Wow, I had no idea about the other side of the equation. And locale, I’m new to the forum and I’m in the US. I asked earlier how many here were in USA because of the new test camera thread only visible from every other countries domains;
www.dahuasecurity.com
Vs
us.dahuasecurity.com
Many here are from the USA. We are fortunate to have a member here
@EMPIRETECANDY that has I think one of the best relationships a supplier has with Dahua and Hikvision.
Andy's cameras are Dahua and Hikvision OEM equipment sold under the names Loryta and Empiretech.
His cameras and NVRs are international models and many of them are not available through Dahua and Hikvision USA authorized dealers, but his cameras and NVRs are usually better than what you can find from an USA authorized dealer. They provide very limited models in the USA and many of them are not on good MP/sensor ratios either. Seem to have a lot of 5MP cameras.
Some of my cameras I have bought from Andy from his Amazon and AliExpress store come as Dahua cams in Dahua boxes with Dahua logos, and some are not logo'd - I think it depends on how many cameras Andy buys if he gets them with the Dahua Logo or not. But regardless, they are Dahua units. If you get a unit that has Dahua on it, then the camera GUI will say Dahua; otherwise it will simply say IP Camera but looks identical except without the logo. Some of his cameras may come with EmpireTech stamped on them as well.
You can update the firmware on Andy's cameras and NVRs from the Dahua and Hikvision website, thus proving they are real Dahua and Hikvision.
But you will find that the firmware we get from him is actually better and more recent than what is on the Dahua website because many members here provide feedback to Andy and then Dahua makes modifications to the firmware and sends back to him and then he sends out to his customers. These have been great improvements that Dahua doesn't even update their firmware and add to their website. So many of us are running a newer firmware than those that purchase Dahua cameras through professional installers. Smart IR on the 5442 series is one such improvement. Autotracking on the 49225 and 49425 PTZ is another. We got the next version of AI SMD 3.0 prior to anyone else as well.
Look at the threads here where members are actually testing firmware and improving it for Dahua - find a Dahua dealer with that type of relationship that Andy has with Dahua - I don't think you will find it.
And as you have seen, we have had at least 3 cameras brought to this forum before Dahua made it available anywhere else. So the world's first review of the cameras were done by members here.
Look at the Dahua 4k camera on the 1/1.2" sensor as an example - Dahua provided that to Andy for sale before Dahua even made it available and look at all the improvements being made to the firmware from input from customers right here on this site. And the kicker is, we are not Dahua's target market - it is the professional installers...
You do have to be careful with some rebranded cameras purchased from other vendors as they are cameras that are for the Chinese region but have been hacked into English but then are not able to be updated or they will brick. Buying from a reputable source is key to make sure that doesn't happen.
