Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I

[pnyxxpress 0]

Buellwinkle did a review on this camera with a 12mm lense. A license plate is readable at 90 feet. I have the 4mm. Is it simple math to say 4mm is 1/3 and a license plate should be readable at 1/3 the distance?

 

Where can I find the 12mm version or should buy the varifocal versjon?

[JoeyJoey 0]

This can be used. The site is out of stock right now, it just cancelled my order.

 

http://www.costco.com/Swann-1080p-HD-IP-Vari-Focal-Bullet-Camera.product.100070294.html

[rayt 0]

This can be used. The site is out of stock right now, it just cancelled my order.

 

http://www.costco.com/Swann-1080p-HD-IP-Vari-Focal-Bullet-Camera.product.100070294.html

 

wow those are out of stock? my 3rd just shipped yesterday, because i was pretty damn impressed with the 2 i installed already.

[buellwinkle 0]

To get the 12mm, you have to get the Hikvision USA versions of the camera, they stock them in their warehouse, where I got mine. Places that sell the official version have all the lens sizes available. Not sure you will get as crisp an image using the varifocal lens, but certainly more flexible.

 

BTW, I moved that camera to our lake home, but my wife liked it so much on the house that I'm going to get another 12mm Hikvision, a little pricy, but pretty sharp. I put a Dahua varifocal 3MP camera there and it's nowhere near as sharp, but you can still tell a car has plates, LOL.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Guest

[JoeyJoey 0]

I ordered mine on the 27th, and it was cancelled today, even though the site still shows it.

 

I know their site isn't really showing their own stock, as these ship from Swann or another company.

[JoeyJoey 0]

To get the 12mm, you have to get the Hikvision USA versions of the camera, they stock them in their warehouse, where I got mine. Places that sell the official version have all the lens sizes available. Not sure you will get as crisp an image using the varifocal lens, but certainly more flexible.

 

Can you name a site that carries them? As I'd prefer the fixed 12mm or 8mm modem than the varifocal.

 

I asked [MOD: Please do not try to defeat the word censor. It's there for a reason.], no luck there. I asked the W r i g h t w o o d, never heard back from them.

[pnyxxpress 0]

To get the 12mm, you have to get the Hikvision USA versions of the camera, they stock them in their warehouse, where I got mine. Places that sell the official version have all the lens sizes available. Not sure you will get as crisp an image using the varifocal lens, but certainly more flexible.

 

Can you name a site that carries them? As I'd prefer the fixed 12mm or 8mm modem than the varifocal.

 

I asked [MOD: Please do not try to defeat the word censor. It's there for a reason.], no luck there. I asked the W r i g h t w o o d, never heard back from them.

I also left wrightwood a voice message a few days ago and never heard back.

[pnyxxpress 0]

To get the 12mm, you have to get the Hikvision USA versions of the camera, they stock them in their warehouse, where I got mine. Places that sell the official version have all the lens sizes available. Not sure you will get as crisp an image using the varifocal lens, but certainly more flexible.

 

BTW, I moved that camera to our lake home, but my wife liked it so much on the house that I'm going to get another 12mm Hikvision, a little pricy, but pretty sharp. I put a Dahua varifocal 3MP camera there and it's nowhere near as sharp, but you can still tell a car has plates, LOL.

So the one I bought from Nellys isn't the official US version?

[rayt 0]

holy ****! the prices for the cameras just sky rocketed! domes and bullets! from wrightwood

 

nelly still has the low prices listed, but i think thats about to sky rocket soon too.

[MaxIcon 0]

To get the 12mm, you have to get the Hikvision USA versions of the camera, they stock them in their warehouse, where I got mine. Places that sell the official version have all the lens sizes available. Not sure you will get as crisp an image using the varifocal lens, but certainly more flexible.

 

BTW, I moved that camera to our lake home, but my wife liked it so much on the house that I'm going to get another 12mm Hikvision, a little pricy, but pretty sharp. I put a Dahua varifocal 3MP camera there and it's nowhere near as sharp, but you can still tell a car has plates, LOL.

So the one I bought from . isn't the official US version?

 

It's an official US version, but not Hikvision branded. They have their own model number, both on the box and in the firmware, but it's identical to the Hik version in every other way I can check.

