Review: Dahua IPC-HFW71242H-Z - 12MP WizMind AI Bullet Cam

[Wildcat_1]

Review - Dahua Wizmind IPC-HFW71242H-Z

All

Thanks to Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) we have a new beast of an AI cam to test in exchange for a fair and honest review. This camera supports ANPR, Video Metadata along with regular Object Filtering (within Deep IVS), Face Detection (No Face Recognition Model in 12MP yet), People Counting AND People Queuing. For completeness, No SMD on this one. It also features the model specific mount which allows for audio via 3.5mm jack.

So what is this new beast, well its a 12MP 1/1.7” 71242H and guess what, it brings back 4x3 aspect ratio On top of this it supports a mammoth 5 streams (with actual usable sub-stream settings, more below) in parallel.

Link to this camera on Andy’s Amazon page - TO FOLLOW
Link to this camera on Andy’s AliExpress page - TO FOLLOW


Onto the specs

Camera Details

Image Sensor - 1/1.7”​

Effective Pixels - 4000(H) x 3000(V), 12 Megapixels​

RAM: 2GB​

ROM: 4GB​

Electronic Shutter Speed - 1/3s~1/100,000s​

Minimum Illumination​

0.01 @ F1.8​

IR Distance - Up to 60m (196.9 ft)​

IR On/Off Control - Zoom Prio/Manual/Auto​

IR LEDs - 4​

Lens Information

Focal Length - 2.7mm~12mm​

Max. Aperture - F1.8​

Angle of View​

H: 103° ~ 44°​

V: 75° ~ 33°​

D: 135° ~ 55°​

Close Focus Distance - 1.2m (3.9 ft)​

DORI Distance

Wide​

Detect - 93m (305.1 ft）​

Observe - 37m (121.4 ft)​

Recognize - 18m (59.1 ft)​

Identify - 9m (29.5 ft)​

Tele​

Detect - 205m (672.6 ft）​

Observe - 82m (269 ft)​

Recognize - 41m (134.5 ft)​

Identify - 20m (65.6 ft)​

Now What About These Multiple Sub Streams ?

This is a real nice addition to this cam. There are many times I’ve come across a need to access a sub-stream that I want high res and frame rate from to feed to a secondary application but have been hampered by a particular cameras abilities. This camera removes a number of those obstacles with a whole slew of sub stream options:

• Main stream: 4000 × 3000 @1-25/30 fps*
• Sub stream 1: 704 × 576@1-25fps, 704 × 480@1-30fps
• Sub stream 2: 1920 × 1080 @1-25/30 fps
• Sub stream 3: 1920 × 1080 @1-25/30 fps
• Sub stream 4: 704 × 576 @1-25 fps; 704 × 480 @1-30 fps

* Main stream also support 0/90/180/270 rotation IF you choose 1080p res or below

This means you can have your main stream to your NVR for example while pushing a 1920 x 1080 30fps (should you wish) to OpenALPR a home automation platform etc etc. Main stream has selectable bit rates to 16,384k and customizable to 17,664. Even Sub stream 2 & 3 you can even support up to 17k streams from each. VERY COOL !

Other Features This Cam Offers - AI

• IVS
• Face Detection
• People Counting / People Queuing
• Video Structuralization / Metadata
• ANPR (YES, like its former Ultra AI brothers & sisters this cam supports ANPR too)

Initial Notes

1. Important to remember these 7xxx series (formerly Ultra AI) have their own mount/junction box and you cannot use anything other than these for the bullet cam variants.
2. Throw out your old SD card as this cam will chew it up and spit out frames due to the size of the overall image and write speed required. Therefore if you do use an SD card in your cam (like I do in most except for special projects or dark sites) then now is the time to upgrade.

Initial Pics (cam pic taken on test rig before mounting)

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Datasheet Attached For Reference

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post#2 - Videos

Daytime Video Clips - Deep IVS Based

As usual, I kept the aspect ratio and resolution at native 4000 x 3000. Unfortunately I had to encode in h264 instead of leaving this in ProRes because YouTube flipped its **** when trying to upload 12GB Either way make sure you select 2880p (5K is the highest YT will display this at for now).

