ActI vs Axis

[tom976 0]

Greetings Folks;

I am at a crossroads when it comes to choosing the brand of camera.

 

I know axis makes great cameras for the right situation.

In my case of coverage in a building, I can choose a mixture of axis cameras to meet the budget. The mixture would have to be a few mega pixel cameras for the large areas and a few standard definition ones in the smaller areas. Another issue is the software from Axis is expensive. (I know there are a couple of cheap solutions to the axis NVR software)

 

For the money, I can get Acti cameras (17 of them) for a reasonable price (all megapixel) with the works. (3511 and 1511 models with WDR, IR etc) The infrastructure can handle the load and the free software that comes with the Acti products is a nice plus.

 

Any real world experience from the forum members between choosing which brand of camera?

How has the acti experience been so far?

 

Any and all opinions are welcome.

 

HELP!

Tom

[Bean00 0]

From my previous distribution sales experience regarding ACTi:

 

Customer are usually content with the image quality - but not impressed by it.

 

QC and Support for ACTi need to be worked on.

 

Generally considered the best bang for your buck IP camera line.

 

I personally no longer recommend ACTi except in certain situations. I've been burned one too many times by that Support issue I mentioned. However I also sold an absolute ton of the stuff and had a lot of customers happy with it.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Guest

[tom976 0]

Thanks Chris for your input.

 

I sort of put the ACTi in the middle of the road when looking at the videos off of youtube.

What I worry about is reliability of these units, nobody wants to get back up that ladder and work on the camera after they're in, while I always expect things to happen. I just don't want it to happen too often if ever. Do they have issues with RMA'ing bad cameras?

 

I presume that Axis supports their products better or the just tend to fail less often?

 

Tom

[Bean00 0]

I'd say I was at about 1 in 10 failure rate on ACTi. However they were nearly all DOA, so if you bench test first before installing you should be pretty good. Some of the other guys might have other experiences though. Certainly ACTi claims a much lower RMA rate than that.

 

Axis is exceptionally better at quality control so there are less DOA products - though if your not an Axis partner getting ahold of tech support is a heck of a task. They want you to use a dealer so they make it hard to talk to tech support. Which makes sense in a way, a giant portion of RMAs are from user error rather than bad product so they prefer certified dealers work with their product.

 

Btw, are you a dealer or enduser?

[tom976 0]

I was asked to look into this for a client. (I really normally do server, large wireless networks, infrastructure stuff) but have done analog camera installations for other clients when need be.

 

So I do have experience installing cameras here and there. This system is partially done already. Locations chosen, all ethernet run by another vendor and now its my task to have them get the cameras, put them in place and make the magic happen.

 

For the price with ACTi I am able to spec a little overkill with the cameras. WDR, Spread Spectrum, Megapixel, and Varifocal. The TCM-3511 (dome) and TCM-1511 (bullet) have built in IR if the situation needs it too.

 

Lots of nice options that can be enabled or disabled if need be.

 

I do like the Axis products but the support issue you mentioned wouldn't be good. Not to mention that the price for all of the camera alone would be about 3 - 4 grand more.

 

Tom

[thewireguys 3]

Depends what the goal of the system is. I would say away from the ACTI cameras if you want good quality video. There is anther member on here that just did a 30 camera ACTI system and is having nothing but problems. If I had to pick between the two I would go AXIS but that is not even my first choice. Stay away from the free software.. you get what you pay for and you customer will call when it doesn't work. Check out Vivotek's new 8000 series cameras and I would use Exacq for VMS.

[Bean00 0]

The 3511's have some IR feedback issues I've seen as well. Not all the time, but far too often for most. The cameras I did best with were the ACM7411 and ACM1231. Still had the issues I mentioned previously, but those models(and the newer TCM versions) generally didn't have design problems that caused real issues. The ACTi software lost me my biggest customer, especially since ACTi was never able to fix th issues(I believe it's actually still in limbo now, most of a year later.)

[Sawbones 0]

The Acti software may be free, but it's one of the furthest things from "user friendly" you can find.

 

Talking somebody through setting it up is quite a chore.

[FEN_FAN 0]

I use ACTi with GeoVision soft, never had any major problems with them.

Support is rly good here in Poland.

 

Check out Vivotek's new 8000 series cameras[...]

Yeah right, 1/4" CMOS sensors vs 1/3" aptina prog. scan CMOS from ACTi

No thanks

And You will "LOVE" delay on those cams.

 

I would stick to ACTi TCM series or new GeoVision cams with free soft.

[thewireguys 3]

I use ACTi with GeoVision soft, never had any major problems with them.

Support is rly good here in Poland.

 

Check out Vivotek's new 8000 series cameras[...]

Yeah right, 1/4" CMOS sensors vs 1/3" aptina prog. scan CMOS from ACTi

No thanks

And You will "LOVE" delay on those cams.

 

I would stick to ACTi TCM series or new GeoVision cams with free soft.

 

 

Show me some images. The new Vivoteks have a much improved image quality over the older stuff and way better then the ACTI ACM series. Now ACM vs TCM the TCM is much better then the ACM but from the demos that I have seen go Vivotek. If I had to chose between the two.

 

Second choice would be Arcont/Sanyo and Exacq, First would be Avigilon

[tom976 0]

Interestingly enough though I was about to swing the Axis cameras in this project.

With the ACTi I was basically using two types of TCM cameras.

 

With the Axis route I had to be a little more creative in getting the best cam for its intended location.

 

Any recommended low cost software solutions for basic recording on a decent 2003 box?