What are the best color low-light cameras? What should IPVM include in our test?

john-ipvm

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bigredfish

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bp2008

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@john-ipvm I recommend including one of these: IPC-HFW4239T-ASE (Full Color Starlight) as a weather cam

They are relatively inexpensive, and in my limited experience, a little better at very low light than the 4MP 1/1.8" cam from Dahua. Although I was testing at max exposure/gain and you would naturally be approaching this from a video security perspective.
 

mech

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Bosch NBN-80052-BA with a suitable lens for the distance, if you want niche.
 

john-ipvm

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Thanks for the feedback. Ethan, who leads our video surveillance testing, passed along the following:

Domes have historically been the most popular models installers use, which is the main reason we use them so much. In shootouts, we often prefer to go with domes for standardization, but we're using box and bullet cameras here, as well. The main reason we are using the Night Color dome here is that its specs are identical to the bullet (same lens, same imager, same minimum illumination, etc.) and there is no turret option.

Also, in large tests like this it's simply easier to aim and focus domes. Bullets tend to be more finicky about locking into place exactly where we intend, and when aiming 20+ cameras together that can add a lot of time when trying to standardize the field of view.

All that being said, if there were major spec advantages to a bullet model, we would absolutely test it. We also continuously reevaluate whether we should be testing more bullets/turrets, because like you mention, the segment of people who prefer them is growing.

>> Regarding that Dahua weather cam
I believe this model has been superseded by the Night Color line. It's what they used to call "Full-color Starlight", but it has a smaller imager and worse minimum illumination specs than the new series. Spec sheet is here, but it's not listed on Dahua's main site anymore.

>> Regarding the Bosch NBN-80052
We have talked with Bosch about what to use in this test and they did not recommend using the NBN-80052 because of its age. The new Starlight 8000i 1080p was what they suggested as their best overall, and the Starlight 8000i 6MP was roughly the successor to the 80052.

More feedback or questions, let us know, thanks!
 

bp2008

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Hmm, well the 1/2.8" 2MP sensor in my IPC-HFW4239T-ASE did better than a 1/1.8" 4MP sensor in IPC-HDW5442TM-AS when I tested the longest allowed exposures.

The "Night Color" version of the 2MP cam seems to have identical specs.
 

john-ipvm

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I'll let Ethan answer model specifics but we normalize exposure to 1/30s to minimize blurring of moving objects in testing.
 

Arjun

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Here are five particular models that come to mind,

IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ (4MP)
IPC-HDW5231R-ZEIPC (2MP)
HDW4231EM-ASE (2MP)
IPC-HFW1831E (4K)
IPC-HFW2831T-ZS (4K)
 
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