REVIEW: HIKVISION DS-2CD2387G2P-LSU/SL

c hris527

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Hello All,
This will be a Moderate review of a Hikvision DS-2CD2387g2p-LSU/SL Multi-sensor 180 degree 4mm camera. I received the camera for testing from Hikvision USA (THANK YOU GUYS) and I told them
I would post a review here on IpCamtalk. Going to give the good, the bad and the ugly. I Posted a thread on how I ran into these guys by chance. The Link is HERE I will also Note that there is already another thread on this camera with a lot of great Info posted by member @Sjoeltje , You can find that link HERE.
This all being said, I will try not to be redundant but put my own take on this from a Installers view. Lets call me semi retired as I do some stuff now but my days on ladders and Installing cams are few now but I do a lot of planning and consulting for others. Also Important to me is the security aspect of cams on a network. These are My Topics I will cover:
1. Why would I want or need this camera?
2. How well Does it Integrate with My Current systems.
3. How is tech support
4. How is the security on the cam
Speaking Of Hikvision, I was advised at least twice by them that I was pronouncing the name Incorrect. I was saying HIK like a backwoods woodcutter eating roadkill, Its really like Football, like hike the ball :winktongue: I'm down with that now. I by no means have used a lot of Hikvision gear
over the years so I came into this with limited knowledge and most likely will stand to be corrected on some points or lack of experience or knowledge. I have Integrated Hik Cams into Dahua, Axis, and a few No name NVR's with no issues so Its time to try to go the other way.
This review will be a work in progress, I have done some testing home on the ranch but I do feel I have better applications and locations where the benefits from a 180 degree camera could really be seen better. That will come in time. I feel I have enough to start this.

webshot.JPG

The Full Specs: From Hikvision USA Can be found HERE

A few thing I found was about the sensors, Seems its two 4mp sensors stitched together. I lifted this from another website "
"I've double-checked with Hikvision, and the two sensors on the DS-2CD2387G2P-LSU/SL and DS-2CD2T87G2P-LSU/SL are each 4MP with a 4mm focal length.
The images are then stitched together to create an image that has a resolution of 5120 x 1440." <--I can not confirm this yet.


That resolution is static and Grayed out, It can NOT be changed or I have not found a way to do it yet. So I think you got what you got. Control.JPG


A few pics after unboxing, This came with all the standard stuff, mounting hardware, and standard plate mount, Water Proof connector, you all know what cams come with. Front.jpg Back.jpg Mount.jpg


I put it on the bench, fired it up, All standard stuff, Much like Dahua, setting IP, passwords, Logged in No issue. I disabled ALL extra network options (UPnP, Multicast DDNS)and ran a packet capture on it, was not calling home and Quiet so I was Glad to see that.
The Web GUI would not play nice with some controls, like recording or snapshots unless I ran it under a elevated or Administrator level. I have also seen this behavior With Raysharp AKA GoSwift and some Uniview Interfaces. I believe It has to due with a Plugin That wants to Run every time My Bench Cam Computer starts.
Plugin.jpg
My observation was the web Interface Ran best under IE, I also tested it with Firefox, Chrome and Edge but for some reason under those, some of the controls acted slow and sometimes Unresponsive. Could just be My Computer, who knows.

I also updated it to the latest firmware and a few shots of Some of the Interface Controls. Firm.JPGStitching.JPGaudioAlarm.JPG Too many to list right now but I will post them when that Topic comes up.

