Confusion around Day/Night switch utility and newer Dahua cameras
- Thread starter WallaWalla
- Start date
Is there some sort of law in Europe that compels sellers to force the manufacturer to 'fix' their firmware for their devices?
Because where I live, the seller will just tell me to suck a rock.
Yes, but like I said, the tech has improved enough that as Steve confirmed what I mentioned, many can get by with one profile now.
In Europe, if a product is defective, we send it back to the seller (online or classic offline - zero difference), and they have to worry about what to do with it. Typically, repairs or replacements are handled by the manufacturer's representative for that country - but seller should know this .
Furthermore, the manufacturer's warranty in Europe is only one year minimum (there are exceptions), while the seller's statutory warranty is set at a minimum of two years.
If you bought this camera through the official Dahua channel in your country, you would have the right to bypass the seller and contact the national representative (Dahua Oceania). And they would have to help you.
But I suspect You bought this camera several times cheaper from a Chinese seller on AliExpress (or another site). And now you have a problem – it's a gray import, and there's no one to offer support for you.
bigredfish
Known around here
I run Day and Night profiles on every single camera I own and have installed.
While I'm sure that will work, I think I can fine tune a profile to be better than a common one. I know I can
I run Schedule or Customized Scene, use the time plan settings to get close for each month, and I dont worry about 10-15 minutes of not perfect video at sunrise/sunset.
Even with a setting that allows the camera to decide this switch automatically using its light sensor, it wont often be perfect. Too many variables.
While I'm sure that will work, I think I can fine tune a profile to be better than a common one. I know I can
I run Schedule or Customized Scene, use the time plan settings to get close for each month, and I dont worry about 10-15 minutes of not perfect video at sunrise/sunset.
Even with a setting that allows the camera to decide this switch automatically using its light sensor, it wont often be perfect. Too many variables.
I agree, hence why being able to set it based upon local sunrise/sunset times is the only optical choice.
What about exposure compensation? At night, I need a lot more of it than I do during the day.As I person who manages hundreds of cams, I will tell you that You are not right.. Simply You don't know how to do it
In 97% cases night profile (shutter time/gains setup for the night - but only if setup as RANGES from 0 to specified value - in full manual mode) will work very well in day. Camera will use faster shutter times and lower gains at day - because there are specified as range from ZERO to specified value...
The most popular reason in those 2-3% cases where I need separate profiles is situation when at night I need WDR mode and at day I want to disable WDR (or reverse).
What's your solution there? How can I manage this with one profile?
if you really need two profiles, use scheduled time plan as everyone told you..
and request you seller to help you with this case of firmware error..
So if I understand you correctly, exposure compensation cannot be solved for one profile, correct?
I'm guessing you don't use this? Your exposure compensation is always at 0?
What about exposure compensation? No single value suits both day and night.
What do you set yours on?
Normally yes - zero.. Exposure compensation have use where you have very big brightness differences in scene (80% scene bright, 20% very dark).
In other cases - automatic selection should be ok.
If you limit exposure / gain / iris too much - then automatic selection will not work correctly.
Generalizing answer - on modern cams, with nice sensor/processing I mostly setup only full manual shutter/gain ranges to minimalize blur at night.. limit 3D noise reduction to reduce ghosting at worst light conditions (biggest noise vs gain).. plus setup color/bw mode and illumination settings (depending on need of color/bw mode at night)..
Most other settings are default / automatic... sometimes depending of scene / location needs or specific camera model default behavior change something more... but mostly looking at sunrise/night/sunset footage..
The camera must cope with hundreds of different atmospheric/lighting conditions. It must rely on automatic or range-based settings.
Setting individual profiles with exactly values for every situation is pointless – there aren't enough profiles
Well that affects me, especially since this camera has half its scene pointing to a large undercover area which is mostly dark shadow during the day, whilst the other half is in direct sunlight.
I've just tried this, and WDR introduces FAR too much noise during the day to provide ample detail in the shadows. It forces me to use exposure compensation.
I'm sorry but you're wrong. A single profile is not sufficient.
When I knew nothing about security cameras, I had a local security company install cameras at my house. Immediately discovered problems and asked for help from the installer. All of the installer's other customers had been on PC's, but I am a Mac user; so he made the effort to come out and try to diagnose a solution to the problem. He was stumped and called Dahua (on speakerphone). It was then that I heard the most hilarious exchange of my life. Between the language barriers and inability to understand the problem, the Dahua tech guy finally led my installer to a webpage with 18 firmware versions for my cameras. He told the installer to try each one separately and restart after each upload! Needless to say, the "fix" was a disaster. It was then that I decided there had to be a better way, and I searched and found this site. Quickly ditched the installer and promised myself I would never make a mistake like that again. A few years later, and now I feel very confident with the 20+ cameras I have purchased. Dahua tech support is laughingly not good--even when working directly with the installer.
Ok so now that I've let the cameras run for almost 24 hours on the single 'one profile to rule them all' - I can confirm it is a DISASTER.
The tweaks which made it perfect for daytime viewing have now reduced the picture to a muddy hellish dog's breakfast at sunset.
Can we put this idea to bed now?
The tweaks which made it perfect for daytime viewing have now reduced the picture to a muddy hellish dog's breakfast at sunset.
Can we put this idea to bed now?
You'v received all the suggestions on what you can do (3 options) on the forum. You tried only one of them.
Now you're just starting to be grumpy
ps. If you're sending questions like this, at least put some effort into them. Prepare photos showing the problem and describe them. Show what solutions/variants You had tried.