5 MegaGixel 1/1.8" low light destroyer for $90-AVOID LONGSE JUNK

[klasipca]

EDITED BY FENDERMAN: These cameras have proven to be unreliable. With the dahua starlight varifocal turret available for 170, this camera should be avoided. Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

Further note that this camera is NOT 90 dollars, more like 140-160...





Review updated: 9/26/2016. Used camera for over 9 month.


*****
Where I ordered the cam?
Directly from Longse Alibaba. You can contact amanda@longse.com sales representative.
Price was $90 + shipping + PayPal fee

Model?
The one I have is LRDC60S500 with IMX178, but Longse offers various enclosures with the same sensor

There might be a compatibility issue with BI with more then 2 Longse cams... Developing story
Q's Cheap Camera Shootout

Original Review

PROS:
Excellent night time senstivity provides beautiful picture with very little noise
Clean updated Hikvision-like UI and supports Hikvision protocols
Camera has 5MP, 3MP, 2MP resolutions and can use H.264 or H.265 compression. I find H.265 compression produces THE BEST IQ, but unfortunately my Hikvision NVR doesn't support H.265 stream, but H.264 can be selected in the web ui
Nice solid all metal construction. It's not ip66 rated but from the looks of it, it appears well sealed. To take apart you can see the attached instructions. The ball can be twisted clockwise
Will work with any system supporting standard ONVIF
Streaming via rtsp link available
Motion detection works well using Gmail account.
Able to set motion detection region, no frequent false alarms
Firmware updates are posted on the website http://herospeed.net/
Easy to configure, no different then any other IP camera
No focus issues and very sharp image by default

NEUTRAL:
Image aspect ratio is 4:3 (non wide) even in 1080p resolution it's just stretched out.
RTSP port is hidden, default 554
No HTTPS
IR lights are always on in low light, you can only toggle IR cut filter on/off
At night too much IR combined with light may cause washed out objects in very close proximity (3-5 feet). Keep that in mind when mounting the cam.
Cam settings only accessible in Internet Explorer. (or IE tab in Chrome). There was report that it does not work in new Edge browser
Camera will only work on Windows PC and requires plugin to be installed.
Some grammar mistakes
Quality may not be consistent
Focus can be an issue out of factory, but could be adjusted by opening the cam
Daytime quality is ok if using default bitrate, looks the best at full bitrate and H265.
Auto AWB issue when it's sunny, manual AWB takes care of the issue
Video Auto setting causes IR Cut filter turn on/off frequently. I am using LDR Auto instead. Not sure what's the difference

CONS:
POE reliability. POE gets hot and can overheat. One of my cams had POE inside the box which caused the issue of rebooting the cam during hot days. Avoid putting that POE cable in small space where ventilation could be an issue.
AE set to Manual is useless where light changes as it will result in image either too dark or white out
External POE box attached to the cable. Makes mounting a bit cumbersome.

RTSP Streaming:
Main stream : rtsp://192.168.1.168:80/0
Sub stream : rtsp://192.168.1.168:80/1

***************************************

4MP Hikvision dome vs S500. Both have about same settings, 1/25 & 1/30, 8000 bitrate, There is noise reduction turned on in both, but it's not the same since the settings are not 1 to 1. Note that s500 captures are 4:3 format.

Daylight is about the same on both, but motion looks better in Longse with less noise.

Hikvision 4MP


Longse S500


Night comparison:


Hikvision 2CD2142FWD-IWS 4MP


Hikvision 2CD2142FWD-IWS 4MP (with Flood light)


Longse s500 5MP


Longse s500 5MP (with Flood Light)






B&W no IR, no flood light



B&W no IR with flood light



Color no IR with flood light



Color no IR with flood light, wdr to the max



So, remember 4MP vs 3MP IQ comparison? Image comparison of 3MP Turret vs 4MP Dome at Night

Lets see how S500 compares:

With the 2000 lumen side light only (Bonus: find Huisun)

Direct Link: http://oi64.tinypic.com/287koix.jpg

Pitch dark. No light source. It could do better, but DNR and Gain settings are buggy so need to figure out how to best fine tune it.

Direct Link: http://oi67.tinypic.com/bflzpc.jpg



***************************************
Demo (IE only):
http://183.233.190.41:8856/ (username: longse / password: 12345678)



Firmware download:
http://herospeed.net/herospeed/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=lists&catid=7


Sample night video based on the demo above:


********************
Earlier in the thread I read that many (all?) of you were not able to get the "Record" and "Capture" features of the WebUI working. These features do in fact work - you must:

Go to Internet Options
Click Security Tab
Highlight Trusted Sites, then Click Sites Button
Add IP of camera

Be sure to uncheck "Require Server Verification (https)..."

***************
Some spec information:
Hi3516A - H.265/HEVC Standard HD IP Camera SoC | Product News

 

[klasipca]

Demo looks beautiful at night, I hope the cam delivers on everything else...

 

[Larebear]

Looks good. Will check out the demo cam again later when it's daylight there. I believe it's about 3:00 AM there now.

 

[klasipca]

Daylight is good too, I was more impressed by night image though.

Btw, they have many flavors of "S500".

