1.3MP IP PTZ Camera Review - HIKVISION DS-2DE5120I

Hikvision DS-2DE5120I - is a 1.3MP IP PTZ dome camera which adopts high efficient infrared array LED illuminator to provide long range night vision up to 150 meters distance, meanwhile support Smart IR function for avoiding IR-saturation; Furthermore, this professional HD PTZ camera can be widely used in video surveillance applications that require high definition video monitoring in low light or complete darkness condition, these places including park, forest, railway station, stadium, community...etc.

#1. Compact aesthetic design

Finally you have received this item, opened the package box, you will be attracted by its unique aesthetic design, it's 5 inch mini compact size PTZ camera, exterior adopted cast aluminum metal housing with white and black colors, which inherited the consistent style of Hikvision. Moreover, it is equipped with 1.3MP 1/3" progressive scan CMOS block camera, features with wide dynamic range (WDR) and Anti-strong light, defog and more functions. Its weatherproof rate reaches up to IP66, supports anti-lightning, anti-surge for offering reliable performance. DS-2DE5120I has rich interface, including alarm input and output. audio I/O, Ethernet, and BNC video output. To provide great flexibility, this camera support AC24V power input and PoE (Power over Ethernet). Looking for a PoE IP PTZ camera, this is your ideal choice.

#2. Real time HD Monitoring

Everybody knows Hikvision cameras are able to provide true high definition images with true color reproduction, this PTZ camera isn't an exception. Different from other 1.3MP IP camera, this camera supports maximum 1280x960 resolution. During below test, we set its video parameter to 960P@25fps, 2Mbps.

First of all, using the resolution testing card to measure its real resolution, and minimized the optical zoom to zero, since its resolution is 1280x960, we have to use 4:3 video ratio to test. After the measurement, we tested and found that its horizontal resolution reaches 900TVL, and vertical resolution reaches 850TVL, edge resolution is 800TVL. Besides, no image disorder in close view, images maintain high quality from central to edge

Horizontal 900TVL, vertical 850TVL

#3. High Definition monitoring without color distortion

A high quality camera should capture images what human eyes can see. Herein we use the color card board to test its color reproduction performance. From testing, we found that the overall color is slightly subdued, but the colors have correct reproduction, no color cast; Additionally, its greyscale level reaches up to 17, when we used grey card to test it.

Video latency is one of drawbacks for all IP camera. The high performance IP camera should have very short video delay time. Making this camera target to stopwatch, through screenshot and we calculated its video latency is 190ms, which means it has good control on video latency.

Finally, we test its network controlling performance, making the camera point to outdoor traffic road (Vehicles'average speed 60-80km/h), running the bit-rate software, waiting for a while, we found that DS-2DE5120I can control the bit-rate (bandwidth) approximate at 2.2Mbps. Through real time watching video, we found that captured video was crystal, we could see the details of vehicles and trees. During the whole testing, we didn't see frame-loss and dragging effects.

#4. Smart IR for night vision

Infrared illuminators are essential components for night vision camera. Different from traditional IP cameras, this PTZ camera utilized High Efficient LED Array Illuminator, which has capability to provide up to 120 meters illumination distance.

We put this camera into a dark box to simulate the night environment, set its automatically focus distance to 50cm, then gradually decreased the brightness of lighting, before 13 Lux, the video didn't have image noise, and cloth doll was vivid, images were no dragging and blur; when illumination decreased to 6.79Lux, image noises appeared, but this didn't affect the overall quality of images. We kept reducing the brightness, when illumination decreased to 2Lux, the camera switches to night mode (B/W), the illuminator automatically turned on, images became black and white without image noise. By the way, this camera has smart IR function, our testing man stood in front of camera at distance of 20 meters, when the man moved toward the camera, the captured video was no IR-saturation.

#5. Self-adaptation for complexity of installation

Rich features allow this camera to be installed in different environments. We put this camera target to strong light scene for testing its wide dynamic function. When WDR was disabled, since the light was so strong (>2M Lux), the background scene was too dark, and other objects (including portrait and thermometer) weren't clear. Then, we enabled the WDR function, we even could see the degree of temperature which is 28℃, the detail of portrait was very clear. After this, we decided to enable anti-strong light function, surrounding objects became dark, but the cloth doll appeared in the lamp holder, strong light has been well suppressed. In conclusion, DS-2DE5120I PTZ camera's WDR, anti-strong light, and BLC functions permit the camera to get adapted in different lighting conditions, offering users good video surveillance adaptability.

Images when WDR OFF

Images when WDR On

#6. Precise Pan/Tilt rotation with optical zoom

Typically, we choose the PTZ camera to monitor large area, this is the obvious reason why the price of PTZ camera is much expensive than traditional IP camera. DS-2DE5120I is a pan/tilt/zoom camera, it supports 256 presets, 8 cruise scan and 4 pattern scan, also support watchman function, automatically scan, vertical scan, random scan...etc different scan modes, supports horizontal 360 ° continuous rotation, vertical -15°~90°rotation, its speed reaches up to 400°/s, pan/tilt accuracy is 0.1 °. Meanwhile, it supports 20x optical zoom, and 16x digital zoom. For testing its PTZ performance, we set 5 different presets which were included both indoor and outdoor scenes. Through nearly 1 hour preset cruise, the rotation was stable and no focus fussy, no continue focusing problems.