I made it pretty clear the new prices were just pushing it too far, especially considering the whole 54Pro circus, the price increases were the final straw for me. Accountability or lack of is widespread, sadly not just limited to Dahua and some resellers, many other brands large and small follow suit. I would like to pickup a couple of 4K and S3 cameras but from other sources if I can find them. Although I deal with Ubiquiti kit outside of their camera systems, my preference at this point is still with Dahua or possibly Hikvision. Maybe going forward I might test Ubiquiti if they offer something in the low light range - I know they have a large sensor cam similar to the 4K series.When I saw the price of the -IL being $259 yesterday, I was sticker-shocked. I really pray that Ubiquiti considers incorporating settings for controlling shutter speed / exposure so that I can move away from all of these Chinese companies once and for all due to unstable pricing. Like you said, there is no accountability. For now, I don't really need any new cameras, but I know some friends and family that will like to upgrade, but now I am hesitant to recommend these Dahua cameras mainly due to price. It sucks that the 5442 cameras are reached EOL. I can't even sell any more of my own used cameras due to the lack of better cameras available from Dahua. Going all out Ubiquiti is not something I ever considered and I certainly hope it does not go to that extent. I have already started recommending the Ubiquiti Starter Kit for $699 to colleagues, friends, and family after they were hesitant to consider other alternatives to the 5442 model. This really affects Andy's business and also signals parting away from the forum as it is heavily driven by his sales; very rarely do I see new discussions on Hikvision and Ubiquiti here.
We have no evidence that the -IL model is better than the 5442 and/or it resolves the woes of last year's models which got a lot of backlash here on the forum.
At this point I have zero faith in new products or associated support from Dahua, I will leave the testing to others whose opinion I have faith in for the time being. I think the attitude towards these Pro cameras has been disgusting from all parties involved frankly, and that is me being polite! Like so many things in life, certain situation arise where both companies and people show their true colours, this has been one of those times. Long live the 5442 series, hands down the best cameras I have ever owned, bar none. OK, not forgetting the 49225 PTZ!
