Sharing My Thoughts on My IPC-HFW2831T-ZS Cams After 6 Weeks With Them

Wildcat_1

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I purchased 2 x IPC-HFW2831T-ZS cameras from @EMPIRETECANDY about 6 weeks ago and have had them installed for about 5. I was about to put together a review on these and then heard that @looney2ns may be receiving a unit (after I posted, see that he has in fact now received :) ) and will also be reviewing. Due to this I thought I would take a different tact and instead share my thoughts on these cameras from 5 weeks of daily use along with some pointers, discussion of issues seen, workarounds, potential use cases etc. This is going to be quite lengthy but hopefully helps others.

I don’t have a Youtube account so no vids yet but will look at adding some as well as some ID type of captures.



So here we go

First the specs:
  • 1/1.8” 8Megapixel progressive CMOS
  • H.265 & H.264 dual-stream encoding
  • 25/30fps@8MP(3840×2160)
  • WDR(120dB), Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
  • Multiple network monitoring: Web viewer, CMS(DSS/PSS) & DMSS
  • Micro SD card slot, up to 128GB
  • 3.7~11mm motorized lens
  • Max IR LEDs Length 60m
  • IP67, IK10(optional), PoE

Minimum Illumination
  • 0.004Lux/F1.9( Color,1/3s,30IRE)
  • 0.09Lux/F1.9Color,1/30s,30IRE)
  • 0Lux/F1.9(IR on)


Quick Notes on Available Configurations
  • There ARE 2 versions of this lens, 3.7mm to 11mm and 2.7mm to 16mmmm. Andy currently only stocks the 3.7 to 11 so my thoughts here are based on 2 of those that I purchased.

  • Audio (external to cam) is an option available with the IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS through external RCA jack and external mic power.

  • No turrets/eyeballs available yet only domes unfortunately (hope we see some 1/1.8” 4K turrets soon)

Installation Area

I have 1 mounted on the side of a house (pictured here pulling duty next to a 5231E-Z12E (2 different purposes) and another over a driveway (2nd pic). My driveway cam is currently a little high (will be dropping it down about 1.5 feet) while the side cam is positioned as a true overview cam.

On the driveway installation I use a number of cams but for this testing I have an 1831 on the other bay (3 car garage) which I purposefully run in color at night while the 2831 is in B&W. I also have next to the 1831 a Lorex 9232S (4K with audio) for comparative testing. Ideally want to switch the 1831 for a true Starlight to join my other cams in around the location once we see newer models to test against (turret with audio) and can review here.

The 2831 on the side is used strictly as an overview as I have other units in different locations pulling other duties.

Tried to make the installations looks as crisp as possible using conduit (painted to match trim) and junction boxes which I think help keep things nice and clean.


2831 over Driveway (Pic 1)

2831 Driveway.jpg


2831 on Side Next to 5231E-Z12E (Pic 2)

2831 next to 5231-Z12 - 3.jpg


Camera Performance

Day
  • During the day, the cameras really do shine and the extra resolution does allow more flexibility depending on your application, your need to zoom (after the fact when reviewing captures) and area in which these are installed.
  • Speaking of zoom the 3.7 to 11 was a little strange to me, personally I wanted the other lens which is more in line to what we’re used to seeing (focal length wise) from the 5231’s etc but these were not available at the time.
Day Pics - Driveway Cam


