Last updated: July 2026 · By the Smarket team · 11 min read
Quick Verdict
The DS-2CD2387G3-LIS2UY/SL is the most complete 4K security camera you can currently put on an Australian home. It records genuine 4K (3840×2160) in full colour at night down to 0.0005 lux, flashes a strobe and plays a siren or your own recorded warning when someone crosses your boundary, and handles two-way conversation from your phone. Two things to plan for before buying: it needs a PoE+ (802.3at) port, and 4K footage eats hard drive space faster than you might expect — both covered in detail below.
Rating: 4.5 / 5 — The best camera in Hikvision's ColorVu turret line-up, docked half a star for the PoE+ requirement and the storage planning 4K demands.
| Best for | Long driveways, wide frontages, number plates at distance, coastal homes, anyone who wants maximum recorded detail |
| Not for | Tight budgets or small yards — the 6MP version does the same job for $52 less — or setups stuck on standard PoE |
| Price | $468 AUD at Smarket (inc. GST, 3-year warranty, free shipping over $300) |
What Is This Camera, in Plain English?
Strip away the model number and here's what you're actually buying — a camera that does three jobs most cameras split across separate devices:
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It records 4K, in colour, at night. 8MP resolution is four times the detail of 1080p. Combined with ColorVu 3.0 — an ultra-bright F1.0 lens on a large 1/1.8" sensor — you get colour footage after dark where ordinary cameras drop to grainy black-and-white. In practice: you can zoom into recorded footage and read a number plate halfway down the driveway, and tell the police the ute was white and the hoodie was green.
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It intervenes. Draw a line or zone in the app; when a person or vehicle crosses it, the camera fires a white strobe and plays a siren — or a message in your own voice. Most opportunistic intruders leave at that point, which beats reviewing footage of what they took.
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It's a two-way intercom. Dual microphones and the loudest speaker in Hikvision's turret family (lab-rated 110dB) let you speak to a courier, a tradie or an unwanted visitor live from the Hik-Connect app, wherever you are.
Key Features Reviewed
4K Resolution — Where the Extra Pixels Actually Matter
Marketing loves "4K", so let's be specific about what it buys you on a security camera. Resolution determines how far away you can identify — not just see — a person or plate. With 8MP across the frame:
- Digital zoom stays usable. Zoom into one quarter of a 4K frame and you're still looking at 1080p-grade detail. Do that on a 1080p camera and you get mush.
- Wide scenes stay sharp edge to edge. One 4K camera watching a wide frontage often replaces two lower-res cameras — fewer cables, fewer mounts.
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Evidence survives cropping. When you need to export a still of a face or plate for a police report, the crop holds up.
Face identification runs to about 8 metres with the 2.8mm lens or 10 metres with the 4mm — same as the 6MP model — but everything beyond that identification zone carries noticeably more recoverable detail on the 4K sensor.
Colour Night Vision (ColorVu 3.0)
The headline number is 0.0005 lux — in plain terms, a scene lit by nothing more than a distant streetlight still records in colour. In true pitch black, the built-in warm white light reaches 30 metres, covering a full suburban driveway and then some.
Why it matters: incident reports run on colour. "A grey shape near a grey car" helps nobody; "a green hoodie getting into a white Ranger" is actionable. Infrared cameras can't give you the second sentence. This one can.
Smart Hybrid Light — You Control the Glow
The most common worry with white-light cameras — "I don't want a floodlight blazing all night" — is solved by three switchable modes:
- White light: on after dark for 24/7 colour. Itself a deterrent on a driveway.
- Infrared: completely invisible, black-and-white footage. For bedroom-facing angles or close neighbours.
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Smart mode (our recommendation): invisible infrared until the camera detects a person or vehicle — then the white light snaps on, the event records in colour, and the light stands down afterwards. Discreet 99% of the night, colour evidence for the 1% that matters.
All switchable from the app. No ladder.
Active Deterrence — Strobe, Siren, or Your Own Voice
Setup takes ten minutes: draw your detection zones tight to your own property, set triggers to "human" and "vehicle", pick a response — strobe, siren tone, or a custom recording ("You're on camera. Police have been notified.") — and schedule it so deterrence arms overnight and sleeps during the school run.
Because the human/vehicle classification runs on deep learning inside the camera, possums, rain, headlights and moving branches don't trigger it. That's the practical difference between this and a motion floodlight that cries wolf nightly until you stop looking.
