Review-Dahua IPC-HFW1831C-PIR 4k Mini Bullet

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,898
Reaction score
21,252
View attachment 41135 View attachment 41136

Agreed absolutely, it isn’t the same camera. It is annoying that the light doesn’t stay on for more than 10 s.
I emailed Lorex as to why there isn’t any user adjustment on this.
I wouldn’t say the camera is crap as it actually has decent night and day image quality for what it is.
For some simple situations wifi is all a person needs, ie watch the baby or dog or basic front door monitoring. Not everyone wants to run ethernet and/or run aN NVR or BI.
It’s a convenient little camera with local storage and no forced cloud/3rd party subscription.

Also included a couple of pictures:
My garage with zero ambient lighting.
My backyard.
Yes, not everyone wants to, then Murphy comes to visit. Any camera can be made wifi, there is no reason to buy a subpar camera simply because of its wifi function.
 

looney2ns

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
15,525
Reaction score
22,658
Location
Evansville, In. USA
View attachment 41135 View attachment 41136

Agreed absolutely, it isn’t the same camera. It is annoying that the light doesn’t stay on for more than 10 s.
I emailed Lorex as to why there isn’t any user adjustment on this.
I wouldn’t say the camera is crap as it actually has decent night and day image quality for what it is.
For some simple situations wifi is all a person needs, ie watch the baby or dog or basic front door monitoring. Not everyone wants to run ethernet and/or run aN NVR or BI.
It’s a convenient little camera with local storage and no forced cloud/3rd party subscription.

Also included a couple of pictures:
My garage with zero ambient lighting.
My backyard.
Do you expect the bad guys to come through the garage ceiling?
 

ScooterGeo

n3wb
Joined
Mar 22, 2019
Messages
22
Reaction score
18
Location
Saskatoon, Canada
Ha ha, nope. :)
That was just a temporary camera location for testing and should be pointed down more.
The IR illumination pattern and low light quality seems decent for a consumer level camera though.
I have a Lorex system and a 5231R-ZE coming from Andy which I will be testing.
I may end up sending the Lorex 4K turret system back and getting everything in need from Andy.
Cheers,
 

concord

Getting comfortable
Joined
Oct 24, 2017
Messages
663
Reaction score
739
@Cameraguy, thanks for the clip. The IR on the cam looks good, before the cam light comes on. Did you have any other lights turned on at that time?
 

Cameraguy

Known around here
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
Messages
1,485
Reaction score
1,122
@Cameraguy, thanks for the clip. The IR on the cam looks good, before the cam light comes on. Did you have any other lights turned on at that time?
No that was ir then the motion light on house kicked on to turn camera to color mode
 

Alan Carter

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 25, 2018
Messages
119
Reaction score
47
Couldn't get it to change to color, without manually forcing it.
Here is the steady spot light test with post lamp on and off. At closest, I'm about 5-6ft away.

Just re-watched, looks really washed out. Would it be fair to say this camera is bought for the white light and alarm feature (to scare off) rather than image capture? I really like those latter features, but am on a tight budget so want to be sure(R)!

A.
 

looney2ns

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
15,525
Reaction score
22,658
Location
Evansville, In. USA
Just re-watched, looks really washed out. Would it be fair to say this camera is bought for the white light and alarm feature (to scare off) rather than image capture? I really like those latter features, but am on a tight budget so want to be sure(R)!

A.
My sample is with the cam at factory defaults. It can be adjusted, all cams need to be. And yes, @Cameraguy example has MUCH more light.
The only other light in my scene is from 7.5 watts of LED light in the lamppost.
 