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post#3 - Night Videos

The all important night videos shot wide and in full zoom and in 1/60 + 1/100 with IR, no light and 1 x 60w bulb. Longer video due to the importance of night performance

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post#4 - AI Videos

Here is a Video Metadata clip, works well as expected. Nice touch on the 2nd clip where it tells you the frame color of the glasses ! The Face photo and 1 inch photo are blown up hence image degradation

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post#5

 

[Wildcat_1]

First AI Video (Video Metadata) uploaded to Post #4 and night time videos in Post 3. Remember you can access these at 2880p in YT.

 

[jd415]

Great review, thank you. Can you please post a full quality screenshot of the cam in action, I would love to zoom in to see the quality of a 12 MP cam and when it starts to pixelate. Thanks!

 

[Wildcat_1]

No problem, but whats better than 'a full quality screenshot' ? How about 8 Included a zoom and wide pics as well. These are taken in cam, quality at 6 (highest) and straight to SD card

Great review, thank you. Can you please post a full quality screenshot of the cam in action, I would love to zoom in to see the quality of a 12 MP cam and when it starts to pixelate. Thanks!

 

[unregistered guest]

Does your neighbor have a pet deer? I can see the velvet on it.

 

[zape]

will it work with a 4K NVR like NVR4108-8P-4KS2 ?

 

[m00st]

This camera is advertised as ANPR capable and is showing up on shops quite cheap.. Andy doesn't seem to have it in stock however. So the M$ question: does it truly do ANPR, like the HFW7442H-Z4 or the HFW7842H-Z ?

 

[Wildcat_1]

This camera is advertised as ANPR capable and is showing up on shops quite cheap.. Andy doesn't seem to have it in stock however. So the M$ question: does it truly do ANPR, like the HFW7442H-Z4 or the HFW7842H-Z ?

Yes this camera does offer ANPR

 

[AveryFreeman]

That thing is nuts. I noticed the dahua site says it's 16MP now. IPC-HFW71242H-Z

Did you try any of the AI features? Is a Dahua NVR required for those, or is there some way to use them with a PC-based VMS?

 

[Wildcat_1]

That thing is nuts. I noticed the dahua site says it's 16MP now. IPC-HFW71242H-Z

Did you try any of the AI features? Is a Dahua NVR required for those, or is there some way to use them with a PC-based VMS?

Yes I always put all AI features to test. With regards to your question about Dahua NVR, the answer is, it depends. As I've mentioned before, the Dahua AI algorithms are proprietary IP therefore you want to tap into on camera AI then YES you will need the Dahua AI NVR's that will be able to interface the true AI functionality of the cameras attached to them. This also allows metadata tagging by cam and reference by NVR from the associated stream. Using the cams this way also allows you to tape into on cam AI updates specific to algorithm enhancements that are not available downstream (outside of the Dahua Cam + Dahua NVR combo) due to these primarily targeting the on-cam AI processing. However, nothing stops you sending your raw stream from the camera into Blue Iris OR your platform of choice and then using 3rd party plugins to process the stream in an equivalent manner as you see fit. LPR/ANPR is a perfect example of where some people prefer to push through Plate Recognizer (Blue Iris), OpenALPR (cloud platform) or other systems like Milestone etc.

Either way, you have choices.

HTH and feel free to reach out with any questions. Just remember that per my post HERE, megapixels are not everything and not all cams are created equal.

 

[Parley]

That thing is nuts. I noticed the dahua site says it's 16MP now. IPC-HFW71242H-Z

Did you try any of the AI features? Is a Dahua NVR required for those, or is there some way to use them with a PC-based VMS?

The Lux tells the story. " 0.01 Lux @F1.8" from the data sheet at the link.

 

[Helheim]

How would you say this compares to the IPC-HFW7842HP-Z?

 

[Wildcat_1]

How would you say this compares to the IPC-HFW7842HP-Z?

For most people I would recommend the 7842 (unless you want / need a 4x3 aspect ratio of course) however the 7x42 Ultra series in general is still a very solid set of cams. However depending on your needs and special applications (ANPR, Face Recognition etc) there are other cams that may be a better fit. Take a look at some of my other new reviews and see if that helps. Any questions then as always just reach out or DM.

HTH

 

[obmozmoc]

Would it be possible to get some night shots @ max exposure time, without any additional light, without IR?

 

[nathanaelnewton]

I'm pretty new to the IP camera space, I've used some before but I want to make sure this camera would work with OBS?
I see it says it supports RTMP/RTSP so I assume I could just add it as a network media source?

 

[Data1]

Are there any examples of how this camera handles ANPR?