Sunba HZ507-20XB Mini Dome PTZ Camera

[alphawave7]

Thanks for the cam pics and review. Glad you're making out decently in your drought. We never get anything like that here. Our average monthly rainfall in the summer is an inch a week. Two weeks without more than a sprinkle or two is a fairly long stretch. If it hits three weeks and the lawns stop growing quickly we call it a drought. Farmers have it the worst if their crops aren't "drought" resistant, but nothing we grow would survive without serious irrigation in places where they get REAL drought.

Here in NorCal, we don't even look at rainfall totals until Oct 1st ('It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya It pours, man, it pours'), but even with our recent welcome storms, we're well below normal, even compared to last year. Luckily, snowpack is stacking up well with each storm, which seems to be carrying a lot of sustained moisture for the hills and mountains to squeeze out. Chart Column One is 2016 Year, middle is last year 2015, end column is 'normal':
http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/awipsProducts/RNOWRKCLI.php

 

[RogMan]

I'll be posting a video later today. I did get a message back from the seller regarding the tilt settings. There is no ability for the camera to go above zero degrees. Your only choice is to install the camera higher. I was hoping to install this camera without going up on the roof. I just might have to do that. In the meantime, I could possibly get a little more height by using one of those satellite eave mounts. A few years ago I installed a small digital TV antenna so we could get TV in our garage (this was before we added internet access in the garage) so we could watch TV while exercising on our treadmill. It worked out great, we get about 50 channels in the garage (we have Direct TV inside the house) including all the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and others). I was able to install it without going up on the roof. Perhaps I could install the camera on one of these. Here's what I used:

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=emv4

I will also post a video that shows the night vision. That may be in a day or so. I'm still trying to determine if things look best using the IR lights, or just leaving them turned off. I used one of the special presets in the camera to turn on or off the IR lights.

lulu5kamz,
I was wondering if this camera has autoflip that might help with your tilt problem in some way?
Roger

 

[chewie]

I'll be posting a video later today. I did get a message back from the seller regarding the tilt settings. There is no ability for the camera to go above zero degrees. Your only choice is to install the camera higher. I was hoping to install this camera without going up on the roof. I just might have to do that. In the meantime, I could possibly get a little more height by using one of those satellite eave mounts. A few years ago I installed a small digital TV antenna so we could get TV in our garage (this was before we added internet access in the garage) so we could watch TV while exercising on our treadmill. It worked out great, we get about 50 channels in the garage (we have Direct TV inside the house) including all the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and others). I was able to install it without going up on the roof. Perhaps I could install the camera on one of these. Here's what I used:



http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=emv4

I will also post a video that shows the night vision. That may be in a day or so. I'm still trying to determine if things look best using the IR lights, or just leaving them turned off. I used one of the special presets in the camera to turn on or off the IR lights.

Hello Lullu5
[h=1][/h]About a small flat screen mount like this, I know It tilts down, but you can always mount it upside down, amazon has this mount for 15.53 dollars.
Regards.
Chewie
[h=1]Pyle PSWLB61 10-Inch to 24-Inch Universal Flat Panel Tilt and Turn Wall Mount for LCD, LED, Plasma, SMART, 3D TVs[/h]

 

[lulu5kamz]

Okay, a short video has been posted here:

https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/8419-Sunba-HZ507-20XB-Mini-Dome-Camera-Test-20X-Optical-Zoom?p=74987#post74987

 

[lulu5kamz]

Hello Lullu5
About a small flat screen mount like this, I know It tilts down, but you can always mount it upside down, amazon has this mount for 15.53 dollars.
Regards.
Chewie
Pyle PSWLB61 10-Inch to 24-Inch Universal Flat Panel Tilt and Turn Wall Mount for LCD, LED, Plasma, SMART, 3D TVs

The more I think about your suggestion, the better I like it. Now I don't have much room for that in it's current location, but in the front of the deck I have some possibilities. Keep in mind the base of the camera mount is approximately 3 inch (width) by 5 inch (height). Each of the deck posts are 3.5 inch by 3.5 inch (but are spread out too far apart). But at the base of the deck rail, we have a board that runs the full length of the deck and it's about 5.5 inches in height. So if I can mount one of these in that space I think it would work out. I know these are designed to hold very heavy weights, so holding a 5 lb. camera will be easy. I guess it would be how much I can tilt the angle. I will have to look at the specifications of it closely. Anyone here think this might work? Thanks...

