Dahua WizColor 5x59-PRO and SmartLight 5x59-IL new series

bigredfish · 2026-04-21T20:30:13-0400

tigerwillow1 said:
I'm not going to continue this tit-for-tat. I concede the endurance contest. I'll just keep quietly pointing to the comparison thread every time it's stated to not exist.

I specifically said you were testing animal detection only.
And I said the everybody can judge the other aspects for themselves from the tens of pictures. There are some pretty significant image differences from frames that I very carefully snapped at the exact same time +/- the frame interval. There are NO digital zooms posted, only crops.

The 0-4 was on one camera the other at default.
In post #4 it said the -IL switching to a night default setting applied to the PREVIOUS pictures. The majority of pictures were after that.
True, I ran the day pictures at default settings, which gave good results from both cameras.

A thorough review gives a lot of results over a short period of time. Looking at real world results over months gives a pretty good overall evaluation without having to go into details. My overall conclusion still is:

Both the S3 and IL as good as any other 4MP camera in daylight. Sometimes one or the other can be a bit better, but overall a wash.

Most of the time the -IL gives a better image at night, even with motion.

Animal detection on the S3 is fairly good, not perfect. On the -IL it's horrible.

I'm not aware of any human detection failures on the S3. The -IL misses sometimes, 10% of the time as an estimate with no controlled testing for an exact number.

With animal detection enabled, both cameras generate an obnoxious number of false triggers from moving branches, tall grass, and shadows.

No vehicles ever crossed the path of either camera.

I'm a bit fed up over the statements that no testing exists, or that the one and only one report is of no value. It's the only one that's out there, damn it. How the heck is it that I was the only one able to get an -IL? Did my order magically go through when all the others were rejected? The fixed focal version was under $200 before prices went up this year.

If looking at a full frame is better than a crop, here are a couple example full frame images. The deer is about 50' from the camera. There's a bit of unavoidable parallax from the cameras being about a foot apart. Over and over again, the -IL crushes the S3 when there are big light intensity differences in the frame.

View attachment 242353

View attachment 242356

I have a LOT of S3s and none look as bad as that

Can you provide setting screen shots of those?

Maybe you need to return your S3 because I think you got a bad one

bigredfish · 2026-04-21T22:16:32-0400

One of my 5442 S3's. I chose this one because:

it shows small critters at 50+ft
it does NOT have a floodlight? like yours out at 50 ft or so
It shows blowing ferns across multiple IVS lines and I get ZERO false alerts from them
It shows a clear difference from your sample at relative similar distance and lighting

Seriously I would try working on the settings or return your S3. Its not right. Its soft, lacks contrast and sharpness, and and overall bad image

This Camera is a VF but barely zoomed, maybe 3mm
Edge of the neighbors porch is 55ft
The other IR you see top right is another 5442 pointing at the dock and angled toward this camera.

Still shots