Two cameras I hope become available

[Shockwave199]

LOLOL! Well, for me it's available funds! I've already dropped serious coinage for the nvr, the hard drives, and two cameras. Five more cameras to go! I will not commit to the hell of install until I make sure this whole system is working while it's loaded up. Once I do the install, yeah- it'll only take a day. I have a full analog system in place right now too, so I'm in no particular rush. But I am getting anxious to install the upgrade for sure!

 

[vector18]

Keep your dahua dvr as an encoder, and install 2 IP cameras for now. I think your just afraid of change. The weekend is one day away. Pull out some cat5 and get to work this weekend!

 

[Shockwave199]

LOL- the task master! :loyal:

 

[fenderman]

Vector, is right... by the spring this camera will be stale there will be something new....Just do it!

 

[vector18]

 

[nayr]

lookie what I just got; and will probably be installed within HOURS..

its not 180 degree; more like 400 degree.. not unlimited 360 but alot better than 180

 

[bp2008]

Nice. Yeah I'll say that is better than 180. And the cam is smaller than I expected too unless you have giantism.

 

[vector18]

Nice, congrats on the new camera. I'm curious as to how the audio works out. I wasn't impressed with my cube camera and shock wasn't impressed with the 4300's mic as well.

 

[nayr]

here's a few shots of the test location I put it for now; going to leave it for a day or so see how it works out before making it more permanent..

PTZ seems hacked on; Separate tab for PTZ control.. its full 360 degree and if you mirror the image it does not correct the PTZ movements.. presets are way different and no tours or anything.

Image quality is good; I am interested in seeing how it does with lighting at night and no IR.. I have a feeling I may need one more outdoor motion light right behind the camera on the wall.

I love how tiny this thing is; very discrete and not at all in your face like a full size PTZ or even most mini's would be next to my front door.. I am going to get me another one of these for the Kids room!

nobody is here to test audio; I can hear planes flying overhead.. thats further than 5ft right? cars passing by are silent so I suspect conversations wont be far.. testing with my phone playing music is very disapointing

 

[nayr]

a couple things I think ive figured out about this lil PT camera:

1. Audio like the others is a joke, unless you want to hear the motors moving the camera very quietly and think your computer's video card is taking a huge shit.. (almost sounds like grinding). I put my phone outside playing music and I could hear it louder through the walls/door in my office than through the camera.. was less than 5ft away from mic right under it.
2. This thing has no idea where it is and gets lost very easily so presets are pretty much worthless.. it also boots up looking straight down; not where it was looking last or any preset.. presets seem to be forgotten after rebooting.

Its not looking good and its not even dark; this might end up being the kids room cam.

 

[icerabbit]

PTZ seems hacked on; Separate tab for PTZ control.. its full 360 degree and if you mirror the image it does not correct the PTZ movements.. presets are way different and no tours or anything.

That's a hoot. I can't remember anything specific right now, but I have a hard time adjusting to reversed/inversed directional controls.

 

[Shockwave199]

Yeah like I had mentioned- no light and the picture from these goes dead. The audio seems on par with the turret dome I just got- useless. Why bother including audio at that point. Sorry to hear the ptz function sucks too. That's like, THE reason for considering the camera in the first place. Otherwise you could get the other fixed mini domes. It may be that the camera expects to be mounted horizontally on a mounting bracket. Are you wall mounting it on a wall vertically? The one thing these mini domes have going for it is the small form factor. It is absolutely wonderful in that respect.

 

[nayr]

mounted from celling; when I was testing on bench I had it laying flat so I inverted/mirrored image only to find the controls were now backwards

yeah the positioning is crap; I set 2 presets.. one at road and one at door and then went back and forth and you could watch it drift away and after 20 or so tries it was way off... sometimes it wont lookup any further and it still has more range so you have to take it all the way down and then it will go all the way back up.. if you take it to the extremes then afterwords the presets are miles off.. as a result clicking to look around and drawing boxes is almost totally useless.

Its damn near invisible from the road or sidewalk its so damn small.. I have light there and I need more light actually so thats not a huge concern.. but with the way the PTZ is this wont end up mounted where it is; if it stays out front it will be basically fixed to the door with the option to look about if I need and I'll get a 2nd camera for the approach.. probably another bullet like I have on the back door but ~6mm.. commanding this to go to presets off external sensor input is going to be miserable and unreliable.

 

[vector18]

Nayr let me log into the camera. I think the image itself is great. Nice and crisp and vivid. The 3mp is great. It would have been nice if they included all the nice features of a true ptz, but for the size and price of this camera, I would say you can't expect much. And, I am truly disappointed with the audio option in general from Dahua. Hopefully either a newer firmware or newer models will be better.

 

[Shockwave199]

Wow, it seems like the preset retention accuracy is miserable to nonexistent. Not good. Shame to hear that. This could be a useful little mini PT if not for those troubles. And you bet, a camera that fits in the palm of your hand with an excellent image as you have shown, is awesome. Here's a quick vid I did on the fixed ones I installed last year for a daycare center.

 

[nayr]

So I definitely need another motion light for my door; which I knew.. its hard signing the check for the pizza

but the low light performance with the existing halogens to the side of my front window seem to light up what they can perfectly fine.. I am confident with one more light real close to the position of the camera and it will have no problem seeing too the cars.

I am thinking of moving the camera to the other side of the door to the right on the corner of this lower awning.. Ive decided this one will be pointed towards the door predominately and I'll put a 4300 bullet with ~6mm on the front corner of the house monitoring the cars from above.

I am just going to use the PTZ for looking around manually upfront for extra angles and its wonderful small size that few will notice; I think I will be buying another one for indoor use.

As i suspected it has no IR filtering so my PTZ Spotlight dont do anything.

 

[Shockwave199]

Yep, one more light will wake it up and likely put it into color if it's close enough. This is with some overhead high hats on the 2mp fixed version.

 

[Shockwave199]

Btw- yours seems to zoom too. Why then is this called only a PT?

 

[nayr]

its only digital zoom, no optical.. but with 3MP digital still looks great huh.

because of the wide angle the camera does not really look straight out; so digital zoom dont work for seeing objects in the distance with it only mounted ~7ft in the air, seems to zoom to the center of the photo which makes the horizon pointed down.. at full digital zoom it dont even make it to the sidewalk.

thats a great night time shot; I am shooting for full color all night long on the front door thats why I was happy this cheap camera has great 3DNR

 

[bp2008]

Thanks for letting us know how bad the PTZ is. I've had plenty of bad PTZs before in that price range and it is sad to know it isn't any better with Dahua.