RAYMAX ILLUMINATION- advice needed, ARE THEY REALLY THIS AWESOME?

[awlectric]

Thinking HARD about getting a RAYMAX illuminator, and I haven't seen any (recent) posts about these, are any of you using one of these? Or 2? I was thinking that this may be the ultimate answer to the night vision problems.At over 1k for the raymax 150 it's a hard pill to swallow, so advice is needed, and appreciated!

Here is an example. .....

IT LOOKS AWESOME

 

[atom]

Yes, it does look awesome! And for those bux it would want to.

I take it when they refer to "one illuminator" that it's actually the cluster of three (must be to get the 180°).

I wonder if you'd get pretty much the same results for a lot less from other brands. I can't comment on the really high power units such as you're looking at, but for some years now I've been using some of these and they've been excellent (the PI-1000s, not the 48W monsters, which by the way have adjustable output/intensity).

http://www.ewhaglobal.com/product/ir-illuminators/pi-series/

Twice I've bought a number of units directly from them and they were good to deal with too.

Sorry this doesn't actually answer your question about Raymax, but though an alternative might be of interest.

 

[awlectric]

Oh no its fine, those look great actually! By all means please do post, Its good to know that there are other options! You wouldn't happen to have any screenshots ? I don't WANT to spend all that money on a light if possible lol.

 

[Frankosor]

@atom how much for it PI-1000 (POE or not POE) ?
@awlectric Do you have a price for Raymax or catalog ?

 

[MartyO]

Find out $1k of electrical work gets you.

 

[bearclaw]

They are great illuminators, I have used them before. One thing to pay attention to is your environment. The video has some nice high powered illuminators that work well at a good distance but with that kind of power if you had objects as close as 10m away you might get alot of reflection off of those objects which could make your night image worse.

 

[nzipcamera]

Yes, it does look awesome! And for those bux it would want to.

I take it when they refer to "one illuminator" that it's actually the cluster of three (must be to get the 180°).

I wonder if you'd get pretty much the same results for a lot less from other brands. I can't comment on the really high power units such as you're looking at, but for some years now I've been using some of these and they've been excellent (the PI-1000s, not the 48W monsters, which by the way have adjustable output/intensity).

http://www.ewhaglobal.com/product/ir-illuminators/pi-series/

Twice I've bought a number of units directly from them and they were good to deal with too.

Sorry this doesn't actually answer your question about Raymax, but though an alternative might be of interest.

Hi Atom,
Thanks for the info. Have you found them to reliable and what would I expect to pay for one or two units?

If you have any photos of them in use that would be great.

Thanks

 

[atom]

@atom how much for it PI-1000 (POE or not POE) ?

Hi Atom,
Thanks for the info. Have you found them to reliable and what would I expect to pay for one or two units?

If you have any photos of them in use that would be great.

Thanks

The last time I ordered some was January this year (I thought it was longer ago than that...), but previously it was 2011 (when they had different models, but looked much the same and used the same technology). I've never had any problems with them, and some have run each night for a few years.

Earlier this year I paid US$150 per PI-1000 non-POE (plus shipping). I did get a few at once, and of course prices may have changed.

I'll post some screenshots later (it's morning here now). Will get some with the lights turned on and off as comparison, although my situation here may not be very representative of what some of you guys are wanting to cover if you have really large areas.

 

[atom]

They are great illuminators, I have used them before. One thing to pay attention to is your environment. The video has some nice high powered illuminators that work well at a good distance but with that kind of power if you had objects as close as 10m away you might get alot of reflection off of those objects which could make your night image worse.

Agreed re the risk of too much light. In this recent thread I covered a few things I'd come across when using these higher powered lights:

https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthrea...h-Vision-Quality?p=54234&viewfull=1#post54234

 

[awlectric]

My thinking is like this, if the ramax or other brand of IR is 1000.00 + and you have a real need to light up the area, and an expensive darkfighter is 1000.00+ for a single camera, a REAL low light camera, wouldn't it be worth it in a big way to just blast 1k of infrared everywhere to supply lots of cams ? Then just adjust it to taste?

 

[awlectric]

@atom how much for it PI-1000 (POE or not POE) ?
@awlectric Do you have a price for Raymax or catalog ?

Raymax starts at about 350? Idk about the pi, just learning myself. I did see a replacement bulb for a bosch illumitor tho, maybe important to replace the IR lights if they burn out. Raymax states there units will last about 10 years, no idea if the lights are replacable.