Driveway Day Car.jpg


Individual Walking By Day.jpg


Day Pics - Side Cam

Day Side 2.jpg

Side Day 2.jpg


Night
  • At night these cams do surprise you with how well they perform within reason. The cam on the side is in a completely dark (no light except for occasional IR flash from PTZ on tour, and as you can see from the image below does quite well. The problem is trying to balance a usable (motion blur free) image at night when light is at a premium for 4K sensors whereas Starlights really come into their element when the lights go out
  • One of the big problems with the 2831 (mentioned about the 1831 by @wopi82 in his excellent review) is the noise seen on the camera. This is noticeable during the day but even more so at night. Turning down the gamma, the noise reduction and increasing the bitrate (more on this in firmware section below) does help but it needs more. As wopi mentioned, the codec in place does not seem to be as efficient in crushing noise as in other cams like the 5831. Therefore you do find yourself making compromises with this cam trading shutter speed with available light vs noise. It would be great to see some work on future firmware here that a) allows higher bitrates to be set again to help compensate but b) ultimately look at improving the codec algorithm of this camera and its future releases to assist in this area.
  • Night is where its important to point out that the biggest compromises with this camera take place. At night with the light situations I mentioned you will find it hard to push shutter speeds above 250 (and that is stretching it based on distance) which depending on your use may be an issue (motion blur on cars etc). I find that 1/120 is about the sweet spot in the lighting situations I am in currently.
  • Therefore a huge takeaway here is that these 1/1.8” sensor cams still absolutely need light and a lot of it at night. In comparison to the Starlight 5231’s and the SD6CE225 PTZ, these cams still play second fiddle to them at night.
  • Also worth pointing out, I see a difference between the 1/2.5” vs the 1/1.8” in some of the other 4K models such as the 5831 (have a few of these as well) and earlier versions of the H265 lite series.
Night Pics - Driveway Cam - Illuminated by 2 x 4000 Lumen Bulbs

Car Driving Past At Night.jpg



Early Morning Pic - Still Using Night Profile Settings

Individual Walking By.jpg





Night Pics - Side Cam - No Light Except Occasional IR Splash From PTZ On Tour

Car At Night Side Cam.jpg


Side Night 2.jpg

Issues
  1. SD Card Errors In Cam / Compatibility
    The biggest concern I have with these cameras at this time is the issue with SD cards. A number of us use these for secure backup / dual recording and in some installations that’s a hard set requirement. I’ve had issues on both of these cams since day 1. Specifically within 20 minutes to 6 hours the camera will throw out Hot Swap Remove / Hot Swap Insert entries in the log and lose sight of the SD cards. They never see the cards again unless you reboot. I’ve tested the following cards below and all have the same issue which leads me to believe this is either a flaky card reader on the cam board (maybe down to build revision) OR more likely a firmware issue as seen with the 5231. I’ve reported this to Andy & Dahua and provided logs and information so this may be resolved in future FW. For reference, the issue still exists in all 3 FW’s I mentioned below and have tested thoroughly against.

  2. Codec Efficiency & Noise
    As mentioned above, this definitely needs work. Could workaround in allowing higher bitrates to mitigate albeit that is not the end solution. Codec algorithm needs to be looked at by Dahua and compare to the 5831 which handles noise much more efficiently.
  3. Camera Adjustment Mechanism

    This is a minor one in the grand scheme of things but having to adjust the camera with 3 separate screws is a pain in the a**. The adjustment mechanism on the 5231 bullets is way better. Hopefully Dahua doesn’t adopt the 3 screw adjustment for future cams.

SD Card Issue & Testing

Over the past 5 weeks I’ve tested with a number of cards (listed below for reference). My card of choice usually (and have these running in my other cams successfully) is the Samsung Evo Select 128 however the 2831’s do NOT like these at all. I’ve tested through all firmware, I’ve formatted outside vs inside cam, tried different cables etc and no joy. I’ve finally found just 1 card that offers some hope with these cameras below

You can read more about my testing and issues with the SD cards on my other thread if interested - Anyone Else Seeing Memory Card Issues With Dahua IPC-HFW2831T-ZS's ?

Fail Consistently With Hot Swap & Disk Errors Only in 2831 - 20 minutes to 9.5 hours (longest before failure)
  • Samsung EVO Select 128 - 6 different cards tested, 4 brand new, 2 being used in other cams without issue
  • Samsung Plus 128 - 4 cards tested again each of these brand new and work fine in other cams
  • Toshiba M303 (replacement for the M302) - 1 card tested

Cards That Have Not (currently running for 4 days) Had Any Errors - Hoping These Will Remain Working After The Disk Fills Completely. This one and the Toshiba are the newest to the test pool but the Toshiba has issues almost immediately.
  • Samsung Pro Endurance 128
Firmware Can Make A Difference !

I’ve tested the following 3 revisions of firmware extensively over the past 5 weeks and there are some observations I wanted to share
  • 2.622 with build date 7/31/18 - The only 1 of the 3 that allows you to set a 15k bitrate (useful in helping with the noise issue), seems to have less issues with SD Cards (although still present)

  • 2.622 with build date 11/02/18 - This and the FW below can only have their bitrate set to 11264, although close to 15k I still found more noise in this FW

  • 2.622 with build date 01/09/19 - Not as stable as the first 2 from an SD card perspective (didn’t like a larger number of cards), again cannot exceed 11264k bitrate, saw more instances of Disk Errors in this FW.

