I recently purchased a Gadinan “Starlight” 2MP camera with the IMX291 sensor
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gadi...nation-1-3MP-SONY-IMX225-2MP/32596562519.html
The vendor has a number of pictures of the camera in their above post, so I won’t replicate them, but I did want to provide the pic below to give an idea of the overall size of the camera, and the size of the Ethernet connector housing, which is going to need to be protected from the elements if you want to place this camera outdoors.
The connector housing is ~1” across, but the diagonal is 1.24”, so you’d need to drill a pretty big hole to put it inside a wall. If I end up using this camera outdoors, I’ll probably mount the camera to some sort of junction box instead. Figuring room for the cables to bend inside the box, it would probably need ~ 4 inches of room inside to stow away the connector once a CAT5 cable is plugged into it.
I bought this camera just so that I could see how the IMX291 sensor performs in low light. I was hoping that the low light performance would be good enough that I might be able to get useable results in a few locations just using ambient lighting. In my particular case, I don’t think this is going to be possible.
To give an accurate comparison with a camera that I’m familiar with, I literally mounted the Gandinan side-by-side with a Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW camera with a 4mm lens.
I Since the Gadinan does not have IR LEDs, or a cut filter, for most of the test period I ran the 2432F with its IR LED disabled, but did allow it to automatically switch to night mode.
Last night was a moonless night, and I’m in a somewhat rural area with very little light pollution, so the below pics are from a pretty difficult environment.
First set of pics are shortly after sunset, but with lots of light still available. The distance between the cameras and the objects in the foreground is approximately 15 feet.
The second set of pics is from when the 2342F decided it was time to switch to night mode.
The third set is from the point in time at which the 2342F was pretty much unable to resolve the license plate in the picture.
Set 4 is only 6 minutes later, and the Gadinan is obviously doing better than the Hik, but these aren’t the kind of results I was hoping for.
By 8:50 PM neither camera could resolve anything in the foreground, so I turned on the 2342F’s IR LED to confirm the Ganinan’s lack of a cut filter.
Set six is literally illuminated by one candle power. I set a lit candle on the ground about 5 feet in front of the cameras, positioning is such that it wasn’t in frame.
Set 7 is with illumination from an LED flashlight.
So here’s my impression about the camera and its performance…
I’m not impressed with the quality of the camera housing. If you put the cable into the wall or into a junction box you might need to do some additional weatherproofing where they provided a cutout for the cable to be routed out of the side of the mount. Adjusting the camera takes an allen wrench, which was provided, but the mount seems kind of flimsy to me.
This camera didn’t live up to my expectations. I was really expecting better low light results than I saw.
Without an IR cut filter, the only supplemental lighting you can use will have to be visible lighting.
(EDIT --- Correction: The camera has an IR Cut, but it won't switch with the camera settings the way mine was original set. See reply 8 below)
There might be a couple of situations where this camera might be a good fit. If you have a low level of ambient visible light, say indoors in a bar, or outdoors with some low level landscaping lights, this camera might work well. If you want a through-a -window camera that overlooks an area with some available light, the lack of IR LEDs and a cut filter won’t hurt.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gadi...nation-1-3MP-SONY-IMX225-2MP/32596562519.html
The vendor has a number of pictures of the camera in their above post, so I won’t replicate them, but I did want to provide the pic below to give an idea of the overall size of the camera, and the size of the Ethernet connector housing, which is going to need to be protected from the elements if you want to place this camera outdoors.
The connector housing is ~1” across, but the diagonal is 1.24”, so you’d need to drill a pretty big hole to put it inside a wall. If I end up using this camera outdoors, I’ll probably mount the camera to some sort of junction box instead. Figuring room for the cables to bend inside the box, it would probably need ~ 4 inches of room inside to stow away the connector once a CAT5 cable is plugged into it.
I bought this camera just so that I could see how the IMX291 sensor performs in low light. I was hoping that the low light performance would be good enough that I might be able to get useable results in a few locations just using ambient lighting. In my particular case, I don’t think this is going to be possible.
To give an accurate comparison with a camera that I’m familiar with, I literally mounted the Gandinan side-by-side with a Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW camera with a 4mm lens.
I Since the Gadinan does not have IR LEDs, or a cut filter, for most of the test period I ran the 2432F with its IR LED disabled, but did allow it to automatically switch to night mode.
Last night was a moonless night, and I’m in a somewhat rural area with very little light pollution, so the below pics are from a pretty difficult environment.
First set of pics are shortly after sunset, but with lots of light still available. The distance between the cameras and the objects in the foreground is approximately 15 feet.
The second set of pics is from when the 2342F decided it was time to switch to night mode.
The third set is from the point in time at which the 2342F was pretty much unable to resolve the license plate in the picture.
Set 4 is only 6 minutes later, and the Gadinan is obviously doing better than the Hik, but these aren’t the kind of results I was hoping for.
By 8:50 PM neither camera could resolve anything in the foreground, so I turned on the 2342F’s IR LED to confirm the Ganinan’s lack of a cut filter.
Set six is literally illuminated by one candle power. I set a lit candle on the ground about 5 feet in front of the cameras, positioning is such that it wasn’t in frame.
Set 7 is with illumination from an LED flashlight.
So here’s my impression about the camera and its performance…
I’m not impressed with the quality of the camera housing. If you put the cable into the wall or into a junction box you might need to do some additional weatherproofing where they provided a cutout for the cable to be routed out of the side of the mount. Adjusting the camera takes an allen wrench, which was provided, but the mount seems kind of flimsy to me.
This camera didn’t live up to my expectations. I was really expecting better low light results than I saw.
Without an IR cut filter, the only supplemental lighting you can use will have to be visible lighting.
(EDIT --- Correction: The camera has an IR Cut, but it won't switch with the camera settings the way mine was original set. See reply 8 below)
There might be a couple of situations where this camera might be a good fit. If you have a low level of ambient visible light, say indoors in a bar, or outdoors with some low level landscaping lights, this camera might work well. If you want a through-a -window camera that overlooks an area with some available light, the lack of IR LEDs and a cut filter won’t hurt.
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