COMPATIBILITY:
One Of The first things I wanted to do that was most Important to me was test it for Compatibly with A Dahua NVR,5432P. I have a TON of those running out there in security world and having a 180 Cam would be a nice add if I could make it work. I know some of the features would not work
But If I could get a Nice 24/7 recording with the correct aspect on playback I would definitely consider it for the price point. I do not know what Hikvision USA resellers are selling them for, Retail price at B&H has this listed for like $417. Considering how much real-estate This cam can cover I feel it could definitely do the Job of at least two or in certain conditions three cameras depending on what your goals are for your conditions. For a Installer under the right conditions its a NO brainier. So Did I get it to work?? The short answer is yes and better than I expected.
I will say I was frustrated at first because My NVR would not let it connect, did some googling and found the answer. By default Onvif is disabled on The Hik cam so i had to hunt for the control and found it, checked it and BOOM she took. Pic of the Control Onvif.JPG
Not out of the woods yet because the Aspect ratio was way off on the feed to the NVR, This is a large picture being produced and the Dahua NVR was not having it. I tried everything but no beans to change this. I feel like a Dumbass telling you this but here is how I finally fixed this.
Turns out I had to log on to the NVR direct to mess with the sound settings, I just happened to look at the Live view on the NVR and saw controls I had not seen through the Web GUI, On the bottom left of Live view(NVR) is a control that just says WH Screenshot_20220914-224559_Gallery.jpg
This is where you set the aspect ratio,Not Only did this fix it, I also discovered the sound was working and recording, I had to adjust the cameras settings to match the NVR settings like bitrate and Iframe and FPS and it looks, records and plays back Pretty good. So my question about Compatibility answer is yes it will work.
Just to note I also tested the RTSP stream through VLC and for fun Downloaded Hikvision IVMS 4200 and got everything working with no issues. I have not tested it through BI yet but the guys in the other thread claim they got it working.

Here is a Screen shot through the Dahua NVR DahuaAspect.JPG Zoomed In to show details playbackDahua.JPG Just the Hik's LED lights lighting up the scene. Same shot from Hikvision Gui Hik Compare.JPG Looking pretty good for Stock settings so far.

I will end this first post with a few more testing pics from around the house, and a few very cool features this cam has. More to come on testing in different conditions and cover its features, but for now I REALLY like the 2 way audio. I can only get it to work right through the Hikvision WebGui but some early testing is leading be to believe I can get it to work through the NVR also, time will tell. The built in speaker works well and is not overwhelming when triggered with audio or siren. I had the camera set up outside on a testing rig and was playing with 2 way audio feature with my kid and wife, they love it, it got dark and they came it, I was using my laptop in my living room with the Gui open, about a 1/2 hour later my neighbor texted me and said d she could hear everything we were doing in the living room, our conversations through the camera outside...WOW , I left 2 way open, I will not do that again. Another feature that works REALLY well is the Intrusion and line crossing, I have had a from what I observed it to be 99% accurate between a car or human, then the alarm sends a nice British sounding voice letting us know we are under surveillance. In time, I will try to create my own custom audio, kind of limited to file size (512kb) and has to be 8 bit. Picture wise, depending on the conditions is very good, The stitching feature between the 2 sensors causes a ghosting effect for a short period on motion stock out of the box but can be messed with depending on the conditions you are wanting to achieve. More on that soon, not a deal breaker.

A Few Pics: These were taken with pretty much stock settings, Again I think this will give you a good idea of the Area this will cover with 1 cam, I will do more detailed stuff soon as time permits, so far I will say I'm really liking this cam. If anybody has any specific questions, let me know, Will try to answer as I become more familiar with the features of the cam. The last Picture, its actually dark outside, by default the LED lights come on to light things up.FYI it was a full moon also.
back1.jpg back2.jpg back3.jpg back4.jpg

More Soon.
 
