Compro Technologies IP540 PTZ Camera
by Cameron Butterfield on October 12, 2010 9:03 PM EST- Posted in
- IP cameras
- camera
- camcorder
- Gadgets
The Compro IP540 PTZ camera is a full featured IP camera targeted at small businesses, home offices, and consumers that delivers many high end features. This camera is priced somewhere between $200 and $250, and is available at mWave. For this price, the unit offers a lot of features that are not usually found in low priced IP cameras. The build quality is also good. The only caveat I would have for business or home users is the fact that this camera has no optical zoom. If you want to utilize this camera in larger environments where an optical zoom would provide utility, you may want to look at a PTZ camera model that features an optical zoom. Compro sells a model one step higher; the IP570 which appears to feature similar capabilities as the IP540 but with a 12x zoom.
The night viewing mode on this camera is the best I have ever encountered. Even in pitch black environments, items are clearly visible, since the camera is emmiting the light directly in its own line of sight. Sometimes, the night viewing mode allows you to see more detail than was visible in daytime mode, particularly when objects are obscured by shadows.
Software solutions included with the IP540 are robust and leave little to be desired for the casual user. The web interface is easy enough to use for the home user, and the ComproView Software is robust enough for professional security monitoring. Despite the advanced features that this camera offers, Compro makes an effort to make the setup of their device as easy as possible for even basic users, providing simple setup instructions and even instructional videos. There are a few things that could probably leave the end user a little confused, such as the username / password issue mentioned previously. The entire overall experience of this camera is more difficult to utilize than the Dropcam software setup we reviewed earlier this year, and there is no cloud based server at the backend. However this Compro camera isn't specifically geared toward the non-technical user like the Dropcam is.
While the IP540 provides a clear 1.3 megapixel image, it can only do so at up to 15 fps, if the end user desires a smoother framerate than 15fps, the resolution needs to be dropped to VGA. This is a limitation of the sensor and the on board SoC. Compro expects to have updated cameras that support up to 1080p with 30fps when new image sensors and ScC options become available. Our Compro representative points out that while high resolution / high framerate video is a nice feature, it might not necessarily be practical for large companies that keep a lot of video history. Recording 1.3M videos at 30 fps for 12 cameras for 30 days would take 5412GB while the same resolution video at a lower framerate would take 4060GB. A good SoC solution to enable higher video quality at lower bitrates could be useful here.
The IP540 provides a full featured experience; pan, tilt and zoom, high quality resolution relative to other IP cameras, excellent night modes, I/O expansion options, wireless options, two way audio, multiple video streams, and software options that scale well, i.e. a web interface that is simple to use, and the ComproView video suite that is more advanced and configurable. As far as PTZ cameras go, this product would be a good choice for the small business or home user looking for an affordable security / surveillance solution.
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ganeshts - Thursday, October 14, 2010 - link
We heard from our Compro contact that it is possible to obtain 'weatherproof' housing for the IP camera. However, the IP540 has an auto-Iris and does not cope well with brightly lit environment, e.g. directly under the Sun.The IP570, when equipped with the housing, will be a candidate for outdoor PTZ camera or even as replacement for lower cost speed domes. Do note that the housing is usually only available with special projects hence, it's not available in the standard retail channels. Maybe it is possible to order it directly from Compro. You can contact them through their website.
dijuremo - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - link
I am interested in pricing. I have an old D-link DCS-6620G which broke and D-link does not offer any after warranty repair. I basically sent $600 to the trash the day I bought it. It also only works with IE for continuous video, what a piece of #*$&@$&@. Will not buy any D-link product ever again. First the PoE converter box died, then later on the camera died. They completely lost my business.The PoE native models should be the way to go, I hate to have to run power and network to the camera and wireless does not really cut it. In any case it will be easier to run CAT5e or CAT6 to the camera than power (have to pay an electrician).
Dk0524 - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
in stock at www.ipcam-central.comStuka87 - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - link
Could you guys maybe look at a camera that can be mounted outdoors as well? This would be incredibly handy for me, as I have a largish piece of land and can't see when people drive up from my house. Would be super handy to be able to see that from inside.ganeshts - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - link
Sure, we will keep this in mind going forward. Thanks for your suggestion.firefighter4443 - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - link
Thanks for the Review!I currently work overseas, and my place back home (USA) is frequently left alone for long periods of time. This review provided a lot of awesome information about this product, and I think it will be very helpful in setting up a remote surveillance system.
I'm very interested in the long term storage of the video stream(s), and possible ways to lower the memory used. If I set up a remote surveillance system, I would use local and/or remote (relative's house) storage on some type of NAS device. For the sake of saving HDD space, what is the possiblity of recording a video stream at 30FPS VGA, with a Full Resolution Snapshot every second? Or what are the possibilities of some type of software (running in real-time) that could re-encode a 30FPS stream (or 15 for full resolution) down to some fraction of 30 (or 15) after an X amount of days (to be set by the user)?
I'm thinking, in case of a burglery or some other type of crime, a lower number of high resolution frames would be more usefull than a high number of low resoulution frames. In addition, if I knew my house was checked on every x number of days or weeks, I would not need to store as many high resolution frames of historical video. Are there consumer level (and priced) software solutions for this kind of thing?
Overall though, thanks for the excellent review!
bobbozzo - Thursday, October 14, 2010 - link
There are many programs which will do motion-detection, so that recording is only done when there is movement.I'm using ZoneMinder (free, linux-based) on a server at home; you can have it do full recording, motion recording, time-based recording, or a combination.
Bob
bhigh - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
This seems to be a perfect camera for a technical person to build a baby monitor around. Too bad it's not easily available in the US.Saidas - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - link
I could really use some suggestions for high end web cams for business use...preferably HD. All I find is the usual Logitech & MS fare for $50-$100 with good but not great audio/video. Either that or is its $700 video recorders. I need these as web cams for business meetings. What do businesses use? I thought there would be lots of choices but if there are I'm not seeing them.HauntFox - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
I would just call it a PT camera.The image quality and the software looks nice.
I have an Astak Mole PT camera, which would be nice, but it crashes often: when viewing the video for extended periods, or recording video.