Review: Dahua DH-IPC-HFW5842E-ZE-S2 - 8MP / 4K Vari-Focal Bullet Cam

W

Wildcat_1

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Before I get started, I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season and a Happy New Year to you all !

Time for my first review of 2022 and there will be many more to come. I’ve decided to try and provide a higher production quality on the video’s I put together for you so will be focusing on improving the look, feel, layout and in time soundtrack for these as we move into 2022. The key will be in ensuring I get the content you want/need and balance against turn around time for publishing but I thought why not at least attempt the challenge in 2022 :) Any comments on the video’s overall please leave on the YouTube channel, DM and feel free to like & subscribe. These are not monetized (nor even public currently) and are for this community here primarily, but your comments, likes and subscriptions give me an idea on what you want to see more of and where I can still do a better job for all of you. Any comments on what you want to see in future reviews whether that be from a comparison perspective, new tech, configuration assistance etc just reach out either in these threads, the videos or via DM along with any dial in assistance you need.

Andy's (@EMPIRETECANDY) Amazon Link For This Camera Is HERE


Onto the review…..


Intro

Those that follow my reviews will know that I already reviewed the 5842T Turret cam HERE at the end of 2021 and was impressed with what it brought to the table and how it fit in the overall portfolio. In this review I am going to focus on its Bullet Cam brother that is available in standard 2.7 to 12mm (this review) AND a Z4 variant. As I’ve mentioned in many of my threads now, this camera (and its turret sister) are natural contenders for those wanting to step up from the legendary 5442. The price difference is negligible and I would advise most to strongly consider the 5842’s I’ve reviewed so far at this point. I will be performing comparison’s against the Color4K-X for PQ AND will do a comparison against an older (and one of the original legends in my eyes) 4K cam to see that compares to these newer 4K units.​
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A big THANK YOU as always to Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) for providing this unit in exchange for a fair, honest, unbiased and no holds barred review.​
I’ll attempt to answer any and all comments as always BUT please keep those to the main topic of this thread.​

Lets go….


The Camera

From a body/footprint perspective this camera is inline with the 5442 vari-focal which means it utilizes the now older pro style body. This is different than the newer Color4K / Color4M / Dual Lens units and I’ll show the 2 together in a new intro video below. The lens (1/1.8” sensor) features a f1.4 aperture and in respect to aperture and IR distance is a slight (on paper) improvement over the 5442 but features slightly less WDR (120 vs 140 on 5442). Another thing to point out is that the 5442’s feature up to 60 fps @ 1080p whereas these 5842’s are limited to 30 fps even at that lower resolution. Just something to keep in mind should you need it.​
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Post 2 - Pics & Videos, Post 3 - Special Features / Functions / Tips & Tricks, Post 4 - Bug List (new), Post 5 - Wrap Up​
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Without further ado lets get onto those specs​

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Shipping FW Version
2021-07-09 (VOLT based)​

Mounting Options

The mount options for the HFW-5842E-ZE-S2 are:
  • PFA121 - 4 hole junction box
  • PFA152E - Pole Mount Adapter
Remember my tip about using PFA121 & PFA122 junction boxes and quick switching the plates (4 hole vs 3 hole), very useful here too. Just remember this one needs the PFA121 (4 hole plate). I’ll post a video showing how quick this is within the review.


Onto the Specs

This camera is part of the Dahua Wizmind range so not only gets IVS based object filtering (Human, Vehicle, Non-Vehicle) as well as Face Detection, Heat Mapping, People Counting but also SMD 3.0. As this camera features the newer FW you will see support for Smart Plan schedules + the new Sensitivity and ‘inside’ options for IVS triggers introduced with the Color4K-X full color cams.​

Camera Details

Image Sensor - 1/1.8”​
Effective Pixels - 3840(H) x 2160(V), 8 Megapixels​
RAM: 1GB​
ROM: 128MB​
Electronic Shutter Speed - 1/3s~1/100,000s​
Minimum Illumination​
Color: 0.004 Lux @F1.4​
B&W: 0.0004 Lux @F1.4​
Illumination Distance (utilizing the additional LED options) - Up to 60m (196.9 ft)​
IR On/Off Control - Auto/Manual (near & far granularity)​
Illuminator LEDs - 4 x IR​


Lens Information

Focal Length (Vari-Focal)
2.7mm - 12.0mm​

Max. Aperture
F1.4​

Field of View
H: 110.4° (Wide), 45° (Tele)​
V: 57.8° (Wide), 35.2° (Tele)​
D: 133.8° (Wide), 51.8° (Tele)​

