Looking at a Vari-focal hikvision

[1Diesel]

I just received a 2032 6mm today. This is my fourth camera from them . Depending on when I orderer its next day sometimes two at the most.
I have 2.8,6mm and 2.8-12mm all from them

 

[hmjgriffon]

I just received a 2032 6mm today. This is my fourth camera from them . Depending on when I orderer its next day sometimes two at the most.
I have 2.8,6mm and 2.8-12mm all from them

Yeah, I think I will definitely be buying my hiks from there from now on.

 

[icerabbit]

I was banned from cam-it forum, so they banned my daughter also who owns Wrightwood even though she was never a member of that forum. If you want funny, go to Hikvision's site, both Wrightwood and Nelly's as well as anyone else caught selling Hikvision cameras are consider unauthorized because Hikvision does not allow their cameras so be resold at all.

That connects the dots for me.

Wherever I saw Hikvision for sale, they were unauthorized.
Whomever Hikvision authorized, they did not sell online , had outdated inventory or required a catalog ordered; and required proof of business license, proof of credit rating, etc. like a one week application type deal where they may or may not like you in the end because you're just a small business, not specialized in security / surveillance, not local, ...

I do guess that it is the standard throughout the industry?

I quizzed Hikvision sales on this, but haven't heard back.

Anyhow. I have read networkcameracritic a couple times - great site and reviews + referred to this forum thank you . I was leaning towards Foscam (available direct from them - same issue if you buy cheaper elsewhere, but at least they have a direct channel! ) So through networkcameracritic I discovered Hikvision. I'm quite liking the features, reviews and value. Looks like you can get several good cameras vs spending a ton of money on just one. And, I guess, take a chance that the firmware is mature enough, updates can be found online regardless of where you bought, and should a camera die ... well, you are not out of a fortune.

The question now, since swann was mentioned is, if all these brands that share the same hardware pretty much are on top of firmwares? Is hikvision, swann or whomever better/faster at fixing stuff?
Does it affect compatibility with third party stuff?
I 've got a couple indoor foscams and was hoping to connect a few outdoor Hikvision to a Synology NAS.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Swann/Lorex are OEM Hikvision. The biggest problem is selection and support outside their NVR. They are limited in model selection and within model, they limited to lens choice and models with audio and alarm inputs. They provide support but within the context of using it with their NVR, so if you call them and ask them about Synology or even accessing the camera via the web browser, they won't provide it. If you put Hikvision firmware on, you void your warranty. So there's pluses and minuses.

 

[hmjgriffon]

Swann/Lorex are OEM Hikvision. The biggest problem is selection and support outside their NVR. They are limited in model selection and within model, they limited to lens choice and models with audio and alarm inputs. They provide support but within the context of using it with their NVR, so if you call them and ask them about Synology or even accessing the camera via the web browser, they won't provide it. If you put Hikvision firmware on, you void your warranty. So there's pluses and minuses.

I think the limited variety is the worst part when buying from US based resellers. Although the most popular 4mm lens must be that way for a reason, so far it seems like the best balance between being zoomed in enough to identify someone and also being wide angle enough to see a lot. So that may not be an issue, I got the varifocal before the fixed focal length version and I like it, it's nice to be able to play with zoom but I will probably use it more for special situations, we will have to see, I think for most of my applications (in and around the house) 4mm will be perfect, the 4mm 2032 has been doing a great job of watching my back porch since I installed it yesterday. I also wish the US resellers weren't such crooks jacking the prices up like they do.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Glad 4mm works for you. I have 3 of those bullets in use, all are 12mm so each person has different requirements. My only regret is they don't come in 16mm or 20mm or higher.

 

[hmjgriffon]

Glad 4mm works for you. I have 3 of those bullets in use, all are 12mm so each person has different requirements. My only regret is they don't come in 16mm or 20mm or higher.

nice, are you using them to watch the end of the driveway or something?

 

[networkcameracritic]

No, using them where I want a narrower field of view, for example, my side yard where all the bedroom windows are vulnerable, looking down the street where I want that narrow view and at our lake house to keep an eye on our boat which I hope to get out of dry dock this week. I do have a 6mm Dahua on my other side yard, but keep hoping it would die and I can justify the 12mm or even a 8mm Dahua. At my driveway, I would love to get a PTZ, an ACTi B95 or the Dahua equivalent now that prices have come down so much. Once you have a PTZ, it's tough to go back, so much fun.

