@chewie , I wouldn’t be too worried about potential HW issues as in my experience so far these appear to be limited in scope in this model. However, definitely something I recommend Dahua takes a look at and I’m positive will be addressed/resolved by them after further testing is concluded. I also intend to test further units for this as well.
In speaking with Andy and Dahua, what is more disconcerting to me is that Dahua appears to be removing / disabling the Auto Tracking feature as more of a differentiator so that customers buy up to the next model or in this case series to gain a feature that was included in the Lite series for a long while and at a lower price point. This means the price point of entry increases as well since the next series WITH Auto Tracking would be the SD59xx series coming in around $599/$699 entry (for something like the 2MP SD59232XA-HNR) and moving quickly to around $800.
As the units I’ve seen already had loaded (or I’ve personally upgraded to 11/21 FW) still have the Auto Tracking feature enabled my thoughts are that this is actually being disabled/removed at the HW level (certain build dates) on new stock
OR that Dahua is addressing the disabling of these features for certain serial number ranges in FW etc. Either way, disappointing.
What I am going to work on with Andy
@EMPIRETECANDY is to see if we can flash a ‘newer’ unit (that appears to have Auto Tracking disabled) back to older FW/PTZ control FW and re-enable it that way. If we can then great, if not then my fears of this being something more embedded at the HW manufacturing level or tied to serial may be true.
I’ve asked Andy to check his current stock (Amazon, Ali, Direct etc) of the 49225 I reviewed here to see what those are showing both in terms of firmware level and features and will provide an update once further testing concludes. If Andy
DOES have auto tracking enabled units left in inventory then I would
highly recommend anyone interested jump on these quickly, especially at the current $399 price point on his Amazon store. Again though, will confirm this and update here ASAP.
@Arjun , the 49425 is also having Auto Tracking disabled so the next step up is to move to the Pro Series where 4MP is available in the SD5A425XA-HNR which comes in around $800 (to the best of my knowledge) but does include the nice 1/1.8” 4MP sensor.
Again this doesn’t detract from the Lite PTZ’s being great cameras (especially with the new sensors) BUT always a shame to see a manufacturer remove a previously included feature which can be key to many looking for PTZ functionality when it appears its only to differentiate between series or models.
HTH all, will continue to update as more is ascertained on this change.