Out of the box bench testing in the basement, I am not seeing any focus issues in the sweet spot distance. It certainly doesn't have infinity focus range as some see in some fixed lens cameras (some cams are worse than others with too close or too far).
With enough light, I am not experiencing any splicing issues, but can see some when it is pitch black, so will try the calibration now.
Dual Lens Full Color has its advantages.
Because Dual Lens is Dahua full-color can set the fill light to infrared light.
When the light is insufficient, when the infrared light is turned on, the picture is still full-color.
Infrared light is used to assist the focus of F1.6 small lens.
When the human eye can’t see the color in the dark, HFW5449T1 can rely on the infrared light to give the correct color.
This is very suitable for people who don't want to turn on white light and want full-color images.
There is a ghosting problem in the dark, which is inevitable.
Because F1.0 will cause the focal length to run away when the light is below a value.
This is the physical principle of light refraction and cannot be avoided.
If this problem occurs, the best solution is to set the fill light to white light.
This camera has a new firmware which released at 12.20, i will send some guys to make a testing, if anyone want to try, can send me DM, i can send you to make some testing too.
Ok folks, I have spent some time playing with this new dual lens camera. @Wildcat_1 went into all the specs and details and did a wonderful comparison that I could never compete with, so here are my average Joe comments LOL.
I am shocked how little light is needed to get a color picture. This is a substream snapshot out of Blue Iris, but this is just with kitchen and family room light making its way outside through mostly closed blinds. I had to turn off all the lights for this evaluation LOL.
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I wasn't expecting this to produce that well in color with such little light. The 5442 would be a dark unusable color image. Although it is the same sensor size of the 5442, between the algorithms, better F-stop and dual lens fusion, this camera has a much easier time staying in color than the 5442. My results between the two cameras were comparable to what Wildcat experienced.
This is probably close to the 4K/X in terms of how little light is needed to produce a color picture.
For these tests, I ran H264, 1/100 shutter, 35 NR, 0-50 gamma, and 8192 bitrate and exported out of Blue Iris.
This first video was forcing it in color with ZERO ambient light and IR turned on at 15. Not that I expect anyone to try to run it this way, but I wanted to really push it and see what it could do.
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It makes an attempt at color, but I do not think anyone would run the camera in this setup, but does show the extents to which it will try to produce color. If you turn the IR up, then it performs comparable to any other IR camera as Wildcat demonstrated in his video, except you can take the flashlight and "colorize" portions that can get enough light. A perp walking around with a cellphone in their face could probably produce enough light to get a color face.
This next video shows the camera using just the lights from the camera. It was still dark out there to the naked eye and this image is much brighter than looking out with my own eyes. You can see that more dialing in would be needed as a person would get blinded out as they approach the camera. Easy fix. We like when we can speed up the shutter at night and can stay in color! Not many cameras we can say that about. Usually it is slowing the shutter down to keep it in color. I think this camera could stay brighter in lower light than the 4K/X due to the fusion of the dual lens.
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This next video shows 1800 lumen from two different locations coming off the 2nd story. Similar to above, some more dialing in would be needed to eliminate the blinding of an object up close. Again a good problem to have in being able to speed up the shutter at night in color!
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Still some dialing in to do, but Wildcat demonstrated this much better and how it can solve a problem of backlight behind the subject where any other camera would result in a black silhouette (like the 5442 did in his side-by-side).
In summary, one of the things I say to NOOB's that come here is that even a great camera used in the wrong place or situation will result in subpar performance. This camera is no exception and there are right applications for it, and some wrong ones.
I think this camera will work well in the following conditions:
An overview camera where IDENTIFY is not the primary purpose, but want the ability to obtain color video without a lot of ambient light. I can run this at a much faster shutter than other overview cams and get color with minimal/no blur.
A camera with light sources that are way in front of the camera and behind the person. Any situation where a backlight situation happens that would provide a dark/black silhouette. Perhaps an offset of a house where the floodlights would be well ahead of the camera. My last example and Wildcats are great examples of a situation that this camera would do very well in.
An area that you want color, have a little bit of ambient light, but do not want the LED camera lights on like what is needed for the 4K/X.
Those wanting a turret version for the smaller form factor.
At the end of the day, I think it is a toss up between this camera and the 4K/X. They both serve a purpose and have locations where one would be the better choice than the other. From a pure picture quality standpoint with each camera set up in their ideal location, I would lean a little towards the 4K/X at the moment in a little better clarity due to the larger sensor and more MP, but I think some firmware adjustments that Wildcat mentioned can probably close the gap in this aspect. But in any situation that I mentioned above that would favor this camera, I would have no hesitation with this dual lens camera.
At the end of the day, I am glad I have each camera and have placed each one at the location that allows it to perform its best.
Andy mentioned a new firmware is available for beta testing, and I just got a copy of it for testing, so I will try it out over the next several days.
As always, thanks to Andy for bringing us the newest tech first! It is awesome to be part of a community that can provide feedback to the manufacturer to improve the performance of their product in the types of situations that we use these cameras for, which in many instances are different than what Dahua intended them to be used for!
Pending firmware fixes, I could definitely use 3 of these. But like you I opted for the color 4K but I was only able to snag one...still need to pick up another.
