Why I still love my analog ptz

Shockwave199

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The thing just rocks. So much so, I'm gonna keep my analog dvr and this camera in line and just import the channel into my nvr. Why not! LOL.

 

vector18

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Shock, whenever I have someone that wants to upgrade their analog system, I always save them money by keeping the good analogs and using a DVR as the encoder. I'll be honest, a good analog
that has nice night vision, is pretty damn close to IP. And even sometimes, I feel like as far as facial recognition goes, even IP doesn't do much if the camera is mounted off the roof. Does IP look
sharper than analog, of course. Is it so much better that you can see a face or license plate from far away, no!
 

Shockwave199

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Yeah, that's a very cool feature with importing analog channels. I hear what you're saying about real world expectations of MP as opposed to analog. It's not magical. But it is quite a difference and of course there will be many gains in resolution to aid with ID. This is why even though I was considering 1.3 cameras- mostly for cost savings-, I decided not not go below 2mp. I see quite a difference between the quality of 1.3 and 2mp. A 1.3 camera can almost be as though it's not enough of a step up from analog. However if I put a 1.3 on my front door, you bet it will kick ass. If I put the same 1.3 up on a second floor eave, it's gonna suffer big time trying to drill into something below and keep good clarity. But at the moment I'm getting 2 and 3mp cameras simply because my bottom line is no lower than 2mp. And that's pretty funny because for years I've been just fine with analog! Now suddenly I have a 'bottom line' lol. But if you're gonna commit to a full system change over, it's worth thinking it through and making the effort count. Importing this analog ptz is a nice hold over until the IP PTZ budget gets there. Plus it makes me feel better that I'm still using my investment in the dvr and the camera, which together totals around 900 balloons. I never should have gotten into this stuff. Another thing to move the money out of my wallet! But hey, as opposed to watching model trains go around the track and getting little rewards, this hobby serves an immensely useful purpose...which I hope I never really need to count on. Pictures of kids like that in my video having fun on a summer night- I'll take that any day over a serious problem.
 

vector18

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Here are 3 IP cameras and 1 analog. Can you really see a huge difference? Now, granted they are small boxes and we are not digitally zooming into anything, but for normal day use and general video
surveillance, is there really a big difference? Don't get me wrong, for my customers, any job I do, I will NOT do analog anymore, and for my own security, I want 2mp or higher, but I always keep
analog in a system as long as it's a good working camera. This one in the picture is one of those huge bosch extreme cameras and this guy paid almost 4000.00 for it a few years ago. There was no reason to sell him an upgrade to IP, lol.


Clipboard01-108.jpg
 

Shockwave199

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Here are 3 IP cameras and 1 analog. Can you really see a huge difference? Now, granted they are small boxes and we are not digitally zooming into anything, but for normal day use and general video
surveillance, is there really a big difference? Don't get me wrong, for my customers, any job I do, I will NOT do analog anymore, and for my own security, I want 2mp or higher, but I always keep
analog in a system as long as it's a good working camera. This one in the picture is one of those huge bosch extreme cameras and this guy paid almost 4000.00 for it a few years ago. There was no reason to sell him an upgrade to IP, lol.


View attachment 886
The Bosch is the driveway camera. And 4k lol, somebody really got him. I use a whole Bosch system at work and it's marginal in quality, including the ptz camera. But I completely agree about analog being fine, especially when it's a well cared for system. I've taken over two existing systems at work along the way and it amazes me to find them set at lowest resolution. And the first thing I do is actually clean all the camera glass to. Amazing what that simple thing can do to get a nice picture back. But I have grappled with just keeping my analog system a long time now. Don't go trying to change my mind! Lol! Actually D1 looks great and provides great situational awareness. But when I've needed to drill in for ID, that's when it becomes painfully obvious that it's analog. You either have to get real about that or risk suffering the consequences when you need it most.
 

bp2008

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I never had a good analog camera, but I understand some of the better ones are often better than a 1.3 MP IP camera, if only because they have more expensive sensors.

It is kind of sad but my best cameras for actually recognizing someone are not my Hikvision 3MPs or my Dahua 2MPs or ACTI 10 MPs, but instead my 3 small-time chinese junk cams that I bought in 2012. They have 5 megapixel sensors and surprisingly good 8mm CS mount lenses. When someone walks up my driveway or onto my porch, these cams capture the most detail by a pretty significant margin. But they are also my largest cams and they have more video encoding glitches and artifacts than I am comfortable with. They are EC-IP5911P on aliexpress, and I paid close to $200 each for them in 2012.

Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I 4mm:


CCDCAM EC-IP5911P 8mm:


To be fair, the Hikvision is mounted about 10 feet further back than the other porch cam which you can see mounted just under the timestamp...
 
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Shockwave199

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I've always had great success with my analog system, and I broke a lot of rules. Premade stock cables. Cheap cameras, almost none costing over 75 bucks and a number of them at 50 bucks. In fact in that shot, the front ptz was 525, the front door was free from gadspot because I was doing a bunch of video demos of their stuff and they tossed me a freebie out of courtesy, the driveway camera was free from Sean at Nelly's because he is awesome and I was also doing video demos of his stuff, and the back door camera is a 45 dollar gadspot that hasn't failed me yet. With pictures like that, why am I upgrading? Because facts are facts, mega pixel is much much better. If I tried to drill into any one of those shots they'd quickly fall apart. It's great looking analog, but it's still analog.

4 channel daytime analog.jpg
 
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