Mini PTZ camera impressions! 2015 PTZ camera of the year? AVOID THIS CAMERA

[klasipca]

EDITED BY FENDERMAN: These cameras have been proven VERY unreliable with many reported failures of the V1 and V2 versions..there are much better options. Yes you will pay a bit more but you will have a reliable camera that is better than this almost every way.
Dahua 2MP 25x Starlight IR PTZ Network Camera (SD49225T-HN)






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WHERE TO BUY?

There are lots of listings with higher price, below is where people are buying it:


Full config (POE, Alarm, Audio inputs)
2016 HUISUN New Model 2.0MP Waterproof 1080P(Full HD) with ALarm and Audio with POE Sony CMOS Sensor IP PTZ Camera CCTV-in Surveillance Cameras from Security & Protection on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group


With POE only
2016 New Arrival Rotary Bullet PTZ Camera With Card Slot 2MP 10X ,with POE,IR 80m Night Vision CCTV IP Camera Hot Sell-in Surveillance Cameras from Security & Protection on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group


Barebone Without POE
Aliexpress.com : Buy NO NO NOHUISUN 2016 New model 2.0MP 10X Waterproof CCTV Camera Night Vision IP Bullet PTZ Camera from Reliable camera scope suppliers on Shenzhen Huisun Technology Co., Ltd.


Also available in wider lens option, but zoom is only 3x. You can compare images bellow. It's slightly wider (~10%) then Hikvision 2.8mm (POE model)
Aliexpress.com : Buy 2016 HUISUN New Model 2.0Megapixel 3X Optical Zoom With POE HD IR Mini Night Vision PTZ IP Camera from Reliable ptz speed dome camera suppliers on Shenzhen Huisun Technology Co., Ltd.


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Overall impression:

Why camera of the year? About 2 years back I was excited when 2432 was released, I got 4 of them for home use at $170 each and they still work perfectly today and been quite popular. At that time I got rid of all failing Foscams/Dericams etc and stayed exclusively with Hikvision since then. I could only dream about affordable PTZ camera from Hikvision and it's finally here in form of unknown brand. For the same price I paid for compact camera back then today it gets you 10x zoom, powerful IRs, PT controls and most importantly "Hikvision somewhat" firmware... seemed too good to pass up. Enough of the sales pitch, my initial impressions:

It was shipped in 3 days via DHL and arrived today in banged up box. I was afraid it was damaged inside, but the camera itself was in the air package so it was fine. Although, there is something rattling inside. There is no brand on the box or the camera. It looked very generic ip cam.

Here is some size comparison to my other Hikvision:

I think it has just the right size for my taste (don't want to scare neighbors with monstrosity of some outdoor cameras)

When I hooked up the cam initially to my POE adapter and to router, it was not recognized in the router or SDAP, after troubleshooting I found out it was set to a different gateway a 192.168.0.1 with IP address 192.168.0.99. Default username/password is admin for both. Once I got past that I was able to login and change the settings to my preferences. As we already know it is Hikvision-like UI with limited settings and some observations:

- User interface a bit lower end quality then Hikvision even though the layout is very similar
- You can only select 1080p image resolution for Channel1, unlike other Hikvision cameras where you have other choices
- There is WiFi setting, so either there is an optional module for this camera or it was overlooked when they stripped down the firmware
- When camera starts up it does the self test, up down 45 and 180 degree rotation. It's quite annoying and I didn't find a place to disable this feature.
- There is audio setting (MicIn/LineIn) but I thought I bought one without it. There is no built in microphone though
- Image quality is excellent. Image is sharp and clear and focuses well.
- PTZ movement is a bit slow, but very quiet
- SD card up to 32GB is supported, but I didn't test the feature
- All PTZ functions work in IVMS-4200 and IVMS-4500 just like in a Hikvision camera
- Android app Tiny Cam Pro also supported, but no PTZ functions in Hikvision profile. Reached out to developer, but no response.
- Build quality appears OK, it's mostly plastic but feels solid. For the price it's good.

I will update this with more detail as I play with it, but so far I am impressed. I had a feeling this will be great camera when I saw initial post about it and it's everything I expected to be. I will play with it more before I consider buying another one though, I don't know anything about reliability of this brand, especially how it will perform outdoors.
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Power usage testing with a KillaWatt:

Power up: up to 6 watt
Idle 2 bottom leds: 5 watt
Idle 2 upper leds: 7 watt
Idle no leds: 1-2 watt
PTZ action with 2 bottom leds: spiked to 11 watt, but stayed between 9-10 watt
PTZ action with 2 upper leds: 11 watt
PTZ action no leds: 2 watt


As a comparison 4MP Dome 2142FWD is
Idle: 2 watt
LEDs on: up to 4 watt


Bottom line: No where near rated 18 watt and will be fine in NVR. FYI the 4 LEDs on the cam do not work all at the same.

