Yeah! Yesterday, I got a text message asking if they (DHL) could leave the package without signature or not. That message also contained the tracking number. Checking that, the projected delivery date was this coming Monday, and that seemed reasonable to me. But the package showed up this afternoon/evening. That's some fast delivery. Thanks, again, Andy!
I've just gotten one of them configured well enough to connect it to my
Blue Iris system, and play with it a little bit, and I'm impressed! The low-light performance is better than any of the cheapie cameras I already have. I'm learning by playing and trial and error here, having never used any Dahua equipment before.
I didn't use any of the software that came with the cameras, but I just read through some of the PDF instructional file. Since this camera will just be used on the Blue Iris setup, I doubt I'll play with the Dahua software, so I can't comment on it.
Based on the PDF instructions, I found that the default IP address for these is 192.168.1.108. Luckily, that didn't conflict with anything else on my main network, so I was able to just connect the new camera to an open port on an existing POE switch and then access the camera's built-in web-server setup system. And from there, things worked the way the instructions said they would.
I just set the IP address to be an unused one on the network, and that was really it. I didn't set up any of the things you'd use if you were going to use the Dahua software at this time since this camera will only be used on the Blue Iris system here.
In Blue Iris, I exported the setup from one of my other cameras. Then I set up a new camera in Blue Iris. I entered the username, password, and IP address for the new camera and let BI autodetect the camera. Unlike the troubles someone had earlier in this thread, that "discovered" setup and settings worked fine.
Once I had the camera on-line, I imported the settings I'd exported from another camera on the system. Of course, that killed the connection because it set that other camera's IP address, password, and camera type, path, etc. So I just entered the proper IP address and password again and let it auto-detect the camera again, and things were pretty much set up the way I have that other camera. So that's a good starting point.
I played with the zoom some, and it seems like it won't zoom continuously all the way from wide to tele or back again. I have to do it in several steps. But there may well be a setting for that in the camera.
I wanted to see how it did without using its IR illuminators, but couldn't get them to shut off from BI. Going into the camera's interface (using its web page via a browser again), I found that the camera's default is to be in "Day" profile at all times. Setting that to "normal" let me set the mode to auto and switch the LEDs on or off or adjust them manually, or put them in the "smartIR". I don't seem to be able to control any of that through Blue Iris, but perhaps I'm not really using the correct camera profile. I'm just using what it auto detected and set as "Generic" and "RTSP H.264/H.265/MJPG/MPEG4". If one of the Dahua selections would work, perhaps that would allow the Blue Iris menus and control commands to match what's available in the camera.
But regardless, those settings can be adjusted using the web interface, so I can get to them as things are.
Playing with things in my office, the low-light performance seems great. With most everything set to the defaults, the ability to handle fairly nasty dynamic range seems good. It seems to make the decisions about how to adjust exposure pretty much the way I'd want it to. There is a window looking out almost directly at a ceiling light in a hallway. The bulb itself is out of the frame, but just barely. And the default settings let this overly-bright area wash out while maintaining good exposure on everything else. And that's what I'd want it to do.
This is with the "backlight" turned off. I played with HLC and BLC a bit, and HLC, cranked up high seems to do a good job of balancing the very bright areas with the very dim areas. So that is something I'll have to read about and tweak for the real world at some point.
So many adjustments to play with, I'll have fun experimenting and coming up with what works best for each location, I'm sure.
Anyhow, the cameras arrived, the one I've played with hooked up and worked fine, and looks to be a great camera for the price.