Use Cases

So with everything said, who are these cams for in my opinion. Well that really depends on your installation

Primarily these are phenomenal, day time, overview and even focused cams (albeit hard to have these directly in the face as they are bullet cams). They allow for great facial quality when target is close to camera and therefore good recognition ability. They are also flexible with the vari lenses which I know a lot of us love for initial positioning.

For night time, these are better still IF there is enough white light OR IR illumination in the area of installation HOWEVER I feel I need to point out (as I know we’ve all spoken about before) that these are by NO MEANS Starlight replacements…….YET

I say YET because these 4K cams have come a long way. Personally, owning and using the following 4K models below I think these 1831/2831s are the best available in this class at this time. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for a ton of improvement such as:
  • Available models such as turret
  • Onboard audio
  • Improved codec to reduce noise
  • Improved firmware for SD card compatibility issues
  • Higher bitrate options (definitely needed for 4K content)
  • Improved optics in time to allow for Starlight designation and performance

Other 4K Cams I Own & Use (in addition to the other Starlights and further cams)
  • Lorex LNB-9232S
  • Lorex LNB-8963B
  • Dahua IPC-HFW5831-ZE
  • Dahua IPC-HFW1831E
  • Dahua IPC-2831T-ZS

Summary

If you are looking for a great night time camera (and don’t have a ton of available light) then augment these (for day use) with the 5231s (or similar) for now. If you are looking for a great day time image, overview cam OR can make a bullet cam work in the installation area for true Face ID then consider adding a 1831/2831 to the mix. Understand the caveats I mentioned above and you won’t be disappointed.

As with others, I am waiting for a 2831 Turret/Eyeball with audio (a 5231R-ZE equivalent if you will) so that I can blend them in a little better plus give me the audio I look for (like to have 1 audio cam on each side of an installation). Also this firmware needs a lot of refinement and hoping that with the help of @EMPIRETECANDY that we can get some of this fixed with Dahua.

Hope this helps those considering these cams, hopefully we will have further choice in this line and others from Dahua this year.

Let me know with any questions

1 last pic of a photo bombing bird for your enjoyment (this one is cropped). Got so close it couldn’t focus :)

Bird.jpg
 
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aristobrat

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Also worth pointing out, I see a difference between the 1/2.5” vs the 1/1.8” in some of the other 4K models such as the 5831 (have a few of these as well) and earlier versions of the H265 lite series.
Could you please talk a little more about this?
 

Tampy

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I have an IPC-HFW2831TP-ZS that I will be deploying soon. I greatly appreciate this info and the tips for increasing the bit rate to negate some of the picture noise.

Tampy
 

Wildcat_1

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@Tampy

Glad this was useful. just remember that for now if you want the option of 15K bitrate you will need to stick with (or downgrade to) 2.622 with build date 7/31/18. @EMPIRETECANDY Andy, can we see if we can have Dahua unlock the higher bitrate again in newer firmware for the 2831. 15k bitrate really is beneficial on this cam if not slightly higher but if we can at least have Dahua unlock 15k as they did with the 7/31 firmware that would be great. Please let us know. Appreciate your help as always !

I have an IPC-HFW2831TP-ZS that I will be deploying soon. I greatly appreciate this info and the tips for increasing the bit rate to negate some of the picture noise.

Tampy
 

Wildcat_1

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@mat200 I have you to thank for the original suggestion to me of using junction boxes all those months back, really do like the flexibility and 'finished' look they give most installations. Thank you !

Thanks @Wildcat_1

Very nice looking setup

Like that bird picture!
 

Wildcat_1

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@aristobrat

Thanks for your question and certainly happy to go into more detail just please keep in mind this is from my personal findings only.

Just quickly wanted to point out for completeness that cams such as the 5831 or Lorex LNB-8963B max out at 15fps (14 with WDR enabled) vs 30 / 25 with the 1831/2831. It is a difference so wanted to make sure all were aware and while no one may really ’need’ 30fps it is nice to have the extra headroom especially due to losing some fps with WDR which people do rely on in challenging daylight conditions etc.

