Hot off the press, The Hookup ranks @EMPIRETECANDY T5842 as the best affordable camera if night time performance is the main concern. I still think he has flaws in his analysis trying to do to much with a camera and trying to get a further distance IDENTIFY out of it than the focal length is...
^what that person fails to realize is there is more "screen" material on the 8MP, so two cameras of different MP on the same size sensor will result in the higher MP having more opaque "screen" material that impacts how much light gets thru.
Use a Window for example. Which one is clearer to look thru the one with a screen or one without? The more holes a screen is produced with, the more material there is as well.