I got another 8MP Hik installed, this one with a 6mm lens. With the longer lens and more resolution, I positioned it further back from the location of the camera it replaces, which was an aging 3.6mm 3MP FuzzyCam (not really, but...). The scene it's looking at is one of the two paths prowlers usually approach from (down the sidewalk from the east or west) and they would be walking toward the camera, so I'm hoping this gets me some good close-ups when it counts.
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Forced-color mode at night
Above we got the Hik doing its Darkfighter thing at the following settings:
16Mbit/sec CBR
1/150th-second exposure
max gain at 90
BLC disabled
forced color
Contrast at 10 (this has the effect of brightening the dark areas without the use of WDR or other compensations that would reduce detail)
It's getting some light from a single LED porch light about 10 feet above the camera, partially through tree branches. As a general yardstick, you can contrast this with a 2231 at full AUTO, forced color, below, where the walking guy is basically a ghost.
(above: Dahua 2231 in full AUTO, forced color)
That one's a home run for the Hik over the Dahua, despite cramming 8MP into a 1/2" sensor (and at a forced 1/150th shutter, versus AUTO). It should not be able to pull this off with that little light, but it manages.
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Color mode, near dusk
Above: the Hik nearly at dusk, 1/200th shutter, I think I had Gain capped at 60, noise reduction low, no backlight compensation. Based on this, I should be able to get daytime IDs on people on the sidewalk, which its FuzzyCam predecessor was not doing well.
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Infrared mode
I tried out infrared mode since that's going to be of interest to most of us. There's a tree in the foreground which is illuminated by the white light from the overhead porch light, plus the camera's IR, and as a result the camera darkens the rest of the scene more than I'd like. Despite a relatively shallow angle of view, it also highlights the nearby ground that it's aimed at, which is inevitable.
To counteract those effects, one option is to (surprise) turn the IR down to minimum. Why not OFF? Because as far as I can see, there's no OFF setting. I don't see much change in the scene between Smart on or off.
Above, IR is minimized at a setting of 1 out of 100. I'm holding a brown cardboard box with a white label that has barcodes on it, to see whether that detail comes through.
This is at 1/150th shutter.
Above, IR is on Smart mode / Auto. I don't remember if HLC was enabled here, but it looks like it isn't. To me, it looks somewhat overexposed when I walk up to the camera, but I have that complaint about IR cams in general. You're walking up to a light source, what do you expect is going to happen? Yeah.
This is at 1/150th shutter.
mech's conclusion for this scene: for night mode, call me crazy but I think I like the forced-color sample best of any of these. With some more light, especially from further out in the scene, I could definitely improve the results... maybe I can sweet-talk the landlord into slapping a light on this side of the building. The other thing I'll have to deal with eventually, is when the tree grows leaves again and blocks that porch light.