I just ran a comparison of several of my cams in my back yard, full moon. I set the cams up on a ladder at the hight of the bushes, then I tried to sneak in around a corner in about 20 ft distance. Infrared camera lights on. I had the cams set to 20ms shutter maximum, gain at 1/3 of the gain scale. Recording on motion detection.
The results varied greatly:
My Andy-tek 5442T zoom (set for about 90° fov) caught me when I came around the corner. When I got nearer, I looked as I do on classic B/W pictures. Clear winner.
I also bought a cheap Dahua 2231 3.6mm 2MP on 1/2.8". It took a little longer to detect me (or it is due to the shorter pre-buffer). The footage looks OK, slightly more pixelated due to 2MP vs 4MP. More contrast, less nuances, less detail.
Reolink Lumus (same resolution and sensor size as Dahua 2231 but 2.8mm): Struggles. Catches me later than the 2231 (uses PIR, so it needs to detect my IR-signature but has pre-recording too). Picture is darker, even more contrast, less nuances. I can be recognized once close enough, but it is not comparable to the 2231 in clarity.
Reolink 520 only shows darkness without the 16(!) LEDS turned on. It was full moon and all other cams showed something without LED. Not the 520 with 5MP on 1/2.7"! Motion detection got me a little later than the 2231 but before the Lumus' PIR did. Picture quality was way below even the Lumus.
Conclusion: The claim made in this forum (a 2MP Dahua will run circles around a 4MP Reolink at night) is no exaggeration. The comparison is somewhat skewed, as the Reolink 520 costs a bit less than the Dahua 2231 (both sell for under $100). But if night motion matters, the Dahua 2231 is at least an option while the Reolink 520 simply is not. If night motion really matters, then there is no question. For about twice the price of a Dahua 2231 one gets a T5442T, which does the job amazingly well in comparison to the other three contenders.
After running this test, I could easily decide what camera models to get.
I chose the 2231S for a simple reason: It offers the suggested resolution to sensor ratio for decent starlight vision while being significantly cheaper than the EmpireTech T5442T Series.