Close Focus Distance
1m (3.3ft)​


DORI Distance

Wide
Detect - 86m (282.2ft）​
Observe - 34.4m (112.9ft)​
Recognize - 17.2m (56.4ft)​
Identify - 8.6m (28.2ft)​

Tele
Detect - 196m (643ft）​
Observe - 78.4m (257.2ft)​
Recognize - 39.2m (128.6ft)​
Identify - 19.6 (64.3ft)​

Audio Information

Line In Only / NO Built In Mic (Dahua data sheet is incorrect in stating it does have a mic)​


First Visual Intro - 1m 30s

I thought, why not start out with a new quick visual intro of the cams / NVRs and other devices I review so here's the first one ;) Make sure to watch on YouTube and select 4K

​


Stay tuned, will be capturing the day and night videos over the next week and publishing.
 
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Pretty fancy video Wildcat. Always look forward to your great in-depth reviews. I know this it very time consuming and appreciate your effort. If I could make a comment before you perform your night video review, I always notice the furniture cover on your porch produces a lot of IR light reflection. May be best to use a darker cover (blanket) or remove cover while recording video for review. What do you think?
 
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Great intro video! You're going to put the "HookUp" out of business in short order given that video combined with your knowledge and expertise. It would be fun to have a Reolink "equivalent" to directly compare to any of the ones you've tested. Maybe we could cloud fund a way to get them to you?
 
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Happy New Year.
If can compare the video of HFW5842E-ZE-S2 and HFW7842H-Z will be better.
HFW7842H-Z use OmniVision CMOS
HFW5842E-ZE-S2 use SONY CMOS
 
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sebastiantombs said:
Great intro video! You're going to put the "HookUp" out of business in short order given that video combined with your knowledge and expertise. It would be fun to have a Reolink "equivalent" to directly compare to any of the ones you've tested. Maybe we could cloud fund a way to get them to you?
Click to expand...

That is a great idea! I am not aware of any good videos that compares reos to good cameras. Yeah the hookup has done one or two with Andy's cams compared to reo, but taking a 2.8mm and trying to evaluate it at 60 feet is going to struggle for every 2.8mm camera.
 
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@wittaj Somehow I don't think HookUp really does any fine tuning on anything, after all fine tuning a Reo is a joke, so you can bet everything is left on auto in every other camera he compares to. Plus I don't think HookUp has the expertise, at least nowhere near the level of Wildcat_1.
 
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handinpalm said:
Pretty fancy video Wildcat. Always look forward to your great in-depth reviews. I know this it very time consuming and appreciate your effort. If I could make a comment before you perform your night video review, I always notice the furniture cover on your porch produces a lot of IR light reflection. May be best to use a darker cover (blanket) or remove cover while recording video for review. What do you think?
Click to expand...

Good feedback have covered that temporarily for the new test
 
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sebastiantombs said:
Great intro video! You're going to put the "HookUp" out of business in short order given that video combined with your knowledge and expertise. It would be fun to have a Reolink "equivalent" to directly compare to any of the ones you've tested. Maybe we could cloud fund a way to get them to you?
Click to expand...

Thanks @sebastiantombs for the kind words and the ideas :) I agree that comparison testing against 'other' brands can be incredibly useful. Certainly am open to what the community would like me to test against and then would have to look at how to source/fund etc anything I can't get my hands on or don't have around. The advantage of testing like this is that it does help find those diamond in the ruff cams that you can use with great results such as the Lorex 9232's which in my testing were basically Dahua 1831's albeit with lack of functionality but a steal for 4K cams back in the day with great outputs. It also would put these 'other' cams to 'real' tests to show how they really do in the wild ;)
 
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kobebeef said:
Happy New Year.
If can compare the video of HFW5842E-ZE-S2 and HFW7842H-Z will be better.
HFW7842H-Z use OmniVision CMOS
HFW5842E-ZE-S2 use SONY CMOS
Click to expand...

Happy New Year to you too @kobebeef. As you know from my threads, I have always liked and appreciated the quality of the 7x42 series, still recommend these today. Sensor comparison is another good idea. Unfortunately I don't have a 7842 at hand. I do have 7442, 7442-Z4's, 71242 etc but not the 8MP. I'll have to look to see if I can find one OR if there is enough interest then this maybe something that @EMPIRETECANDY might be interested in seeing the results from too and I can look to source a 7842.
 
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All
While I edit together the day footage, thought I would throw a quick quiz out to you. Take a look at the video below and the comparison camera I am adding in the mix. Take a guess at which model it is. Remember to select 4K when watching on YouTube

 
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