Have you considered the 4K/X sold by
@EMPIRETECANDY here. He sells to Australia as well and many members are here from Australia and can vouch for his pricing and service?
The 4K/X is the most popular 1/1.2" camera and doesn't seem to get as many complaints about quality at night as the other "full color" type cameras.
Do a search here. Many have not been impressed with the Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-LU. Keep in mind that any camera called "full color" or "night color", etc. still require light. They are not magic and do not defy physics. Many people have come here after buying the Hikvision ColorVu series expressing their disappointment in the picture quality of the camera because they were expecting magic. If you do not have ambient light outside, you are better off with cameras that can see infrared. Further, it's onboard white LED lights are not as bright as the 4K/X. There seems to be more complaints about the Hik version at night than the 4K/X.
What about adding some additional landscaping lighting - this cam is awesome and with minimal light will do great. External lightning will have new power cable and new installation, cost lot of time and extra money. Not everyone like light at night. So select a good cam is very important...
ipcamtalk.com
Stay away from the Dahua IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV 8MP. This active deterrence camera is an 8MP on a 1/2.8" sensor, so it is on a horrible MP/sensor ratio. You cannot have enough light at night for it to perform well.
Even worse, this 8MP is on the same sensor and CPU as a 2MP non TIOC camera and there are many threads here showing how under-performing that 3849 is. They had to limit bitrate and other parameters on the 3849 to try to make it functional, and it just doesn't cut it.
In my opinion the 3849 should not be sold with that current MP/sensor and CPU combination, but alas everybody wants 4k and chases MP over sensor and this camera is the epitome of that thinking.
Further, the red/blue flashing lights are more gimmicky and are certainly not a deterrent. With any ambient light you won't see the red/blue flashing unless you are looking right at the camera.
If you want active deterrence, your best bet is to go with the 2MP IPC-T5241H-AS-PV that will blink the white light. This is on the ideal MP/sensor ratio and will perform comparably to any similar 2MP fixed lens camera by Dahua. I have two of them. I have some of the other active deterrence cams as well, and would opt for the 2MP in every instance except for indoor, one could go with the IPC-HDW3449HP-AS-PV that has the red/blue lights that will bounce off the walls and be much more impressive than outside.
Lot's of threads here where people showed how bad the 8MP camera is in performing:
IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV issues
I put this guy up and for some reason, and I can put my finger on it, this picture just looks strange. The grass kind of looks like digital or something. The camera is on the default settings but I feel like I have tweaked most of them. Any suggestions? IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV is the camera.
IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV loses connection/reboots during the day
I have a IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV (8MP, Full-color night, 1/2.8” CMOS (3840 × 2160) @20 fps). I also have several IPC-HDW5831R-ZE, IPC-HDW2831T-ZS-S2 , and IPC-HDW4431C-A. The IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV disconnects and reboots during the day, I have no issues during the night. It's my only cam that has this...
Replaced HDW5442TMP-ASE by HFW3849T1P
Hello everybody! I replaced my favourite camera HDW5442TMP-ASE with new HFW3849T1P and I came accorss that HDW5442TMP-ASE has much better picture than newer one. I replaced it because HFW3849T1P 8MP instead of HDW5442TMP-ASE 5Mp and HFW3849T1P is TIOC (three in one camera). I didn't expect so...
Dahua 8mp (TIOC): Full Colour, Active Deterrence & AI
Dahua 8mp (TIOC): Full Colour, Active Deterrence & AI now for sale in UK. I wish they had the Image Sensor: 1/1.8" and a F1:0 lens as I would be all over this. SPECIFICATION Model Number: IPC-HFW3849T1P-AS-PV-280 CAMERA Image Sensor: 1/2.8" Progressive CMOS Effective Pixels : 3840 x 2160...
IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV Video Quality
Hi All, I have recently installed Dahua IPC-HDW3849H-AS-PV, 2.8mm (8MP, full color, active deterrence) cameras. The overall video quality is good but I cannot read number plate for cars passing down the road (approx 11 meters away) or identify people properly. Is it the expected behavior? What...
Stay completely away from Reolink unless you do not care about getting any details and only care about what time something happened. Lot's of threads on their performance here. A lot is summarized in this thread:
Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...
ipcamtalk.com
So, let's take a look at this night video from a Reolink.
This person has incredible light and streetlights. Here is a freeze frame capture from that camera of a vehicle traveling maybe 10-15ish MPH under the streetlight, so about as ideal as you can get. Looking at this picture one would think it was middle of the day because their is so much light, but it was middle of the night 1am. Look at all that blur. I can tell it is a white car, but cannot tell make/model or if it is even a 2 or 4 door.
I have nowhere near the light quality this person has at night. Here is a capture from my Dahua OEM camera at middle of the night 2am with no streetlights and just the floodlights off my house at about 15ish MPH:
I can make out color, how many doors, make, model, etc.
The only way this is possible is by having a camera with the proper focal length for the distance one wants to cover, proper MP/sensor ratio, and a camera where you can manually change the parameters and the camera actually adheres to your settings.
Many cameras like Reolinks and other cheapo cams let you "set" the parameters, but the camera will override any user settings the the camera believes are in error because those cameras algorithms are written to provide a nice, bright,
STATIC image over anything else. I have a cheaper camera that lets me "set" the shutter. If you set a shutter for 1/10,000 at night, the image shouldl be pitch black. But nope, the image still looks nice and bright because the cheapo camera internally says "user error on the shutter speed" and makes it what it wants it to be for a nice bright image...
