wildlife camera advice sought - upgrade

[ElectronicBattle]

Hello

Which camera might experienced people recommend, in the price range of £/$/Euro100-200, for wildlife spotting which includes dawn/dusk/night time as well as daytime?

Background: I am in the process of upgrading from my eight Floureon wifi 1080p WiFi cameras and associated NVR, which has worked well for the last seven years, to a wired system with PoE capability. I have already upgraded some of the cameras:

TP-Link Tapo C320WS as general cameras, local DC power but wired (£34 each)
1/3" CMOS Starlight Sensor
3.18 mm f1.61 lens
"QHD 2k" = 2560 × 1440 @ 15 fps

and

TP-Link Tapo C325WB as a specialist camera, PoE (£70)
1/1.88'' CMOS Starlight Sensor
4.1mm f1.0 lens
"QHD 2k" = 2688 × 1520 @ 20 fps

both of which have integrated very easily into Frigate:

tapo_1:
      - rtsp://user:pass@192.168.50.88:554/stream1
    tapo_1_sub:
      - rtsp://user:pass@192.168.50.88:554/stream2 

tapo_1
   enabled: true
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://localhost:8554/tapo_1_sub
          roles: [detect]
        - path: rtsp://localhost:8554/tapo_1
          roles: [record]
    live:
      streams:
        Main Stream: tapo_1

I would like to consider one more camera, perhaps twice as expensive or even three times more expensive, which is PoE and needs to cover one of several fields of view, depending on where I situate it.

I think I want a 4mm or 6mm lens and an f1.0 aperture into a sensor which is at least as large as 1/1.8" and ideally 1/1.1" or 1/1.2". I also think I want to forego some of that sensitivity by moving to a high resolution too, acknowledging that there's a balance to be struck between aperture and CMOS pixel size.

It'll need a substream for detection and I am not bothered about in-built AI or two-way audio. I don't need them and I can simply deactivate them.

Various searches have identified a couple of products (Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL or Annke NC800) but I'd like to draw on the experience of Frigate users for their suggestions please.

Thanks!

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

---

For wildlife monitoring with good low-light performance, the Frigate documentation recommends Dahua, Hikvision, and Amcrest cameras in that order. (1)

Specifically, the documentation notes that larger sensors are better than higher resolutions, especially at night, and recommends looking for cameras with configurable resolutions and frame rates across multiple streams. (1)

The Hikvision model you mentioned (DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL) is actually listed in the recommended hardware documentation as a good option:

• HIKVISION DS-2CD2387G2P-LSU/SL ColorVu 8MP Panoramic Turret IP Camera (1)

For Dahua/Loryta options, these are recommended:

• Loryta(Dahua) IPC-T549M-ALED-S3 (1)
• Loryta(Dahua) IPC-T54IR-AS (1)

Key configuration advice for your setup:

• Set your detection stream to 5fps (recommended) with resolution tuned for the size of objects you want to detect (2)
• Set your recording stream to 15fps at the highest resolution your camera supports (2)
• Use H.264 for maximum compatibility, though H.265 offers better compression (2)
• Configure I-frame interval to 30 (or 15 for better streaming performance) (2)

WiFi cameras are explicitly not recommended due to unreliable streams and connection loss issues. (1)

Your preference for a 4-6mm lens with f/1.0 aperture and a large sensor (1/1.8" or larger) aligns well with the documentation's emphasis on sensor size over resolution for night performance.

📚 Sources:

1. Recommended hardware
2. Camera setup

---

Have another question? Just tag @inkeep.

[Reverse256]

Perhaps a wildlife camera group will have better answers.
I'm amazed by colorvu 3.0 from hikvision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56-ZAnytfzc&t=66

I hope to get some bullet styles soon :)

There's probably some wifi options for you.

[ElectronicBattle]

wildlife camera group

A good point: I might see what I can find.

I like that Hikvision video; it's interesting to note that for the following

ds-2cd2t87g2
ds-2cd2t87g3

the G2 has a larger 1/1.2" sensor than the G3 which is 1/1.8" and although the video shows the G3 improvements, it's the G2 which provides better optical performance

which means I might prefer the G2 (and it's hopefully cheaper/available secondhand due to the newer G3!).