Now lets get into the differences I’ve seen personally. When you look at the images from a 5831 and the Lorex LNB-8963B (I’ve had mine in the same locations that I placed the 2831s as well as other more well lit locations) the initial takeaway is that they provide a very pleasing image. When you dive deeper I’ve found that a lot of that ‘pleasure’ is gained from the superior noise reduction of the 5831 codec rather than over picture quality improvements. However when you compare side by side with the 2831 you start to see that the 5831 also doesn’t appear as detailed an image (not as crisp, lacking some detail) to start with. Therefore application of any noise reduction (whether 3D NR in UI or through the codec itself) only starts to degrade (in the case of the 5831 I see it soften slightly) the image further. You could draw the conclusion that maybe there is some form of image sharpening (even when everything is turned off) happening in cam for the 2831 but that would normally lead to less detail due to ’fuzzy’ edges and an over processed image where the 2831 does not show this therefore appears to be a more detailed, crisp image period.

With that said, you will notice some chromatic aberration (color fringing) to the 2831 when using things like WDR* or over processing in the UI for things like turning contrast or saturation way up. This is less present in the 5831 so although not related directly to image sharpening etc wanted to mentioned it for completeness of findings.
*Side note: remember to ideally not exceed 30 in general for WDR unless you want forensic style WDR, I personally keep this between single digits and max out at 20 when I need it

I also noticed that there appears to be a lot more detail in the base image (NR turned off, no backlight processing on etc) of the 1831/2831 that I found more noticeable when looking at edges, high to low contrast areas, moving color (grass situations) etc. Lastly in night scenes (and you’ve seen the challenging lighting I have in these 2 locations) detail in the dark areas are lost a little more on the 5831 before applying gain. I’ve found the 2831 certainly seems to capture more detail in the darker areas before applying any processing, gain etc on top. Talking about gain, when moving to the higher end of the gain spectrum I find the 1831/2831’s do a better job of not killing contrast or black level while still being able to open up further detail. Some of this can be attributed to the difference in EV values seen on top and bottom end (and documented for the 1831 extremely well by WOPI) BUT the real-world end result for me was that the final 2831 image even with high gain overall looks better (more contrast, slightly sharper) than the 5831.

Again I have to caveat though that you have to be careful in what the 2831 gives you in return for this which as I stated above is noise. Its a problematic noise at low bitrates but can be somewhat mitigated as I mentioned before. There’s also frame pulsation that exists even higher up in the bitrates (such as the 15k possible in the 7/31). This is less noticeable on the 5831. Don’t get me wrong, the cam gets better at leveling things out the higher you push the bitrate BUT work still needs to be done on the firmware / codec side to help with this noise in real world situations.

As I mention in the reply to Tampy, in my opinion 7/31 is the best firmware now (currently) even if primarily for the 15k bitrate and (more stable in my testing) SD card compatibility. I am asking Andy to see if Dahua will unlock the higher bitrates in the latest firmware as well due to the fact that for the 4K applications bitrates lower than 15k can be problematic when noise is present. This is my opinion only but compare if you will the 5231R-ZE (HD) which has a bitrate max of 40960 (v2.800 3/25/19 FW) to the now capped (in 01/09 FW) 2831 (4K) of 11264. Not to say you need it that high but again its nice to have the option especially for 4K that we all know can be tough to work with. If the image was cleaner (through more efficient codec etc) then you might be able to get away with a slightly lower bitrate but unfortunately its not at this time.

Just for reference, here are the specs of the 1/2.5” 5831 and the Lorex cam as well

IPC-HFW5831E-ZE
1/2.5” 8 Megapixel progressive scan STARVIS™ CMOS
H.265&H.264 dual-stream encoding
ESS - 1/3 to 1/100000
15fps@4K(3840×2160),25/30fps@3Mp(2304×1296)
Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
2.7mm ~12mm motorized lens
IR LEDs - 4
Max Aperture - f1.4
FOV - H110 to 40
SD Card Slot

Lorex LNB-8963B
What I can glean from the cam (Lorex isn’t great for providing details)

1/2.5” 8 Megapixel progressive scan CMOS
H.265&H.264 dual-stream encoding
ESS - 1/3 to 1/100000
15fps@4K(3840×2160),25/30fps@3Mp(2304×1296)
Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
WDR (100DB)
2.78mm ~12mm motorized lens
IR LEDs - 4
Aperture - F1.8 to 2.88
FOV - H102 to 39
No SD Card SLot



HTH

Could you please talk a little more about this?
 