Built for Australian Conditions — NEMA 4X + EIS
Beyond the standard IP67 weatherproofing, this housing carries a NEMA 4X anti-corrosion rating — tested against salt-laden air. If you're within a couple of kilometres of the coast, this is the spec that decides whether your camera still looks new in three years or is quietly pitting and staining. Electronic image stabilisation (EIS) rounds it out for pole and high-eave mounts where wind gusts would otherwise blur footage.
8MP vs 6MP: Is 4K Worth the Extra $52?
This is the real decision for most buyers, because the 6MP DS-2CD2367G3-LIS2UY/SL is the identical camera — same ColorVu 3.0 night colour, same strobe and siren, same dual mics, same NEMA 4X housing, same PoE+ requirement — at a lower resolution and price.
| 8MP 2387G3 (this review) | 6MP 2367G3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 3840 × 2160 (true 4K) | 3200 × 1800 |
| Detail vs 1080p | ~4× | ~3× |
| Price | $468 | $416 |
| Storage appetite | Higher (see below) | Moderate |
| Everything else | Identical | Identical |
Choose the 8MP if: you're covering a long driveway, a wide frontage, a shopfront or car park — anywhere you'll zoom into recorded footage to pull plates or faces at distance.
Choose the 6MP if: the camera watches a porch, a courtyard or a short approach where everything important happens within 8–10 metres anyway. Put the $52 per camera toward a bigger hard drive instead.
We've published a full separate review of the 6MP model if you're leaning that way.
The Hidden Cost of 4K: Storage (Plan This Before You Buy)
Nobody puts this on the box, so we will: 4K footage is roughly 30–40% hungrier for hard drive space than 6MP at the same settings. As a working rule with H.265 compression and continuous 24/7 recording:
| Setup | 4TB drive lasts roughly |
|---|---|
| 4 × 8MP cameras, 24/7 | ~2 weeks |
| 6 × 8MP cameras, 24/7 | ~9–10 days |
| 8 × 8MP cameras, 24/7 | ~1 week |
Two easy fixes: record on event/motion only (multiplies retention several times over, and the AI detection makes events reliable), or simply size the drive up front — a 6TB or 8TB surveillance drive is the difference between one week and three. If you're building a 6–8 camera 4K system, start at 6TB.
The PoE+ Catch (Same as the 6MP — Read Before Buying)
At full output — white light, strobe and speaker together — the camera peaks at 17W, which exceeds a standard PoE (802.3af) port. You need either an 802.3at (PoE+) port or a separate 12V DC supply.
Buy it in one of our kits and this is a non-issue — the M-series NVRs supply af/at on every port. Adding it to an existing third-party switch? Check the port rating first.
Locked to standard PoE? The 8MP G2H variant keeps the strobe, audible warnings and two-way talk at 10.5W on any standard PoE port — the sensible sidestep.
2.8mm or 4mm Lens?
Two fixed lens options, no motorised zoom — so choose by mounting position:
| 2.8mm | 4mm | |
|---|---|---|
| Field of view | 108.8° (wide) | 93.3° (narrower) |
| Face ID range | ~8 m | ~10 m |
| Best for | Porches, entries, close driveways, wide yards | Front gates, long driveways, watching an approach |
Rule of thumb: target within 8m of the camera → 2.8mm for the wider view. Target 8–10m+ out (a gate, a parked car on the verge) → 4mm. Note your choice in the order message at checkout.
Where It Sits in the 8MP ColorVu Family
| Model | Strobe + Siren | Power | Pick it when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2387G3 (this review) | ✅ Loudest speaker, dual mics | PoE+ (17W) | You want the full 4K package + coastal housing |
| 2387 G2H | ✅ | Standard PoE (10.5W) | Your switch is standard PoE only |
| 2387 G2P panoramic | ✅ | Standard PoE | One mount must sweep a full 180° |
| 6MP 2367G3 | ✅ Same everything | PoE+ (17W) | 4K detail isn't needed — save $52/camera |
Browse all Hikvision 8MP 4K cameras →
DIY Installation: What to Expect
Wired PoE means one Ethernet cable per camera carrying power and video together — no batteries, no Wi-Fi dropouts. A typical first-timer afternoon:
- Mount at 2.5–3 metres on a wall, eave or ceiling — out of arm's reach, low enough to catch faces.
- Run one Ethernet cable back to the NVR or PoE+ switch (pre-terminated cables save crimping).
