Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
- Thread starter looney2ns
- Start date
This looks like a great camera. For a new system I was thinking about getting 2 IPC-HDW4231EM-ASE but this one is prices about the same (€3 difference) and has a vari-focal lens.
Image quality is apparently about the same (this one, the 4231 and the famous 5231). I only use tripwire so the missing smart features is not a big issue.
I don't know how the main/sub-stream would be a problem. The one thing I'm disappointed with is missing audio. That's a dealbreaker to me.
Image quality is apparently about the same (this one, the 4231 and the famous 5231). I only use tripwire so the missing smart features is not a big issue.
I don't know how the main/sub-stream would be a problem. The one thing I'm disappointed with is missing audio. That's a dealbreaker to me.
I know but if it had audio it would be a insta-buy instead of the 4231.
Now it's a difficult decision between the audio and fixed lens of the 4231 or the missing audio but vari-focal lens of this 2231.
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 15,525
- 26,153
I know but if it had audio it would be a insta-buy instead of the 4231.
Now it's a difficult decision between the audio and fixed lens of the 4231 or the missing audio but vari-focal lens of this 2231.
If it was easy we all won't be here ;-)
This camera is online for selling now. We will see other guys' feedback soon, yesterday shipped to 5 guys, Monday they will get them and post any review here, good or bad, this can make the camera being a great cam, lol.
Can't get mine installed...keeps raining, 4.1 inches since midnight. We needed the rain though so it's a good thing !
Mine should be here Thurs, according to DHL. Can't wait. Will be my first Dahua (replacing my ReoLink crap cameras)
Received mine today. That was fast shipping from halfway across the world. The only items I get that are faster are bills (go figure) 
Anyway, the physical installation was straight forward, but getting it 'configured' within Blue Iris was a PIA. My network is already a 192.168.1.X, so no subnet changes were necessary. I hooked it up to my POE and my workbench, got it configured with a new static IP address, then took it outside to mount it. This camera was replacing a broken RLC-410 (yeah, I know) so I just plugged it in, went inside and started configuration in Blue Iris. Since I was using the 'old' RLC-410 IP address, it was already 'configured' in Blue Iris; all I had to do was redo the username/password and I did the autodetection for camera model. It picked 'Generic', which I thought was OK since I didn't see any Dahua IPC-HDW2231R-ZS models listed. At this point, the camera kept dropping off the network. Even if I did a 'ping IP address -t', I would get maybe 15 replies, then 10 timeouts, and would repeat. My initial thought was maybe my RJ45 jack was bad, so I replaced it. Did the same thing. Ugh! I came inside, switched ports on my POE switch, and was still bouncing. Replaced the RJ45 AGAIN. Still no reliable results. Get out the network tester and cable tests just fine. I remove the camera, and bring it inside and hooked directly to the switch. Nada. WTH! Bad camera? Hard to 'default' the camera when it won't stay logged in....but finally was able to factory default camera. I let it see if it would fail with the .108 IP address, and it stayed up. No other IP conflicts. Well, after banging my head
for about 2 hours, I finally set the camera in Blue Iris to the Dahua Main Stream RTSP model. Bingo! No more timeouts.
Well, after I cooled down some, I am happy with the results, and lesson learned. This is my first Dahua, so further installations should be smooth as butter. I do like the quality of the camera, and the various software settings, as opposed to the RLC camera. Thanks, Andy, for the quick service and excellent price on this camera. I have other RLC cameras that will soon be replaced with these Dahua's
Anyway, the physical installation was straight forward, but getting it 'configured' within Blue Iris was a PIA. My network is already a 192.168.1.X, so no subnet changes were necessary. I hooked it up to my POE and my workbench, got it configured with a new static IP address, then took it outside to mount it. This camera was replacing a broken RLC-410 (yeah, I know) so I just plugged it in, went inside and started configuration in Blue Iris. Since I was using the 'old' RLC-410 IP address, it was already 'configured' in Blue Iris; all I had to do was redo the username/password and I did the autodetection for camera model. It picked 'Generic', which I thought was OK since I didn't see any Dahua IPC-HDW2231R-ZS models listed. At this point, the camera kept dropping off the network. Even if I did a 'ping IP address -t', I would get maybe 15 replies, then 10 timeouts, and would repeat. My initial thought was maybe my RJ45 jack was bad, so I replaced it. Did the same thing. Ugh! I came inside, switched ports on my POE switch, and was still bouncing. Replaced the RJ45 AGAIN. Still no reliable results. Get out the network tester and cable tests just fine. I remove the camera, and bring it inside and hooked directly to the switch. Nada. WTH! Bad camera? Hard to 'default' the camera when it won't stay logged in....but finally was able to factory default camera. I let it see if it would fail with the .108 IP address, and it stayed up. No other IP conflicts. Well, after banging my head
for about 2 hours, I finally set the camera in Blue Iris to the Dahua Main Stream RTSP model. Bingo! No more timeouts.Well, after I cooled down some, I am happy with the results, and lesson learned. This is my first Dahua, so further installations should be smooth as butter. I do like the quality of the camera, and the various software settings, as opposed to the RLC camera. Thanks, Andy, for the quick service and excellent price on this camera. I have other RLC cameras that will soon be replaced with these Dahua's
Received mine today. That was fast shipping from halfway across the world. The only items I get that are faster are bills (go figure)
