Dahua IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 vs IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA

Mention in here:

8MP PoE Security IP Camera - OEM IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 2.7~13.5mm Vari-Focal Lens 5X Optical Zoom, Ultra 4K Bullet Outdoor Starlight Camera with 196.85ft Night Vision,SD Card Slot,H.265,IP67  Specs sheet

6MP Outdoor POE Bullet IP Camera IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA, 2.7-13.5mm Motorized Varifocal Lens, 5X Optical Zoom Security Camera with Built-in Mic, IR 197ft Night Vision, Smart H.265 WDR, SD Card Slot, IP67

Overview

First note, oddly they seem to use diff and conflicting plugins so you can only view the stream from one or the other in IE at the same time.

Second I had a 256 GB SD card from my old LG V30 phone that I had previously used in the SereneLife IPCAMOD47 failure which I tried to use in the IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2  after formatting it but it appeared as 2 drives and failed to format. I did not have a second to 256 GB to try so it might have chosen that time to go bad. Sticking the 256 GB SD back in a Windows 10 PC it says only 47 MB like the second drive listed in the camera now. Sticking a 128 GB into it seems to work OK. I was able to recover the 256 GB SD with SD formatter.

Third you will notice (if you click on the images) the form factors between the 4Ks (3840x2160, Aspect ratio = 1.78) and the 6MP (3072x2048, Aspect ratio = 1.5) are quite diff. Most of the 4K's added pixels are in adding width not height which might factor into you choice.

The tests

One of my Reolink 511s is starting to have moisture issues so I thought it would be a good time to upgrade the IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA with a IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 and use the IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA to replace the 511. Before that though I wanted to do a quick compare so stick the IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 next to IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA and captured some video and snapshots from them and the Amcrest IP8M-2496 in the same location to get both zoomed and wide compares. 

Videos

Daytime

These videos the Dahuas start off on max zoom. You can see me stepping off and dropping eye charts at about 50, 100 feet and at the gate about 188 feet from the camera array.  There is an old license plate on the cart I'm pulling for reference too. At about 1:24 PM I start back from the gate. About 1:40 PM both Dahua cameras are zoomed to max view angle to compare with the Amcrest. 

IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA video

IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 video

IP8M-2496 video

Nighttime with IR

The 6MP looks slightly better to me. Start with just IR lights on (note mainly from IR flood). Shortly after the start the white driveway lights come on the go off just before the end of the video. The driveway lights have almost no affect on the video detail. Passing cars give indications of motion blur affects from the slow shutter speed.

IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 video

IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA video

Nighttime low light color

The 8MP does way better here. Both cams are set to manual 1/12 exposure, color mode and 0-100 gain range. Otherwise all default settings. Start with just IR lights on, mainly from IR flood, but they seem to have no real affect unlike the HikVision ColorVus that tend to get a purple tint when IR floods are on. About 9:38 PM the white driveway lights come on making a dramatic change in both videos. 

For instance the old school house across the street lit by its own security light is about all you can make out on the 6MP though if you look real close can see where the sky is slightly lighter the trees and shadow on the ground. After the driveway lights come on the detail is better but 50 foot detail is still not as good as in IR night vision. Though past 50 feet it was better in color mode.

By contrast the 8MP actually appears to be in color though again the details are few. You can kind of make out the eye chart silhouette and moon shadows. After the driveway lights come on the detail is almost that of day time. 

Passing cars give indications of motion blur affects from the slow shutter speed. Shortly before the end of the video the driveway lights go back off again showing how quickly the cameras adapt.

IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS-S2 video

IPC-HFW4631H-ZSA video

In pics

The UPS box is at about 160 feet.

You can watch the videos to see how fast the zooms and focusing work but are some quick snaps to see how the cams compare in max zoom. The calculated DORI numbers are

Click on an image to see close to full screen and rapidly switch between.

The 6MP camera view

The 8MP/4K camera view

Just to drive home the diff distance makes, here are views from the cameras mounted about 20 feet from the UPS box. 

View from another Dahua 6MP in widest view mode.

View from an old Foscam FI9804WS 720p cam.

I used the 6MP Dahua and will use the new 8MP cam in max zoom but while I have them all together I though I'd get some wide angle view compares as well. Not e how much the auto focus improves the detail. The 50 foot chart is clearer even to the 6MP camera than the fixed Amcrest 4K. The Dahua 4K is even better. Granted it is also almost twice the cost of the Amcrest.

