Dahua HAC-HFW2220R-Z Motorized zoom fail, extremely annoying

[hxdrummerxc 0]

I just bought this Dahua HAC-HFW2220R-Z. 2.4 MP 1080p HDCVI camera with motorized zoom. And it's extremely inconvenient and unreliable. I wish I would have saved the money and got the non motorized zoom.

 

First off the camera is advertised as having a 2.7 - 12mm motorized zoom. So naturally I thought that I could go anywhere between that. Like say 6-8mm focal length. But nope, it's just two modes. Either zoomed out at 2.7 or zoomed in at 12.

 

Second, it's failed twice on me already. I go to adjust the motorized zoom and it struggles to focus, then it freaks out and shuts down. Goes to a video loss screen and occasionally turns back on, fails to focus and shuts back off. The worst part is, it's basically bricked when it's like this. I can't zoom back out because the camera is spazzing out. Tried disconnecting the camera power and restarting it that way, but that doesn't help.

 

This has happened twice. And both times, I had to get a ladder out, go take the camera down from my second story overhang. Bring the camera in the house, hook it up to a different channel with a different cable and for some reason that seems to get the camera reset and focused and working again. How inconvenient and unrealistic is that. Then I spend about 30 minutes trying to put the camera back up and readjust it etc etc.

 

Very frustrating. I wish I knew some way to reset the camera manually.