Dahua Full Color

First post on here. I was wondering if people have experience with Dahua Full Colour cameras in low light? I am having a system installed at home and going for the Full Colour 5mp. I'm in the UK and live on a new build estate in the suburbs so not out in the middle of nowhere. Plenty of ambient light from streetlights etc. At the front of my house they will work well due to the street lights and should be the same down the side as light is reflected down there. However the back of my house backs onto some fields/woods and while there are houses either side of me there is nothing behind for about half a mile directly behind. Neither I nor my neighbours have outdoor lights switched on at night, I am thinking the lights on inside the house shining through the window will be more than enough but what about later at night for example when we are in bed and all lights are off. Will there be enough ambient light to allow the camera to work? The key thing I want to avoid is the having the inbuilt LEDs coming on as I think these look awful and make the camera very conspicuous. I suppose my question is how low can the light level be and the camera still work effectively at the back of my house. I know its hard to answer without knowing exact light levels. Its not pitch dark and once your eyes adjust you can see, its just there isn't any direct street lighting etc.

Thanks.

bemak187 said:

First post on here. I was wondering if people have experience with Dahua Full Colour cameras in low light? I am having a system installed at home and going for the Full Colour 5mp. I'm in the UK and live on a new build estate in the suburbs so not out in the middle of nowhere. Plenty of ambient light from streetlights etc. At the front of my house they will work well due to the street lights and should be the same down the side as light is reflected down there. However the back of my house backs onto some fields/woods and while there are houses either side of me there is nothing behind for about half a mile directly behind. Neither I nor my neighbours have outdoor lights switched on at night, I am thinking the lights on inside the house shining through the window will be more than enough but what about later at night for example when we are in bed and all lights are off. Will there be enough ambient light to allow the camera to work? The key thing I want to avoid is the having the inbuilt LEDs coming on as I think these look awful and make the camera very conspicuous. I suppose my question is how low can the light level be and the camera still work effectively at the back of my house. I know its hard to answer without knowing exact light levels. Its not pitch dark and once your eyes adjust you can see, its just there isn't any direct street lighting etc.

Thanks.

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Every camera indicates the technical value in B&W vs color in Lux as to what amount of light is required. Regardless, set up the camera and wait to see how well the camera can see without the aid of internal LED. Keep in mind almost all of the camera's allow you to define a schedule as to when it comes on and for how long.

Along with how bright the LED output will be . . .

If you find out later the camera needs more light consider installing any of a hundred solar powered LED light fixtures. Some operate only when motion is detected, while others offer two extra modes of always on at a lower (30%) dimmed value and goes to full (100%) brightness upon motion detection. Whereas others offer constant 50% dimmed output and 100% brightness upon detection.

Some solar flood lights also offer 100% brightness until the internal cells run out . . .

If you balance using such lighting technology you assure a one time investment while reducing long term energy costs. The obvious benefit is you can place them anywhere to balance not blinding your neighbors at 3:00 AM!

ALL cameras need light at night. Simple physics. Marketing a camera as low light and full color doesn't change that fact. As some folks are finding out, some of these cameras play with parameters that make them look nice and bright at night, but when there is motion, it is a complete blur and ghosting. I can make a crap camera look like noon at midnight by adjusting the parameters and make it look great as a still picture, but as soon as motion is introduced, it is blur and ghost city. How many perps will stop for 5 seconds so that your camera can get a clean shot of them...

If there isn't enough light, then you want to get a camera that has infrared, but then it will be B/W.

You would be surprised how much light these cameras need to stay in color at night (for the cameras that can switch to B/W with IR).

I have 33,000 lumen radiating off my house and I have to force the camera in color as it is not enough light for the camera to automatically stay in color at night. The sensors are small in cameras and need a lot of light.

I have enough light at this location that the white light on the camera didn’t make a difference. So with this 0-6ms shutter speed, I wanted to see if the camera could perform with only the white light from the camera and the flood light turned off. As you can see from this video, it never recognized me at these settings. You would need to run 0-12ms shutter with just the white light. You could also squeeze out 0-10ms shutter with higher gain.

Turning up gain or gamma would pick me up without introducing too much noise. A slower shutter would also allow it to pick me up.

Keep in mind that with the shutter at auto, it is a nice bright image, but motion was a blur...once you dial the camera in to actually be usable, you see the limitations...

start around post #90