What Would You do

Well, there are two factors which lead me to believe that a mix of cameras may make sense. For the backyard where there is little nighttime illumination a 2mp Dahua Starlight camera makes perfect sense, but maybe for the driveway, where you leave a light on at night, and where there also may be streetlight illumination, and where a high daytime resolution may be very valuable, maybe this is a place for a higher resolution camera? Is that a valid thought process?

UPDATE-- I've ordered an IPC-HFW1831E to play with.

@davej as @aristobrat talks to, light can be a funny thing when entering the sensors of some of these cams. There are times when you think, WOW there's a ton of light only to find the resulting image is terrible and others when there's no light that cams such as the Dahua Starlights find it anyway and present a usable image. The real question is do you have an image or a 'usable' image and those 2 are very different.

You really do need to play with the area you have. The 1831 is a great cam. I will upload some night images from the Lorex I have that is similar to the 5831 and also the 9232S which 'appears' similar to the 1831. Will also post some updates when I get 2831's from @EMPIRETECANDY for comparison of a driveway lit by 3 x 1650 lumen daylight bulbs. Will also show you a wide area with 2 x 120W's and lastly a 3rd area that has no light (except overflow streetlight).

As @aristobrat stated, the technology is certainly getting there but still the Starlights (or Darkfighters if you are a Hikvision person) have the edge. A number of us are hoping for the 1/1.8" turrets (ideally with audio too) to be released and hopefully @EMPIRETECANDY Andy may have some news in April for Q2 releases using this sensor.

For now, using 4K where you have ample light for a good, usable image or as an overview + Starlights / Darkfighters etc as additional (ID) cams at entry points (doors, gates etc) is generally the consensus on way to go. The conundrum is right now investing in more 1080p Starlights or waiting for whatever Dahua releases next, luckily April is not that far away. As everyone else says here and I must admit I am now seeing too, this is an expensive hobby !
 
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I enjoy my 1831E a lot. Right out of the box, it is the most color accurate camera I've seen both day and night without any tweaking. It has deep contrast and low brightness resulting in vibrant colors. The Dahua HDW-4831EM-ASE is another 4K/8MP I have but it's a different sensor 1/2.5 and the colors are not that good out of the box. The image is far brighter at night like they cranked up the brightness setting. The funny thing was that the 4831EM cost more money but spec wise, the 1831E beats it.
 
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When I receive the 1831E I will mount it next to my 4239TP and my cheap 1230S and record for a few days.
 
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A number of us are hoping for the 1/1.8" turrets (ideally with audio too) to be released and hopefully @EMPIRETECANDY Andy may have some news in April for Q2 releases using this sensor.

I'm one of these people :)

Any news of such cams yet ? I need to get 13 cams and would like to see what Dahua releases next before splurging all the money on the 4231's
 
Jazzy, we're all still waiting to hear what Dahua has planned :) I know Andy @EMPIRETECANDY is on the case and will update this forum when he has news (thanks Andy !). He had mentioned April but as we are only a week or so in, my thought is that we will probably be waiting a few more weeks at least. On top of that, if new products are produced it may take a while after that to book stock so we could be waiting a while.

The x231 cams are great period so while I wouldn't advocate that you buy 13 of them (unless they have every feature you are looking for already) when news from Dahua is expected, you won't go wrong with getting a few for immediate need situations etc. Remember too that Dahua may announce new products that either a) are not in the same category (NVR, Mobile etc) or b) won't feature spec bumps you might be looking for / can use anyway.

HTH

Any news of such cams yet ? I need to get 13 cams and would like to see what Dahua releases next before splurging all the money on the 4231's[/QUOTE]


I'm one of these people :)

Any news of such cams yet ? I need to get 13 cams and would like to see what Dahua releases next before splurging all the money on the 4231's
 
Well OP has not been back here in nearly a month but one thing that I can point out on that Lorex kit is the NVR is one of the Lorex NR ones which is a rebadged Dahua NVR52xx--xP-4KS2 that has a nice upgraded front panel with actual control buttons. One thing Lorex does on both the cameras and NVR's is they put a custom firmware on that removes some features. On these NVR's, if you are adventurous, you can cross-flash them to Dahua firmware which will enable more features. On the cameras it depends greatly on the camera as some cameras (I'm not sure about these specific cameras) on whether cross-flashing them to Dahua firmware is possible.
 
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