Dahua Full Colour vs Starlight

While browsing our site or dahuasecurity.com, you may have come across listings that mention ‘Full-Colour/Color’ and ‘Starlight’. These are two different technologies that are utilised by Dahua products in order to provide better quality imagery.

But what exactly are they, and what’s the difference between the two? Read on to find out!


Full Colour

Dahua’s full-colour technology provides colour images throughout the day, even in the middle of the night because it does not cut to an IR or infrared filter at a certain light level – rather, it uses a set of features and AI functions that allow the image to remain visible. It’s perfect for customers who want to be able to clearly see intruders or number plates around the clock, for example, if they live in a high-risk area, or require cameras in a location that is always dark, such as a cinema or car park.

Let’s take a look at the individual features that allow full-colour cameras to create 24/7 colour images:

Large Aperture Lens

Full-Colour cameras feature a ‘super large’ aperture lens (F1.0 vs F1.6). This effectively translates to more light coming into the lens of the camera, creating a brighter image.

High-Performance Sensor

Full-Colour cameras have a larger sensor that results in a 30% increase in photosensitive capacity.

Advanced ISP

Dahua’s very own ISP (Image processor) is now on version 4.0. It is solely designed to improve the signal to noise ratio as well as colour reproduction, again allowing for a brighter, clearer image. 

Warm Light

Dahua’s full-colour cameras feature a warm light compared to standard lights, reducing light pollution.


Starlight

Dahua’s Starlight Technology, like Full-Colour, provides clearer, brighter images in low-light-level conditions. Where it differs, is that Starlight eventually cuts to the IR (Infrared) filter, but compared to standard CCTV cameras, the length of time it can produce clear, colour images is greatly increased. Starlight cameras feature some of the above technologies as well as:

Shutter Speed

Compared to traditional cameras, Starlight is able to slow down the camera’s shutter speed, allowing more light to enter the sensor.

SSA

SSA stands for ‘Smart Scene Adaptive’ and essentially means that the camera is able to react to a change of light in the scene, for example, a garage door closing and removing the scene’s light source.

So in basic terms, full-colour provides 24/7 colour images, whereas Starlight provides colour images much longer than traditional cameras, before cutting to infrared, where their IR performance adapts better to the scene, benefitting from Dahua’s advanced AI features.

Which is better? It depends entirely on the scenario. At Intelligent CCTV we would recommend using Full-Colour in most cases, as it’s a newer technology and provides round the clock security. However, if your customer is on a budget, and does not require constant colour images, Starlight may be a better choice.

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