Viewing the night sky in color with an Amcrest IP4M-1026, IP4M-1055E, Dahua and HikVision ColorVu

So called Starlight cams seem to be becoming a thing so I thought I'd see what is possible with a camera I already had. You can look at my video Night sky Aug 10th 2019 and Night sky Aug 9th 2019 to see what I'm talking about here. Update: added two Amcrest IP4M-1055E cams to get a 180 view of the southern sky.  Here is a sample sunrise video from the south east cam Sunrise 12/5/2019 at 60X

With a few simple tests the Amcrest IP4M-1026 seemed to have the best low light video and the widest view. Mainly I wanted to try and capture some of the neighborhood's fireworks displays.  My first test with pretty much default settings came out OK with lightning.  It seemed to me it switched to night view earlier than it needed so I played with the options to get the video linked above.

I was surprised how much I could make out by just moonlight. It basically looked like what I would see looking out the window.

Below are the setting I used. You might be able to tweak this a bit further with experimenting but I'm happy with the results.

Though the fireworks capture was pretty much a bust as they were a lot more subdued this year and the few that did make it into were mostly blocked by the trees. Thinking now I'll add another cam to close to double the 118 degree view. Note I also did a test with a GW5747MIC 5MP Optional TWO-Way Audio PoE IP Camera 1.9mm 160° Wide Angle Night Vision Sony Starvis HD 1920P Security Mini Dome 5 Megapixel Built-In Microphone and Micro SD slot, Audio in/out Recording but the view was not only no wider but not as good in low light.

Added video without the Moon to show when it is too dark to even see out you can still see the horizon glow of Austin, the planets, at least 1 star, the bard and trees. Here are compare pics from my cameras that catch bits of the same view all from the same time, 8/21/2019 at 10PM local despite what some of the on screen timestamps say.

Screen grab from the posted video

Snapshot directly from Blue Iris

Snap shot from Reolink RLC-411WS (5MP Version) of west end of barn in sky pic

Snapshot from RLC-511W across south deck. Note plane from video and above Amcrest snapshot is just above far horizon. 

Snapshot from Reolink RLC-511 (non WiFi) of mid drive. Ton of IR down here so any bits not lit are hard to see.

From Hikvision DS-2CD2035-I overlooking the pool area (not currently up). Note when the moon is up you can usually see the horizon in this view.

Just in case you think the Amcrest is optimized for night, here is a snapshot from high noon.

Amcrest IP4M-1026 snapshot of sky with sun skirting top of frame.

Other cams I'm looking at for really low light

Note these are based on specs and or videos but I have not tried them yet. The 0.5 lux Amcrest above blows the 0.01Lux GW Security cam away in real life.

• NiteColorcameras from Nelly's Security They are 4MP Hikvision ColorVu cams at twice the price of the Amcrest (~$200) but are rated at 0.0014 lux min illumination! Videos look great.
• Lorex 4K Ultra HD Resolution 8MP Motorized Varifocal Outdoor 4x Optical Zoom IP Camera, 250ft Night Vision has some interesting videos but is rated at 1 lux min for color so I have doubts. Plus even at Black Friday price it is $270. Normally $470 and the reviews do not seem good.
• Dahua has cams rated down to 0.002 lux. Price wise their 0.009 lux 5 MP N51BI22 will set you back $140 to $200 while  their 0.002 lux A42BJA2 4MP Outdoor HD Analog Eyeball Camera will run you $100 to $140 BUT it is analog.

Updates

Amcrest

Unfortunately this is what the Amcrest IP4M-1055E cam looking SE looks like. At first I thought it was just the fog we've had the last couple days. Then maybe dirt on the lens but it turned out to be condensation on the inside of the cam. I was planning on swapping one with a Dahua IPC-HDW4631C-A  anyway for a compare. Dahua claims a rating of  0.06Lux/F1.6( Color,1/3s,30IRE) 0.4Lux/F1.6( Color,1/30s,30IRE). Sellers are claiming as low as 0.002.

