "overall activity".
 
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You werent wrong, the 4 k vs your 3mp should enable further plate reading ability in the well lit area you mention. It's just you will see more improvement with a greater zoom and better viewing angles.
I bought a 4mp and a 4K Hik recently, the 4K version is significantly better in daylight.
 
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You get it, took me a few tries believe me. Wish I had known about this forum a few years back, would have saved me a lot of time and money.

4K cams are amazing and might be great in that location, especially if you have good light out there to help it at night. Just don't think if it as a do everything cam.

I'd like to try one myself, but without a DVR and monitor that can make use of the increased MP, it would be a waste.

Varifocal cams solve a lot of problems.
 
It sounds like varifocal cam allows the user to variably adjust the focus from 2.8-12mm. This is where the starlight dahua's excel giving you the ability to fine tune the camera to the scene (garage, street, or side yard). This makes sense. Oh well, you live and learn. I've already invested about 8 cameras worth in Amcrest. They are fine but for my new home, I will now look into either the varifocal dahua's or the 8MP hikvisions at various lens..probably the 4mm or 6mm. I think the 6mm will do a significantly better job for me though.
 
I'm not sure what to get. The HFW5231R Dahua Starlight Varofocals are great but night time shot is not as great as the $329 HFW8232E-Z. However the 8232 is very expensive. Also, Dahua software I hear is not the greatest and their app can be buggy especially push notifications i hear.

So then I started looking at the 8MP Hikvision DS-2CD2385FWD-I which has choice of 2.8, 4mm, 6mm, 12mm lens. I figured I get two of the 4mm for the backyard and inside garage, and 6mm for the front door, driveway and sideyard. The 8MP will give me more daytime clarity of the dahua 5231R but I don't know how the nighttime will be. They are roughly the same price.
 
MakeItRain said:
I'm not sure what to get. The HFW5231R Dahua Starlight Varofocals are great but night time shot is not as great as the $329 HFW8232E-Z. However the 8232 is very expensive. Also, Dahua software I hear is not the greatest and their app can be buggy especially push notifications i hear.
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You can buy two 5231's for the price of one 8232- While the 8232 is better in low light, the 5231 is pretty damn good. They are close.

Ive not had any problems with 4 Dahua DVR's. Sometimes folks play with software and firmware upgrades far more than necessary IMHO. Ive also not had any problems with their iDMSS app, though like ANY software, I tend to wait a few weeks/months to see if any upgrade is really necessary and if any bugs are reported before I upgrade.


So then I started looking at the 8MP Hikvision DS-2CD2385FWD-I which has choice of 2.8, 4mm, 6mm, 12mm lens. I figured I get two of the 4mm for the backyard and inside garage, and 6mm for the front door, driveway and sideyard. The 8MP will give me more daytime clarity of the dahua 5231R but I don't know how the nighttime will be. They are roughly the same price.
Click to expand...

If you browse this forum, you'll find chasing megapixels doesnt always improve your video, especially at night.
Here's a good example:
Comparison of LTS 5MP turret to their 2MP Ultra low light turret
 
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Thank you guys, I have been reading as much as I can. I do realize that the more MP means the less quality in night time light due to the smaller pixels.
 
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