Acti E31 E32 E33 D31 D32 Whats the scoop?

[Agentchuckles 0]

Anyone try these? I see Mateusz (Korgoth) has some sample footage of the E31 showing its WDR capabilities...looks pretty good...the E32-33 have a wider field of view. Curious also about the cheaper D31 and D32. They seem to have a single IR illuminator instead of IR led arrangement around the lense.

 

I'm surprised there's not more buzz about these cameras on the forums as they seem priced to compete with dahua. Affordable bullet cam with great NVR software..seems like a no brainer to me...? Is anyone here running these cams? Am i missing something?

[Kawboy12R 0]

Availability?

[buellwinkle 0]

I'm working on a review now. I've run into a bug that ACTi is working on so my E33 is with them but have the E32. My understanding is the only difference between the E32 and D32 is WDR. If this is the case, I can turn WDR off and you can see the difference.

 

I can tell you that for the money, these are truly a bargain. Compared to Dahua 3MP, I find the daytime image better on the ACTi, not as overly sharp and over processed as Dahua. At dawn/dusk the ACTi seems brighter and colors on Dahua seem more muted from the lower light. At night, Dahua is has better noise reduction, but ACTi is not bad. The illuminators on the Dahua are brighter. ACTi low light champ is the E44, but they are backordered and waiting for one.

 

Availability is now, I got mine in a few days.

[Agentchuckles 0]

I'm working on a review now. I've run into a bug that ACTi is working on so my E33 is with them but have the E32. My understanding is the only difference between the E32 and D32 is WDR. If this is the case, I can turn WDR off and you can see the difference.

 

I can tell you that for the money, these are truly a bargain. Compared to Dahua 3MP, I find the daytime image better on the ACTi, not as overly sharp and over processed as Dahua. At dawn/dusk the ACTi seems brighter and colors on Dahua seem more muted from the lower light. At night, Dahua is has better noise reduction, but ACTi is not bad. The illuminators on the Dahua are brighter. ACTi low light champ is the E44, but they are backordered and waiting for one.

 

Availability is now, I got mine in a few days.

 

Can you tell us what kind of bug it is they're working on? Does is it plague that whole series of cameras or just the E33? And the E44...might that be the bullet with the same sensor as the KCM5611?

 

Looking forward to your review..thanks!

[Kawboy12R 0]

Available from where?

[buellwinkle 0]

It plagues at least ones I have, the E32 and E33. It has to do with brief loss of signal when IR illuminators are on. Maybe Ando can chime in.

 

Here's an image I took a few minutes ago as my street is getting paved, Dahua IPC-HFW3300C vs. ACTi E32, or the battle of the 3MP cameras. There is a lens focal length difference, too lazy to climb a ladder and make them match -

 

Edited March 29, 2013 by Guest

[buellwinkle 0]

Available from where?

 

From my distributor. Are you buying retail or as a reseller?

[Kawboy12R 0]

Retail.

[Kawboy12R 0]

I assume that the ACTi is on the right? It's sharper than the one on the left.

[buellwinkle 0]

Yes, Dahua on left, ACTi on right. Honestly, don't get the E32, get the E33 (or D33), 5MP and what to me is better image quality and it's not that much more money. Imagine a 5MP ACTi for about the same price as some people are paying for a 3 MP Dahua. Comes at the right time as Dahua is getting more aggressive against selling their brand in the U.S.

 

You can really see way more detail in the texture of the concrete in my driveway relative to the Dahua which makes a pretty picture but the loss of detail from their over processing bugs me.

 

Retail, don't know who's authorized, who's not but a couple of places pop up when you do a Google shopping search.

[buellwinkle 0]

What's interesting is ACTi now includes the bracket in the box which used to be an added cost. Also, they are including a pig tail connection which I'm using since it's a temporary install for me while I do a review and they give you their normal conduit adapter. Not as clean looking of an install as the Dahua but I like it better because to mount that Dahua, I had to make a 1" square hole and it's destructive, meaning if I switch camera brands, I have to likely patch that large hole. The size difference is evident with my subjective guess is the Dahua is about a third larger all the way around. For those that are familiar with ACTi bullets, the size is about identical to the older 1231 models. I also like that the LED's are as visible in the ACTi as Dahua.

 

Here's the two mounted side by side.

 

[Kawboy12R 0]

Picture quality looks good but that mount looks long and wimpy. How is the end of that pigtail supposed to get waterproofed? It looks too short to get stuffed into an otherwise unneeded junction box if you don't want to leave it hanging out in the rain. ACTi's classifying of them as "outdoor" bullets compared to, say, the design of the E44 which is "indoor/outdoor" doesn't appear to make sense to me. I wonder if folks are supposed to fill the socket with dielectric grease and hang it so it doesn't collect puddles? At least with the E44, E45, and E46 you can mount the base on a hole and easily stick the pigtail through out of the weather like the Dahua's design.

 

Can the built-in IR be turned off? Too many spiders, moths, fog, rain, snow, etc for false positives here. There's still snow on the ground and I'm already brushing away spiderwebs from an analog IR bullet that hasn't been replaced yet.