Dahua

I've received a IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA Without Dahua logo 6MP IP Camera 2.7-13.5mm Motorized Varifocal Lens Optical Zoom I'll be testing soon. It is going for $109 on Newegg and $118 on Amazon.  I should note I see a lot of people posting that the Dahua international OEMs are knock offs. They are definitely a lot cheaper. The "English" OEM is $180 on Amazon and Dahua labeled version of this cam from B&H is $288. 
I must say I'm impressed so far. I mainly got it to see how the zoom and autofocus compared but the low light is damn impressive. You can clearly make out Orion in the Dahua shot below while the Amcrest used above can only see a few stars. Sirius is easy to make out in both and Rigel can be dimly seen in the Amcrest shot. Once you know it is there you can sort of make out Orion in the Amcrest but it is fairly clear in the Dahua shot. Note this is about at moon rise.

Orion constellation clearly visible above weather station

The same shot from the Amcrest IP4M-1026

Here at there is about a half moon high in the sky but some clouds have rolled in too.

In this Dahua shot you can see the moon is just a light in the sky though Sirius is still visible.

The same shot from the Amcrest IP4M-1055E looking SE. The moon looks more like a sphere though the ground objects are basically silhouettes.

The same shot from the Amcrest IP4M-1055E looking SW. You can see Sirius and barn roof can be made out a bit better.

It is an overcast day but here is a day compare.

Dahua shot of sun through the clouds and birds in flight

Almost the same shot from the Amcrest IP4M-1055E looking SW

On the flip side though if you are thinking of monitoring your yard in color at night you should look at this video of the Dahua being manually switched from color to night / IR mode to get a feel for if you have enough light to make that viable. I'll be adding more videos to the Dahua playlist.

HikVision ColorVu

It is just amazing. See this post for more.

Microseven 6-22mm 3MP Manual Zoom Varifocal Len HD 1080P

Microseven 6-22mm 3MP Manual Zoom Varifocal Len HD 1080P SONY 1/2.8" CMOS Built-in Microphone & POE ONVIF Works with Alexa, WiFi IP Camera Outdoor 128GB, Free M7 Cloud &Live Streaming on microseven.tv

Unlike the Reolink 411ws this one has a manual zoom, 6 to 22 mm, and focus which means you set the sweet spot where you want it and it will stay there unlike the Reolink 411ws when it is loses power. Or as it is doing now, just reboots.

Technically the Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 would not focus at its full zoom. I pushed the focus to the max and then backed off the zoom till I got it to focus at a target about 65 feet away. 

Here are the shots for testing recognition at just over 100 feet. First the Reolink 411ws at full zoom looks like this

And Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 also at "full zoom" looks like this.

Right off you can see it is zoomed in tighter and clearer. But the rez is lower 1080p @ 3MP vs 1728p @ 5MP. If you zoom in on the pics though you see the higher optical zoom of the Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 (left) still looks a bit better. 

At about 200 feet the Reolink 411ws looks like

And the Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 like

Zooming in again they compare like this Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 left and Reolink 411ws right

Still neither is all that useful at 200 feet for license plate reading or face recognition.
At 165 feet it is almost usable. Though I'd say my beard looks a LOT longer in this pic than it is.

Night vision is better though

Zoomed in it still looks pretty good.

That building is 370 feet away.
Compare with this shot from the zoomed in Reolink 411ws

But then the Escam QD900 beat the Reolink 411ws in this test

Even with all the grain in the Escam shot might still edge out the others in this one case. Note however the Escam's night vision distance is very limited on its own so without the security light on that building. I should note in the Reolink vs Escam compare there was also an IR flood installed while in the Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 shots above no IR flood was used. For an idea of how well these illuminate here is a wide shot from the Reolink 411ws

Note the time and name are wrong because it has lost its config again.

Here is the same shot from the Microseven M7B77-WPSV1. Note the name and time display are turned off on it.

Paired together I think they give great coverage. If I only could have one I'd probably go with the Reolink 411ws given the fact fully zoomed in you still have a wider field of view while getting almost as good recognition abilities at distance. Note I did not include and zoomed out shots from the Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 because it focusing it can be a bit touchy and since it only goes down to 6 mm it still would not be as wide as a standard 70 degree lens at only 50 degrees. The Reolink 411ws above for comparison is 98 degrees.

One last shot to highlight a minor point the OSD of name and time are small and only have top and bottom as options. So in case that matter here is a shot with OSD turned on.

Generally I leave the camera's OSD (top) on as a backup to what Blue Iris has (at bottom). They often get off especially with DST. The Microseven M7B77-WPSV1 OSD I had not even noticed got turned off i earlier shots it is so hard to see.

