Lower end Dahua cam to be paired with flood light.

Batixxx

Batixxx

n3wb
Mar 11, 2025
7
1
Poland
Hi Forum!

I would like to ask for advise on choosing a lower end eyeball camera with IVS which will perform good enough to recognize a person at pitch black.
I'm not looking for superb low light performance (like 5442) - I'm looking for a cam which will do good enough to recognize a human and trigger an event which will in turn switch on some flood lights (standalone flood lights, triggered via Home Assistant)
Hopefully these flood lights will be bright enough to let the camera do a decent job at identifying a person from a couple of meters.
I currently have 2 older versions of 5442 varifocals that are positioned to monitor front of my house, but for the back, I would like to cheap out a little.
Any suggestions for such scenario?
I'm located in EU... in the less fancy part of it :D So I won't be able to buy anything from Andy..
 
How big is the area? 15ft or 115 ft?

The camera still has to be able to see the object.

What do you consider cheap?
 
At what distance to IDENTIFY and and what height for the cameras?

Most here find that cameras and motion activated floodlights ends up causing problems with image exposure and are bad for surveillance cameras.. What happens is then the camera is momentarily blinded and you lose the ideal capture when the lights kick on and the camera adjusts from basically no light to a lot of light.

Either keep the lights on all night or not at all to ensure the best chance of capture.

Here is usually what happens when a motion activated floodlight comes on - it just about completely blinds the camera right at the moment of optimal opportunity to get the picture. And a cheaper camera may not be able to adjust fast enough. The 5442 can do a decent job. There are 3 deer in this picture and two of them are lost in the blinded white while the camera's exposure adjusts to the rapid change in available light:

1665166487414.png




Or this example that completely missed the perp:

The Typical picture of a Perp on Nextdoor-type Apps with Consumer Grade Cameras like Ring, Nest, Arlo, Canary, Wyze, etc.
 
Thanks for the replies, I'll provide more details once I return home...
What I consider cheap is say, 60% of 5442 cameras (I know there are several models etc. But prices in Poland are much different than yours anyway :) )

I planned to have quite wide angle for these 2 cams and hoped they could motion trigger the lights when someone is quite far away already - only if they decide to approach the house and get closer to the cam, it would be nice if they can identify them (with the help of already lit light)

Area for one of the cams would be around 400m2 in square shape
For the other one it's about 300m2 rectangular (I'll provide some drawings / photos later)

I planned to use this setup to simply turn on the lights when I'm walking around the house too ... I assume it's better and easier to have an AI cam with perimeter set to trigger the lights, comparing to fiddling with classic motion sensor.

Later on I plan to have an alarm siren triggered by these cams, set on a schedule. I hope more for a deterrence effectiveness of this setup rather than being able to perfectly identify the perp.
 
^+1 this

Simpler and gives you all the goals you are looking for likely at less cost and certainly with less time!
 
I've read 'not so favourable ' opinions on these , especially on the deterrence lights. But thanks for the advice anyway.
I want to have the lights triggered by the cams not only when perp shows up, but also for my convenience :)
 
wittaj said:
^+1 this

Simpler and gives you all the goals you are looking for likely at less cost and certainly with less time!
Click to expand...
I'm surprised to see your reply. I've read your messages answering people who looked for deterrence cams, where you advised against these TiOC cams
 
Yes, we do not recommend the deterrence lights - those are a joke

But this camera can have the light come on for your convenience and for a perp.

And this allows you to not have to run any speakers and stuff. It is more than loud enough to get a perp attention without being a nuisance to you or your neighbors.
 
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Batixxx said:
I'm surprised to see your reply. I've read your messages answering people who looked for deterrence cams, where you advised against these TiOC cams
Click to expand...

See my other reply LOL.

Yes the deterrence is a joke, but this is the first TIOC type camera that is on par with performance with image performance of the 5442, yet has infrared and white light and a speaker, so it opens up more potential and use cases.

I still wouldn't suggest it for the red/blue lights LOL.
 
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wittaj said:
See my other reply LOL.

Yes the deterrence is a joke, but this is the first TIOC type camera that is on par with performance with image performance of the 5442, yet has infrared and white light and a speaker, so it opens up more potential and use cases.

I still wouldn't suggest it for the red/blue lights LOL.
Click to expand...
Got it! That makes sense.
I'll check how prices compare to 5442 in my area :)
I hope they won't blow me out my shoes xD
 
The only concernw ill be effective activation distance. I dont honestly know what that is. I know it activates at 15-20ft fine. Past that I dont have it in a location to test
 
Batixxx said:
Hi Forum!

I would like to ask for advise on choosing a lower end eyeball camera with IVS which will perform good enough to recognize a person at pitch black.
I'm not looking for superb low light performance (like 5442) - I'm looking for a cam which will do good enough to recognize a human and trigger an event which will in turn switch on some flood lights (standalone flood lights, triggered via Home Assistant)
Hopefully these flood lights will be bright enough to let the camera do a decent job at identifying a person from a couple of meters.
I currently have 2 older versions of 5442 varifocals that are positioned to monitor front of my house, but for the back, I would like to cheap out a little.
Any suggestions for such scenario?
I'm located in EU... in the less fancy part of it :D So I won't be able to buy anything from Andy..
Click to expand...

As other people said, You should look at TIOC-PRO line (like 3449H-AS-PV-PRO).
they have even better night performance that 5442, they have both IR + white light (where white light can be activated by Motion).

Official prices for TIOC-PRO in Poland are lower that 5442.
You can also order those from Andy (DM to @EMPIRETECANDY) at prices from EmpireTech IPC-Color4M-T 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP Smart Dual Light Active Deter

Andy delivers to Poland (I ordered many times) and he can send the cams in duty free way.
For details you can ask me by DM
 
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Hey guys!

One last question befor I order these cams.
With these TiOC cams, is it possible to set their siren off triggered by event coming from another camera? (Or alarm out from another camera?)
Lets say, non-TiOC cam notices a perp, triggers IVS event (or alarm out?) , and the NVR sets off siren on the TiOC camera - is this possible ?
 
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