Hikvision camera selection

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Darkangel85

n3wb
Jan 13, 2025
9
0
rome
Hello guys,
i need you help because i'm very confused about all the model hikvision has, but i think it is a great techniology so i would like to try to understand which are the differences between the several model starting from my needs.
actually i'm desiging a video surveillance solution for a farmland. this means that in the night there will be very few light, close to zero if not full moon.
so the feature i'm looking are:
  • able to see images in very low light condition. i would prefer to don't use camera with white light to keep them hidden; not sure which is the best between darkfighter (X,S), , powered by Darkfighter, Acusense, Ulta and Pro series
  • for the point above i would stay on 4MP resolution, no more; higher resolution, bigger sensor, higher light needed in the night so see
  • able to use motion detection, region entrance and exiting, people detection, line crossing
  • able to manage distances usually in the range 0-20mt
  • power over eth (POE)
  • turret or bullet camera

for budget reason i would exclude the deepinview series which i undestand should be the best for night vision.

so based on this requirements, what do you advise?

thanks for any comment

regards
 
Darkangel85 said:
Hello guys,
i need you help because i'm very confused about all the model hikvision has, but i think it is a great techniology so i would like to try to understand which are the differences between the several model starting from my needs.
actually i'm desiging a video surveillance solution for a farmland. this means that in the night there will be very few light, close to zero if not full moon.
so the feature i'm looking are:
  • able to see images in very low light condition. i would prefer to don't use camera with white light to keep them hidden; not sure which is the best between darkfighter (X,S), , powered by Darkfighter, Acusense, Ulta and Pro series
  • for the point above i would stay on 4MP resolution, no more; higher resolution, bigger sensor, higher light needed in the night so see
  • able to use motion detection, region entrance and exiting, people detection, line crossing
  • able to manage distances usually in the range 0-20mt
  • power over eth (POE)
  • turret or bullet camera

for budget reason i would exclude the deepinview series which i undestand should be the best for night vision.

so based on this requirements, what do you advise?

thanks for any comment

regards
Click to expand...
I would say most if not all would be POE. As far as the different types of technologies:

Darkfighter - Low Lux
Acusense - Has features such as active deterrence and some extra detection types
Ultra/Pro - Usually used for PTZ's with main difference being sensor size and optical zoom amount.

There are also other technologies now besides these which combines technologies so it blurs the lines and gets somewhat confusing. Anyways they have stuff like AI-ISP which has an extra processor inside the camera for "guessing" and placing a color with each pixel along with overall brightening up the image. There is also hybrid/dual lighting which means the camera has both white light and IR light. The cameras can even use a hybrid illumination mode meaning the camera would use IR (black and white image) until a detection triggers the white light to come on which turns the image to color. Once the subject has left the field of view of the camera then it switches back to IR mode.

A more budget friendly camera with features you mentioned about wanting, I would choose this...
1778169908797.png
Sensor isn't the biggest though meaning it would probably switch over to IR mode for illumination often depending on lighting in the area. The types of detections available is pretty good.
 
Hello Lewic,
Thanks for the reply.
I had a look at the model you suggested must I see it only supports only motion detection based on humans or vehicles, nothing about the line crossing or region entrance
I was looking at some darkfigther model since I understood is the most appropriate version in lo light condition without using additional light, and also the hardware specs should be better then the other models.

But how many camera I can use with NVR using smart event configured on the nvr?
I need to have more that 5 cameras with smart event
But looking at nvr if I'm not wrong most of them only supports 4 channel with smart event.
This means that I should configure the smart event directly on the cameras themselves. But how the notification works in this case?
They are sent through the nvr so I ca use the nvr to define the arming schedule and the linkage, or I've to manage on camera basis?

Any help on this point is very appreciated.

This system should be installed on a farmland. So not so easy to monitor and because there are not so people living in there I need to use smart events to understand what is happening and to get notified when something occurs

Thanks
Regards
 
Darkangel85 said:
Hello Lewic,
Thanks for the reply.
I had a look at the model you suggested must I see it only supports only motion detection based on humans or vehicles, nothing about the line crossing or region entrance
I was looking at some darkfigther model since I understood is the most appropriate version in lo light condition without using additional light, and also the hardware specs should be better then the other models.

But how many camera I can use with NVR using smart event configured on the nvr?
I need to have more that 5 cameras with smart event
But looking at nvr if I'm not wrong most of them only supports 4 channel with smart event.
This means that I should configure the smart event directly on the cameras themselves. But how the notification works in this case?
They are sent through the nvr so I ca use the nvr to define the arming schedule and the linkage, or I've to manage on camera basis?

Any help on this point is very appreciated.

This system should be installed on a farmland. So not so easy to monitor and because there are not so people living in there I need to use smart events to understand what is happening and to get notified when something occurs

Thanks
Regards
Click to expand...
1778190564308.png
 
Darkangel85 said:
Hello Lewic,
Thanks for the reply.
I had a look at the model you suggested must I see it only supports only motion detection based on humans or vehicles, nothing about the line crossing or region entrance
I was looking at some darkfigther model since I understood is the most appropriate version in lo light condition without using additional light, and also the hardware specs should be better then the other models.