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
san diego
also wifi is crap.
also wifi is crap. are you saying all wifi is crap or just the lorex cam?

also since " Any camera can be made wifi, there is no reason to buy a subpar camera simply because of its wifi function" how would you go about doing it for this cam and at what cost? how about with a 4 wire twisted pair telephone cable? any ideas there? I can't pull it out and change to cat 5 because there is a junction box hidden somewhere...I hear it might or might not be possible for a short run to use two pairs of telephone cable...what do you think?

as for putting in new cables, its kinda hard in concrete blocks that are completely filled in with concrete. drop ceilings are ok but then changing floor levels is kinda tough. The electrician got the other 4 cameras right with cat 5e in conduits, but messed up on the front door camera. Currently using 3mp wifi bullet with 12 volt power through telephone cable to wall wart.. NVR is on second floor. Would like a camera with real wdr not d-wdr as short street light (lower than door cam) shines on front door and I have to tilt camera down so it is not washed out. suggestions welcome otherwise I may try the 1080p wifi cam.
adapt, improvise, overcome...
thanks
 

Attachments

EMPIRETECANDY

IPCT Vendor
Joined
Nov 8, 2016
Messages
8,262
Reaction score
23,731
Location
HONGKONG
also wifi is crap. are you saying all wifi is crap or just the lorex cam?

also since " Any camera can be made wifi, there is no reason to buy a subpar camera simply because of its wifi function" how would you go about doing it for this cam and at what cost? how about with a 4 wire twisted pair telephone cable? any ideas there? I can't pull it out and change to cat 5 because there is a junction box hidden somewhere...I hear it might or might not be possible for a short run to use two pairs of telephone cable...what do you think?

as for putting in new cables, its kinda hard in concrete blocks that are completely filled in with concrete. drop ceilings are ok but then changing floor levels is kinda tough. The electrician got the other 4 cameras right with cat 5e in conduits, but messed up on the front door camera. Currently using 3mp wifi bullet with 12 volt power through telephone cable to wall wart.. NVR is on second floor. Would like a camera with real wdr not d-wdr as short street light (lower than door cam) shines on front door and I have to tilt camera down so it is not washed out. suggestions welcome otherwise I may try the 1080p wifi cam.
adapt, improvise, overcome...
thanks
Wifi one not very stable, but if your place really hard of wire, then can use wifi, professional cams all are wired one, not wifi.
 

Cameraguy

Known around here
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
Messages
1,485
Reaction score
1,122
also wifi is crap. are you saying all wifi is crap or just the lorex cam?

also since " Any camera can be made wifi, there is no reason to buy a subpar camera simply because of its wifi function" how would you go about doing it for this cam and at what cost? how about with a 4 wire twisted pair telephone cable? any ideas there? I can't pull it out and change to cat 5 because there is a junction box hidden somewhere...I hear it might or might not be possible for a short run to use two pairs of telephone cable...what do you think?

as for putting in new cables, its kinda hard in concrete blocks that are completely filled in with concrete. drop ceilings are ok but then changing floor levels is kinda tough. The electrician got the other 4 cameras right with cat 5e in conduits, but messed up on the front door camera. Currently using 3mp wifi bullet with 12 volt power through telephone cable to wall wart.. NVR is on second floor. Would like a camera with real wdr not d-wdr as short street light (lower than door cam) shines on front door and I have to tilt camera down so it is not washed out. suggestions welcome otherwise I may try the 1080p wifi cam.
adapt, improvise, overcome...
thanks
I had no way to run cat cable to front porch (well its probably possible but alot of work fishing)so had to use wifi. Wifi signal was terrible from router so I had to place a wifi extender directly below the db11 .. wifi is last resort and I would never use unless only option
 

Attachments

Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
san diego
Thanks, that's my situation near impossible to run a neat cable to front area and not worth the effort or cost. The little 3 mp bullet works ok with wifi, I have but didn't need án extender. Signal went through concrete block and up to second floor with no problems. Good picture in daytime, not so clear at night. My main problem is a short streetlight at night throws light at my front door and front door cam, washing it out unless I tilt camera down. i could ummm put something around the street light, maybe a dark film like window tint on the part that shines on my door to tone it down a little. I plan on putting a brighter dusk to dawn and motion detect light in the roof over the front door where there is currently a small switched porch ceiling light and see if that helps or hurts. I do have 3 cat 5e wired cams in front (a little too high up but usable) that cover the yard, driveway and street but not clear enough to identify faces at night. Deterrent is my main goal as there are very few problems at this house. It is in a small gate guarded project and all vehicles are recorded coming and going from the project as well as roving patrol 24 hours. A few burglaries seem to have been crimes of opportunity, a door left open or tool or other items left unattended in yards outside the houses.
 

