Monoprice cameras

[jerhad1987 0]

Hello everyone, I am new to the cctv world and I would like some help. I work for a car dealership in California. And the owner wants me to upgrade the cameras, they are some cheap q-see cameras that he had installed not knowing anything about cameras. We have a pretty good pc dvr setup that is working well.

 

We have a geovision gv1000 card, on windows xp with 4 gigs of ram. I read most of the recommended settings for this card and have applied them.

 

I have been looking around and have read many threads on what cameras are best for our setup. The car dealer is lit up pretty well at night. I will provide pictures with the lighting conditions.

 

I ran into cameras that monoprice.com sells and decided to purchase one.

 

MDP-T928XI-36

[edit by mod-store link removed]

 

I am having issues getting the camera to focus properly, the cheap Q-see cameras look better than this camera. I suspected that the camera might be of low quality or broken. So I exchanged it but to no avail. I also researched this brand. Even though there is not much out there, the stuff I did find was positive. I am sure that my focusing skills are the reason I am unable to get the most out of this high tech camera. If there is anyone located in so. California that can help me, that would be great. I do not know who to contact but if someone can help, I would appreciate it.

 

If there is any info you need from me, please let me know. I can provide shots of what I am dealing with.

Edited November 8, 2010 by Guest

[rory 0]

Sorry had to remove the store link per the rules, but here are the specs which are not bad:

 

550TVL, 2.8~11mm Vari-Focal ICR Lens, 36 LEDs, 1/3 inch Sony Super HAD CCD, True Day + Night IR Bullet Camera (MDP-T928XI-36)

 

Viewable length @ 0 lux illumination: 35 meters

Viewing radius: 36 - 134 degrees (adjustable, wide - tele)

Image sensor: 1/3" interline transfer type color CCD (Sony)

Effective pixels: 768H x 494V (380k pixels)

Scanning system: 525 lines, 2:1 interlace

Scanning frequency: 15.734KHz (H), 59.94Hz (V)

Resolution: 550TVL

Shutter speed: 1/60 sec

S/N ratio: More than 48dB (AGC off)

Sync system: Internal

White balance: ATW/AWC

Minimum illumination: 0 Lux (IR LED On)

Lens: 2.8 ~ 11mm vari-focal DC auto iris F1.2 day and night

Video output: VBS 1.0 Vp-p (75ohm load)

Power supply: AC24V, DC12V

Power consumption: DC12V Normal 250mA, Max 660mA - AC24V Normal 5.3VA Max 9.6VA

Power connector style: Bare wire

Operating temperature: -10c ~ +50c

Operating humidity: Max 90% RH

Dimensions: 70mm (diameter) x 134mm (L)

[rory 0]

I am having issues getting the camera to focus properly, the cheap Q-see cameras look better than this camera. I suspected that the camera might be of low quality or broken. So I exchanged it but to no avail. I also researched this brand. Even though there is not much out there, the stuff I did find was positive. I am sure that my focusing skills are the reason I am unable to get the most out of this high tech camera. If there is anyone located in so. California that can help me, that would be great. I do not know who to contact but if someone can help, I would appreciate it.

 

If there is any info you need from me, please let me know. I can provide shots of what I am dealing with.

 

Can you provide a shot of the camera image?

How are you focusing them?

What monitor are you using to focus them, where are you focusing them, and in what kind of lighting are you focusing them?

Does it look in focus at any time?

[jerhad1987 0]

Thanks Rory, I am going to get a shot tomorrow hopefully. I am currently trying to focus them by adjusting the zoom and focal to get a sharp image. I am viewing the image from the pc dvr connected to a 32" lcd tv. I have tried in day and night to focus the image. The funny thing is, when I first got the first camera, I plugged it into my home dvr which is a qsee standalone and it looked pretty good indoors, not like it is now outdoors at the car dealer. I have not tried filtering the image as I have read with a welders glass. Is the only way to get the camera in focus is to open the iris with a filtered glass?