[elevatedthinking 0]

I wish I jumped on these cams when they were at the lower price

[icamera 0]

Found on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00ESK3LKY

[buellwinkle 0]

Things have gotten complicated since the two popular brands from mainland China came to our shores, Dahua and Hikvision. There's 3 ways to buy Hikvision cameras, from lowest price to highest is

 

a) get it from China via Aliexpress, these are Hikvision branded cameras, but no U.S. warranty and there's issues with installing US firmware. They tend to have a wider selection than OEM brands.

 

b) get OEM versions from Swann, Lorex, Derytech, warrantied and supported in the U.S. but not by Hikvision. They tend to have limited selection, not the complete Hikvision line. Installing U.S. Hikvision firmware is frowned upon and may void your warranty, but works as proven by many here.

 

c) get a U.S. Hikvision branded camera, supported and warrantied by Hikvision

 

Physically, these cameras are all the same, but they all run different firmware and prices are different. If you are not sure, ask before you buy. From what I've seen on eBay and Amazon, what you see may not be what you get.

[pnyxxpress 0]

I can't seem to find a 12mm in the US. The couple that I found in the US don't sell to the consumers. Buellwinkle where did you buy yours?

 

Thanks,

[elevatedthinking 0]

a) get it from China via Aliexpress, these are Hikvision branded cameras, but no U.S. warranty and there's issues with installing US firmware. They tend to have a wider selection than OEM brands.

 

Are they warrantied anywhere from Aliexpress? I mean having to send it back for whatever the shipping fee may be, $75 even, would be better then being completely out of luck trying to recoup anything

 

I am going to research the firmware issues, wonder if it can be worked around?

[rayt 0]

I ordered mine on the 27th, and it was cancelled today, even though the site still shows it.

 

I know their site isn't really showing their own stock, as these ship from Swann or another company.

ordered my 1 swann on the 25th, order confirm came in on the 26th at 1am. Guess i'm one of the lucky last orders until they replenish

[buellwinkle 0]

I tired to find that camera through various sources as a Hikvision camera, but no luck.

[mroek 0]

I am going to research the firmware issues, wonder if it can be worked around?

I'm quite sure it can be worked around, because as Buellwinkle said, the hardware is the same. However, it is possible that there could be some hardware id that prevents it, although I doubt it.

 

The simplest test would be to check if the Euro/US-firmware (which are identical) could be loaded through the TFTP-method instead of doing it through the web interface. There is a slim chance that this method bypasses the language check, but there is of course also a slim chance that the camera will be bricked (which is why I haven't tried it).

 

If you telnet to the camera, there is a command to show some interesting info:

 

# prtHardInfo
Start at 2013-08-03 23:46:19
Serial NO :DS-2CD2032-I0120130723CCRRxxxxxxxxx
V5.0.0 build 130412
hardwareVersion = 0x0
hardWareExtVersion      = 0x0
encodeChans             = 1
decodeChans             = 1
alarmInNums             = 0
alarmOutNums            = 0
ataCtrlNums             = 0
flashChipNums           = 0
ramSize                 = 0x4000000
networksNums            = 1
language                        = 2
devType                 = 38917
SD status                       = -1 (0:noraml;none-0:timeout)

 

Towards the bottom of the list there is a language id. This is from my Chinese version, but on Euro/US-cameras, this will be 1. If we could find out where this is read from, then we might also be able to change it. I'm guessing it is stored in a special section of the flash along other non-modifiable variables (like the camera serial number). This could also be in a protected sector, which would make it hard to actually change.

 

Feel free to chime in with ideas.

[buellwinkle 0]

If it's pulling something from the hardware, then it has to be some sort of jumper or trace on the circuit board. Would be interesting to photograph the circuit boards side by side, chinese and usa to see if there's a trace or jumper being used to define this setting. First I thought there may be a set command, but to make this persistent through firmware updates may require a more permanent approach like a jumper or trace.

[zikronix 0]

put the two firmwares in a file compare or in a hex editor and see if there are differences.

[mroek 0]

If it's pulling something from the hardware, then it has to be some sort of jumper or trace on the circuit board. Would be interesting to photograph the circuit boards side by side, chinese and usa to see if there's a trace or jumper being used to define this setting. First I thought there may be a set command, but to make this persistent through firmware updates may require a more permanent approach like a jumper or trace.

