When I saw the possibility of the Color-4k-X (5849) being available with a 6 mm lens I thought perfect! I want one! Or two or...
Then I started looking at the FOVs for this camera and other Dahua cameras with fixed 2.6, 3.6, and 6 mm lenses. I wanted to make sure the the FOV would be correct for my applications.
I created the following table where I calculated the HFOV and VFOV for 1/2.8, 1/1.8., and 1/1.2 inch sensors versus the three fixed focal lengths used by Dahua. I then added the FOVs from some Dahua data sheets. This is what I get:
Lens 
Sensor or Camera | 2.8 mm | 3.6 mm | 6 mm |
Sensor - (H, V) mm | FOV - (H, V) degrees | | |
1/2.8” - (5.57, 3.13) mm | 89.7 x 58.4 | 75.5 x 47.0 | 49.8 x 29.2 |
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE | — | 87 x 47 (Garage Left) | 54 x 20 (Corner) |
1/1.8” - (7.80, 4.41) mm | 108.6 x 76.4 | 94.6 x 63.0 | 66.0 x 40.4 |
IPC-HFW5449T-ASE-LED | 107 x 60 | 95 x 51 | 58 x 31 |
IPC-HDW5442TM-ASE | 113 x 60 | 89 x 48 | 56 x 31 |
1/1.2” - (11.14, 6.26) mm | 126.6 x 96.4 | 114.2 x 82.0 | 85.7 x 55.1 |
IPC-HFW5849T1-ASE-LED | 112 x 61 | 91 x 50 (Garage Right) | — |
Now I am confused as to what the FOV will be and what it actually is for my existing cameras. My calculations don't come close to what the data sheets show. Even worse, the FOVs don't increase as I would expect as the sensor gets larger. Look at the specs for the cameras with 3.6 mm lenses. Each camera has a HFOV close to 90 degrees (87, 95, and 91 degrees). The FOV should be increasing as the sensor gets larger (75, 95, and 114 degrees).
I don't expect the sensor sizes are wrong or that the lenses being used have enough distortion to have this effect. Could Dahua be using some sort of equivalent focal lengths, much like how digital cameras often use 35 mm film equivalents?
I compared the images from my 4239 and 5849 cameras on the sides of my garage. Both are supposed to have 3.6 mm lenses. The FOV of the 1/2.8" camera should cover exactly half of the image from the 1/1.2" camera - same size pixels, twice as many horizontally and vertically. Instead the 1/1.2" camera seems to have just a slightly larger HFOV, agreeing with the spec sheet.
Anybody else notice this and/or have an explanation?