LRDC60S500
LIRDNTS500
LIRDVS500
LIRDCS500
LBH36S500
LBH48S500
LBX30S500
LBD30S500
LBG30S500
LBG60S500
LBK30S500
LBK60S500
LBK60S500
LBL60S500
LBL90S500
LIF80S500
LIZM40S500
LIZM90S500
LID40S500
LID90S500
LIV40S500
LIV40S500
LIA40ES500
LIN40S500
LIN90S500

 

[Q™]

<drool>klasipca, are you able to provide and English website URL where I can order one of these cameras?</drool>

 

[klasipca]

<drool>klasipca, are you able to provide and English website URL where I can order one of these cameras?</drool>

I ordered from alibaba source and paid by paypal, with shipping/poe/fees it came up to $130. It is however also on aliexpress for just a bit more:

http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/btYyBtHA


http://longse.en.alibaba.com/product/60300449982-800660673/5_0MP_IP_Camera_H_265_H_264_IR_Dome_Camera_Onvif_P2P_WDR_10MP_HD_Lens.html?spm=a2700.7803228.1998738836.4.BK6xAc

<disclaimer>Order at your own risk as I don't have any experience with this cam or the seller yet</disclaimer>

 

[klasipca]

Looks good. Will check out the demo cam again later when it's daylight there. I believe it's about 3:00 AM there now.

I missed the sunrise, it's already daylight there.

 

[badmop]

Looks great, love the login layout.

 

[bp2008]

Inexpensive, IE-only 5MP cameras with good night vision have been available from small Chinese brands for 3+ years. This seems to be a newer iteration, providing full 30 FPS instead of 10. I won't be buying any, but I hope for everyone else's sake that the reliability of the video stream has drastically improved.

 

[Q™]

Inexpensive, IE-only 5MP cameras with good night vision have been available from small Chinese brands for 3+ years. This seems to be a newer iteration, providing full 30 FPS instead of 10. I won't be buying any, but I hope for everyone else's sake that the reliability of the video stream has drastically improved.

Ouch. My Ipcamophrenia is acting up...but I'm going to take a few deep breaths...and wait on purchasing one of these units until klasipca gets his hands on his and judges worthy..or not.

 

[klasipca]

Inexpensive, IE-only 5MP cameras with good night vision have been available from small Chinese brands for 3+ years. This seems to be a newer iteration, providing full 30 FPS instead of 10. I won't be buying any, but I hope for everyone else's sake that the reliability of the video stream has drastically improved.

Hm, I don't recall seeing any "5MP good night vision cams... for 3+ years" when I was buying my first Hikvision two years ago.

Btw, it hasn't been shipped. They sent it to "production". Seems to the same deal with this cam where they build to order. Will be 3+ weeks before I will be able to get to it.

 

[bp2008]

Hm, I don't recall seeing any "5MP good night vision cams... for 3+ years" when I was buying my first Hikvision two years ago.

I never spoke much about them because I didn't get very involved with IP cam forums until the Hikvision 3MP models started becoming popular, and the value of the Hikvision 3MP was far better than those 5MP cams.

Most of the problem with the old 5MP cams is that they were unreliable streamers. By unreliable I mean that during the day they would send out a lot of corrupt frames (at night, in black and white, they were far more reliable). Multiple firmware updates over the years never fully corrected the encoding situation. The band-aid fix was to set the iframe interval equal to the frame rate. This made it so Blue Iris at least wouldn't lose the signal continuously. Sometimes the cams would still go offline and need power cycled, so they were a regular source of frustration. I only ever had 3 of the 5MP cams, but I was glad to be rid of them when the Dahua 4MP models came out a few months ago.

 

[klasipca]

I never spoke much about them because I didn't get very involved with IP cam forums until the Hikvision 3MP models started becoming popular, and the value of the Hikvision 3MP was far better than those 5MP cams.

Most of the problem with the old 5MP cams is that they were unreliable streamers. By unreliable I mean that during the day they would send out a lot of corrupt frames (at night, in black and white, they were far more reliable). Multiple firmware updates over the years never fully corrected the encoding situation. The band-aid fix was to set the iframe interval equal to the frame rate. This made it so Blue Iris at least wouldn't lose the signal continuously. Sometimes the cams would still go offline and need power cycled, so they were a regular source of frustration. I only ever had 3 of the 5MP cams, but I was glad to be rid of them when the Dahua 4MP models came out a few months ago.

Did those 5MP low light produce as good images as this? But really 5MP low light sensor has nothing to do with how reliable the cam is though, you just happen to pick the wrong Chinese "brand" and there are tons of them, I've been there too with Wanscam, Anran and even Foscam firmware 3 years ago. Huisun, on the other hand, surprisingly stable for first firmware release. Personally, I am no longer impressed with Hikvision (or Dahua) so I am looking for better options. As we know they are keeping low grade sensors for their budget cams, but if you want good night quality you have to splurge 4x the cost. No thanks!

 

[Q™]

I have a 5MP ACTi E33; it's certainly not a low lux champion...but it never claimed to be. It's actually a lux-loser and I think the best way to describe is is that...it suQs. (with a "Q" which is some serious suckage my friends) The only reason I wouldn't trade it for a 4MP camera is that I'd feel very guilty for taking advantage of the other guy.

 

[Futaba]

Do many of these IP cameras from China need Internet Explorer and need you to download an ActiveX or OCX control? They both are security holes into Windows. I had to install an ActiveX control to get the Mini PTZ 10x cam to work. This one needs an OCX. :-(

 

[0658]

Q2U is absolutely right about the Acti E-33 being a low light looser. Even with the IR auxiliary light I use it is just plain bad at night. If anyone has one of these install it only where daylight is the primary use time. I too cannot bring myself to get rid of this camera as it is so bad at night.

 

[klasipca]

Short update from Alibaba seller:

"the IPC 5mp is lack of one material - a special IR cut; first batch was all sold out, so we are waiting. the delivery time will be on Thur."

Just have to be patient with Ali sellers... In my experience they rarely carry any stock and have to order from other suppliers.

 

[Q™]

I must say that, their English really suQs. However, it is much better than my Chinese where all I can manage is a few racist Charlie Chan aphorisms, such as "Alas, mouse cannot cast shadow like elephant."

 

[klasipca]

I must say that, their English really suQs.

You get to used to it.

 

[Futaba]

Look forward to your review, klasipca.