 

[chewie]

The more I think about your suggestion, the better I like it. Now I don't have much room for that in it's current location, but in the front of the deck I have some possibilities. Keep in mind the base of the camera mount is approximately 3 inch (width) by 5 inch (height). Each of the deck posts are 3.5 inch by 3.5 inch (but are spread out too far apart). But at the base of the deck rail, we have a board that runs the full length of the deck and it's about 5.5 inches in height. So if I can mount one of these in that space I think it would work out. I know these are designed to hold very heavy weights, so holding a 5 lb. camera will be easy. I guess it would be how much I can tilt the angle. I will have to look at the specifications of it closely. Anyone here think this might work? Thanks...

Hello Lulu5
I been looking at other mounts, like monoprice has some I like, is a tilt mount is a flat mount and it has holes cutouts for different sizes and the price range is like 6 to 10 dollars, I do not need a lot of tilt but some. some of these mounts are same sizes to 5.5H x 6' W
How do you like the night vision on this camera, is it close to the huisun or better?
Regards.
Chewie

 

[Tinman]

Being a metal man I would just fab a bracket like this say:

 

[atom]

A problem with mounting a PTZ permanently tilted up is that when you pan left and right, everything is on an odd angle.

 

[lulu5kamz]

A problem with mounting a PTZ permanently tilted up is that when you pan left and right, everything is on an odd angle.

I didn't think about that. I would imagine things would look very strange like that. Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess. Thanks.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Just think which part of the scene you want tilted up a little or a lot on 180 degrees towards the uptilt. You'll lose the uptilt as you approach 90 degrees from maximum azimuth. You can compensate easily for the negative angle on the downside because the cam can tilt down no troubles. I see the difficulty coming when trying to pan side to side manually following a subject and the lens is dipping or rising instead of following the horizon. Not much trouble when using a joystick or presets but a pain if navigating with a mouse clicking on arrows. If you find it too much trouble the way you use it most often then you're not out much money.

 

[Tinman]

Yes, wasn't thinking about that . My Panasonic PTZ is a point and click interface which would not be as noticeable as a pan straight L or R . You might have to just try it and see what it looks like.

 

[lulu5kamz]

Hello Lulu5
I been looking at other mounts, like monoprice has some I like, is a tilt mount is a flat mount and it has holes cutouts for different sizes and the price range is like 6 to 10 dollars, I do not need a lot of tilt but some. some of these mounts are same sizes to 5.5H x 6' W
How do you like the night vision on this camera, is it close to the huisun or better?
Regards.
Chewie

The camera is rated at 100 meters for night vision. Unfortunately, due to it's current mount position (it's located about 6 feet above our deck) the base of the deck and deck rail prevents the camera from seeing anywhere near the house. I really have no way of testing the 100 meter range in it's current position. At night, I point the camera at the far end of the deck. I got a recording last night from it. A cat walked from where the camera is to the far end of the deck. I may post a snapshot of what it looked like. Using the camera defaults, the image looked like what happens when the camera IR is too bright. It looks like the camera might not be much use unless I can some how lower the IR brightness. I left a message for the seller asking if there is a way to adjust it. In a previous message, the seller said the IR lights (there are 8 of them) are controlled by focal length. I had asked the seller about only seeing half the lights being on. Sometimes, I would see the left side lights on and at other times I would see the right side lights on. You can also turn on all the lights using a special preset or turn them all off with another preset. As far as night vision, again because of where it is located I can't give it a fair test. But I will say for what I can see compared to the Huisun, it looks about the same. If I can figure out a better place to mount, then I might be able to provide a fairer comparison to the Huisun.

 

[lulu5kamz]

Just think which part of the scene you want tilted up a little or a lot on 180 degrees towards the uptilt. You'll lose the uptilt as you approach 90 degrees from maximum azimuth. You can compensate easily for the negative angle on the downside because the cam can tilt down no troubles. I see the difficulty coming when trying to pan side to side manually following a subject and the lens is dipping or rising instead of following the horizon. Not much trouble when using a joystick or presets but a pain if navigating with a mouse clicking on arrows. If you find it too much trouble the way you use it most often then you're not out much money.