Reolink RLC-411WS

Reolink 5MP HD 2.4/5Ghz Dual Band Wi-Fi Wireless Security IP Camera, Autofocus Bullet with 16GB Micro SD Card (RLC-411WS)

High points

• Resolution is 2560*1440 (Full 2K from a 5 MP sensor)
• 4X Optical Zoom, 2.8-12mm that yields a viewing angle: 100° in wide angle mode to 36° zoomed in. Note it does not reset to widest angle when rebooted like many do.
• Night Vision rated up to 100ft with 36pcs LED
• WiFi: 802.11a/b/g/n with both 2.4 and 5 Ghz radios
• Built-in 16GB Micro SD Card for storage
• Auto focus not fixed focus
• Does not require a plug in to view from a browser
• Android app finds camera

Mixed

• Audio seems a bit tough to get at.
• Auto focus can be a bit slow.

Downside 

The mount and the antennae interfere with each other if angled to the side.


Almost twice the length of the  Amcrest IP3M-943W and a bit wider and a bit more expensive but you get a 4 X motorized zoom, a 5 Ghz WiFi radio, auto focus and audio for the bit extra.

Reliability

From what others have posted this is generally a solid camera but as I posted 2 months in mine started completely losing its config every time it rebooted. This meant I had to use it as wide angle camera with no password. Not good but not a total deal breaker on a secured network. I just put a fixed telephoto with it for the combined very wide angle and gate views. I was even thinking I'd get another to replace the 2 cams near the creek but 6 months in and the zoom and focus motors are stopping working on a regular basis. This might not be a major issue except when they go out the camera also goes out of focus leaving me with rather worthless view.

This has gotten be at least a daily occurrence now. I went in and told it to reboot daily. (Oddly it seems to remember this is enabled and frequency but time seems to change to a diff one after reboot.) That seemed to help for a day or 2. Currently to fix I have to reboot the camera, log back in and kick the zoom a couple times to get the autofocus working again. This is of course making the camera almost worthless. So I'm divided on getting another one. This might be heat related as well given it is in full sun and it hit 100 degrees outside a while ago. I noticed the dome version of this is $20 cheaper plus there are some refurbs available for $25 below that so I ordered one to try.

Blue Iris Setup

Is pretty much straight forward but I have not found a way to get the audio stream yet.

The compare tests

All 3 camera were mounted next to each other on the same post with the IR flood so IR coverage is not a factor in image quality. Top to bottom Escam QD900 (Gate39) with a 16 mm lens installed, the Reolink RLC-411WS (IPcam61) and a Foscam FI9804 (IPcam44)

First off contrast with the sun out and the Reolink

 and Escam the look about the same when viewed at same size.

Similar with the night shots
The Reolink in wide angle mode

Though it has a wider view and more contrast than the Foscam

 The Reolink fully zoomed is still wider

 the Escam with the a 16 mm lens. The Escam looks a bit better for objects at the gate but closer in the Reolink is much better.

 If you zoom in it really comes home that the Escam wins on distance

The Reolink in zoomed actually does not look quite as well as the one from

The wide angle view depending on what you are looking for. This might be partly an auto focus issue. Given the foreground in the full shots is so clear it maybe focused wrong.

Funny the swing set is more visible in the wide angle shot but the wood grain is better in the zoomed shot. Note that corner of the building is 372 feet from the cameras and has its own security light on it.

Here are the shots for testing recognition at just over 100 feet. At first glance it might look like the Escam wins given its tighter angle making the subject larger in the pics

but if you zoom in to make them the same size the Reolink is much clearer on the face though about a draw on the plate. The last one is pulled from the wide angle shot from the Reolink which is almost as useless as a shot from the 720p Foscam.

Here are the shots for testing recognition at close to 200 feet with similar relative results.

Zoomed in they look like this for the Reolink zoomed, the Escam and the Reolink zoomed out.

Unfortunately reading plates at the gate is iffy at best with either cam BUT I'm thinking it will replace both the Escam and the Foscam in this instance.  To read plates at the gate looks like it will take either a higher resolution and or a higher magnification lens. Thinking maybe next trying USG Business Grade 4MP H.265 IP Bullet Security Camera : Telephoto MOTORIZED 5-50mm Auto-Focus Lens, Power Over Ethernet, 72x IR LEDs, 32GB microSD Card, Weatherproof, ONVIF 2.4