Thoughts on new camera; Dahua 42212TNI ?

marklyn

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I really need a really decent outdoor low light camera that will give me color in really low light conditions. This camera seems to meet my specs but I think it's pretty new. My main needs are POE, PTZ and I'm hoping to get a good clear image of someone from the sidewalk in front of my house (30').
I know this camera doesn't have IR but the specs seem like it would work well in my situation with a street light around 75' away.
Does anyone think this camera will do the trick?

2MP 12x PTZ – Dahua North America
 

marklyn

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Well I went ahead and made the purchase from B&H today @ $374. They take returns within 30 days so that will give me plenty of time to test out how well the low light feature does for my front yard/street. I am having a heck of a time finding a manual for this camera so if someone has good sleuthing skills, I'd appreciate the help.
 

flynreelow

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looks nice via specs, but we all know that domes dont work great outdoors for a plethora of reasons...



would love a review when u get it.. does Andy have an equivalent camera that he sells?
 

marklyn

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I haven't heard back from Andy yet due to the 2 week Chinese holiday but I can/will wait for him to return to see about another camera (SD59225U-HNI)
I know that domes can 'weather' over time but this one will be under the eve of my house; no direct sunlight.
Anything else obvious, problem-wise?
 

jmcu

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I have not had very good luck with no IR at night, even with a street light while in color mode, including the starlight cams.
As mentioned the domes can be a PITA, and not due to the weather.
I am sure you would be much happier with the SD59225U-HNI
Send @EMPIRETECANDY another e mail if he didn't respond.. he is a very busy guy but still works on the holidays.
 

marklyn

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I have not had very good luck with no IR at night, even with a street light while in color mode, including the starlight cams.
As mentioned the domes can be a PITA, and not due to the weather.
I am sure you would be much happier with the SD59225U-HNI
Send @EMPIRETECANDY another e mail if he didn't respond.. he is a very busy guy but still works on the holidays.
If you don't mind me asking, why do you think I'd be much happier with the SD59225U-HNI over the dome I've chosen?
They both had pretty much identical specs except the SD59225U did have 25x zoom instead of the 12x on the dome...
 

tangent

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I know this camera doesn't have IR but the specs seem like it would work well in my situation with a street light around 75' away
Nope, it won't work "well". Without more light it can probably capture some video that belongs in the movie tron but that's about it. It would however work very well indoors in locations like a store.

Domes will also have more issues with bugs, reflections, water spots, and dust.
 

jmcu

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I have a older dome without IVS and at night it wasn't that great without adding some IR illuminators.
Then the image was ok but that's about it.
I had it mounted under the eaves with a street light as well.

Although yours has the nice low light sensor, I am sure the image will be much better but it is still a dome.
For reasons mentioned above they can be a pain.

It may work fine for your needs, I just didn't have much luck with the dome and no IR at night.
nayr has posted some results of outside PTZ domes that look pretty good.
 
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marklyn

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I got my Dahua 42212TNI in early this morning and had it set up by early afternoon. Overall, I'm really liking this camera and for $374 I think it's doing the job I want it to do.
I do see that the dome aspect of it has a minor negative of light "artifacts". The camera is pointed in the direction of a street light so a few minor artifacts show up but only at night and it's very tolerable for me (see attachment).
I'm happy with the clarity during the day and the night with no IR seems to do a very decent job, for what I want it to do at this price.
Since I've never had Dahua before I am learning about the various features (IVS, etc.) and working with Blue Iris I have a few things to figure out (like PTZ control in Blue Iris!?)
Other than that I'm happy. Thanks for your input and if I have more reporting to do, I'll update later.
camera_artifacts.png
 

jmcu

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I'm glad it worked out for you, post some more samples when you get a chance.
 

jmcu

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I'm glad it worked out for you, post some more samples when you get a chance.
 

bp2008

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Nice camera. I have an older 2MP PTZ of that dome style (it predates the starlight models by a few years) on a front corner of my house and I really like having it. It does have a strict limit on how high it can point, due to the dome design, and whenever it rains the water runs down the bubble and leaves a streak until it dries out. And like yours, I get quite a bit of lens-flare type effects on it too. Even during the day if the sun is at the right angle. However the dome design means it is really hard for someone to look at it and know if it is pointed at them, so you don't feel like as much of a creeper if you follow someone with the camera. LOL

