Cheap PTZ recommendation please

sygad1

sygad1

Young grasshopper
Apr 6, 2016
70
20
Hi All

Want to try PTZ but not willing to commit very serious money to it at this moment.

Anyone have experience of the Reolink RLC423, preferably connected to Blue Iris.

Cheers
 
sygad1 said:
Hi All

Want to try PTZ but not willing to commit very serious money to it at this moment.

Anyone have experience of the Reolink RLC423, preferably connected to Blue Iris.

Cheers
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reolinks are have notorious problems with blue iris because they dont have an option to set the iframe interval in their firmware. Stay far away from that company. The blatantly lied to users with respect to that issue.
Follow tangents advice...that Dahua is MUCH better.
 
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i was looking at that one, but doesn't seem to be available in the UK

I could order it from Aliexpress but I'm a little reluctant to spend close to 300GBP on a product with the worse returns policy in the world and a lucky dip chance of it not being broken on arrival.

that's why i was looking at the cheaper option from Amazon UK which has an excellent returns policy.
 
sygad1 said:
i was looking at that one, but doesn't seem to be available in the UK

I could order it from Aliexpress but I'm a little reluctant to spend close to 300GBP on a product with the worse returns policy in the world and a lucky dip chance of it not being broken on arrival.

that's why i was looking at the cheaper option from Amazon UK which has an excellent returns policy.
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You will be worse off with the reolink..dropped frames etc...
If its DOA you open a dispute on aliexpress and your credit card, you get your money back. Dahua is a solid company. Reolink is shit. What happens when the camera fails after six months..who is going to help you then? Being cheap results in buying twice or being really disappointed. Dont believe me, search this forum for reolink...
 
its a fair point and enough to convince me to stay clear.

aside from the dahua, can you suggest any others, in the slightly cheaper not going to burn my house down range :)
 
sygad1 said:
its a fair point and enough to convince me to stay clear.

aside from the dahua, can you suggest any others, in the slightly cheaper not going to burn my house down range :)
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That is the cheapest quality ptz...there are cheaper PTZ's but I dont think you want to end up like many forum members here with multiple failures. Finally, consider whether you need a ptz at all..in 99.9 percent of applications they are a waste.
 
fenderman said:
That is the cheapest quality ptz...there are cheaper PTZ's but I dont think you want to end up like many forum members here with multiple failures. Finally, consider whether you need a ptz at all..in 99.9 percent of applications they are a waste.
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I dunno about that... They are damn fun. :)
 
interesting and I probably agree, this is very much an experiment and that's why I was looking for a low cost introduction to PTZ

I want to see the differences, pros/cons of ptz over fixed, specifically in a number of different locations, im gathering information for a number of friends with differing requirements
 
wow, there are currently 42 PTZ cameras listed on the dahua site.....and no prices....so I have no idea of the cheapest....grrrrr, frustrating
 
sygad1 said:
interesting and I probably agree, this is very much an experiment and that's why I was looking for a low cost introduction to PTZ

I want to see the differences, pros/cons of ptz over fixed, specifically in a number of different locations, im gathering information for a number of friends with differing requirements
Click to expand...
The advantage is that you can move it around and zoom in on stuff, set up presets triggered by sensors and if you can get it to work right, auto tracking.
 
hmm, just looked through a ton of dahua cameras on aliexpress, it seems the one listed at the beginning of this thread IS the cheapest....time to dig deep into the pennies
 
As mentioned before PTZ has a truly narrow use case. In most cases it is cheaper to get multiple cameras and cover the area well with them.

The primary use case for any PTZ is zooming re-actively. So unless you are covering something over 50m far and over 50m wide or have very limited power/wiring access, you will usually be better served with multiple cameras vice a PTZ.

Something like a large parking lot or a field would be the PTZ use case, outside of law enforcement.
 
Dahua Mini Black Face PTZ (SD29204S-GN) but its not all weather rated.

PTZ's to Fixed cameras are like Bicycles vs Motorcycles.. You can get a cheap Motorcycle that costs as much as an expensive Bicycle, but not vice versa.. ones a rather simple device and other is vastly more complex.. If you ever see a cheap motorcycle being sold for the same price as a cheap bicycle then you can be sure your not getting a drop of quality/reliability.

If you'd like a good PTZ experience, get the lite black face starlight dahua.. then you'll be willing to spend even more money on the nicer ones in the future.

I have 2 Dahua PTZ's and a 3rd on the way, they are largely toys but I really enjoy using them w/my automation kit.. and they all rely on fixed cameras to keep an eye on the most key targets so if camera is looking away something is still recorded, otherwise I get 2 angles and one is nice and tightly zoomed.. mine are more secondary cameras for getting that extra bit of zoom out on a car door faraway overnight, or getting more detail on what kids doing in back yard.. or to watch that shady figure walk down the street and make sure they pass on by without causing any trouble when I'm at my computer.. which I almost always am, even late at night.

If you have a security guard, or become your own by setting up a dedicated display you can quickly take control of a PTZ through.. then they can be quite a bit better than a fixed camera, but not if they spend 99.9% of the time parked on the same target.. most residential setups cant use very much of the zoom and standard optics up to 12mm are plenty for most modern cookie cutter houses... my 12x 60mm PTZ is zoomed in really far on car door on the street from all the way from the back yard and still using 2/3rd zoom.. those 25x starlights have twice the optics @ 120mm.
 
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cheers for the detailed reply, do you by any chance know of a reputable supplier in the UK?
 
I do not but @EMPIRETECANDY can get you one imported; if you find a UK Supplier you'll likely pay double the price.. so even with the small risk of failure its worth it to wash your hands and get another.. but he does offer warranty service, usually not worth sending back to China for cheap cameras cause it costs us ~$100USD to ship to china.. but with a PTZ it may be worth the hassle and downtime.. Yeah andy might disappear but his store been around for a while and so could your local vendor.

Andy claimed he sold ~10k Dahua units last year and only 10 or so came back for warranty.. yeah alot of people opt out of sending it back for the cheaper models but still good numbers.. Failure reports w/Dahuas here are very rare, unlike the cheaper no-name models that get more failure reports than anything else.

I paid an extra +$200 USD for my Black Face Dahua 2.5 years ago from a US Vendor for that warranty/support and its still going strong and the warranty expired over a year and a half ago, never had an issue installed high on the most exposed side of my house in a high altitude desert and I have automation triggers that force it to move about to presets all the time on top of my normal daily usage.
 
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