Right back to square one :(

[tessellated]

I started another thread where I shared that I recently bought some Reolink cameras. In a nutshell, the feedback in that thread about Reolink cameras at night is true. Motion at night is blurry and choppy. I'm going to return the cameras. This is a big disappointment given their perceived value. 10 5MP cameras, three of which are PZT, and most having a built-in microphone for about $1000.

I must admit I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed now at the range of choices in front of me. I've looked a bit the welcome message from @SouthernYankee and his list of cameras is going to take some time to go through. I'm looking for equivalent cameras to what I purchased from Reolink.

Domes or bullets are ok. I very much would appreciate a turret-style PZT camera. Night-time performance is a must. I live out in the country and have a lot of perimeter to my house to cover. There are many doors and corners/blind spots. I definitely want to use Blue Iris and I have a 24 port PoE Unifi switch to power the cameras.

 

[sebastiantombs]

The goto camera for low light is the 5442 series from Dahua or the Darkfighter series from Hikvision. In both cases they use a 1/1.8" sensor. They will provide full color at night with some ambient light, street lights, posts lights, landscape lighting and so on, but unless you're willing to spend thousands per camera there are none, repeat zero, zilch, nada, that will provide full color in total darkness. The turret and bullet form factors are superior to a dome for a variety of reasons with dust and dirt being the major one.

Like @SouthernYankee says, read theWiki in the blue bar at the top of the page. Get one varifocal to start with and tests each location, day and night, with motion. A rule of thumb is that you need a shutter speed of 1/60 or higher, 16 milliseconds or higher, to eliminate motion blur under low light conditions no matter what brand/model the camera may be.

 

[wittaj]

I am glad you got to test them before installing and accepting them and then being stuck with them. They play a great marketing game and for the uninformed consumer (which is a big market), they play to them very well. And then those same consumers just accept that the night video is poor. Better to bite the bullet and get the right cameras - as @looney2ns likes to say "buy once cry once"

The list provided to you by @SouthernYankee in that other thread are a bunch of great cameras. Take the advice given there - get one varifocal camera and test it at all the locations you want a camera to help you figure out which cameras you need. Personally I am a fan of varifocals over fixed lens as it allows you to dial it in to the specific location.

You don't want equivalent cameras, you want better! @samplenhold posted a great comparison here of his camera versus a Ring camera, and most consumer cloud based cameras or "all in one kits" are going to be like this or worse: Looking for Learned Input

 

[tessellated]

I don't require full color at night. I have no problem with IR for night vision. Some areas of my property have decent lighting and others are pitch black.

I'll start looking at the 5442 camera. I had some Hikvision cameras in the past. They seemed decent but wow I hated the bizarre requirements the firmware placed on a browser for playback. I realize Blue Iris will largely solve this for me, but it's definitely an annoyance. Does Dahua also not play well with modern browsers?

 

[wittaj]

Even with not requiring full color at night, as you saw with the Reolinks (if they were in B/W) is that even with IR, you still need to be able to have access to the camera parameters that will allow you to give you an acceptable motion video at night and most of the "consumer" plug and play products do not allow that.

The newer Dahua cams seem to not have the browser issues, but yes they can suffer from the same issues.

And Blue Iris does not solve that issue as you still need to set up the parameters within the camera themselves.

 

[tessellated]

Even with not requiring full color at night, as you saw with the Reolinks (if they were in B/W) is that even with IR, you still need to be able to have access to the camera parameters that will allow you to give you an acceptable motion video at night and most of the consumer products do not allow that.

The newer Dahua cams seem to not have the browser issues, but yes they can suffer from the same issues.

And Blue Iris does not solve that issue as you still need to set up the parameters within the camera themselves.

Yes, I really see how tuning the cameras can vastly improve motion and image quality at night. I just got done watching a video of someone doing that with a 5442.

 

[tessellated]

Ok, so next dumb question: if I want to purchase one of the cameras from the list by @SouthernYankee ...where is the best place? What is the difference between Dahua and Loryta? A lot of these models look like they are rebranded?

 

[wittaj]

Purchase from @EMPIRETECANDY either direct or from his Amazon or Aliexpress store. Loryta and Empiretech are Dahua cams sold by Andy.

 

[tessellated]

Can I apply firmware updates to those cameras from Dahua, or am I running a risk of bricking them? I.e. are these gray market?

 

[sebastiantombs]

Loryta is the brand name Andy uses for Dahua OEM cameras sold on Amazon and a few other places. Loryta=Dahua with International firmware that can be safely upgraded if necessary. Best way to buy is directly from Andy and he offers a discount to IPCT members.

EmpireTech Andy

Dahua products

ipcamtalk.com

Andy Wang kingsecurity2014@163.com

Andy's Store

Amazon.com

 

[wittaj]

You can upgrade the firmware from Dahua site; however, Andy gets us firmware that is better than what Dahua publishes in many cases.

Look at the countless threads where folks here provided input to Andy and he went to Dahua and got changes made to firmware and provided to those that purchased cams from him and is better than what Dahua puts on their website.

 

[tessellated]

Thanks, fellas. I appreciate the quick responses. I'm going to place an order.