Have you played around with the sharpness setting at all? If you haven't, I think you would be surprised to see how much of a difference it is making in the video. Basically what the sharpness setting does is increase the contrast around edges in the scene, making them "pop" more. It is particularly obvious in grass and on the edges of trees, like in these places:



Actually the artificial sharpening is so strong at its default value of 50 that when I change it to 0 my immediate reaction is that the video just got worse. But once I get used to it at 0, I feel like it makes the image look much more natural.
 

marklyn

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bp2008, This cam is under an eve on the corner of my house so unless it is a windy rain it will mostly not get wet but still with a dome I do expect I'll have to wipe the dome from time to time. One of the reasons why I got a dome was that it hides which way the camera is pointing and there are a couple of neighbors next door and across the street that I'm suspicious about (late night stuff) so if I want to check them out or have the cam pointed in their direction, it's not noticeable. People warned me about the dome aspect and I understand but, still, for my needs the benefits outweigh issues associated with a dome.
I have played around with most settings, and a little bit with sharpness, which I turned up from (daylight profile) 50 to about 60, which so far works but I still have more tweaking to do on other settings.
One of the things I'm really liking the most is being able to set daylight vs night profiles such that daylight I can increase the shutter speed to catch fast moving objects (cars, etc.) with good detail. Then at night my night profile slows down the shutter and some other aspects to get better night vision. I'm still tweaking the daylight and night profiles but I'm getting there. All in all, I'm really loving this cam.
 

DmaxDually

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Marklyn,
I am also looking for low light PTZ to mount in the eve right above my garage about 8' high. My drive way is about 30' long and I have a street light right at the corner of my driveway. I am looking at this camera. Thank you very much for the pictures. Since it doesn't have any IR's I'm guessing the dome is clear not dark. I to don't people to know which way it is pointed or be able to see when it is moving. How close do you have to be to tell where it is pointed or moving? Can you take a picture of the camera? Thanks.
I am new to surveillance cameras and hope to learn a lot from this forum by reading and asking a lot of questions. That being said. I know how a lot of people feel about dome cameras and about the issues they have when mounted outdoors. Are these issue only common to residential installations?
I ask this because in my travels I notice the majority of outdoor cameras used in commercial environments like airports, parking lots, exteriors of building, etc are all domed cameras. Is it because they are very high end cameras costing thousands of dollars each?
 
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marklyn

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DmaxDually, My drive way is about 25+ ' as well and my street light is across the street, slight to right of driveway so there are a few minor light artifacts that show at night but nothing that is too bothersome for me.
The Dome is clear but the cam is black so even when it's moving and you're close to it, it's hard to see it pointing at you. At night it's impossible! It's raining today here but since it's under the eve it's pretty well protected from rain dripping down the dome but if it's windy and rain, I might expect some minor displeasure then. My next replacement will be on the other corner and will not be a dome enclosure, it will likely be the SD59225U-HNI or something with that same design, unless I can find another quality manufacturer of lowlight cameras but haven't so far.20180220_104411.jpg
 

DmaxDually

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Marklyn,
Thank you for taking the picture. I was also looking at the SD59225U-HNI. Andy has it on his website but it's a different model number, SD49225T-HN, but the specs seem to be the same unless I'm missing something. I watched a couple of YouTube videos of the day and night performance of the camera and I really like it. I think this will be my choice for my PTZ's. Here are the videos:


In this second video he forced the camera into color night mode. It is almost a 10 min video. At about the halfway mark a fire truck and an ambulance show up. There is a lot of flashing lights. In my opinion it really good test the cameras ability to focus and deal with the lighting conditions. It seems like a really good camera.

 

marklyn

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Dmax, the 49225 doesn't have auto tracking, but the 59225 does. I think that is the principle difference. That is the reason why I'm most interested in that model, I think I really want auto-tracking even though it's more expensive.
I should also mention that the 59225 has a heater, which I don't care about since I live in Texas.
 

DmaxDually

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Yeah, I live in FL. I know what auto tracking is but what does it actually do? What would be the benefit? Does the camera just keep constantly tracking and following cars, people and things that are moving pass the camera?
 
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