CCTV colour at night alternatives.

[littlespark]

My FIL wants a cctv system at his house, and normally i would just go with whatever kit was on offer at the time from t'internet.

My own system is a mish mash of a cheap Sannce recorder, an old camera with infra red, another with a light that's on all night, and a hikvision camera which creates a colour view at night without visible illumination.

I started looking online for Hikvision, and came across this little nugget of information from wikipedia.....

"Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., often shortened to Hikvision, is a Chinese state-owned manufacturer and supplier of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Due to its involvement in mass surveillance of Uyghurs, the Xinjiang internment camps, and national security concerns, the company has been placed under sanctions from the U.S. and European governments."


So is anyone still using/ installing Hikvision products, or is this just the USA showing its disdain of anything Chinese.

Is there another manufacturer that offers colour at night without the shining light?

 

[buzzlightyear]

I always used hic vision, dis what USA saying about the Chinese.
I have ordered a peking duck on the cctv
Bloody hell they where quick to deliver it on time.

 

[buzzlightyear]

All most cctv made by Mr loo in China.
I bet the commie laughing has I'm righting to this post.

 

[snowhead]

I have ordered a peking duck on the cctv
Bloody hell they where quick to deliver it on time.

I bet they knew what you wanted even before you ordered it.

 

[pc1966]

So is anyone still using/ installing Hikvision products, or is this just the USA showing its disdain of anything Chinese.

I personally would choose not to use them due to that, and also we have some USA clients who in turn have restrictions placed upon then from high. They make OEM for others, so known who makes what is complicated.

Is there another manufacturer that offers colour at night without the shining light?

There are a few with good low-light sensitivity. We have used Vivotek (Taiwanese) from about 10 years ago, then just because they offered a decent PoE camera and much to our surprise, if not astonishment, the free software that Vivotek offered for recording actually worked quite well. Now it is more complicated, but we have stuck with them even if not the cheapest due to (a) not sucking donkey, and (b) not being on Uncle Sam's naughty list.

We don't use the IR illuminator as they don't work out very far, instead we allow the max exposure to go down to 1/5 second and at that we can see quite well in partial moonlight, certainly you would detect someone and if any darker they would need a torch making them pretty obvious..

 

[buzzlightyear]

You could go for a Samsung cctv system
Then Mr loos Chinese system.
But where is the Samsung made.

 

[littlespark]

You could go for a Samsung cctv system
Then Mr loos Chinese system.
But where is the Samsung made.

South Korea.

 

[buzzlightyear]

South Korea

There you go, Mr loos moved there.

 

[davesparks]

Is your FIL doing anything that would be of interest to the Chinese government?
Does he require the system to be connected to the internet for any reason?

If it's a standalone system not connected to the outside world then it's hard to see what problem there could be.

 

[DPG]

Tapo C325WB. £80. Wi-fi or ethernet, floodlights, alarm, pet/person/vehicle detection. Full colour in darkness. 2K video and a decent wide angle lens. Software is very good.

Can't go wrong.

Hikvision probably better, but not worth the premium price.

 

[baldelectrician]

I have and use Hikvision as it is decent
I also have a Darkfighter IP camera and it is good

Hikvision also do a hybrid NVR that takes BNC cameras as well as IP cameras, that way you can move from exisiting wired BNC to a IP system

The software is free IVMS4200 and it also works on mobile networks without a static IP (unavailable on most mobile networks)

 

[pc1966]

Has anyone used the Reolink cameras and recorders?

I ask as it turns out an American client of ours uses them, so they are not on Uncle Sam's naughty list, and they seem reasonable priced with no stupid subscriptions to use the claimed features:

Reolink RLC-520A - Smart 5MP Indoor/Outdoor Dome Security Camera | Reolink Official

Meet Reolink RLC-520A, a smart PoE IP camera with person/vehicle detection, 5MP Super HD, wide viewing angle, time-lapse, 24/7 recording, clear night vision and more.

reolink.com

 

[pirate]

EZVIZ here, poe, reliable and good quality picture. IR view for night time isn't good, probably because I have a streetlight very close which negates it, but standard view is fine. Night time is B&W though, switching to colour as light increases. Good value for money and I am getting another one for my holiday home.

 

[freddo]

Tried a few 24h colour cameras, all the ones I've played with had the same problem of very slow frame rate in night colour mode which leads to poor image quality when there is any movement

 

[buzzlightyear]

I just installed a annke system ,not bad if you want to read the instructions with mouse eyes .
normally would have put a HIC in ,but i price up a cheep one has i tried to keep the price down for the customer .

 

[LukeD]

The chances are anyone posting here ...their post go via China before its on the screen. China leads by some margin. Not because they are quick..its down to the west been so SLOW . The level of access they have over everyone is unreal. Read the "digital silk road" .And see just how WE let them take advantage of us !

 

[littlespark]

keep talking like that, lukeD, and you might disappear... by replaced by an AI replacement....

wait.... maybe that is an AI trying to fool us??


Luke.... click here if you are NOT a robot.... ▉

 

[buzzlightyear]

Luke.... click here if you are NOT a robot.

I bot ,bend over touch you toes .

 

[LukeD]

keep talking like that, lukeD, and you might disappear... by replaced by an AI replacement....

wait.... maybe that is an AI trying to fool us??


Luke.... click here if you are NOT a robot.... ▉

I am not clicking anyone.....!

 

[pc1966]

Tried a few 24h colour cameras, all the ones I've played with had the same problem of very slow frame rate in night colour mode which leads to poor image quality when there is any movement

It is kind of inevitable that if you split the light in to 3 parts for colour, and have a sensor of a given sensitivity, then you need 3x the exposure time to get a given S/N ratio and so 3 times less frame rate is possible. More so if you chase high pixel numbers (so each pixel has less collection area to get a given amount of energy).

But I am still amazed by how sensitive modern cameras are under low light!