Speed dome optical zoom 5mp camera, not tilting high enough.

[luk8899]

I've got the pictured IP camera with Sony Imx335 sensor and GK7205 SOC. I'd normally not get such a low resolution camera, but this one has optical zoom (5x) and a speed dome.

I mounted it at 5m height and I immediately was very disappointed by the fact the camera zoom can only be used to look at the ground 10m away. What is the point of a zoom camera if the highest it gets is so the center of the picture points 45 degrees down. The spec says 0 to 90 degrees of movement. Indeed it can look straight down, but no way it can tilt 90 degrees up from that (to level the center of the frame with the horizon).

II'm not sure if this is normal, or some fault of this unit. It wasn't cheap, but other pan tilt motorized zoom cameras start at double the price so I'd very much like to get it working even if it meant a diy mod. I don't care about looking straight down. If I could take the bottom 30deg of movement and swap it to the top it would be great. There is nothing in settings BTW.

If anyone knows this mechanism. Can you let me know if anything can be done to fix it? Or do I have to return it and just get a couple of non motorised zoom 4k cameras instead?

 

[wittaj]

The 0 to 90 degrees is from horizontal level (0) and can rotate down 90 degrees (look straight down).

You need one that show a negative tilt if you want to go above 0 horizontal.

This is pretty typical, especially for cheaper cams, which this would be in the USA. Most only offer a -5 to -15 degree tilt upwards.

 

[luk8899]

The 0 to 90 degrees is from horizontal level (0) and can rotate down 90 degrees (look straight down).

You need one that show a negative tilt if you want to go above 0 horizontal.

This is pretty typical, especially for cheaper cams, which this would be in the USA. Most only offer a -5 to -15 degree tilt upwards.

Thanks for the reply. The thing is, it never really gets to horizontal if you look at the center of the screen. It goest from vertically down, to 55 degrees(never 90 - 90 is horizontal). Are you saying, when they specify 0 to 90 degrees tilt they actually mean center of the screen when down and only the topmost bit of the screen when up? If that's it, than it doesn't even need to go all the way down. It could tilt 30 degrees and the lowest point of the screen would be vertically down, go up 30 degrees and you have the top part of the screen level with horizon. (the image being vertically about 65 degrees on this camera I believe)

When you say the -5 or -15 uptilt how do you measure it? In the center of the screen?

If this is by design, does anyojne know any method to modify it to move the travel range upwards? The zoom feature (what i bought it for) is 100% useless if from 5m up it looks 10m away.

 

[bp2008]

Sounds like the cam is probably defective. But nothing is perfect, maybe there's an easier solution than getting the seller to take it back.

Here are some ideas:
1) In its web interface, look for a setting for a tilt height limit (some PTZs have such a setting)
2) In its web interface, look for a PTZ calibration or PTZ reset button.
3) Try holding the PTZ down button until a few seconds after it stops moving. This is in case the cam has somehow gotten confused about where it is pointed and thinks it is already tilted as high as it goes. By tilting in the opposite direction it would try to go past its physical limit but be unable to, and this can sometimes fix the issue where it doesn't know where it is actually pointed. Happens just often enough to one of my dad's cams after icy weather that I trained him how to "fix it" himself.
4) Power cycle the cam of course.

 

[wittaj]

You will also find all manufacturers "play" with the numbers a bit.

I have seen the dome cameras in particular have trouble getting to true horizontal and the zero is probably measured at the top of the field of view instead the center. Sounds like what you may be experiencing.

 

[luk8899]

I hear you about fudging the numbers.

I just pulled out of a box one of the non-motorised zoom ptz cameras I bought (these are 8MP and a different style - pictured - they cost a little over half the 5mp motorised zoom one). These too are speced at 90degrees of vertical travel and interestingly they actually have 90 degrees plus a good 15 degrees of extra uptilt.

II've tried all the troubleshooting steps suggested here (including power cycling - I have a managed PoE switch so it's easy to power cycle remotely). The Web interface is extremely simplistic. There are no ptz settings there at all.

In the morning I'll get a ladder and have a look and listen how it sounds when its power cycled while I'm next to it. Does it hit the top stop, does it bog down etc?

If there is no warranty sticker on the glass dome screws I'll try removing it and seeing if I can move it higher manually or if there is a hard stop.