Because of the 20X zoom, I wanted to occasionally follow flights landing at our downtown airport. Most of the other times, I would just use the camera to point it at something an then move it when I'm done. This camera is just for looking at the view. I have other cameras that monitor the hill behind our house, including the Huisun PTZ. So I don't really need this camera for any security purpose.

 

[lulu5kamz]

Okay, here are the night time captures from both my new Sunba camera and the Huisun Mini Bullet PTZ (Version 1) camera. There are 4 videos in this post. The building you see in the video is 1,120 feet (341 meters) from the camera. I adjusted the frame rate on the Sunba to match my Huisun camera. Both run at 12 FPS, CBR and I-Frame settings at 12. Blue Iris is reporting nearly identical Bit Rats of 430 kB/S average for both cameras. Which camera performed better? You be the judge.

Huisun IR On Test




Sunba IR On Test



Huisun IR Off Test



Sunba IR Off Test

 

[klasipca]

They are the same really

 

[vincenttor]

must say, both do not look very bad.
I am going to open up the sunba, see if i can do a modification to use the IR LED's and put a PWM dimmer with a arduino or something in it.


Thanks for sharing

 

[alphawave7]

The Sunba looks to be a slight upgrade..auttofocus versus light input in darkness seems more stable, as Huisun hunts around a bit more. If the color settings are matched, Sunba appears a bit more saturated and warmer. But I agree with klasipca-...not hugely different. Surely appreciate your efforts!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[lulu5kamz]

must say, both do not look very bad.
I am going to open up the sunba, see if i can do a modification to use the IR LED's and put a PWM dimmer with a arduino or something in it.


Thanks for sharing

How high off the ground is your camera located? Have you noticed any video freeze on your display. I'm seeing video freeze sometimes. Not sure if it occurs during recording. So far, I don't record very much since I'm just looking at the view. Are you using Blue Iris to record? The seller said there is no other adjustments for the IR lights. Last night I went and walked on the deck to see what got recorded. I looked like a very bright ghost. The IR lights are way to bright for me to use the camera at night (with the IR turned on) in it's current location. The seller also said they saw my suggestions for the camera on "other forums" and thanked me for them. I only post on 2 forums. So the seller is reading one or both forums.

Here is another picture. This house is located 973 feet (296 meters) from the camera. I can clearly read the house number. I'm not sure if I could read the license plate if those tree branches were not there, but image quality is very good. While I love my 2 Huisun cameras, I believe the image quality is slightly better on the Sunba. Too bad the IR lights are too bright. I really wish I had a better location to test the camera. I'm still thinking about getting a TV mount bracket to install on the deck.

 

[chewie]

How high off the ground is your camera located? Have you noticed any video freeze on your display. I'm seeing video freeze sometimes. Not sure if it occurs during recording. So far, I don't record very much since I'm just looking at the view. Are you using Blue Iris to record? The seller said there is no other adjustments for the IR lights. Last night I went and walked on the deck to see what got recorded. I looked like a very bright ghost. The IR lights are way to bright for me to use the camera at night (with the IR turned on) in it's current location. The seller also said they saw my suggestions for the camera on "other forums" and thanked me for them. I only post on 2 forums. So the seller is reading one or both forums.

Here is another picture. This house is located 973 feet (296 meters) from the camera. I can clearly read the house number. I'm not sure if I could read the license plate if those tree branches were not there, but image quality is very good. While I love my 2 Huisun cameras, I believe the image quality is slightly better on the Sunba. Too bad the IR lights are too bright. I really wish I had a better location to test the camera. I'm still thinking about getting a TV mount bracket to install on the deck.

View attachment 7917

Hello Lulu5
Regarding up tilting this camera a bit, here a work they have a 3D printer and they are making me a plastic wadge to install the camera up tilt a bit, I get the camera this Thursday if my camera is ok and able to see video I will try to set this wadge and see what it does, if everything is ok than I will order a TV mount and try it .
Regards.
Chewie

 

[lulu5kamz]

Being a metal man I would just fab a bracket like this say:

That looks very good. I wish I could make one of those. Maybe the seller can make that an camera option? Hint, hint...