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

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!
 
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Guys, you are just a bunch of whiners. Dahua is, basically, a market leader, there are no real alternatives for their cameras.
So, logically, they want to use this position to make more money.
 
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FWIW and to be fair, Andy has been telling us prices were going up for at least 2-3 months.

Its not just memory, its also tariffs and other trade interference.

As near as I can tell this "new" 5459T-ZE-IL and its fixed lens brother are simply the 5459 PRO dumbed down. I have no reason to think they would be any different in image quality.
 
^^^^^
This

Be aware, its as mentioned, takes a Metric Shit Ton (MST) of white light to get good non-blur non-noise motion video at night.

For most scenes its not practical unless you're ok with lighting up your house/yard all night with powerful floods.
Many people think just having color at night, even with a shitty image, is OK.
I'm not one of those




The white LED's alone are not enough past about 10-15ft


View attachment 243498


Add 4000+ lumens flood and it gets better

View attachment 243499
What is the model of that motion light?
 
I think you guys are being a bit harsh on @EMPIRETECANDY about the price increases - bazillions of products are affected.

For instance, this Samsung 4TB NVMe drive is currently(!) priced at $650.
I bought it 8 months ago for ... wait-for-it ... wait-for-it ... $240.

That's a 170% increase ... and that's not Andy's fault! ;-)
 
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Shouldn't cost more than $199 tops
The 5442 Varifocal was $175
The DRAM shortage and AI Bullshit is such a lame excuse - prices have been stabilizing at Microcenter
Don't be shocked, the 5442 sereis I just hold the price incerase not such big, later the price will increase to 270usd for the motorized lens. And 220usd for the fixed lens. Turret cams.
I told you to all in Micron, you said that is bubble....But the market is real shortage of DDRs. You can't believe the NVR 5 series price increase 200usd per one compare to 2025. Almost double price.
 
FWIW and to be fair, Andy has been telling us prices were going up for at least 2-3 months.

Its not just memory, its also tariffs and other trade interference.

As near as I can tell this "new" 5459T-ZE-IL and its fixed lens brother are simply the 5459 PRO dumbed down. I have no reason to think they would be any different in image quality.
Yes, I told bigredfish the price going up very crazy even before I post here. The price for the new order change/need to confirm every week, never see it's down. Micron,Sumsung, Hynix earn too much from the business.
Small camera compaines even hard to get chips, so they will use worse chips.
 
You can't believe they get the ddr from old phones, old cams or NVRs and sell a good price, I have a friend earn too much from his old trash phone stocks.Maybe 1-2 years later things will change, big companies always buy 1-2 years stock. So hard to down before 2028.
 
I think you guys are being a bit harsh on @EMPIRETECANDY about the price increases - bazillions of products are affected.

For instance, this Samsung 4TB NVMe drive is currently(!) priced at $650.
I bought it 8 months ago for ... wait-for-it ... wait-for-it ... $240.

That's a 170% increase ... and that's not Andy's fault! ;-)
I don’t think any of us are being harsh against Andy. We are aware that his business is being impacted which sucks. Andy needs to sit with Trump and have a fruitful discussion and negotiate a deal
 
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^^^^^
This

Be aware, its as mentioned, takes a Metric Shit Ton (MST) of white light to get good non-blur non-noise motion video at night.

For most scenes its not practical unless you're ok with lighting up your house/yard all night with powerful floods.
Many people think just having color at night, even with a shitty image, is OK.
I'm not one of those




The white LED's alone are not enough past about 10-15ft


View attachment 243498


Add 4000+ lumens flood and it gets better

View attachment 243499


Need MST help? These babies will help even the worst low-light cameras. Guaranteed to brighten your day (or night). And they are portable.:cool:

studio-t24-productseriesnavigation.jpg
STUDIO T24 | STUDIO T | Lighting | ARRI
 
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At this point I have zero faith in new products or associated support from Dahua . . . Long live the 5442 series, hands down the best cameras I have ever owned, bar none.
:thumb:
 
Need MST help? These babies will help even the worst low-light cameras. Guaranteed to brighten your day (or night). And they are portable.:cool:

View attachment 243536
STUDIO T24 | STUDIO T | Lighting | ARRI
I don't think you're using this far from home or even possibly at home. It's 230 volts and uses a special VEAM mains plug. At 24000-watt output, you're drawing over 100 amps at 230 volts. In some small homes, that would be over the limit of a 100-amp electrical system
 
Speaking of price increases, why haven't the other models seen a similar drastic price increase?
 
Good. Now lets bring prices down