funnily enough, I recently bought a few of these low-cost 1080P Starvis IMX290 cameras as an upgrade from the top-201 style varifocals with older IMX sensors, just to improve the night vision. Wanted compatibility with the Hik NVR and very compact size as mine are all mounted indoors looking out owing to property restrictions (rented). Asked for the 2.8mm lens option since pinhole doesn't suit my requirement (plus would be v slow F rating) and they arrived and set up perfectly. Hik NVR talking to them as Hik protocol devices. Good clear daytime images but the giveaway was grass,shrubs etc showed green (mine always does tho as its astroturf lol). Good low light performance too. So night falls and yep, IR blocking so no visibility in total darkness (I use separate/remote IR illuminators so no insect issues and also better vision in heavy rain/snow than on-camera ones). I doubt these factory M12 2.8mm's are any better than F2.0, maybe slower but they do give a good night picture at the front of the house where there is a LED street lamp 60 or so feet away.
Taking one camera apart its neatly made, 2 boards with a piggy-back wifi module, cable has LAN, power, audio and alarm IO and the back of the case is cast with a depression that contacts the chip that runs hot so is better heatsinked than the top-201 a-likes, tho still runs v warm to the touch. Inspecting the lens there's an IR filter on the back of it. There is a board lens mount screwed onto the lens thread and the board is secured to that as well as the 4 corner screws, I guess its there to prevent any potential light leakage via the rear case cover. Lens is glued at the casing to secure it (no locking screw on this case design).
So I rebuilt this unit into a compact top-201 case (32mm board) that has a 2.8-12mm f1.7 lens fitted which does pass IR and have to say its a LOT better than the non-starvis IMX sensor in the camera it replaced under IR illumination. OK grass etc looks pink in the daylight, I can live with that, but the fact that these units can now easily pick out the kitties etc moving about at night under IR and that they support Hik protocol makes them good enough for my needs. I do have some 2.8mm f1.4 starlight lenses coming so intend to replace the OEM ones and will see how much difference they make. Should be a fun jobs to do since the OEM lenses are glued in place lol.
No point to rebuild into a casing that could house an IRcut filter either, since there's no connector for this on either of the boards, tho there may be pads present, not looked that closely yet.
All in all, ok many here slate the cheap chinese cams, but these do seem pretty ok.
Supports Hik, XM and Onvif protocols
encoding can be: H264, H264+ or H265 (am running 264+)
No virus/trojans detected on the web interface
Good low light performance tho factory lens does IRcut.
Has SD card capability - not tried this as not needed in my setup.
Wifi - if you need it (I am using this on 2 cameras that are UPS supported locations, to ensure NVR connection as EoP dies in power cuts).
NOT waterproof in any way - if you want an outdoor setup you'd need to house these or get ones made to IP66 rating.
They don't have the Hik smart monitoring stuff like line crossing etc, but for a low-cost and compact/covert setup they do the job just fine. I have them mounted inside, above the windows looking out, so the main make bullet/dome types just would not suit the location nor be covert, and having a built-in IR you're paying for but can't use just adds unneeded bulk IMHO (beside my pref to have IR remote from the camera).
Overall I think they can be great value, depending on your requirements, just need to do the research and understand any limitations before committing to a purchase. Horses for courses and all that
i don't have any quality issues with my 720p junk the image more then enough.. and the 1080p video quality is perfect at daytime and even more with that powerfull Hi3516C it give a smooth video with a strong 25FPS