The Dahua 6MP in widest view

The Amcrest 8MP/4K wide angle view

The Dahua 8MP/4K in widest view

Nighttime with IR

6MP just IR

6MP in IR mode with driveway lights on.

8MP just IR

8MP in IR mode with driveway lights on.

Nighttime low light color

6MP color mode.

6MP in color mode with driveway lights on.

8 color mode

8MP in color mode with driveway lights on.

ColorVu supplemental light off/on axis tests

As I mentioned in my review HikVision ColorVu cameras the supplemental light is really too bright to use in most cases but it is also lights up pretty much 180 by 180 degrees, which is also an issue if anything is close, so enabling it on a sky cam might be helpful to other near by cams.

Off axis test. 

It is raining with heavy clouds taking the moon out of the picture. The supplemental light settings at times (bottom time stamp) are:

• 8:47 change from 10 to 50
• 8:48 change from 50 to 100
• 8:49 change from 100 to 10

The ColurVu is mounted on the edge of the roof above the bird feeder.
The trees seen to light up on the edge of the view are about 50 feet from the cam on the left to about 33 feet center. The rain helps show some of the limitations of illumination from a camera instead of off axis. Camera is 2.8mm OEM of the Hikvision DS-2CD2347G1-LU I bought off Amazon. (video)

The Amcrest is mounted on the barn 43 feet from the ColorVu. Camera is a IP4M-1026 pushed to the max 1/3 second exposure and max gain. (video)

Dahua mounted about 4 feet behind the ColorVu on the soffit.  Camera is a IPC-HDW4631C-A also pushed to the max 1/3 second exposure and max gain. (video)

No light test.

Cameras are all in the same places as off axis test but ColorVu is angled down to roughly match the view form the Dahua. Also since there is more light I also tested motion with my black dog and me moving about. Moon would have been down to about last quarter but as the lack of any shadows shows it was pretty much obscured by clouds.

The test starts with the back door light on and a ladder in view of the Dahaua cam. The following happens at these times (the lower timestamp):

• at 8:43 the back door light is turned off and after a few seconds the ColorVu light comes on auto. Note black dog near far corner of house and the kind of purple tint the IR floods give the ColorVu video before the supplemental light kicks in.
• at 8:44 I turn the ColorVu light off. A few seconds after that I come out to get the ladder with a hat light on so I can see what I'm doing. Note the blur and low frame rate.
• at 8:46 I go back inside then come back out to walk carefully past with the hat light off
• at 8:47 I come back, ( I forgot my keys) with the hat light on cause it really is too dark to be walking safely with it off, then go off to feed.
• at 8:48 my white dog appears at the far corner of the house and wanders about for around 5 minutes. 
• at 8:53 I come back from feeding, turn my hat light off and wander carefully into the yard a bit to test for motion blur. Note I have to turn my hat light back on to see where I'm stepping part of the time.
• at 8:55 go back in triggering the back door light to come on.
• at 8:56 I come back out to do another motion test with the back door light on. Then plug a hole something dug next to the bird feeder.
• at 8:57 I go back in. Not the cats lurking on the walk way.

ColorVu video
Amcrest video
Dahua video

On axis test

Cameras are all in the same places as off axis test but ColorVu is angled down to roughly match the view form the Dahua. ColorVu camera has the supplemental light set to a fixed value of 10. For this view 10 seemed to be the max I could run the supplemental light at without causing glare that would diminish the view of the stars and distance trees.

22:21 to 22:25 White dog starts by the back door and then wanders the yard.

ColorVu video
Amcrest video
Dahua video

HikVision ColorVu cameras

Quick starts

Videos in the Hikvision and Color night vision playlists

For a compare against the Darkfighter models look at this review video from dvs.

The first one I bought was the OEM version of the DS-2CD2347G1-LU from Nelly's Security. Note there is a DS-2CD2347G1-L that appears to be the same thing without audio for about the same price from most sellers. Later I ordered a 2.8 mm version that had just listed on Amazon.

First thing you should not is the cams come with a static IP set of 192.168.1.64. This means you either need to have a 192.168.1.X network or a Windows PC you can run their tool on.

Next these are huge.

Here is the HikVision turret model (left) next the the Amcrest (right).

If you look close you will notice UP is marked on the case. A nice feature. I usually end up drawing an line on these so I know which way is up out in the field.

To install an SD card (128GB max) or adjust the rotation of the camera takes an Torx-10 screwdriver. Though realistically if you are going to be doing this kind of stuff you should just break down and get driver and set of bits that include straight, Phillips, hex and Torx bits of various sizes. Maybe even an all in set.
Update I found the L shaped Torx it comes with under the packing so you don't need to get one though having a set with screwdriver like grips might make you life easier.