[MaxIcon 0]

That looks a lot like the mount my Vivotek IP8332s came with, and I've had good luck with them. What I really like is that it appears to use a standard mount fitting, so I can mount it to any of the variety of mounts from my analog box cam days, some of which are quite sturdy.

 

I find the Dahua style built-in mount annoying, because you have limited options on how and where to mount it. Dropping it down 2' from the eave, for instance, isn't an option, unless you want to hang a junction box pendant down and mount the Dahua to that, which would be a bit unsightly.

 

The short pigtail would be a problem, though there are solutions for that - outdoor electrical tape, inline junction boxes, whatever. Another thing I like about the IP8332 is that it's got a standard RJ45 jack on the PC board inside the camera, so you can replace the pigtail with a standard cable.

 

Still, this ACTi series is looking quite good for the money. I don't have any ACTi cams yet, but as close as they are in price to Dahua, it's tempting to try one. Presumably they have better support than Dahua (like anyone could be much worse).

[buellwinkle 0]

Yes, you can use any traditional tripod mount screw mount which makes it many times more flexible than Dahua. I like the included mount, works well for under the eave. Looks thin but is sturdy. I don't get the idea of the pigtail either as the hole you would have to make to accept the RJ45 jack is pretty big and leaving it exposed like I did is not a great idea but my install is temporary. As in prior ACTi bullets, you can still remove the 3 screws of the rear cap and there's a jack in the back and thread your Ethernet cable through the cap.

[Kawboy12R 0]

Is there a rubber grommet like, say, the nice ones that Axis includes?

[buellwinkle 0]

Is there a rubber grommet like, say, the nice ones that Axis includes?

 

They include a plastic adapter that looks like the one in the picture above but instead of a wire coming out you would attach conduit to it to create a weatherproof seal. Being in So Cal, I don't worry about and have the Ethernet cable exit out the back and I've had them for a couple of years now, no problems.

[buellwinkle 0]

Turns out the camera had a hardware issue, not firmware. Will get it back on Monday.

[EarlT 0]

Was the hardware issue just on your camera or possibly more that were produced?

[buellwinkle 0]

Don't know. They said they tried a new one out of a box and it didn't do what mine did so they will give me that one.

[Firefighter 0]

Wow, Thanks for the info so far. I could sit here and read for hours trying to sift through and figure out exactly what I'm

going to spend my hard earned money on.

That Acti is def better, Not only the color but the amount of detail is worth the difference.

Don't be afraid to write long reviews, I can't get enough of em!

 

Look forward to seeing your reviews on them.

 

Btw I would assume the better IR performance from

the dahua is due to the space. Dahua has the IR Leds more open and If I had to guess it creates a more even spread pattern.

I wouldn't mind the Acti in the Dahua Size/

[ctbaker 0]

I am very interested in these as well. Thinking of picking up a bullet camera just to play with this setup before committing. I see on the domes at least that there is mention of "Basic WDR" and "Superior WDR" on some of the cameras. Any ideas as to what that means exactly?

 

Basic WDR example:

http://www.acti.com/product/detail/Dome_Camera/E83

 

Superior WDR example:

http://www.acti.com/product/detail/Dome_Camera/E86

 

 

Also, is the ACTi Not For Resell Program open to everyone and what are the prices like? I'd love to try out a single camera first before jumping all in and getting one for a great price is even better.

 

Thanks!

[buellwinkle 0]

I finished my review on the E32 on my blog. This camera does have very good WDR. With the video of my car pulling into my driveway, you can see that the camera is not overwhelmed by the headlights and you can see the grill detail pretty well. Most people expect this from WDR, to be able to see objects that would otherwise be overwhelmed by bright lights, be it headlights, street lights, house lights. In contrast to the Dahua 3MP I have side by side, the headlights overwhelm the image, no chance of reading a plate.

 

If you compare that to my review on the KCM-5611 with their better WDR, you can see better detail on the truck tires, its' just better overall, but that does not mean that E32's basic WDR is not very good, just not as good.

 

Will start working on the E33 (5MP) next week.

[ctbaker 0]

Thanks for reviewing the E32, can't wait to see the review of the E33 so I can go out and pick either 3MP or 5MP bullet up!

 

Thanks,

Chad

[Razer_SE 0]

Thanks for the review, I may pick up one of them to try after seeing your video. I have been using a ton of the e31 cameras with great results so the 3mp version would be nice for areas where I require the extra resolution.

 

Night video does not look quite as nice as I usually want, and though the e31 has WDR I have found that I had to disable it in most locations as it made the picture worse and not better. I end up with strange looking video if the ground is slightly wet for example, I know it's WDR but my higher end cameras do not act like this. The artifacts from the WDR even during the day were at times bad enough to trigger motion detection so I had to disable it by default on all my e31 cameras. I'm still playing with it, but overall I get much better image results with it off. I have about 100 of these e31 cameras up now, and 40 more in the box here getting ready so I really do like them, but the WDR is not what I was hoping for.

[buellwinkle 0]

It's not meant to be their low light champ, for that they have the E44 which I ordered, but haven't received yet. The new ACTi "I" series will have 3 and 5MP bullets that stress low light performance but not until maybe 4th quarter. Maybe they'll have prototypes at ISC next week.