CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
- 2,836
- 3,716
Be aware a varifocal camera is not meant to zoom in and out. It's meant to be fixed, have the zoom adjusted to provide the view you want, and then be left. If what you want is a perfect close up view of the bird table it's fine. If you also want an overview, or the ability to zoom in and out to other areas, you need a ptz. You will wear the motors out very quickly if you use a varifocal as a zoom.
Also, beware Chinese cameras. Many are hacked to allow them to be used in the US / International regions and if you try to update the firmware or if the camera does it automatically, then you'll either find the whole camera in Chinese (every menu), it refusing to recognise your international / US NVR, or just totally bricked.
Andy @ EmpireCandy is your friend here. He will supply you with proper International cameras for a price lower than you can buy eslewhere and only a bit more expensive than a future Chinese hacked nightmare. He has his own firmware, but because the cameras are international versions, you can still install the standard Dahua firmware without breaking anything. You have to ask yourself if it is worth saving $10 or $20 on Aliexpress buying an unkown hacked Chinese market only camera and risking losing all your money down the line when it becomes bricked from an enforced firmware update?
Final point, if going the ptz route, be aware you don't need as many megapixels when you're zooming into a small area. Do your research on here and you'll find that a picture on an 8K that you have to crop or digitally zoom in on because the view is too wide, will have a much lower quality picture than a 2mp PTZ that's zoomed in tightly to an object eg bird table. The reason here is it's not the MP that matters but the pixel density ie how large the area is you spread the pixels over and thus how many pixels there are per inch. If you only want it for day use then 8mp is fine. However, in poor light / night it may perform badly. 4mp is the current sweet spot for day / night vision using large sensors. Note here it's the sensor size and sensitivity that's important for night / low light, not the MP. Generally at night, the more MP the worse the picture unless the sensor is considerably larger also. A ptz is also potentially going to give you a much larger zoom range depending on the model, as some are as much as 25x whereas the camera above is only 12x. The correct zoom level for your application to avoid digital cropping is far more important than total pixel count. 8k will only give the best daylight picture if the zoom is also sufficient to giev the tight crop you want without any need for cropping. 8k will not give the best picture at night / very low light.
In my opinion, as someone with limited practical experience of CCTV, in your case you need to start by measuring the distance from your proposed mounting position to the bird table you want to watch in your pond. This will help you establish a base line for how much zoom you will actually need to achieve a tight zoom as in the yotuube video above. From there you need to decide is the camera going to be a permanent fixed zoom on the table or do you want to zoom out and look at other areas / an over view? Those 2 starting points will help establish whether you need a ptz or fixed and how much zoom you're going to need for a tight crop. If not using it low light / night, then 8mp will be a good choice for sharpness but just be aware tha pixels alone aren't everything. The correct zoom level is going to play a big part here. Just my 2 cents.
Also, beware Chinese cameras. Many are hacked to allow them to be used in the US / International regions and if you try to update the firmware or if the camera does it automatically, then you'll either find the whole camera in Chinese (every menu), it refusing to recognise your international / US NVR, or just totally bricked.
Andy @ EmpireCandy is your friend here. He will supply you with proper International cameras for a price lower than you can buy eslewhere and only a bit more expensive than a future Chinese hacked nightmare. He has his own firmware, but because the cameras are international versions, you can still install the standard Dahua firmware without breaking anything. You have to ask yourself if it is worth saving $10 or $20 on Aliexpress buying an unkown hacked Chinese market only camera and risking losing all your money down the line when it becomes bricked from an enforced firmware update?
Final point, if going the ptz route, be aware you don't need as many megapixels when you're zooming into a small area. Do your research on here and you'll find that a picture on an 8K that you have to crop or digitally zoom in on because the view is too wide, will have a much lower quality picture than a 2mp PTZ that's zoomed in tightly to an object eg bird table. The reason here is it's not the MP that matters but the pixel density ie how large the area is you spread the pixels over and thus how many pixels there are per inch. If you only want it for day use then 8mp is fine. However, in poor light / night it may perform badly. 4mp is the current sweet spot for day / night vision using large sensors. Note here it's the sensor size and sensitivity that's important for night / low light, not the MP. Generally at night, the more MP the worse the picture unless the sensor is considerably larger also. A ptz is also potentially going to give you a much larger zoom range depending on the model, as some are as much as 25x whereas the camera above is only 12x. The correct zoom level for your application to avoid digital cropping is far more important than total pixel count. 8k will only give the best daylight picture if the zoom is also sufficient to giev the tight crop you want without any need for cropping. 8k will not give the best picture at night / very low light.
In my opinion, as someone with limited practical experience of CCTV, in your case you need to start by measuring the distance from your proposed mounting position to the bird table you want to watch in your pond. This will help you establish a base line for how much zoom you will actually need to achieve a tight zoom as in the yotuube video above. From there you need to decide is the camera going to be a permanent fixed zoom on the table or do you want to zoom out and look at other areas / an over view? Those 2 starting points will help establish whether you need a ptz or fixed and how much zoom you're going to need for a tight crop. If not using it low light / night, then 8mp will be a good choice for sharpness but just be aware tha pixels alone aren't everything. The correct zoom level is going to play a big part here. Just my 2 cents.