For a quick test I just swapped in place of the west Amcrest skycam. The difference was amazing. For this compare shot I set them all to an exposure of 1/12 and gain of 0-100.

The original Amcrest is lower left, the Dahua upper left and the HikVision on the right.

Now this how sensitive the HikVision is. Here I set the Amcrest and Dahua exposure to 1/3 which causes ghosting see this video,  but the HikVision is at 1/30 (double the frame rate).

You can also compare the above Amcrest 1/3 exposure video to this 1/12 exposure video from the HikVision and this Dahua one.

Here is the odd thing. It actually looks darker during the day which is why I did the above video with exposure 1/12. For example here is the next day.

The Amcrest and Dahua are using profile scheduling to switch to automatic exposure for the daytime. The HikVision is still set to exposure 1/30 (it does not have an automatic setting).  It does have profile scheduling but it would appear to be unneeded so far. I checked to make sure it was not switching the exposure based on profile.

Though if you are looking to grab hummingbird stills from the video it appears switching to 1/100000 is doable even on an overcast day like today.

Three days later and an even tougher test. While the moon is technically up you can not tell where the clouds are so thick. Not just dark but but air so heavy with moisture it is almost fog.

Here the old cams are set on auto but and the HikVision is still has exposure set to 1/12

The original Amcrest is lower left, the Dahua upper left and the HikVision on the right.

Cranking the old cams down to an exposure of 1/3 it looks better.

The original Amcrest is lower left, the Dahua upper left and the HikVision on the right.

Turning on the back door light ~45 feet from the barn in the picture with the old cams still at 1/3.

Smart features:

While not applicable to what I'm currently using these cams for they do have extensive motion and other alerts built right into the camera.

Alerts:

Motion detection, video tampering detection, network disconnected, IP address conflict, illegal login, HDD full, HDD error

Behavior Analysis

Line crossing detection, intrusion detection, object removal detection, unattended baggage detection

Sample of the line crossing setup screen,

Region Of Interest

1 fixed region for main stream and sub-stream separately

Exception Detection

Scene change detection

Note the Smart Supplement Light setting in Display setting is for the IR LEDs and so does nothing here.

Day/Night Switch  is what tells to be in color or B&W mode at "night"

The Smart Supplement Light white LEDs are controlled on this page under System Settings.

Note the light is unfortunately almost useless in most cases as the the ideal setting to avoid blacking out background detail seems to be 4-5 and it will not reliably switch on below 5. Even at 5, it lights up well beyond the view of the cams to what looks real close to 180 degrees which has both good and bad features. For instance, properly placed it not only assists its view when ambient light falls below what is needed but also can assist other low light cams that need just a bit more help that then ColorVus. Check out ColorVu supplemental light off/on axis tests.

2.8 mm version

The HS-VUT04G1-IA 2.8 mm version is virtual identical to the one form Nelly's.
Firmware on the Nelly's cams was V5.6.2 build 191111
Firmware on the 2.8mm was V5.6.2 build 190701
Nelly's has firmware downloads and support on their site. The vendor looked a bit sketchy so I stuck the cam on my test network for a couple days to see if it was going to do anything odd but it seems clean with no out bound traffic.  I also upgraded the monitoring on my main network which did highlight an issue with my one GW Security camera. Fortunately already being blocked. But now I'll be more likely to alerts if anything else tries something.

Anyway before I swapped the 2.8 mm in as the SE sky cam I set it up for a few minutes just below the 4 mm to get some shots of the the diff the view angle makes.

Just 109 degrees versus 94 degrees but if you are looking to stitch them together and or get a bit more vertical coverage like me that diff can be a deal breaker.

One last thing about these that is nice. The POE connection seal which seems to be getting to be standard now. (The Dahuas and the latest Amcrests came with matching ones.) It allows a RJ45 through yet seals air tight which makes swapping them out easy.

Added a second 2.8 mm to replace the 4 mm so they match. Just ordered a 3rd so I can get a panorama from almost due east to about due north. Unfortunately I do not have a good spot for the north west quarter.

Update 4/6/2020

I'm up to 6 of these now. The one on the driveway is the 4 mm version. The rest are the 2.8 mm versions.

Might be hard to tell but the above is from 9:24 PM with little bit of moon light you can see on the top center. For compare here are all the cams on that server. Note the 2 other color cams are Amcrests (top row) and a Dahua (bird feeder) with the exposure set to 1/3 and the gain to 100.

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.