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c hris527

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So I have been super busy but I managed to get a few more functional tests and what I would consider Important on the placement of this camera. First of all, being a 180 degree camera, its most likely not a good Idea to mount this near a bright outdoor motion light .
In the pic, its about 5 feet away from the lamp, about 1 foot down.Its not like a bullet or dome that can fare better with a light behind it. Totally washed out one of the sensors.
SPOTLIGHT.jpg Lite on.jpg So Far I have not found a fix for this. I will re test with some dimmer carriage lights, I have a spot but not much time. Consider this issue if you plan on mounting it near bright lights. The second Thing I have been screwing with is the stitching feature, To myself it would not be a deal breaker, to some it will drive you nuts. The bottom line right now with this firmware, you are going to see issues no matter where you set it, I have reached out to Hikvision reps on this last week but have not had any response yet. I watched a video from Hikvision.EU They were working on a 32mb PanoVU with 4 sensors and also using 3rd party software The video can be found HERE



I'm waiting to here from the reps If I can use this method to adjust the camera. Here are a few pics of the stitching issues. away.jpg 2asnip.JPG

Other than those issues, it does give a beautiful full color Image using it native white lights, It did not take long to dial it in either, The nighttime videos are really good and I will post some soon. here are a few pics from them. In this pic, I know it looks like its not dark, but its totally dark and she is about 2 feet from the camera and its around 7 ' up . best2.JPG mostbest.JPG had to adjust the white light down a bit because of washing effect but with any camera you can expect this, again the controls are pretty self explanatory, a little tweek on shutter speed also here and there. One thing for sure it really does suck up ANY ambient light and put it to use. So Far having fun and hope to post more soon.
 
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alastairstevenson

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Thanks for doing this!
Reviews are so helpful to the community.

I disabled ALL extra network options (UPnP, Multicast DDNS)
I'm curious - was UPnP actually enabled by default?
If so, that's a big backward step.
Hikvision disabled it by default quite a few years back, as it facilitated a lot of hacking activity when users didn't realise that if it was also enabled on the LAN router (which again was quite common) the camera would let the entire internet have access in to it with the resultant automatic port forwarding.
 

c hris527

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Thanks for doing this!
Reviews are so helpful to the community.


I'm curious - was UPnP actually enabled by default?
If so, that's a big backward step.
Hikvision disabled it by default quite a few years back, as it facilitated a lot of hacking activity when users didn't realise that if it was also enabled on the LAN router (which again was quite common) the camera would let the entire internet have access in to it with the resultant automatic port forwarding.
Thanks Alastair,

I threw everything in to one basket, I should have said I made sure everything was disabled, I think it WAS disabled by default, I just unchecked everything, I have the config backed up so it should be no issue to default the camera, I will most likely do that soon anyway, I usually find a way to adjust settings to death and cannot figure out what combination is to get it back. ;)
 

alekk

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That's an AWESOME "Dunkin Doughtnuts" story Chris - I can only imagine how much "eye-rolling" my son would have done if I had said "lets talk to these Hikvision people" ;-)

Thanks in advance for the review - that's a pretty nifty camera. And yea, my experience with my Hikvisions is that IE (or Edge in "IE mode") works best - check out this notice from Hikvision. Bummer it's not more seamless with other browsers.

Speaking of nifty cameras, I attended a recent Hikvision webinar and they talked about the DS-2CE79DF8T-AZE ... which has nice specs: Vari-focal, 2MP (works since you can precisely frame things), F/1.0 lens, 1/1.1.8" sensor ... BUT ... it is a Turbo-HD product, not a Network Camera ... darn!

So next time you talk to Sam Belbina (VP of sales), ask 'em if they have any plans to release a Network-Camera equivalent ... and better yet would be a 1/1.2" sensor ... that would be a serious light-sucker!
 

c hris527

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That's an AWESOME "Dunkin Doughtnuts" story Chris - I can only imagine how much "eye-rolling" my son would have done if I had said "lets talk to these Hikvision people" ;-)

Thanks in advance for the review - that's a pretty nifty camera. And yea, my experience with my Hikvisions is that IE (or Edge in "IE mode") works best - check out this notice from Hikvision. Bummer it's not more seamless with other browsers.

Speaking of nifty cameras, I attended a recent Hikvision webinar and they talked about the DS-2CE79DF8T-AZE ... which has nice specs: Vari-focal, 2MP (works since you can precisely frame things), F/1.0 lens, 1/1.1.8" sensor ... BUT ... it is a Turbo-HD product, not a Network Camera ... darn!