Wildcat_1

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SD Card Links for reference

These are not an affiliate link of any type so feel free to click through. Just wanted to share links to the cards that didn’t work along with those that lasted longer and the one card that seems to be working (for now) so all knew exactly which ones to potentially avoid etc:

Did Not Work Reliably In My Testing (Disk Errors / Hot Swap Events)

Worked Longer (9.5 hours before first error) But Still Ended Up With Disk Errors / Hot Swap Events

Still Working (4 days and almost at the point of being full so hoping overwrite will go ok)

If the Samsung Pro Endurance continues to do well I may just look at upgrading my other Evo Selects in other cams to these for peace of mind. Hoping Dahua can potentially resolve some of this quirkiness in FW etc as stated.
 
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mat200

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Wildcat_1

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All

Quick update RE: SD Cards. I decided to give the Toshiba Exceria M303 1 more go and it did last a little longer (2 days) but once again then suffered the Disk Error, Hot Swap Errors. Therefore this card will be going back. That leaves the only card (from the ones I tested and listed above) that is (for now) still working being the Samsung Pro Endurance. This still has not gone into overwrite mode yet (about 1GB to go) so will report back if anything changes then but for now this has been running for 7 days.

@EMPIRETECANDY Andy, please keep us updated on your conversations with Dahua on the firmware for this camera due to the issues /quirks with SD cards we've discussed. Please also see if they will unlock the bitrate again in the latest firmware at least back to 15104 (that was present in the 7/31 firmware) or ideally higher rate. Thanks again for your continued help with this !
 

Wildcat_1

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All, just a quick update that @EMPIRETECANDY posted a new firmware update for these cams (4K starlight Series Firmware Update 20190404). I already updated 1 of the 2831's so can confirm this does work smoothly. There are 2 SD card fixes plus a DVRIP crash supposedly fixed by this new FW and I'm hoping to see this solve some of the issues I mentioned. Unfortunately this FW is still capped at the lower 11264 bitrate which is a shame due to the noise seen on the codecs in these cameras currently. Hopefully we can get the bitrate unlocked so it at least matches the 15104 in the 7/31 FW. For now will keep 1 cam on 7/31 while I test on the new 04/04 FW. Will report back

BTW on the 7/31 FW, 1 cam still working on the Endurance Pro SD card now approaching 2 weeks.
 

Wildcat_1

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Quick update here, the remaining cam (that had not lost SD card) running an Endurance Pro finally lost the card after 3 weeks. Therefore I now have had both cams running the new 4/4 FW for about 1 week. So far both cams running Endurance Pro cards have been stable. I am going to test these out to the 3 weeks that I did the last to ensure clean and as a good marker for the test based on prior experience with the cards. I will then plan on re-testing the Evo Select & Toshiba Exceria's that all got lost by the camera quicker (hours to a couple of weeks max) and see if this also allows them to be used trouble free now for completeness.
 

MikeyTech8

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I purchased 2 x IPC-HFW2831T-ZS cameras from @EMPIRETECANDY about 6 weeks ago and have had them installed for about 5. I was about to put together a review on these and then heard that @looney2ns may be receiving a unit (after I posted, see that he has in fact now received :) ) and will also be reviewing. Due to this I thought I would take a different tact and instead share my thoughts on these cameras from 5 weeks of daily use along with some pointers, discussion of issues seen, workarounds, potential use cases etc. This is going to be quite lengthy but hopefully helps others.

I don’t have a Youtube account so no vids yet but will look at adding some as well as some ID type of captures.



So here we go

First the specs:
  • 1/1.8” 8Megapixel progressive CMOS
  • H.265 & H.264 dual-stream encoding
  • 25/30fps@8MP(3840×2160)
  • WDR(120dB), Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
  • Multiple network monitoring: Web viewer, CMS(DSS/PSS) & DMSS
  • Micro SD card slot, up to 128GB
  • 3.7~11mm motorized lens
  • Max IR LEDs Length 60m
  • IP67, IK10(optional), PoE

Minimum Illumination
  • 0.004Lux/F1.9( Color,1/3s,30IRE)
  • 0.09Lux/F1.9Color,1/30s,30IRE)
  • 0Lux/F1.9(IR on)


Quick Notes on Available Configurations
  • There ARE 2 versions of this lens, 3.7mm to 11mm and 2.7mm to 16mmmm. Andy currently only stocks the 3.7 to 11 so my thoughts here are based on 2 of those that I purchased.