But how many camera I can use with NVR using smart event configured on the nvr?
I need to have more that 5 cameras with smart event
But looking at nvr if I'm not wrong most of them only supports 4 channel with smart event.
This means that I should configure the smart event directly on the cameras themselves. But how the notification works in this case?
They are sent through the nvr so I ca use the nvr to define the arming schedule and the linkage, or I've to manage on camera basis?

Any help on this point is very appreciated.

This system should be installed on a farmland. So not so easy to monitor and because there are not so people living in there I need to use smart events to understand what is happening and to get notified when something occurs

Thanks
Regards
Click to expand...
As far as having detections done by the NVR, it depends on if the NVR supports it. For Hikvision the "NXI" NVR's would usually have it. The amount of detections that could be done can be found out by looking at the NVR's spec sheet. There are a couple things that need to be done for this to work.

First is to make sure the "engine" is set up for use with VCA's. Then when in the menu for the detection, make sure to turn on the feature.... This is only if the camera doesn't support doing the detection on the camera itself. If the camera can do it then have the camera do it. You don't necessarily need to set it up from the camera itself. You can set up the detection from the NVR for the camera.
1778190906382.png
Darkfighter is just a lower lux camera. It will allow slightly lower lighting levels to let the camera stay in color. At the end, once it gets too dark the camera will turn on IR which then gives a black and white image. Even if you use a colorvu camera, it will not do a color image very well in certain lighting conditions. Even if it is in color, it is only somewhat usable for a still image. You will get a lot of motion blur on movement when you don't have the built in lights on.
 
Ok so basically if the camera can do it by itself it is possible to setup the configuration on the nvr then it will offload the feature to the camera, and only if the camera is not able to do it I need to configure the feature on the nvr allocating the engin
Is my understanding right?


Thanks
 
IP cameras in general do their processing for the detection from the camera itself. It basically will offload and keep the NVR from having to do it which if too many detections are done from the NVR side would encounter a "No resources" error since the CPU has a finite amount of processing power. So that's why if the camera has the ability then do it from the camera itself. When you set up a detection then you are able to do that from the NVR itself. Once you make any changes to the setting then the NVR would "forward" the request to change the settings to the camera itself. The setting in the screenshot is for if you were wanting a certain detection but the camera does not offer it then you have the ability on some NVR's to have the NVR do it. One thing to note is that you would first look at the camera to see if it is able to be done on the camera itself. If it is able to do the detection from the camera then you may need to enable it from the camera side. Most cameras won't let you do multiple modes at the same time.
1778246625588.png
When you set it to the mode desired then it would reboot the camera to load the new "mode". The screenshot above is where it is on a newer Hikvision/Hikvision OEM firmware camera. On ones with older firmware the setting is in a different area.
 
Thanks a lot.
My main objective is to use the cameras like an alarm system.
So in the dark it doesn't matter if the image is black and white, the important thing is that the system is able to recognize a human going inside the armed area.
Then I've seen some model with the auto with light turning on to have better images but let me say this in not the most important think I'm looking for.

So for my setup choosing cameras ably to do smart analysis by themselves I need just an acusense nvr with 16 channels
Screenshot_2026-05-08-19-52-42-95_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
About the camera you mentioned in the 2026 catalogue I see the above. The look and feel seems to be different, maybe your is not the more recent one but really it does have the smart event. Maybe I had a bad look in my previous research
However your advice is to don't focus on darkfigther since when is really dark no one is able to have clear image without additional light and in a farm in the night most of the time will be so, right?

Thanks
Regards
 
There was a firmware that added acusearch to the cameras. The camera in your screenshot has the grille on the side. That means it has the built in speaker/mic for use with two way audio and active deterrence. The one without will just have the built in mic.

Darkfighter will just have a better sensor so it will stay in color a little later before it cannot "see" anymore and thus needing to turn on the IR to illuminate the area. If you are on a farm and there is no supplemental lighting then having a darkfighter makes no different. All cameras are going to be needing some lighting to be able to see. Even the colorvu. The only camera able to see in a dark area without any type of visible light or IR would be a thermal camera. I have had farms and ranches utilizing those and able to see a good distance away.
 
Hello lewic,
thanks a lot for your support, you point me out some very good point i was not thinking to

do you have also any suggestion about the NVR?
probably i will start with 8 POE camera, but i'm not excluding so adding more. so the NVR should support more than 8 camera
as per our conversation the resolution will be no more than 4MP per camera and smart feature enabled on the camera
i will use POE camera, but i will punt a POE switch in middle so no need to have POE NVR

i haven't done a sizing to calculate ho much space i need on the HDD, but probably if possibile i'll prefer having two HDD configured in RAID to have HA

any hint also on this side will be appreciated

thanks
regards
 
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