Review : TPC-BF1241 Dahua Thermal Bullet Camera

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mudflap5

Pulling my weight
Oct 19, 2014
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This is a review of the TPC-BF1241 Dahua Thermal Bullet Camera, specifically the TPC-BF1241-D7F8 model with a 7mm thermal camera lens and an 8mm visible camera lens . It's being done with a lot of help from our good friend Andy.

If you are interested in purchasing this camera, you'll need to contact Andy directly, as of now, they are not listed on Amazon or his Ali websites.

-----Look like it is now available (4-28-2021)----

www.aliexpress.com

638.38US $ 5% OFF|New Arriving TPC BF1241 4MP Thermal Network Bullet Camera With Strobe Light And Audio, Free Shipping|Surveillance Cameras| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com



Now for some of the documentation.

WizSense Thermal Network Bullet Camera
Uncooled VOx thermal sensor technology
Athermalized lens (thermal camera), focus-free
1/2.7'' 4Megapixel progressive scan CMOS
Wi-Fi Optional
Support ROI, motion detection, color palettes
Smoking and call behaviour detection
Support fire detection & alarm
Built-in 1/1 alarm in/out
Micro SD memory, IP67, PoE
Smart linkage with strobe light & audio
Dual image fusion (visible and thermal images)
Click to expand...



Specs. on the Thermal Camera

Tech Specs thermal camera.png
vis 1.pngvis 2.png

This information and lots more can be found on Dahua's site:

256 x 192 Hybrid Thermal Network Bullet Camera – Dahua Technology USA Inc

us.dahuasecurity.com us.dahuasecurity.com

A few pictures.


In the box
]t1.jpg

Size comparison to a SD1A203T-GN
t2.jpgt3.jpg


I\O pigtail
t4.jpg



Front
t5.jpg


Rear access cover, nothing there
t6.jpgt7.jpg
There is a cover on the back, looks like an rs-232 port, maybe used on a different model camera.

Bottom cover, SD card slot, reset button, speaker, and a 4 pin connector
t8.jpg


The camera is built like a tank, all metal construction with the exception of the sliding visor, which is plastic. Fit and finish is good, gaps and seams are all even.
 
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Temporarily mounted the cam facing a wooded area behind the house and made a quick 2 minute video.






For the next test, the camera was brought inside. This is looking at the "Smart Thermal - Fire Warning" feature. A small candle was set up 6 ft. away and the camera was manually panned over to the left. In the setup menu, a "detect zone" was set up in the upper left area of the screen. The alarm sounds and the strobe flashes as the hot spot meets the zone. The alarm is nauseatingly loud, and the strobe will get your attention.

ST.png




Visible daytime clip.



Video quality is rather low for this camera during daylight hours. As with a lot of cameras, it struggles with tree leaves and grass, leaving a blurry mess.
(These things show up day or night, they don't care!)



Here is a night time still, the second picture is from a 5442 pionted in t he same general direction. There is plenty of light, but the BF1241 visible struggles.

T-V night (2) - Copy.jpgT-V night 5442 (2) - Copy.jpg


Being about the lowest priced 256 x 192 thermal ip camera on the market now, I would not expect very high quality visible image from this camera, as it is budget minded, and more resources go into t he thermal side of the cam.


Fusion mode allows the visible and thermal image to combined . it needs to be adjusted so the overlays line up. This is dependent on how far away the what you want too look at is.
Right now it is adjusted to blend the images at about 150 ft.

Blend 150 (2).jpg


Here is a pipe that is about 5 feet away,

Fusion Near (2) - Copy.jpg



The thermal image provides very little radiometric data, only markers that show the hot and cold spot on the omage,
Markers (2) - Copy.jpg


I have a Therm-app pro it show the actual tempratures and a lot more,
 

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Summary.

After using this camera over the last few days, i will say that is it my favorite one. Despite its shortcomings on the visible side, it is just so cool! I've always wanted to see what was going on in the woods behind the house.

Here a few links about thermal cameras:
(Mod's if these links are not appropriate, delete as needed)

How thermal cameras work from Flir:

How Do Thermal Cameras Work?



eevblog.com these guys take thermal cameras to the next level:

Thermal Imaging - Page 1

Thermal Imaging - Page 1
www.eevblog.com



Be sure to check out the Thermal Imaging gallery, they do some amazing things with these cameras:

Thermal Imaging Gallery - Page 1







If you have any other questions about camera, Ill do my best to answer them.
 
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I wonder if the daytime visible image could be cleaned up by increasing the quality setting and bitrate limit (assuming VBR encoding), or switching to CBR encoding with a higher bit rate limit. My point is, the quality might suck because of the encoding configuration.
 
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bp2008 said:
I wonder if the daytime visible image could be cleaned up by increasing the quality setting and bitrate limit (assuming VBR encoding), or switching to CBR encoding with a higher bit rate limit. My point is, the quality might suck because of the encoding configuration.
Click to expand...


Good point. Here the settings that are currently being used:

settings.PNG

Ill try any suggestions you might have.

Thanks!
 
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Those settings look like they should deliver high quality already. Maybe it is just youtube compression making the day video look poor. It is only 720p after all.
 
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Thanks for your posting @mudflap5

thermal camera range covers both thermal and hybrid (Thermal + Visible) cameras to meet different user demands.
Thermal cameras are widely used in applications such as perimeter protection, protection of key components (electrical facilities, gas pumps, etc.) and over-heating detection in critical infrastructure, forest fire prevention, and other scenarios.
 
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bp2008 said:
Those settings look like they should deliver high quality already. Maybe it is just youtube compression making the day video look poor. It is only 720p after all.
Click to expand...

I am kinda new to the whole uploading videos to youtube thing. Is there a way to set up encoding at a higher resolution?
 
That is awesome and a game changer for many people. You basically do not see the coyotes on the left image and only see them because you know to look LOL. I can see that working out well for spotter cam duty for PTZs.

And to provide a way early warning for people with land, or even in a subdivision for that matter.
 
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So at foggy dates, it will still watch what is going on easily. :D
 
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