Attachments

karl1980

Young grasshopper
Joined
May 13, 2019
Messages
43
Reaction score
2
Location
europe
Hi,

new to the forum and some questions

- is it the latest version?
- which Dahua NVR is compatible?
- if no NVR? only SD storage? cloud? costs?
- advantages of BI
- does it come with a home/away function like Nest products? Example; playing in the garden and not getting dozen alerts..
- if 2 or more configured, do they communicate? if 1 alarm goes off, the other one also, same with the light.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,898
Reaction score
21,252
Hi,

new to the forum and some questions

- is it the latest version?
- which Dahua NVR is compatible?
- if no NVR? only SD storage? cloud? costs?
- advantages of BI
- does it come with a home/away function like Nest products? Example; playing in the garden and not getting dozen alerts..
- if 2 or more configured, do they communicate? if 1 alarm goes off, the other one also, same with the light.
Its like every other dahua camera. It is compatible with any dahua nvr. Cloud is for complete suckers who want to pay someone to waste their bandwidth.
There are a million threads on blue iris.
You will need to start with reading the cliff notes.
Nest is garbage, if that is what you are looking for, this is not for you.
 

karl1980

Young grasshopper
Joined
May 13, 2019
Messages
43
Reaction score
2
Location
europe
Its like every other dahua camera. It is compatible with any dahua nvr. Cloud is for complete suckers who want to pay someone to waste their bandwidth.
There are a million threads on blue iris.
You will need to start with reading the cliff notes.
Nest is garbage, if that is what you are looking for, this is not for you.


Hi Fenderman

noted your remarks. Just ordered 2 of these cam via our Empiretecandy (btw top service and delivery within 3days and no customs issues). I just have an issue with finding the right NVR. As per Dahua site not all NVR are compatible with the Pir camera. Or would any 4K Dahua NVR do?
 

aristobrat

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
3,180
@karl1980, I don't have any first-hand experience with this camera on a Dahua NVR (I use Blue Iris), but I would imagine that there's a high chance that the PIR alarm in this camera signals alarms to the NVR the same way that other Dahua cameras that have external alarm inputs signal. I would be surprised if the PIR sensors of this camera didn't work with the average Dahua 4K NVR.

@EMPIRETECANDY, @looney2ns ... any thoughts?
 

EMPIRETECANDY

IPCT Vendor
Joined
Nov 8, 2016
Messages
8,262
Reaction score
23,731
Location
HONGKONG
@karl1980, I don't have any first-hand experience with this camera on a Dahua NVR (I use Blue Iris), but I would imagine that there's a high chance that the PIR alarm in this camera signals alarms to the NVR the same way that other Dahua cameras that have external alarm inputs signal. I would be surprised if the PIR sensors of this camera didn't work with the average Dahua 4K NVR.

@EMPIRETECANDY, @looney2ns ... any thoughts?
OK, i will make a checking for this, thanks.
 

karl1980

Young grasshopper
Joined
May 13, 2019
Messages
43
Reaction score
2
Location
europe
@karl1980, I don't have any first-hand experience with this camera on a Dahua NVR (I use Blue Iris), but I would imagine that there's a high chance that the PIR alarm in this camera signals alarms to the NVR the same way that other Dahua cameras that have external alarm inputs signal. I would be surprised if the PIR sensors of this camera didn't work with the average Dahua 4K NVR.

@EMPIRETECANDY, @looney2ns ... any thoughts?

Hi Aristrobrat

thx for the quick reply.
Does BI support all the Pir functions of this camera?
 
Top