  • Audio (external to cam) is an option available with the IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS through external RCA jack and external mic power.

  • No turrets/eyeballs available yet only domes unfortunately (hope we see some 1/1.8” 4K turrets soon)

Installation Area

I have 1 mounted on the side of a house (pictured here pulling duty next to a 5231E-Z12E (2 different purposes) and another over a driveway (2nd pic). My driveway cam is currently a little high (will be dropping it down about 1.5 feet) while the side cam is positioned as a true overview cam.

On the driveway installation I use a number of cams but for this testing I have an 1831 on the other bay (3 car garage) which I purposefully run in color at night while the 2831 is in B&W. I also have next to the 1831 a Lorex 9232S (4K with audio) for comparative testing. Ideally want to switch the 1831 for a true Starlight to join my other cams in around the location once we see newer models to test against (turret with audio) and can review here.

The 2831 on the side is used strictly as an overview as I have other units in different locations pulling other duties.

Tried to make the installations looks as crisp as possible using conduit (painted to match trim) and junction boxes which I think help keep things nice and clean.


2831 over Driveway (Pic 1)

View attachment 41623


2831 on Side Next to 5231E-Z12E (Pic 2)

View attachment 41622


Camera Performance

Day
  • During the day, the cameras really do shine and the extra resolution does allow more flexibility depending on your application, your need to zoom (after the fact when reviewing captures) and area in which these are installed.
  • Speaking of zoom the 3.7 to 11 was a little strange to me, personally I wanted the other lens which is more in line to what we’re used to seeing (focal length wise) from the 5231’s etc but these were not available at the time.
Day Pics - Driveway Cam


View attachment 41621


View attachment 41620


Day Pics - Side Cam

View attachment 41624

View attachment 41627


Night
  • At night these cams do surprise you with how well they perform within reason. The cam on the side is in a completely dark (no light except for occasional IR flash from PTZ on tour, and as you can see from the image below does quite well. The problem is trying to balance a usable (motion blur free) image at night when light is at a premium for 4K sensors whereas Starlights really come into their element when the lights go out
  • One of the big problems with the 2831 (mentioned about the 1831 by @wopi82 in his excellent review) is the noise seen on the camera. This is noticeable during the day but even more so at night. Turning down the gamma, the noise reduction and increasing the bitrate (more on this in firmware section below) does help but it needs more. As wopi mentioned, the codec in place does not seem to be as efficient in crushing noise as in other cams like the 5831. Therefore you do find yourself making compromises with this cam trading shutter speed with available light vs noise. It would be great to see some work on future firmware here that a) allows higher bitrates to be set again to help compensate but b) ultimately look at improving the codec algorithm of this camera and its future releases to assist in this area.
  • Night is where its important to point out that the biggest compromises with this camera take place. At night with the light situations I mentioned you will find it hard to push shutter speeds above 250 (and that is stretching it based on distance) which depending on your use may be an issue (motion blur on cars etc). I find that 1/120 is about the sweet spot in the lighting situations I am in currently.
  • Therefore a huge takeaway here is that these 1/1.8” sensor cams still absolutely need light and a lot of it at night. In comparison to the Starlight 5231’s and the SD6CE225 PTZ, these cams still play second fiddle to them at night.
  • Also worth pointing out, I see a difference between the 1/2.5” vs the 1/1.8” in some of the other 4K models such as the 5831 (have a few of these as well) and earlier versions of the H265 lite series.
Night Pics - Driveway Cam - Illuminated by 2 x 4000 Lumen Bulbs

View attachment 41618



Early Morning Pic - Still Using Night Profile Settings

View attachment 41617





Night Pics - Side Cam - No Light Except Occasional IR Splash From PTZ On Tour

View attachment 41629


View attachment 41628

Issues
  1. SD Card Errors In Cam / Compatibility
    The biggest concern I have with these cameras at this time is the issue with SD cards. A number of us use these for secure backup / dual recording and in some installations that’s a hard set requirement. I’ve had issues on both of these cams since day 1. Specifically within 20 minutes to 6 hours the camera will throw out Hot Swap Remove / Hot Swap Insert entries in the log and lose sight of the SD cards. They never see the cards again unless you reboot. I’ve tested the following cards below and all have the same issue which leads me to believe this is either a flaky card reader on the cam board (maybe down to build revision) OR more likely a firmware issue as seen with the 5231. I’ve reported this to Andy & Dahua and provided logs and information so this may be resolved in future FW. For reference, the issue still exists in all 3 FW’s I mentioned below and have tested thoroughly against.

