Hi Guys,
I just did a quick and dirty test of several Dahua cameras and I thought that it might be helpful for others to be able to compare these different models.
I'll start off with some stills from each camera and add some comments at the bottom.
Default settings:
To simulate a low light environment, I manually set each camera to 1/2000 shutter speed:
With the exception of the IPC-HDW5231R-Z, all of the above cameras are relatively inexpensive Chinese market cameras currently being sold on AliExpress.
It's pretty obvious that the current favourite camera on this forum (the IPC-HDW5231R-Z) is far superior in low light performance!
The IPC-HFW5231R-Z is being sold on AliExpress as a camera that is supposed to be good at low light performance and the model number suggests that it should be similar to the IPC-HDW5231R-Z just in a different (bullet) format. As is clear from the above pictures, its performance isn't significantly better than any of the other cheap Dahua cameras. Compared to the IPC-HFW4431R-Z, it's more expensive and doesn't really do any better with low light despite having only half the pixels, so I would strongly recommend avoiding this camera.
The IPC-HDW4433C-A is currently being sold as an upgraded version of the IPC-HDW4431C-A. Maybe I got unlucky with a faulty unit, but mine is significantly less clear than all of the other cameras - it appears to me that the focus is set too close. I pulled the unit apart to take a look and it doesn't seem to be possible to adjust the focus - the lens is glued at a fixed focus and if I was to break the glue, there's insufficient threading to allow for any adjustment - it's only the glue that's holding the focus in place! It does seem to handle low light a bit better than the IPC-HDW4431C-A V2 camera though, so assuming that my unit is faulty, then it might be reasonable to say that it is an upgrade over the older model.
The IPC-HDW4631C-A is a bit different to the rest - it has a more square image ratio which can be either good or bad depending on the situation. Despite the larger number of pixels, it doesn't seem to be performing too badly with low light compared to the IPC-HDW4431C-A V2. Similar to the IPC-HDW5231R-Z, it has an all metal mount instead of the plastic mount of the IPC-HDW4431C-A V2 and the IPC-HDW4433C-A. In normal lighting conditions, it seems to also be clearer than either of those models which should be reasonably expected given the higher pixel count. The cost isn't too much higher, so this would currently be my pick for situations where the budget can't stretch to the low light champion!
I just did a quick and dirty test of several Dahua cameras and I thought that it might be helpful for others to be able to compare these different models.
I'll start off with some stills from each camera and add some comments at the bottom.
Default settings:
To simulate a low light environment, I manually set each camera to 1/2000 shutter speed:
With the exception of the IPC-HDW5231R-Z, all of the above cameras are relatively inexpensive Chinese market cameras currently being sold on AliExpress.
It's pretty obvious that the current favourite camera on this forum (the IPC-HDW5231R-Z) is far superior in low light performance!
The IPC-HFW5231R-Z is being sold on AliExpress as a camera that is supposed to be good at low light performance and the model number suggests that it should be similar to the IPC-HDW5231R-Z just in a different (bullet) format. As is clear from the above pictures, its performance isn't significantly better than any of the other cheap Dahua cameras. Compared to the IPC-HFW4431R-Z, it's more expensive and doesn't really do any better with low light despite having only half the pixels, so I would strongly recommend avoiding this camera.
The IPC-HDW4433C-A is currently being sold as an upgraded version of the IPC-HDW4431C-A. Maybe I got unlucky with a faulty unit, but mine is significantly less clear than all of the other cameras - it appears to me that the focus is set too close. I pulled the unit apart to take a look and it doesn't seem to be possible to adjust the focus - the lens is glued at a fixed focus and if I was to break the glue, there's insufficient threading to allow for any adjustment - it's only the glue that's holding the focus in place! It does seem to handle low light a bit better than the IPC-HDW4431C-A V2 camera though, so assuming that my unit is faulty, then it might be reasonable to say that it is an upgrade over the older model.
The IPC-HDW4631C-A is a bit different to the rest - it has a more square image ratio which can be either good or bad depending on the situation. Despite the larger number of pixels, it doesn't seem to be performing too badly with low light compared to the IPC-HDW4431C-A V2. Similar to the IPC-HDW5231R-Z, it has an all metal mount instead of the plastic mount of the IPC-HDW4431C-A V2 and the IPC-HDW4433C-A. In normal lighting conditions, it seems to also be clearer than either of those models which should be reasonably expected given the higher pixel count. The cost isn't too much higher, so this would currently be my pick for situations where the budget can't stretch to the low light champion!
