Something better than IPC-HFW8232E-Z?

sebastiantombs

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The 5442 comes in fixed focal length with IR or as a "full color" model with white light LEDs to maintain color at night.
 
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is turret preferred then?
That would depend on the application. I mostly go for turrets as they are less conspicuous outdoors. But some folks really want the cam to stand out and a bullet definitely screams "security camera in use".

You need to be a little more clear on your terminology. The '5442 without zoom', I take that to mean you are talking about the fixed lens versions of the 5442?

So I have two turret 5442 cams. They are both model numbers IPC-T5442TM-AS. These are fixed lens versions. One is a 2.8mm and the other is a 6mm lens. They both have IR.

What @sebastiantombs stated is true. But I have not paid attention to the LED one as I have no interest in a cam with lights on it. I also cannot give an opinion on Hik cams as I have not ever used one.
 

Justintoxicated

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That would depend on the application. I mostly go for turrets as they are less conspicuous outdoors. But some folks really want the cam to stand out and a bullet definitely screams "security camera in use".

You need to be a little more clear on your terminology. The '5442 without zoom', I take that to mean you are talking about the fixed lens versions of the 5442?

So I have two turret 5442 cams. They are both model numbers IPC-T5442TM-AS. These are fixed lens versions. One is a 2.8mm and the other is a 6mm lens. They both have IR.

What @sebastiantombs stated is true. But I have not paid attention to the LED one as I have no interest in a cam with lights on it. I also cannot give an opinion on Hik cams as I have not ever used one.
I can't seem to find the 5442 cam's on Dahuas website. I found this thing, but not sure where it fits in?
 

sebastiantombs

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Look on the "International" Dahua site, not the US site. The US distributor doesn't always have the latest and greatest. Alternately, look at Empiretecandy on Amazon or Empiretech on Alibaba. Worst case, find the canned response from @SouthernYankee and links are there as well.
 

Justintoxicated

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That would depend on the application. I mostly go for turrets as they are less conspicuous outdoors. But some folks really want the cam to stand out and a bullet definitely screams "security camera in use".

You need to be a little more clear on your terminology. The '5442 without zoom', I take that to mean you are talking about the fixed lens versions of the 5442?

So I have two turret 5442 cams. They are both model numbers IPC-T5442TM-AS. These are fixed lens versions. One is a 2.8mm and the other is a 6mm lens. They both have IR.

What @sebastiantombs stated is true. But I have not paid attention to the LED one as I have no interest in a cam with lights on it. I also cannot give an opinion on Hik cams as I have not ever used one.
Thanks I wasn't even looking at this one until you sent me a model number since I can't find them on Dahuas website.
.
I might go for one of those above and maybe get the bullet camera with zoom. (Curretly using a IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E ) to zoom in on my gate where I get packages etc. But this camera tends to freeze up. I wonder if there is a hardware update for it.

Someone said there is a version that goes down to an F-stop of one though?

Also the cameras I have now are:

IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E $216.00
ipc-hfw8232e-z $315.00

Should I replace one or both? I'll probably just mount them in another location though. I don't know what else I would do with them I don't think there is much of a market for used cameras?
 
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bullet camera with zoom
Are you talking about a PTZ? What do you mean by 'with zoom'? Have you read the Cliff Notes? The IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E is a varifocal cam. Varifocals are not meant to have their FOV changed at will. They are meant for you to find the FOV for the job it is doing and then left at that setting. If yo keep changing that FOV, yes it will freeze up. Ultimately you will wear out the motor.

Do like @sebastiantombs said and use the links in @SouthernYankee canned response. Search this site for those cams. Search this site for the word 'review' in the title and the reviews of cams will be listed.
 

Justintoxicated

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Are you talking about a PTZ? What do you mean by 'with zoom'? Have you read the Cliff Notes? The IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E is a varifocal cam. Varifocals are not meant to have their FOV changed at will. They are meant for you to find the FOV for the job it is doing and then left at that setting. If yo keep changing that FOV, yes it will freeze up. Ultimately you will wear out the motor.

Do like @sebastiantombs said and use the links in @SouthernYankee canned response. Search this site for those cams. Search this site for the word 'review' in the title and the reviews of cams will be listed.
No I have 2 cameras next to each other, one watching the whole area (IPC-hfw8232e-z ), and the other one (IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E ) zoomed in on the chain-link gate that opens to our property. I just updated the software on the varifocal camera to see if it helps with the lockups. Didn't update the IPC-hfw8232e-z firmware yet, because I'm not sure I found the right version.
 

Justintoxicated

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For the 8232E-Z, this, is the latest fw available
What about this EOS one I found?

