- Mar 27, 2014
- 3,137
- 750
In case someone someone considering Huisun mini PTZ vs Hikvision offering this might help a bit. First of all, just to be clear I've owned about 8 various Hikvision value cams for the past 2 years and Huisun only for 3 month. I will use Hikvision 4MP value turret/dome as the base for this comparison since English version (I am avoiding Chinese region cams from now on due to difficulty with firmware updates) of the cam is the same price as Huisun Mini PTZ at around $150 each:
PROs for Hikvision:
- Excellent day quality
- Nice build quality. Turret design is my favorite.
- Proven to be reliable (I have not had issues with any of my 8 Hikvision cameras, except on mini dome where 5 out of 10 IRs burned out)
- Builtin Motion detection works great. Able to set region for motion detection.
- Frequent firmware updates and lots of firmware configurations and features
CONs for Hikvision
- Night quality
- Night quality
- Night quality - while it was good enough 2 years ago, today I want something better and I was very disappointed with their new 4MP WDR models which I was expecting to improve night vision. You either have to provide enough light or install external IRs
- No Chrome support... yet
PROs for Huisun:
- Best bang for your buck. PTZ with 10x zoom is fun and practical! Can mount the camera anywhere without having to guess what lens you need and re adjust easily!
- Night vision with powerful IRs is wonderful
- Works with all Hikvision software, including Hikvision NVR and all functions supported
- BI support. I don't personally use it, but as users reported PTZ function has been added in the recent updates
- Comes in wide angle option same as Hik 2.8mm lens (Although it's only 3x zoom)
- All PTZ functions work with Android Tiny Cam Pro app using onvif profile (highly recommend this app vs Ip Cam Viewer). Make sure you have latest firmware installed which fixes onvif profile issue.
NEUTRAL for Huisun:
- Image quality could be improved although it's about the same as older 3MP Hikvision cams. At night it relies heavily on Noise Reduction, but powerful IRs help quite a bit.
- Mostly plastic build, has somewhat cheap feeling. Unknown how will it handle if left unprotected from weather elements.
CONs of Huisun
- Dependent on certain browsers IE/FireFox, can't view/edit settings in Chrome. ActiveX plugin they use is getting detected as malware at work and I wasn't able to install it.
- Builtin Motion detection is awful! Can't set a region and it sends out many false alerts during sundown and sunrise. If you use BI or any other software you can get around it though.
- To get maximum bitrate you have to set maximum fps at 30. Anything below will not get you the bitrate you have set therefore quality will be reduced. For example if you set it at 4000 Bit rate & 15 fps, the camera will be recording at around 1500 bit rate.
- There hasn't been any major firmware updates and support seems a bit difficult to deal with. Perhaps it will be improved, but I am not getting my hopes on this.
- Firmware overall is limited/basic in terms of features in comparison to Hikvision. I will try to compile a list at some point.
So very different cams and while Huisun isn't perfect with many cons it's still my top choice at the moment which is enough to replace some outdoor turrets/domes. Would I recommend it if it didn't have PTZ? Absolutely not! However, PTZ function is what stands above all and I ended up purchasing 3! The only thing is unknown is reliability and time will tell...
I will update this post with more info...
PROs for Hikvision:
- Excellent day quality
- Nice build quality. Turret design is my favorite.
- Proven to be reliable (I have not had issues with any of my 8 Hikvision cameras, except on mini dome where 5 out of 10 IRs burned out)
- Builtin Motion detection works great. Able to set region for motion detection.
- Frequent firmware updates and lots of firmware configurations and features
CONs for Hikvision
- Night quality
- Night quality
- Night quality - while it was good enough 2 years ago, today I want something better and I was very disappointed with their new 4MP WDR models which I was expecting to improve night vision. You either have to provide enough light or install external IRs
- No Chrome support... yet
PROs for Huisun:
- Best bang for your buck. PTZ with 10x zoom is fun and practical! Can mount the camera anywhere without having to guess what lens you need and re adjust easily!
- Night vision with powerful IRs is wonderful
- Works with all Hikvision software, including Hikvision NVR and all functions supported
- BI support. I don't personally use it, but as users reported PTZ function has been added in the recent updates
- Comes in wide angle option same as Hik 2.8mm lens (Although it's only 3x zoom)
- All PTZ functions work with Android Tiny Cam Pro app using onvif profile (highly recommend this app vs Ip Cam Viewer). Make sure you have latest firmware installed which fixes onvif profile issue.
NEUTRAL for Huisun:
- Image quality could be improved although it's about the same as older 3MP Hikvision cams. At night it relies heavily on Noise Reduction, but powerful IRs help quite a bit.
- Mostly plastic build, has somewhat cheap feeling. Unknown how will it handle if left unprotected from weather elements.
CONs of Huisun
- Dependent on certain browsers IE/FireFox, can't view/edit settings in Chrome. ActiveX plugin they use is getting detected as malware at work and I wasn't able to install it.
- Builtin Motion detection is awful! Can't set a region and it sends out many false alerts during sundown and sunrise. If you use BI or any other software you can get around it though.
- To get maximum bitrate you have to set maximum fps at 30. Anything below will not get you the bitrate you have set therefore quality will be reduced. For example if you set it at 4000 Bit rate & 15 fps, the camera will be recording at around 1500 bit rate.
- There hasn't been any major firmware updates and support seems a bit difficult to deal with. Perhaps it will be improved, but I am not getting my hopes on this.
- Firmware overall is limited/basic in terms of features in comparison to Hikvision. I will try to compile a list at some point.
So very different cams and while Huisun isn't perfect with many cons it's still my top choice at the moment which is enough to replace some outdoor turrets/domes. Would I recommend it if it didn't have PTZ? Absolutely not! However, PTZ function is what stands above all and I ended up purchasing 3! The only thing is unknown is reliability and time will tell...
I will update this post with more info...
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