- Activate with a strong password and scan into the Hik-Connect app.
- Set Smart mode, draw detection zones tight to your property, record your warning message, schedule arming times.
Outdoors, add a junction box (~$20) behind the camera — it hides and weatherproofs the cable join, and it's the single cheapest thing that makes an install look professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1 Can I stop the white light coming on every night?
Yes — the light is a mode, not a fixture. Set it to infrared for completely invisible night vision, or Smart mode so the white light only fires when a person or vehicle is actually detected. Only the dedicated white-light mode keeps it on all night, because that's how full-time colour is produced.
Q2 How much storage does this 4K camera actually use?
Recording 24/7 with H.265, budget roughly 120GB per camera per week; a 4TB drive handles four cameras for about two weeks. Switch to event-only recording and retention stretches several times longer. For 6+ cameras recording continuously, start at a 6TB drive.
Q3 Do I need an NVR, or can it work alone?
It works standalone with a MicroSD card (up to 512GB, not included), recording locally and streaming to the Hik-Connect app. Most buyers still add an NVR for weeks of retention and one timeline across all cameras — treat the SD slot as backup. Update your NVR firmware before adding the camera.
Q4 Is Hikvision safe to use in Australia?
There's no restriction on private or business use of Hikvision in Australia — the 2023 federal decision applied to government sites as a precaution. This camera needs no cloud account: it records to your own NVR, works fully offline, and supports HTTPS, TLS and 802.1X. Want zero outbound traffic? Put it on an isolated network and it still records locally.
Q5 Will it work with a non-Hikvision NVR?
Yes — ONVIF conformant (Profile S, G and T), so video and motion events carry over to third-party recorders. Smart human/vehicle filtering, two-way audio and the app experience are smoothest inside the Hikvision ecosystem.
Q6 How is the G3 different from the older G2 ColorVu?
The G3 generation adds sharper AI image processing (HikAI-ISP), arrayed dual microphones, a louder speaker and the NEMA 4X coastal housing over the outgoing G2. Unless you find a G2 heavily discounted, the G3 is the better buy in 2026.
Q7 Is there a version that never lights up at night?
Yes — if any visible light is a deal-breaker, the 2366 AcuSense range does the same human/vehicle detection with invisible infrared only, in black-and-white. This ColorVu model is the pick when night colour and active deterrence matter more than staying invisible.
Price, Kits & Where to Buy in Australia
The DS-2CD2387G3-LIS2UY/SL sells for $468 AUD at Smarket (inc. GST) with a 3-year warranty, free shipping over $300 and 30-day returns. White or black housing, 2.8mm or 4mm — note your lens in the order message.
Building a full 4K system? This exact camera powers our ready-made 4K ColorVu kits on M-series PoE NVRs — PoE+ sorted, plug-and-play, from $2,057.35:
- 4-camera 4K kit + 8CH NVR — most single-storey homes, room to grow
- 6-camera 4K kit + 8CH NVR + 4TB — full perimeter coverage
- 8-camera 4K kit + 8CH NVR + 4TB — large blocks and small business
- 10-camera 4K kit + 16CH NVR — acreage, workshops, multi-building sites
On a tighter budget, our mixed kit pairs two of these 4K cameras at the key entry points with four 6MP AcuSense cameras elsewhere — flagship coverage where it counts, at $2,618.
Final Verdict
4.5 / 5. The DS-2CD2387G3-LIS2UY/SL takes everything that made the ColorVu 3.0 range the deterrence benchmark — colour night evidence, strobe and siren, real two-way talk, salt-air housing — and adds the resolution headroom that turns "someone was there" into "here's the plate". Plan two things: a PoE+ port (automatic in our kits) and honest storage sizing for 4K.
If your cameras watch long approaches, wide frontages or anywhere you'll be zooming into footage after the fact, spend the extra $52 over the 6MP — it pays for itself the first time a crop holds up. If everything you care about happens within 10 metres, the 6MP twin is the smarter spend.
Shop the DS-2CD2387G3-LIS2UY/SL →
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All technical details are sourced from the official DS‑2CD2387G3‑LSU/SL datasheet. If you're interested in this camera, visit Smarket to purchase. We also provide a full step-by-step setup video for the complete system.
Smarket is an independent Australian retailer of genuine, brand-new security products, operated by POWERCX PTY LTD, Rydalmere NSW. All cameras include a 3-year warranty and Australia-wide shipping.