Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal

seez52 said:
In BI, can you have it detect movement then adjust itself to looking at a different location?
Click to expand...

Looney2ns and awsum140 have said that the idea of the varifocal system in this camera is just to give you the ability to adjust the angle of view when setting the camera up, and that's what I expected.

The camera cannot pan or tilt by itself. Those adjustments must be made by physically moving the camera by hand. There is a set screw that you loosen to allow some adjustment, and then you tighten it back up to lock the aim in place.

If you need to adjust the aim remotely, or even need auto-tracking and zoom, you will want a full "PTZ" (pan, tilt, zoom) camera. And those are considerably more expensive.

But you can adjust the zoom remotely through Blue Iris and even the BI app on an android device. It looked as if you can set up presets and the like and perhaps have the system do automatic zooming when I was playing with the setup in the camera's web server menus. But that might just be due to some overlap between firmware for different cams, or perhaps not work at all on this camera. I didn't explore any of that when briefly playing with it all last night.
 
I just received and installed one of these from Empire. (ipc-hdw2231rp-zs - whats' the diff with or without the p?)

Seems to be performing fine, but I realize now I'd prefer (1) a 4:3 view and (2) more zoom.

I'm replacing a Hik 2032 w/ 25mm conversion used for facial id at about 40ft, and it's not good at night without a LOT of extra IR.
For now to compare, I've cropped the 2MP Dahua's view to approximately match the Hik's using BI's "Area of Interest" feature.

That said, even the BI-cropped (to about 1MP) night time image is somewhat better than the old Hik for this purpose.
(both are set to 1/60th exposure as i like to reduce motion blur as much as possible, but maybe i need to play with the Dahua's
exposure settings more - not quite sure what gain priority vs exposure priority is all about...)

Anyways can the lens in these motorized vari-focals be replaced to alter the zoom range? I understand that doing so would
reduce light intake as well as void any warranty, but that hasn't stopped me before... :)

Thanx, Paul
 
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OK! playing around some more with the Dahua, I let it stay in color mode (we have a street light nearby) and WOW!
Almost looks like daylight, nice to be see colors. but I'd still like more resolution at range...

some stills to illustrate (with dahaa at max/furthest zoom)

first the dahua 2231 in DAY mode vs the Hik 2032 25mm conversion in night mode (HIK IR on)

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next, the dahua in night mode vs the hik (both camera IR's on)
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And for shits & giggles, with 40W of IR added. the hik wins here, i think, but it's really amtter of zoom (resolution at distance) as much as light-sensitivity...

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So while the dahua is nice and i'll definitely keep it, for this use case, i think I'll stick with the venerable 2032 w/25mm and extra IR...
 
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Yes, some scumbag driving buy decided to steal something he saw on our porch. it was reported to Berkeley Police and Uber, and Amazon replaced the item no problem.
happens all the time around here, so I have that drop box on the porch for packages, but the delivery folks often can't be bothered to see or use it.
I hadn't meant to bring that up in this thread, but I guess if you give people a link, they'll poke around ... :)

As for the timestamps, I let the cameras put the timestamp on (BI does no OSD/overlays and can go straight to disk) and have them all syncing with a local NTP server, so the formats differ somewhat between brand of camera (Front East is one of those "bad" 5MP Longse turrets that's been fine for me, LP cams are Huisun miniPTZ @ 50mm, others all Hik's & now Dahua)

Back on-topic, I think I'll use the 2231 as more of an 'overview' camera at a wider angle, and find some way to help out the hik 25mm with more IR when needed,
maybe an illuminator turned on by that cam (or another one) detecting motion at night, ie, alarm out to a relay of some sort...
 
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How to configure this camera to continuously record to Mac SMB share? I tried with no luck, no errors but the camera doesn't connect.

And additionally: what is the correct way to configure it to record to SD card continously? No motion detection.
 
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olli said:
How to configure this camera to continuously record to Mac SMB share? I tried with no luck, no errors but the camera doesn't connect.

And additionally: what is the correct way to configure it to record to SD card continously? No motion detection.
Click to expand...

I know nothing about Mac's.
To record, setup the schedule tab in the webgui to your liking.
 
So the Mac is basically acting as a SMB server, but the camera does not connect to it. How could I try to troubleshoot this?
The schedule tab is not so clear, if I mark everything green, does it record all the time? And what's the difference between motion and alarm?

Is there any recommended settings for this camera?

And one more issue: yesterday the camera had stopped recording about 6pm, however there's still free space on the card (used 52604M/63985.3M). Could it be a faulty card? I bought it from eBay.
 
back to the 2231: I've fiddled with all the 'exposure' settings, i think, and i can't seem to get blur-free (or even blur-reduced) images on motion in less than full daylight ('auto' works OK daytime)
I've got the cam zoomed out as far as it will go (13mm). Maybe that's part of the problem? Focus is fine on static objects, but moving is generally blurry onc ethe sun dips. Trying to get clear enough shots of faces as people walk by ~30ft out. I'm more used to configuring Hik's, so perhaps there's some aspect of the Dahua's settings I'm not grokking...

dusk example: fe_detail.20180829_160352_2
night example: fe_detail.20180829_160352_1
current exposure config: 2231 config

aside: how the heck does one add INLINE images here?

thanx.
 
and another night-time example: fe_detail.20180829_160352_3

for comparison, I'm getting clearer shots at 45ft from my hik 2032 w/ 25mm conversion:

fw_detail.20180829_160135_1

I know 3MP 4x3 aspect at 45ft is not apples-to-apples with 2MP 16x9 at 30 ft, but still,
i'd hoped this cam could do better, given the touted low-light sensitivity.

even blasting 20W of external IR that way doesn't help much:
fe_detail.20180829_160352_6

I must be doing something wrong, but what? thanx.

video settings for good measure:
2231 config 2
 
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Exposure usually.

(edited) See below
 
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And I'm not sure about the 2231, but with my 5231s I can usually drop 3DNR down even lower than your current levels.
 
I just bought both a 2231 and a 5231 and got them mounted last week. I'm using the default set up on both except turning the IR off. The low light images from the 2231 are great but I get little more than a black screen from the 5231. The last week has been nearly a full moon and I was getting unbelievable shots off the 2231 but nothing from the 5231. The firmware on the 5231 is from March of this year the 2231 is a few months newer. Could upgrading that prove helpful?
 
@pozzello

Ignore that setting I suggested, that is for my LPR camera, will probably be too dark for you.

As @aristobrat points out, too much DNR creates blur as well....Exposure is going to be your main blur issue though. Try a faster shutter
 
exactly. how do i set a faster max shutter for night time without going all white-out during the day? thanx.
 
pozzello said:
exactly. how do i set a faster max shutter for night time without going all white-out during the day? thanx.
Click to expand...
I use the camera's separate day/night profiles and then have the DahuaSunriseSunset tool that someone here wrote (which runs as a service on a Windows PC) to switch the camera between the profiles. Some of the new Dahua firmware will switch the cameras between the profiles based on the light level detected.
 
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