Anyway, the physical installation was straight forward, but getting it 'configured' within Blue Iris was a PIA. My network is already a 192.168.1.X, so no subnet changes were necessary. I hooked it up to my POE and my workbench, got it configured with a new static IP address, then took it outside to mount it. This camera was replacing a broken RLC-410 (yeah, I know) so I just plugged it in, went inside and started configuration in Blue Iris. Since I was using the 'old' RLC-410 IP address, it was already 'configured' in Blue Iris; all I had to do was redo the username/password and I did the autodetection for camera model. It picked 'Generic', which I thought was OK since I didn't see any Dahua IPC-HDW2231R-ZS models listed. At this point, the camera kept dropping off the network. Even if I did a 'ping IP address -t', I would get maybe 15 replies, then 10 timeouts, and would repeat. My initial thought was maybe my RJ45 jack was bad, so I replaced it. Did the same thing. Ugh! I came inside, switched ports on my POE switch, and was still bouncing. Replaced the RJ45 AGAIN. Still no reliable results. Get out the network tester and cable tests just fine. I remove the camera, and bring it inside and hooked directly to the switch. Nada. WTH! Bad camera? Hard to 'default' the camera when it won't stay logged in....but finally was able to factory default camera. I let it see if it would fail with the .108 IP address, and it stayed up. No other IP conflicts. Well, after banging my head
Well, after I cooled down some, I am happy with the results, and lesson learned. This is my first Dahua, so further installations should be smooth as butter. I do like the quality of the camera, and the various software settings, as opposed to the RLC camera. Thanks, Andy, for the quick service and excellent price on this camera. I have other RLC cameras that will soon be replaced with these Dahua's
Thanks for posting this. I just got a couple of these also. I'll keep a lookout for the issues you experienced. Don't remember seeing any of that with setup of my one other Dahua I got from @EMPIRETECANDY (IPC-5231R-Z) other than I didn't know about the .108 IP before I setup that camera. Haha. I think you'll like the night vision on this camera. The IPC-5231R-Z camera has great night video. I love the varifocal lens, too. Very flexible on pointing the camera in whatever location you want and being able to easily get a different image later, unlike fixed lens.
Night quality is awesome! I almost compare it to the Axis P1427-LE's that we have at work. This camera is in our carport, and I have a LED motion light that is 'dim' constantly at night, and goes to 'full power' when it senses motion (it goes back to 'dim' after 4 minutes of no motion). The image is color, even at 9:24pm. I compared that to the image of the RLC-410, and it was B/W, and still not as crisp (same lighting, too).
I have 3 other RLCs that may be headed to the dump sooner rather than later.
I have 3 other RLCs that may be headed to the dump sooner rather than later.
tHE hdw2231r-zs also varifocal ones, till now sold around 20, hope all guys can discuss here for the good and bad thing for this model, then can make the camera perfect. lol.
Andy, I really like it. I can't compare to the other Dahua cameras, but this one is tons better than my RLCs, and not that much more than what I paid for that 'junk' (lesson learned). I'll be emailing you in a few weeks for more 2231r cameras. Thanks so much
if can share us some pics for the compare, that would be great, lol.
Received mine today. That was fast shipping from halfway across the world. The only items I get that are faster are bills (go figure)
Anyway, the physical installation was straight forward, but getting it 'configured' within Blue Iris was a PIA. My network is already a 192.168.1.X, so no subnet changes were necessary. I hooked it up to my POE and my workbench, got it configured with a new static IP address, then took it outside to mount it. This camera was replacing a broken RLC-410 (yeah, I know) so I just plugged it in, went inside and started configuration in Blue Iris. Since I was using the 'old' RLC-410 IP address, it was already 'configured' in Blue Iris; all I had to do was redo the username/password and I did the autodetection for camera model. It picked 'Generic', which I thought was OK since I didn't see any Dahua IPC-HDW2231R-ZS models listed. At this point, the camera kept dropping off the network. Even if I did a 'ping IP address -t', I would get maybe 15 replies, then 10 timeouts, and would repeat. My initial thought was maybe my RJ45 jack was bad, so I replaced it. Did the same thing. Ugh! I came inside, switched ports on my POE switch, and was still bouncing. Replaced the RJ45 AGAIN. Still no reliable results. Get out the network tester and cable tests just fine. I remove the camera, and bring it inside and hooked directly to the switch. Nada. WTH! Bad camera? Hard to 'default' the camera when it won't stay logged in....but finally was able to factory default camera. I let it see if it would fail with the .108 IP address, and it stayed up. No other IP conflicts. Well, after banging my head
Well, after I cooled down some, I am happy with the results, and lesson learned. This is my first Dahua, so further installations should be smooth as butter. I do like the quality of the camera, and the various software settings, as opposed to the RLC camera. Thanks, Andy, for the quick service and excellent price on this camera. I have other RLC cameras that will soon be replaced with these Dahua's
You must have had some network issue because mine was easy to setup. I always use the find/inspect and it works like a charm. I posted a pic for future reference. I am very happy with camera's performance !
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What it 'could've have been was that I didn't create a 'new' camera, but used the old RLC camera template as it was already set up; I just replaced the camera models instead of blowing it away and start I g from scratch. I'll know better next time.