  2. Codec Efficiency & Noise
    As mentioned above, this definitely needs work. Could workaround in allowing higher bitrates to mitigate albeit that is not the end solution. Codec algorithm needs to be looked at by Dahua and compare to the 5831 which handles noise much more efficiently.
  3. Camera Adjustment Mechanism

    This is a minor one in the grand scheme of things but having to adjust the camera with 3 separate screws is a pain in the a**. The adjustment mechanism on the 5231 bullets is way better. Hopefully Dahua doesn’t adopt the 3 screw adjustment for future cams.

SD Card Issue & Testing

Over the past 5 weeks I’ve tested with a number of cards (listed below for reference). My card of choice usually (and have these running in my other cams successfully) is the Samsung Evo Select 128 however the 2831’s do NOT like these at all. I’ve tested through all firmware, I’ve formatted outside vs inside cam, tried different cables etc and no joy. I’ve finally found just 1 card that offers some hope with these cameras below

You can read more about my testing and issues with the SD cards on my other thread if interested - Anyone Else Seeing Memory Card Issues With Dahua IPC-HFW2831T-ZS's ?

Fail Consistently With Hot Swap & Disk Errors Only in 2831 - 20 minutes to 9.5 hours (longest before failure)
  • Samsung EVO Select 128 - 6 different cards tested, 4 brand new, 2 being used in other cams without issue
  • Samsung Plus 128 - 4 cards tested again each of these brand new and work fine in other cams
  • Toshiba M303 (replacement for the M302) - 1 card tested

Cards That Have Not (currently running for 4 days) Had Any Errors - Hoping These Will Remain Working After The Disk Fills Completely. This one and the Toshiba are the newest to the test pool but the Toshiba has issues almost immediately.
  • Samsung Pro Endurance 128
Firmware Can Make A Difference !

I’ve tested the following 3 revisions of firmware extensively over the past 5 weeks and there are some observations I wanted to share
  • 2.622 with build date 7/31/18 - The only 1 of the 3 that allows you to set a 15k bitrate (useful in helping with the noise issue), seems to have less issues with SD Cards (although still present)

  • 2.622 with build date 11/02/18 - This and the FW below can only have their bitrate set to 11264, although close to 15k I still found more noise in this FW

  • 2.622 with build date 01/09/19 - Not as stable as the first 2 from an SD card perspective (didn’t like a larger number of cards), again cannot exceed 11264k bitrate, saw more instances of Disk Errors in this FW.

Use Cases

So with everything said, who are these cams for in my opinion. Well that really depends on your installation

Primarily these are phenomenal, day time, overview and even focused cams (albeit hard to have these directly in the face as they are bullet cams). They allow for great facial quality when target is close to camera and therefore good recognition ability. They are also flexible with the vari lenses which I know a lot of us love for initial positioning.

For night time, these are better still IF there is enough white light OR IR illumination in the area of installation HOWEVER I feel I need to point out (as I know we’ve all spoken about before) that these are by NO MEANS Starlight replacements…….YET

I say YET because these 4K cams have come a long way. Personally, owning and using the following 4K models below I think these 1831/2831s are the best available in this class at this time. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for a ton of improvement such as:
  • Available models such as turret
  • Onboard audio
  • Improved codec to reduce noise
  • Improved firmware for SD card compatibility issues
  • Higher bitrate options (definitely needed for 4K content)
  • Improved optics in time to allow for Starlight designation and performance

Other 4K Cams I Own & Use (in addition to the other Starlights and further cams)
  • Lorex LNB-9232S
  • Lorex LNB-8963B
  • Dahua IPC-HFW5831-ZE
  • Dahua IPC-HFW1831E
  • Dahua IPC-2831T-ZS

Summary

If you are looking for a great night time camera (and don’t have a ton of available light) then augment these (for day use) with the 5231s (or similar) for now. If you are looking for a great day time image, overview cam OR can make a bullet cam work in the installation area for true Face ID then consider adding a 1831/2831 to the mix. Understand the caveats I mentioned above and you won’t be disappointed.