 

[hmjgriffon]

ACTi B95 is like $1,600 on amazon, wow, yeah I want to get a PTZ out front and possibly out back eventually. Would be fun and also good if there is a crime in progress and you can really zoom in on some details, faces, license plates, etc.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Sure, but that's Amazon crooks jacking prices up, LOL, at Wrightwood it's about half that shipped. Nice camera though and very fast.

 

[hmjgriffon]

Sure, but that's Amazon crooks jacking prices up, LOL, at Wrightwood it's about half that shipped. Nice camera though and very fast.

Yeah man, gettin ready to order camera #3, probably going to try out wrightwood.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Just to show you why I use 12mm. These are 2 of my 12mm cameras, the third is a boring shot of my side yard. These are reduce to 640x480 to display here, but are actually 3MP. What's cool with looking down the street is I see cars coming down the street, then pass my driveway which the driveway camera captures, then when they leave go up the street. Helps me to see if the mailman/FedEx is coming.

This one I got to see if my boat sank or not but it's actually fun to watch the water skiers from my phone when bored.

 

[hmjgriffon]

I like it, are you a photagrapher for a living?

 

[networkcameracritic]

I'm a pro photographer in that I do a few commercial shoots per year, but not for a living but I do approach surveillance cameras with the same approach as photography so I have to keep reminding myself, it's about evidence, not the pretty picture.

This is why I like a PTZ in the front, it's just fun to play with -

 

[hmjgriffon]

I'm a pro photographer in that I do a few commercial shoots per year, but not for a living but I do approach surveillance cameras with the same approach as photography so I have to keep reminding myself, it's about evidence, not the pretty picture.

This is why I like a PTZ in the front, it's just fun to play with -

One in the same really, the prettier the picture most likely it will be sharper, and therefore better evidence. That camera is freaking awesome, auto focus, that's what I'm talking about. I wish the hiks had autofocus lol. I noticed when I got home from work and played around with taking some sample snapshots holding my laptop and standing on the porch it's pretty blurry when you're at the fathest point from the camera which is the doorway to the porch. It was really sunny outside so half of the porch was bright sunny and the other part was shady. I increased the WDR to 20, I think that helps even things out a little not sure if there are any other settings I can use to help. Autofocus would probably take right care of that though. Also I agree with you, I got into cameras because I got robbed but they are fun as hell too.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Not necessarily the same requirements in photography, take lighting, people look at a scene that is very dark and think that's not good, but the IR has to light up the suspect, not houses, trees and such across the street but maybe in photography you want the background lit, but serves no practical value in security.

If you want the flexibility to focus a camera to your liking, get a varifocal camera, then you can adjust the focus as you wish. ACTi is starting to come out with motorized focus cameras, cost about $50-70 more than their manual varifocal versions. Should be out soon. Axis has very good motorized varifocal cameras like the P33 domes, but will actually cost you as much or more than the ACTi B95 PTZ. Dahua has motorized focus but not that good, at least a year ago they weren't

 

[hmjgriffon]

Not necessarily the same requirements in photography, take lighting, people look at a scene that is very dark and think that's not good, but the IR has to light up the suspect, not houses, trees and such across the street but maybe in photography you want the background lit, but serves no practical value in security.

If you want the flexibility to focus a camera to your liking, get a varifocal camera, then you can adjust the focus as you wish. ACTi is starting to come out with motorized focus cameras, cost about $50-70 more than their manual varifocal versions. Should be out soon. Axis has very good motorized varifocal cameras like the P33 domes, but will actually cost you as much or more than the ACTi B95 PTZ. Dahua has motorized focus but not that good, at least a year ago they weren't

Do you use a lot of verifocal in your setup?

 

[networkcameracritic]

Out of 9 cameras at home, 4 are varifocal, 2 are 12mm, 1 is 6mm, 2 are 4mm.

 

[hmjgriffon]

Out of 9 cameras at home, 4 are varifocal, 2 are 12mm, 1 is 6mm, 2 are 4mm.

Nice! I am working on getting a rig that would be able to handle that many cameras. Still recovering from bein robbed, someone donated a dual core machine with 8 gigs of ram but I think it will barely handle the two cameras I have. I had esxi with BI in a vm and it was running around 90%, about to run the demo in a native install of windows and see what it runs at before I bother activating BI.

 

[networkcameracritic]

If you have all Hikvision, run their free ivms software. Not a fan of it but free and very low CPU consumption. Next try Milestone XProtect Go, free for 8 cameras, very low CPU use, 5 day max recording (or you can get the pay version). I'm running my 9 cameras with Milestone on a dual core i3, runs fine.