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Got two more. 3x & 10x zoom. Both look identical except LED lens and the lens itself. As well Hikvision NVR. Arrived same day

Both work flawlessly in Hikvision NVR after some messing around. The camera wouldn't detect because they assign automatically IP 192.168.0.99. You can see how wide is the new cam.

1st Camera with - zoomed out

2nd Camera - zoomed out

Comparing angle to 2.8mm 2cd2332-I, so while PTZ rated 3mm it looks like its wider due to sensor size.

OSD Menu


Sample videos from other users in this thread:

djangel



Larebear




Image quality thoughts:
- After two weeks of playing with different settings I am more then satisfied with IQ. It's as good as my 3MP Hikvision during daylight and on par with 4MP, although 4MP has a just slight edge due to higher pixel count and much better at night time then any Hikvision I have due to having high power LEDs. For the price again this is as good as it gets for night time recording.

Neutral:
- Firmware is based on the old Hikvision build (5.02), No idea how well it will be supported going forward.

Negatives:
- Motion detection is very limited and doesn't work all that well. I couldn't get it work well when combined with Hikvision NVR
- The camera is not supported in Chrome, as matter of fact you cannot do anything with this camera in Chrome browser because it is dependent on the plugin.



UPDATE 11/17/2015
2nd generation camera in works, not much detail other then this poster, I will update if any new info comes in. It does use newer Amabarella chipset which might improve quality/performance even further:

 

[fenderman]

@klasipca Nice review...the camera is small than the images online make it appear to be. It looks great for the money, but the only way to know if its a good value is to give it a year. Many of the cheaper ptz cameras suffer from focus issues. Though for this price you are not really risking much and if ptz is important to you, it certainly worth a shot.

 

[klasipca]

I don't really need PTZ, but it offers a lot of flexibility. Some spots need 2-3 cams to cover the area and with PTZ you could get away with 1. I never purchased outdoor PTZ because as we know it, they are costly, this one is the first bargain combined with nice features and firmware that we all know.

Just tested night time performance and was once again amazed. Image quality is superb (for the price) No focusing issues, focus was set to semi-auto by default and it was quick enough to focus and no hunting either. IRs on this thing are amazing too. It appears 2 work for distance and 2 for close objects.

 

[fenderman]

@klasipca To clarify, the focus issues are not immediate...they crop up because of poor components. The IR leds are another problem in they sometimes they are over driven and start dying after 6 months (I had an IPS camera do that)...A ptz cannot really replace 2-3 cameras to cover an area because you will never have 24/7 coverage of the area...only time will tell if these last and if they do its one hell of a deal...but again for the price, cant hurt to mess around with it..

 

[klasipca]

Looks like I am starting to have issues... I hope it's just a configuration thing. I am now getting black display. I can access the camera just fine, the IRs and zoom work, but just black display in the live stream...

 

[klasipca]

Basically here is where I am stuck now. I've tried resetting the camera too and no luck, can't get a stream out of it. I hope it's not a hardware issue...

 

[badmop]

Hey you got it!
Awesome, hopefully you get the issue you are having sorted.

 

[whoslooking]

The manufacture brand is Huisun, and if you wish they will OEM the camera's to your requirements.

What looks like from your image it looks like the plug in is at fault,
I've had one for two and so far it's fantastic.
And that rattle, looks like you found the silica pack inside, I thought it was something loose to start with too.

 

[klasipca]

I thought it was plugin, so I reinstalled it, but doesn't work in IVMS-4200 or tiny cam viewer.

 

[badmop]

How do you have it powered? I'm assuming POE?

 

[whoslooking]

That's strange I have it working in ivm-4200 picked it up straight away, I'm at work I will link the firmware when I get home, just in case anyone needs it.

Mine is the non POE model.

Looks like DHL have kicked that box around, lucky it's well packed inside.

 

[klasipca]

It was working briefly everywhere ivms-4200, tiny cam, IE, but after one of the reboots it just stopped. At first I was getting error during login 'Network Anomaly', now it's gone, but no picture.

I am using POE plug

 

[whoslooking]

That's sounds like a network setting issue, I had that with my Hik's a few times too. Ended up defaulting everything and started again.

 

[klasipca]

Alright folks. False alarm, well not entirely. Basically it was POE plug it just failed on me when I was using this camera. Actually plug works, but only partially hence the confusion... Back in business with another power plug.

 

[badmop]

I had a feeling it was something up with the power, strangely

 

[fmflex]

Hi klasipca

Could you post up a picture of the cam mounted if it's not too much trouble?


Thanks

 

[klasipca]

Will do. Haven't decided where to mount it yet. Might be a while.

 

[vasycara]

Please more about this, are you satisfied with it goes well, impressions, possibly a day-night filming.

 

[klasipca]

I am satisfied but I need to mount it first and It's not that easy to use/test when it's not mounted.

 

[klasipca]

Couple things bugging me:

1. Cannot disable self test on startup
2. There is no option to change default server port number 8000 which is used by Ivms-4200/Ivms-4500. (Only available ones are http, https, rtsp) As a matter of fact there is no port listed in the web gui unless you connect to IVMS-4200.