 

[atom]

Raymax starts at about 350? Idk about the pi, just learning myself. I did see a replacement bulb for a bosch illumitor tho, maybe important to replace the IR lights if they burn out. Raymax states there units will last about 10 years, no idea if the lights are replacable.

The PI-1000s I bought in Jan were $150 each.

You can't replace the bulbs (LEDs) in these type of lights, they both use very long life (thousands of hours) surface mount high-output LEDs.

 

[atom]

Some quick screenshots.

These are both using 940nm lights, 850nm would be brighter (updated to include an 850nm shot for comparison).

Driveway.
This is the install. It's about 8ft off the ground. Camera is a Hikvision 3mp, 4mm (I'm considering putting a Huisun PTZ bullet here...). Light is 15°. Eveything is very exposed to the weather, and has been fine so far.

This is how it looks with the illuminator turned off. All of the near lighting is from the camera above, and another one to the bottom right of the picture which points across to the bottom left (back gate). Distance to end of driveway is about 40 metres (130 ft). This isn't a really effective comparison I'm afraid because there's quite a lot of light down the other end of the driveway already from cameras and illuminators at the front of the house. Without them it would be pitch black down the end.

With the light on:

Where you really see the value of having the extra light is when there's an object in the driveway, so this doesn't do it justice. Without the extra light everything remains black until it gets half way up the drive, with the light I can see someone/something as it enters the drive. This is also why I have the light angled down quite far rather than pointing higher, more out into the street.

EDIT: Added shot using an identical illuminator to the one above, only this one's 850nm wavelength rather than 940nm. So much brighter (or at least, this particular camera works much better with 840nm, I believe this differs somewhat from one cam to another), but the red glow is really obvious if you're within the narrow angle of the illuminator's throw - well worth going for the 840nm if you're not fussed about everyone knowing it's there:

Back of the house. The camera is a Hikvision turret, 3mp, 2.8mm. The porch light on the right hand side in both pics stays on overnight. Illuminator is 120°, 940nm. Distance to house is about 12m (40ft).

Light off:

Light on:

Looking at this now makes me think I could probably afford to adjust it a bit to the left. It's mounted only about 3 feet high, which is far from ideal, but works really well with motion detection all the same. It's the only source of IR light, the cameras' emitters are all turned off.

 

[atom]

Interesting, looking at a listing for some IR liiuminators on AliExpress, the viewing difference for 940nm is less than half for that of the equivalent power and angle 850nm. If you're not concerned about bright red lights being visible at night (as some are here where I am...) then definitely go with 850. Worth taking into account re my screenshots too!

Edit: I've just dug out an 850nm version of the 15° light (new in box, takes me a while to get around to using some stuff!). I'll try and do a comparo screenshot with the 940nm one in the driveway tonight.

 

[awlectric]

Atom thank you so much! Very good pictures!I have a question about the p-1000!


p-1000 specs are....-

100m(328ft), 25°/60m(196ft), 60°, 20m(164ft), 120°

Can this thing REALLY do 328 feet with no problem? Could you clearly see a face/person at 200-300 feet? What is the limit where it "fizzles out"?

Nice mounting btw!

 

[atom]

Atom thank you so much! Very good pictures!I have a question about the p-1000!


p-1000 specs are....-

100m(328ft), 25°/60m(196ft), 60°, 20m(164ft), 120°

Can this thing REALLY do 328 feet with no problem? Could you clearly see a face/person at 200-300 feet? What is the limit where it "fizzles out"?

Nice mounting btw!

Good question! And to be honest, I just don't know.

I reckon there are too many variables to be able to reliably count on those figures. For one thing, different cameras have widely varying low light capabilities, and it's quite possible the manufacturers use cameras with far better low light/IR capabilities than the typical cameras we have when they test for throw. I always assume these figures are "best possible outcome" and be very conservative in my interpretation of them. I suspect your "fizzles out" theory is probably right too.

If I wanted to reliably light something up 328 feet away, I'd get a light that claims it can reach 600 feet.

I'm sure there are others here with far more experience with these sorts of illuminators who can give us a better idea.

 

[awlectric]

I was hoping they would chime in too!

 

[atom]

Well, the 850nm Vs the 940nm turns out to be no comparison. Both the same model and spec of light, except the wavelength. Camera settings same as previous screenshots. I'll try to add this to the earlier post also to make the comparison clearer.

When you're looking at the emitter from within its narrow 15° beam angle the red from this light is easily visible to the naked eye though, even from a distance. Not subtle, but damn effective.