As with others, I am waiting for a 2831 Turret/Eyeball with audio (a 5231R-ZE equivalent if you will) so that I can blend them in a little better plus give me the audio I look for (like to have 1 audio cam on each side of an installation). Also this firmware needs a lot of refinement and hoping that with the help of @EMPIRETECANDY that we can get some of this fixed with Dahua.

Hope this helps those considering these cams, hopefully we will have further choice in this line and others from Dahua this year.

Let me know with any questions

1 last pic of a photo bombing bird for your enjoyment (this one is cropped). Got so close it couldn’t focus :)

View attachment 41615
Nice review Wildcam :D. May I ask what NVR you're using? Also, how much did Andy offer you for the camera? I do plan on getting this camera too haha.
 

Wildcat_1

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Mikey, I run a number of different setups and use various to test. Specifically devices like a BI server, Lorex NR908x NVR, Dahua NVR4108-4KS2.

Nice review Wildcam :D. May I ask what NVR you're using? Also, how much did Andy offer you for the camera? I do plan on getting this camera too haha.
 

Wildcat_1

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Updating this thread too. Both cams (on latest 4/4 FW) are now 17 days in (without SD card drop). Still testing to the 3 week mark first with the Endurance Pro cards then will switch to the others as mentioned.
 

kbonnel

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In your setup, did you utilize H.265 or H.264? I just got an 1831 and I am having some strange issues when I try to use H.264 with Blueiris. The issue being that most of the time I can't get an image to show up in both the Camera web page, or Blueiris 5. If I switch to H.265 / 8192bitrate everything works fine it seems. Sometimes I can get H.264h to work (h.264h is what I usually use with my dahua cameras) at 8192 bitrate, but it seems that my bitrate fluctuates drastically from the low 400kB/s all they way to 2500kB/s when it works at all. This is my first 4k camera (the reset of 2MP Dahuas), so maybe h.264 doesn't work well? I am using the latest 20190404 firmware. When I am using h.265 hardware encoding is off, but that doesn't seem to be an issue as my CPU is usually around 25 - 35%.

Just wondering if I got a bum camera (ordered it from Andy's amazon store, where I get all my cameras :). but before I send it back to get another 2MP cam I figured I should do more research.
 

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@Wildcat_1 I notice in the specs for this camera (IPC-HFW2831T-ZS) that it says "Smart IR - support" . However, I do not see this anywhere in the settings...by any chance do you see this?
 
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Wildcat_1

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@Wildcat_1 I notice in the secs for this camera (IPC-HFW2831T-ZS) that it says "Smart IR - support" . However, I do not see this anywhere in the settings...by any chance do you see this?
@MikeyTech8 unfortunately not, the 2831 has AUTO for IR which as we all know is not the same as SmartIR. I know @EMPIRETECANDY is working with Dahua on getting SmartIR updated in FW for the x5442 series and hopefully he is, or can, pursue having Dahua enable Smart IR for the x831 series as well. @EMPIRETECANDY Andy, if you could let us know about this would be great and if you need me to setup a remote session or gather any data points (like you did for the x5442 model) then please let us know. Thanks as always
 

MikeyTech8

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@MikeyTech8 unfortunately not, the 2831 has AUTO for IR which as we all know is not the same as SmartIR. I know @EMPIRETECANDY is working with Dahua on getting SmartIR updated in FW for the x5442 series and hopefully he is, or can, pursue having Dahua enable Smart IR for the x831 series as well. @EMPIRETECANDY Andy, if you could let us know about this would be great and if you need me to setup a remote session or gather any data points (like you did for the x5442 model) then please let us know. Thanks as always
Ah that's a pity. Yep, hopefully @EMPIRETECANDY does work on getting SmartIR into the 2831 as the specs for the 2831 clearly says "SmartIR = Support" which is what we customers who bought the 2831 should be getting, so Dahua/Andy has to make it SmartIR available :D .
 
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