Also whats the difference between these two (note the 2.6mm version is also available in 3.6mm)?
Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I find Dahua cameras can be confusing with model numbers, marketing and pricing.
Does the bullet version have any advantages over the turret?
 
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chaosengine

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Also whats the difference between these two (note the 2.6mm version is also available in 3.6mm)?
Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I find Dahua cameras can be confusing with model numbers, marketing and pricing.
Does the bullet version have any advantages over the turret?
Look at the data sheets Dahua provides for every model. Compare them to your current models (min. illumination, focal length, angle of view, DORI distance). Make a table with everything interesting for your use case.
Your current cameras both have a motorized lens (you can zoom in and out) and IR LED lights for night vision.
If you want your new camera have these features too, get a 5442 or 7442 with motorized lens and IR light (model-Zxx). For your 12x zoom HFW5231E-Z12E there is no replacement at the moment, in case you're using the max. zoom (DORI 288ft).
For 5442 and 7442 only 4x zoom models are available (e.g. HFW7442H-Z4).

5442 comes in some flavors:

-motorized lens + IR light (like your current cameras, but a bit less light sensitive than the fixed lens model - HFW5442H-ZHE/HFW5442E-ZHE)
-fixed lens + IR light (you can't zoom but are free to choose 2.8mm (overview), 3.6mm lens or 6mm lens (narrow but more details), resulting in different field or angel of view (FOV) - HFW5442E-SE)
-fixed lens 3.6mm color only (no integrated LEDs, needs strong street light or additional white light but has the most light sensitive lens: F1.0 - HFW5442T-ASE-NI)
-fixed lens + white LED light (if you prefer a color picture at night and the area already has some white light - HFW5442T-AS-LED)

For an in-place upgrade, you choose either 5442 or 7442 motorised lens IR bullet.

For complete confusion, Dahua has two different types of bullet housings for 5442 now.
The old one is like your current cameras, the new one has an integrated junction box (not listed in store yet, takes a while). 7442 always has the new housing.

5442 new housing:
5442 old housing:
7442:

Turret usually have a built-in microfon and two IR LEDs, bullets have no microfon but an audio-in connector for an external mic and four IR LEDs.
 

Justintoxicated

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Look at the data sheets Dahua provides for every model. Compare them to your current models (min. illumination, focal length, angle of view, DORI distance). Make a table with everything interesting for your use case.
Your current cameras both have a motorized lens (you can zoom in and out) and IR LED lights for night vision.
If you want your new camera have these features too, get a 5442 or 7442 with motorized lens and IR light (model-Zxx). For your 12x zoom HFW5231E-Z12E there is no replacement at the moment, in case you're using the max. zoom (DORI 288ft).
For 5442 and 7442 only 4x zoom models are available (e.g. HFW7442H-Z4).

5442 comes in some flavors:

-motorized lens + IR light (like your current cameras, but a bit less light sensitive than the fixed lens model - HFW5442H-ZHE/HFW5442E-ZHE)
-fixed lens + IR light (you can't zoom but are free to choose 2.8mm (overview), 3.6mm lens or 6mm lens (narrow but more details), resulting in different field or angel of view (FOV) - HFW5442E-SE)
-fixed lens 3.6mm color only (no integrated LEDs, needs strong street light or additional white light but has the most light sensitive lens: F1.0 - HFW5442T-ASE-NI)
-fixed lens + white LED light (if you prefer a color picture at night and the area already has some white light - HFW5442T-AS-LED)

For an in-place upgrade, you choose either 5442 or 7442 motorised lens IR bullet.

For complete confusion, Dahua has two different types of bullet housings for 5442 now.
The old one is like your current cameras, the new one has an integrated junction box (not listed in store yet, takes a while). 7442 always has the new housing.

5442 new housing:
5442 old housing:
7442:

Turret usually have a built-in microfon and two IR LEDs, bullets have no microfon but an audio-in connector for an external mic and four IR LEDs.
I checked the sittings an I am only zoomed in about 8x (a bit over the 1/2 way mark in the software). This allows me to watch delivery people, and I can see our mailbox which is about double the distance from the front gate. Nice to see when packages are getting delivered, and read license plates. One time when we were on vacation a delivery person left a package on top of our mailbox at the bottom of the driveway, and we were able to call the delivery service and have they properly delivery the package up to the gate. (leaving it at the mailbox at the bottom of the driveway ESPECIALLY on top of the mailbox) basically just screams come steal me. With the non zoom camera next to it, you can see the mailbox, but it is a tiny dot in the background (wouldn't be able to make out a package on top of it).

