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CNB mona lisa review (sort of)

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I have AGC set at 1. I live in Mississippi and it is very sunny/hot here. No problems at all so far. I like them better than the 484s so far.

 

Any chance for some sample images? The 484 has been sort of a gold standard, in my book. If this camera is close, I'll be seriously considering it for some applications.

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I have AGC set at 1. I live in Mississippi and it is very sunny/hot here. No problems at all so far. I like them better than the 484s so far.

 

yeah but you guys dont have the tropical sun we have here, every day of the year though I would love to live there regardless, if only for the 7 elevens, walmarts etc that we dont have here!

 

But I too would be interested if indeed it is a good camera. At the price, it doesnt even have to be better, just decent enough IMO.

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Yes, MS is a nice hot area in the South. Here is a link to the initial setup: http://s792.photobucket.com/albums/yy204/alschmid/. I have the brightness cranked up a little too much on the cameras set at 15 out of 0-20 range. DNR is set to high, BLC set to high, AGC set to 1 out of 0-20 range. I am going to fine tune adjust them later, and this is just a rough setup. Image quality may not be quite as good as 484s at this point, but they do appear to be a very formidable camera for the price. The last cameras I had were actually pretty good in image quality but did not handle the light differences very well (see comparison on other photos labeled "Paige RG59"). I would say overall they are a good value. I will post updated pictures once they are optimally adjusted.

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What's impressed me most with these so far is their low-light capability. The first ones I've used went on a restaurant patio that's in near total darkness at night (dark enough you could easily trip if you're not watching very carefully), and the cameras show it quite clearly.

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That was out-of-the-box. We had to hurry and close the cameras up as it was starting to rain, and it rained the rest of the time we were at the site, so were never got a chance to fine-tune them.

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I finally got around to testing one and I'm very impressed with the low light ability. Better than my 484s. The back light compensation is good, but not (I think) as good as the 484s. I would not say they have great wide dynamic range. I'll get some photos loaded later today. Overall, a very good camera and an excellent value.

 

Rory, what's up with AGC DN? I'm not sure how AGC relates to the day/night function. Yes, if IGC is turned off, these cameras will not switch automatically to night mode. I think you could still put them in BW mode permanently, but that's not very useful, is it?.

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I finally got around to testing one and I'm very impressed with the low light ability. Better than my 484s. The back light compensation is good, but not (I think) as good as the 484s. I would not say they have great wide dynamic range. I'll get some photos loaded later today. Overall, a very good camera and an excellent value.

 

Rory, what's up with AGC DN? I'm not sure how AGC relates to the day/night function. Yes, if IGC is turned off, these cameras will not switch automatically to night mode. I think you could still put them in BW mode permanently, but that's not very useful, is it?.

 

yeah, no we could just buy BW cameras for that

 

Also bear in mind that the 484's are not specked to be great low light cameras, they never were the best for low light apps regardless of their Day Night feature. The GE Exview True Day Night Camera on the other hand was a great low light model. There are other models also which use Exview that would be far superior at night to the 484. Some may try to argue this with me but I wont budge, check the specs on the min lumination (standard without bursts of any kind, 0.06 lux) and compare that to other day night cameras (0.01 lux) and one should clearly see the diff.

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Finally posting some samples. These show the low light abilities of the CNB camera. While the Panasonic 484 isn't an ultra-low light camera, is it a very good reference.

484-pre-dawn.jpg.a5997ebb8214912756c33aa77d7ca78d.jpg

CNB-pre-dawn.jpg.6639a3d867de794d5b3ea09496094f92.jpg

CNB-moonlight.jpg.7fa0f56dd3a5a84b4afa245ef7702baa.jpg

Edited by Guest

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One more sample of the low light. One thing I noticed is that the camera did not resort to super long shutter speeds under low light, so there was no blurring as I walked back and forth.

 

More samples showing a bit of how the camera handles back lighting. The windows in the background face south and the sun was streaming directly in. Otherwise, the room was slightly dim because all the curtains in the room were closed.

 

My wife says she had better things to do.

CNB-moonlight-house-numbers.jpg.06dbfed3b8b6ba89203d2e9bad9ca225.jpg

backlight-inside-high.jpg.689905ab4fb7aa24a02a85a8f142682e.jpg

backlight-inside-off.jpg.db31f59362cbff13792237a0d954c107.jpg

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Very nice comparison. I am messing around with an IR illuminator and the CNB's seem to respond quite well. Will post pics as soon as I get them set up.

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