jblogh

Thanks for the feedback. Which Vivotek models are you using? Yes, being a residential area, I'm limited to "carriage lights" though I am considering ground mounted garden spike lights ~50W each, but since they'd be pointing upwards I'm concerned they'd saturate the cameras so maybe not such a great idea?

Hi, As a long term lurker I have learnt a lot from reading the posts here over the years, but am now in need of some advice please! I've determined that some 2-3 MP IP cameras are required for my purposes, I currently have a 1.3 MP Acti ACM-7411 dome that I feel offers poor night time performance with low sensitivity and lots of noise. I've shortlisted the following cameras: Acti D32/E32/D42/E42 - bullets with/without WDR and fixed/vari-focal lenses. Acti D72/E72/D82/E82 - domes with/without WDR and fixed/vari-focal lenses. The Acti low light cameras such as E44 are twice the price of the E32 - are they worth the extra? Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I (bullet) or 2132 for the dome equivalent. My main criteria is to work effectively at night, I am going to install PIR activated lighting (not IR) to improve the light levels but won't be using floodlights so the overall wattage will be quite low. So, am I going to benefit from WDR, reading the comments on the forum I suspect I may not, and also the vari-focal lenses offer poorer low light performance than fixed lenses? (for example I read that the E32 F1.8 4.2mm performed better than the D82 F1.4 set to its widest setting of 2.8mm). The Hikvision bullet is roughly half the price of the E32 and is nice and small to can be placed discretely so visits don't feel intimidated, but is it half as good? I did also consider Axis cameras such as P3346-VE but they're twice the price of the E32 but do you get what you pay for? I do have a Bosch LTC0630 with an F1.4 lens that gives just about acceptable low light performance without lights but since it's analogue the resolution/coverage area is too limited, but it does highlight how poor the ACM-7411 is! Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Just realised the SEB5108 isn't a hybrid, that needs the EH5216 which is £995 ex vat retail which is a bit steep for me... Back to the Nano then... I suppose the chances of having simulatenous events occurring on all 4 cameras is fairly low if they're not all pointing at the same area. Is the recording rate variable depending on the no. of cameras currently triggered?

The SEB5108H+ is available with 1Tb for £495 vs £409 for the Nano with 1Tb (all ex VAT), I wonder if it's worth the extra? The datasheets don't give much away with regard to the actual fps you can achieve per channel.

Only 7 fps from this unit? Looking at the manual/datasheet it makes claims better than that, I was hoping to do at least 15 fps per channel at maximum quality, am I being unrealistic?

Very useful thanks. You mention the VGA output isn't great, is the recorded image also worse than the spot outputs, or is it just a poor quality VGA? I'd probably access the machine remotely over the Ethernet port so the VGA output itself isn't too much of a concern. I think I'll have another look at the SEB5108H+ which is a similar price on the internet and see how they compare. This is only for home but I need a decent enough system to be able to recognise/identify people and don't want to waste ~£400. Thanks again. Jonathan

Any update on the Nano DVR and how you're getting on with it? How did you manage to get trade pricing? Thanks

Hi, do you have the settings for the Acti ACM-7411 in low light/darkness please? Thanks

Interesting. I notice the 1231 uses a megapixel CMOS sensor by Micron, whereas the 1432 uses a non-megapixel Sony Exview CCD sensor, which is supposedly very sensitive under low light levels. I wonder how they compare?

Looks good, is that with IR illumination? What shutter speed does it use under those conditions? Is there motion blur of people? How does it compare to the Mobotix M12 cameras?