So next time you talk to Sam Belbina (VP of sales), ask 'em if they have any plans to release a Network-Camera equivalent ... and better yet would be a 1/1.2" sensor ... that would be a serious light-sucker!
EYE Rolling, ya I get that, she is 12 so yup, She was distracted by eating doughnut holes and a latte besides having her phone stuck in her face, she actually went with me to the Road show. Thanks for the Info on the browsers. Seems with the latest windows update Microsoft added in a redirect to IE11 to open EDGE, that is why I was having Issues with the Dahua NVR, I would click on IE and ended up with edge and took me a day or two to figure that's what was going on and I did not catch that until I spent a day of frustration.
Being a IT person I should have caught that but that's the way it goes as I get older. That is fixable in the settings on Edge. Being a hard core Dahua guy, a bit of a learning curve with the Hikvision but slowly figuring it out. The Turbo HD .hmm Looks feature packed like the one I'm testing, I will have to check it out more when I get time. I had the option from Hikvision to test the solar powered remote cellular Camera , Thay might be a fun one to mess with. So far liking the Talking Camera and will have more soon.

Chris
 

c hris527

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So I have been super busy but I managed to get a few more functional tests and what I would consider Important on the placement of this camera. First of all, being a 180 degree camera, its most likely not a good Idea to mount this near a bright outdoor motion light .
In the pic, its about 5 feet away from the lamp, about 1 foot down.Its not like a bullet or dome that can fare better with a light behind it. Totally washed out one of the sensors.
View attachment 141701 View attachment 141689 So Far I have not found a fix for this. I will re test with some dimmer carriage lights, I have a spot but not much time. Consider this issue if you plan on mounting it near bright lights. The second Thing I have been screwing with is the stitching feature, To myself it would not be a deal breaker, to some it will drive you nuts. The bottom line right now with this firmware, you are going to see issues no matter where you set it, I have reached out to Hikvision reps on this last week but have not had any response yet. I watched a video from Hikvision.EU They were working on a 32mb PanoVU with 4 sensors and also using 3rd party software The video can be found HERE



I'm waiting to here from the reps If I can use this method to adjust the camera. Here are a few pics of the stitching issues. View attachment 141695 View attachment 141697

Other than those issues, it does give a beautiful full color Image using it native white lights, It did not take long to dial it in either, The nighttime videos are really good and I will post some soon. here are a few pics from them. In this pic, I know it looks like its not dark, but its totally dark and she is about 2 feet from the camera and its around 7 ' up . View attachment 141700 View attachment 141703 had to adjust the white light down a bit because of washing effect but with any camera you can expect this, again the controls are pretty self explanatory, a little tweek on shutter speed also here and there. One thing for sure it really does suck up ANY ambient light and put it to use. So Far having fun and hope to post more soon.
a
 

mil

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I have issue to get 8MP resolution through NVR (NVR supports 8MP). I cant even add camera to online version of NVR GUI.
 

mil

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What model and make ok NVR ? Poe ? Non poe. More details the better
Thanks for response.

NVR: DS-7608NXI-K1
Camera: DS-2CD2387G2P-LSU/SL
Switch: DS-3E0310P-E/M

Through Hik Connect and when directly connecting to camera from laptop I get full resolution i.e. 8MP( 5120px x 1440px).
When opening Web GUI of camera, I gat only HD resolution.
When opening Hikvision NVR GUI, I get failed to load video.
 

c hris527

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I have noticed in your screen shot that in the upper right corner it says download plugin: I had to install that plug in first before I could get it to work, I was using a windows computer and its some kind of decoder for the camera to talk to windows.
 

mil

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thank you for responses. I have tried as well, but didnt helped.
But, why through cameras IP it works, but it is not best resolution.

To me this looks that this camera is not compatible, cause I order it from China and other equipment is from EU. Probably it is also original, but somehow it is not compatible.
 
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