I'm having trouble grasping the nuances of this camera. Are both lenses making a composite video, do I tune each separately (porch cam/package cam), etc? Guess I'm wondering WHY would/should I work this into my upcoming purchase from Andy? (Leaving some/all existing cams on old house and moving into new house in 4-6 weeks, got some choices to be made! )
Note-Im running Blue Iris now with:
6 turrets DH-IPC-HDW5231R-Z Varifocus
3 mini-domes (covered porches) DH-IPC-HDBW4231F-AS
1 bullet IPC-HFW5231E-Z12
I'm having trouble grasping the nuances of this camera. Are both lenses making a composite video, do I tune each separately (porch cam/package cam), etc? Guess I'm wondering WHY would/should I work this into my upcoming purchase from Andy? (Leaving some/all existing cams on old house and moving into new house in 4-6 weeks, got some choices to be made! )
Note-Im running Blue Iris now with:
6 turrets DH-IPC-HDW5231R-Z Varifocus
3 mini-domes (covered porches) DH-IPC-HDBW4231F-AS
1 bullet IPC-HFW5231E-Z12
It’s not like the Booby cam which has two cameras with separate channels…it’s a cam that splices together two different lenses views into one merged image…the pros of which are basically full time full color even in low lighting…
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I would say this camera takes a little more tweaking to get it right than most cameras. The newest firmware I think helped as well. Once you get it dialed in, the splicing issues pretty much resolve themselves.
After dialing it in, it really makes it a toss up between this camera and the 4K/X on picture quality. This camera still fills a niche that was needed as I mentioned above (if you have a backlight situation where the light is behind the subject or you want a turret form factor), but I think this video shows it can do very well in other situations as well.
At about the same distance, here was slight digital zoom of the 4K/X:
And the Dual Lens:
While the lettering of the 4K/X may be a little cleaner, I think it is more a function of the differences in the way the light was hitting the lettering. I think you see a little more detail with the Dual Lens and the color representation is a little more accurate, but that may be able to be further dialed in on the 4K/X after seeing thse side by side.
In the end I do not think you can go wrong with either camera when utilized in the right situation.
As I mentioned ruined in my wrap the benefit that Dahua is bringing to the portfolio is that there are now good choices of camera for each environment that complement your overall setup and most importantly each other and come in at a range of budget options. For example:
Dual Lens (Fixed) - Great for traditionally dark areas, benefits from a small amount of light, allows for color capture where possible and fuzed image ensures you don’t have to choose Color vs B&W but let the cam try and capture what it can in either.
Color4K-X (Fixed) - Phenomenally good at what it does, 4K in full color all the time with a larger sensor that benefits from extra light which also does not attract bugs !
5842 (Vari) - Benefits those with little to no light that want 4K quality but have to rely on IR. don’t want a ‘fuzed image’ as above but want low noise, usable caps
5442 (Vari) - A leader in its own right, well tuned at the 4MP/1.1/8” pairing and offering a cheaper option than the cams above with similar great quality and allows for traditional IR
Therefore, with the above cams + any speciality application requirements (LPR/ANPR, PTZ, Face Recognition, Access Control etc) you have some great cams available to you that suit most deployments. This also gives you the ability that I call out many times and that is to have a staggered setup of B&W vs Color cams covering a given area and gaining you both color (lost in areas only covered by IR) + details (lost in dark areas when capturing in color) which increases your chances of critical ID. It also increases your ability for good PTZ activation (if you’ve seen my posts on PTZ call to preset in single, triangulated or quad rollouts) as you’re improving quality of target acquisition by your non PTZ cam. All of this with a choice or blend of Turret vs Bullet and Fixed vs Vari cams to fit your needs.
Could you have done this before with older cams ? Absokutely, but now you have the ability to do it with a base of 4MP and up to 4K (now with very usable quality) + dual lens (for a peak of the future of blended/fuzed images) and it’s these additions that takes the options up a level IMO.
This is great to see that we are moving towards a more consistent (HW wise but FW needs work ), complimentary approach to cams in series and with less compromise as an end user or installer.
I would say this camera takes a little more tweaking to get it right than most cameras. The newest firmware I think helped as well. Once you get it dialed in, the splicing issues pretty much resolve themselves.
After dialing it in, it really makes it a toss up between this camera and the 4K/X on picture quality. This camera still fills a niche that was needed as I mentioned above (if you have a backlight situation where the light is behind the subject or you want a turret form factor), but I think this video shows it can do very well in other situations as well.
At about the same distance, here was slight digital zoom of the 4K/X:
While the lettering of the 4K/X may be a little cleaner, I think it is more a function of the differences in the way the light was hitting the lettering. I think you see a little more detail with the Dual Lens and the color representation is a little more accurate, but that may be able to be further dialed in on the 4K/X after seeing thse side by side.
In the end I do not think you can go wrong with either camera when utilized in the right situation.
I am trying to input your settings you have listed. Are you doing these changes via Blue Iris or via the Dahua log in page? I cant find where to set the shutter and gain settings you listed...Thanks..
I am trying to input your settings you have listed. Are you doing these changes via Blue Iris or via the Dahua log in page? I cant find where to set the shutter and gain settings you listed...Thanks..
Just found out about this camera. Still for sale? Was looking at the bullet 2.8mm version. Is the 2.8 still unavailable. I reached out to Andy of course but was checking here too. This thread died lol...
), complimentary approach to cams in series and with less compromise as an end user or installer.