I have actually done that too, but I didn't have access to a picture of one of the sides of the main CPU board of the other camera, but everything else looked exactly the same.

 

It is not uncommon to store information that is supposed to be unchangeable somewhere in flash memory. After all, it is the manufacturer that controls what is written where, and thus they can avoid overwriting such a special area. Keep in mind that the serial number is also stored somewhere, and I didn't see any other storage devices besides the flash memory.

[mroek 0]

put the two firmwares in a file compare or in a hex editor and see if there are differences.

I have done that too, and a comparison between the US/Euro and the Chinese v5 firmware shows that there are three bytes that have different values, so clearly the firmware is actually the same, but that there is some kind of ID that tells the camera whether to accept or reject it.

[buellwinkle 0]

If the firmware is the same except for 3 bytes, why is the day of week in Chinese? So even if you change the 3 bytes and load Euro or U.S. firmware, it's likely that it will remain in Chinese, meaning the running firmware is checking that language indicator, even if you put the euro/us firmware.

 

Also, recently, Maxicon posted the link the Euro firmware and it was 18mb, the U.S. site shows the same firmware version as 12mb, so clearly more than 3 bytes unless the there's a euro/metric/celcius conversion on how they count bytes, LOL.

[mroek 0]

If the firmware is the same except for 3 bytes, why is the day of week in Chinese? So even if you change the 3 bytes and load Euro or U.S. firmware, it's likely that it will remain in Chinese, meaning the running firmware is checking that language indicator, even if you put the euro/us firmware.

 

Also, recently, Maxicon posted the link the Euro firmware and it was 18mb, the U.S. site shows the same firmware version as 12mb, so clearly more than 3 bytes unless the there's a euro/metric/celcius conversion on how they count bytes, LOL.

The question is whether the language indicator is embedded within the firmware itself (could be consistent with the microscopic difference between the firmwares), in which case it could be changed if only it was possible to trick the currently running firmware to accept the US/Euro firmware.

 

The size difference you are referring to, is compressed vs uncompressed. The actual firmware binary is around 18 Mb, and if you zip that it shrinks to around 12 MB (thus it is highly compressible).

[zikronix 0]

If the firmware is the same except for 3 bytes, why is the day of week in Chinese? So even if you change the 3 bytes and load Euro or U.S. firmware, it's likely that it will remain in Chinese, meaning the running firmware is checking that language indicator, even if you put the euro/us firmware.

 

Also, recently, Maxicon posted the link the Euro firmware and it was 18mb, the U.S. site shows the same firmware version as 12mb, so clearly more than 3 bytes unless the there's a euro/metric/celcius conversion on how they count bytes, LOL.

The question is whether the language indicator is embedded within the firmware itself (could be consistent with the microscopic difference between the firmwares), in which case it could be changed if only it was possible to trick the currently running firmware to accept the US/Euro firmware.

 

The size difference you are referring to, is compressed vs uncompressed. The actual firmware binary is around 18 Mb, and if you zip that it shrinks to around 12 MB (thus it is highly compressible).

 

correct the us is 18Mb uncompressed.

 

Here are the facts...all these cameras are the same Chinese, eu, and us from a hardware stand point. Sure I don't know that 100% but im willing to bet large sums of money that I don't have on it.

 

The factory most likely has chips that are preburned with the region data, or they use a header or tft to flash them after prod.

 

So that means either that value is burned into a rom on the board, or its from the firmware.

 

I have a camera here im willing to try to put the Chinese version on, and it should error out if I do it though the web.

 

The tftp process should start before general system boot.

So Ill try the tftp method if some one gets me the firmware and what the tftp address is.

 

I am also willing to try a hex edit of the Chinese version changing the three bytes to match the US and see if it flashes to the camera. If I edit the Chinese version and change those three bytes then we know its in the firmware. The real trick would be to this, if I modify those three bytes to match the us version of the firmware and it flashes...will the Day be in Chinese?

 

Subsequently if that works then one should be able to modify the US version and flash it to a Chinese camera, which I cant test because I don't have a Chinese camera.

 

so some one post some firmwares, and the tftp IP so I can get a started!