[rory 0]

No, thats only if you are focusing it outside in the day and it doesnt have a Day Night lens, but according to the specs it does, dont know how true that is though you should see it written on the lens either Day Night or Infrared (IR). I generally focus in a controlled environment for wide FOVs, specifically my garage during the daytime, also lets me pop it outside to test the Iris level in bright sunlight, and inside I can turn the lights off for pitch dark IR, on for color, and dim them for low light. The latest ones ive done inside with the lights on and as they had an IR or Day Night lens, they stayed focused under IR and low light but I can test that the same time anyway, although at some level of very low light they will all start to get blurry and or pixelized. Otherwise best to focus it outside at the location under low light (not dark, eg even cloudy is fine) and using a CCTV CRT or a 13" TV, OR a focus meter. LCDs dont tend to give the clarity that the composite monitors do for these type of cameras. Also a 32" LCD will be a blown up image in this case, and too small of an LCD will be too small with too little pixels to get a good focus. It will probably be clearer on the stand alone as thats composite like the camera, the PC is digital. Evidence sharing is still normally much better quality with the PC based though.

 

Here are some of my posts on focusing:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22325&p=133305#p133305

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21167&p=126097#p126097

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23017&p=137397#p137397

[cglaeser 0]

No, thats only if you are focusing it outside in the day and it doesnt have a Day Night lens,

 

Aren't there two major issues that affect night focus? IR focus correction is one, but what about lenses that have an auto iris? When an iris opens, the DOF (depth of field) decreases, and a lens that appeared to be properly focused when the iris was closed in bright light may appear fuzzy when the iris opens when there is less light. Am I missing something?

 

Best,

Christopher

[jerhad1987 0]

I finally got to taking some pictures of my setup and also some snapshots of the recorded footage. Also, I have figured out that when i plug the camera directly to a lcd tv, the picture improves by about 25%. The pictures I attached will show what I'm dealing with.

 

These first pictures are of the camera itself.

 

 

These are photos of the dealer, the sun was down but not yet dark outside.

 

This photo is from the DVR, I saved it directly from the built in software from Geovision, It is recording at geo mpeg4, 640x480sw, and at the highest quality.

 

This photo is from the same dvr but the camera is some cheap q-see camera, I don't understand how this camera has a better picture.

 

Next photo I took from my iPhone from the same angle as the camera installed, my camera obviously does not look this good.

 

These next 2 pictures are taken from my phone, first one shows that camera on fullscreen from the DVR, second one is the camera plugged directly into the lcd. I know it is hard to see, I apologize but I have no other way to show what I'm seeing. It is clearly a better picture with the camera plugged directly into the tv.

Directly into the tv.

 

 

Sorry for the long post, I am hoping for some suggestions and advice. Should I return this camera and get one where I can leave it on color at all time with no infrared or stick with this one. Is my lightning sufficient for cameras where I can leave it in color mode? Please help, we just had a corvette stolen from us a couple months ago, and I am trying to protect ourselves. Here is the link to thevideo of the robbery, but its not pretty, this was a really cheap q-see system.

 

Edited November 23, 2010 by Guest

[SEANHAWG 1]

your images didnt show up for some reason.

[jerhad1987 0]

can anyone help me with my pictures, maybe a mod has to allow me to post pics? help please

[cglaeser 0]

can anyone help me with my pictures, maybe a mod has to allow me to post pics? help please

 

Upload your images to one of the many free photo-sharing websites and then post the links here.

 

Best,

Christopher

[jerhad1987 0]

Ok, finally got it going, apparently there is an issue with the bbcode obtained from flickr, there is extra steps to post them here. Please scroll up to see al the pics. Thanks

[rory 0]

was a permissions thing for new members when posting links .. thread edited to update the img tags.

[SEANHAWG 1]

your image looks fine when plugged directly into the monitor which makes me think its a DVR issue. Try plugging the monoprice camera into the same port on the DVR that the q-see camera was plugged into.

[jerhad1987 0]

Any other suggestions? what could be the issue with my dvr? which focus tool is best to use for this set-up?

[Toaster 0]

If possible, I'd like to see about 30 seconds or so of video pulled off the dvr from both the monoprice camera and the q-see camera, around the same time of day. For comparison purposes.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Whenever you tested it when it was plugged directly into the monitor, were you using a short cable or a different cable? Since we ruled out that its probably not the camera at fault, you have to take troubleshooting steps to see what the problem child is. Go down the line and see what is different than the other cameras that have a good picture. Did you try swapping out the camera with one of the q-see cameras cables?

[jerhad1987 0]

Bump..

 

I have changed the cable to a higher quality cable but has not made a difference. When plugged directly into the lcd screen, the picture is slightly improved, but not to where I can see a clear picture. Focused at night, but during daylight the picture is very bright. I desperately need help, should I exchange this TDN camera for a plain day/night camera? Or if there is anyone local here that can help please.

 

Located at 2035 W foothill blvd, Upland, CA 91786