Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Chris Kirby photo
1 Level
759 Review
61 Karma

Review on SV3C 5MP PTZ PoE Camera: Outdoor Surveillance with 5X Optical Zoom, Sony Sensor, Two-Way Audio, and Night Vision by Chris Kirby

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Hard to beat for the price, but there are some issues!

I think all five star reviews have value in them. People want to believe they struck an incredible deal. My estimate is with no cost in mind. Overall, this is definitely a good camera for the money, but there are a few issues here.1. It's getting REALLY warm! That's a little annoying. I've never had a camera that got hot. I'm not just talking warmly, I mean VERY warmly! Almost hot. The technology here is bad. Hopefully one day it won't catch fire as it's attached to the wooden ceiling in my basement. I'm probably exaggerating by overestimating ignition, but heat is definitely an issue.2. The built-in speaker is CONSTANTLY making buzzing and clicking noises, as if being disturbed by some other circuit. It's not that loud, but you can definitely hear it. I'm not using two-way audio, no sound is sent to the camera at all. I only use the microphone. (Which is actually very good) 3. I can't for my life find a way to change the stream resolution of the main camera. It gets stuck at 3 MP. The field to change in the web interface is not available. I want to do 1080p to reset the bitrate while still getting a clear picture, but it doesn't work. This also causes Blue Iris to consume more CPU resources to decode higher resolution inputs. The autofocus takes too long to capture a sharp image. 5+ seconds. Poorly. Those issues aside, it's a pretty decent camera. The image quality is not stunning, but definitely more than acceptable. I haven't checked the two-way communication, I don't need it. However, the microphone is pretty good. There are no complaints. The PTZ movement is surprisingly fast, I'm really impressed! For the price it's really hard to beat and it's a perfectly usable camera, but if you can afford to spend a little more then run away and get Amcrest or Hikvision instead. Reliability has yet to be determined. If this fails sooner I will update the review. Thermal power makes me think it's possible. If you are on a budget and need a PTZ, this article is great. It will be hard to beat.

Pros
  • Very good value for money
Cons
  • Volume