Since there is no replacement for this camera (I don't think 4x would do quite the same job, granted the new camera is twice the megapixels, so maybe it would be equivalent with a digital zoom? would it be equivalent or a trade off?) . I guess I would be looking to upgrade the fixes lens HFW8232E-Z. The HFW8232E-Z still works great and the firmware you linked now allows me to access without the special plug-in (but it still requires adobe flash which will no longer be supported after December this year :( ) Anyways I have some really old 720 Dahua camera that have like no features and require IE11 with customized browser settings to make them work (bleh), which the HFW8232E-Z could replace. So it sounds like the best replacement for the HFW8232E-Z would be the HFW5442E-SE. We don't have street lights so going all color at night would not be the best idea? We do security motion lights, but I don't want to rely on them. Bummer that it does not go down to an F-stop of 1, but the 3.6mm color one likely would not work well for me right? I mean it might work, but it might not since it has no IR option. Would it work if I added a separate IR LED? (I mean the camera right next to it has IR LEDs and I typically tun them down having 2 cameras with them) or will the camera simply not pickup IR light at all?

It would be nice to have the max F stop of 1 which would provide full color for longer, but also have the option to turn on IR. I don't want a camera with regular lights on all the time, so that option is out.
 
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bigredfish

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Not any Dahua cameras with a 1 F stop and auto switching between color and B&W/IR that I know of.. and no typically those few with 1 F stop do not see IR

I’ll verify again tonight that it can’t see IR but see this post.

 
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chaosengine

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Bummer that it does not go down to an F-stop of 1, but the 3.6mm color one likely would not work well for me right? I mean it might work, but it might not since it has no IR option. Would it work if I added a separate IR LED? (I mean the camera right next to it has IR LEDs and I typically tun them down having 2 cameras with them) or will the camera simply not pickup IR light at all? It would be nice to have the max F stop of 1 which would provide full color for longer, but also have the option to turn on IR. I don't want a camera with lights on all the time, so that option is out.
No, HFW5442T-ASE is really color only and can't see IR light. For better F-stop there is only 7442/7842 and 5842 and they are expensive due AI features (stronger SOC cpu, more memory needed) but F-stop is not everything, compare min. Illumination, all close together and 0,006 Lux of your HFW5231E-Z12E is also good:

IPC-HFW7442H-Z - 0,001 Lux
IPC-HFW8232E-Z - 0,002 Lux
IPC-HFW5442E-SE - 0,002 Lux
IPC-HFW5442H-ZHE - 0,003 Lux (an older data sheet version showed 0,0024 Lux)
IPC-HFW5842H-ZHE - 0,003 Lux
IPC-HFW5541E-ZE - 0,005 Lux
IPC-HFW3541T-ZAS - 0,005 Lux
IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E - 0,006 Lux
 

bigredfish

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Actually the 5442-ASE can indeed see IR and has IR emitters. The 5442-ASE-NI which is Fstop 1 can not see IR and has no IR emitters
 

Justintoxicated

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No, HFW5442T-ASE is really color only and can't see IR light. For better F-stop there is only 7442/7842 and 5842 and they are expensive due AI features (stronger SOC cpu, more memory needed) but F-stop is not everything, compare min. Illumination, all close together and 0,006 Lux of your HFW5231E-Z12E is also good:

IPC-HFW7442H-Z - 0,001 Lux
IPC-HFW8232E-Z - 0,002 Lux
IPC-HFW5442E-SE - 0,002 Lux
IPC-HFW5442H-ZHE - 0,003 Lux (an older data sheet version showed 0,0024 Lux)
IPC-HFW5842H-ZHE - 0,003 Lux
IPC-HFW5541E-ZE - 0,005 Lux
IPC-HFW3541T-ZAS - 0,005 Lux
IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E - 0,006 Lux
Wow that is super helpful! So the new zoom models actually have slightly worse low light performance than the one I have now. No wonder it was so expensive 2 years ago! But, since I'm not using the zoom on that camera anyways and have it set fully zoomed out the PC-HFW5442E-SE would be a bit of an upgrade, 4mp instead of 2. Or if I want a bigger upgrade, IPC-HFW7442H-Z
 

Justintoxicated

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Actually the 5442-ASE can indeed see IR and has IR emitters. The 5442-ASE-NI which is Fstop 1 can not see IR and has no IR emitters
IPC-HDW5442TM-ASE Turrent Mount is an interesting solution. F1.6, .002 Lux, has some IR, Has MIC (any disadvantages to the bullet version below?)
IPC-HFW5442E-SE Bullet Style. Same specs, but no microphone. (I'm guessing it is cheaper then?) I do have the microphone I purchased in the OP. Just not sure how to hook it up? I think I need to power it? Would that MIC work better than the built in one? I could just add it to the HFW8232 when I move it is I can figure it out.
 

bigredfish

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Many prefer the turret form factor. I like bullets.
Built in mic is nice if you need it ( be careful about laws in your area on sound recording )
 
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