In spite of an intensive search we couldn’t find a kitchen sink anywhere on the Samsung SHC-735 features list, but it has just about everything else, making it one of the best-equipped day/night cameras we’ve seen in quite a while.
So without more ado, and after taking a deep breath, here’s what you get. It has a 1/3-inch Sony DS CCD sensor with 752 x 582 effective pixels giving a claimed resolution of 560 lines and a remarkably low light sensitivity figure of 0.00004 lux (B/W mode, sensitivity up).
Backlight compensation has been given a high priority with extensive setup options and a new ‘Wide Dynamic Range’ (WDR) feature that’s more efficient than previous models (and most of the competition) when it comes to cancelling out the effects of bright lights in the scene area.
For installations that require the camera to be mounted on wobbly or wind-blown mounts there’s a built-in digital image stabiliser, and it has one of the most elaborate (and for elaborate read devilishly complicated) motion detection systems, with no less than eight configurable and very prettily coloured detection zones. There’s also an eight-zone privacy mask – also very colourful – full-range Day/Night operation with switchable infrared cut filter and lots of clever picture tricks, including still, vertical and horizontal flip, variable sharpness, digital zoom and smart noise reduction circuitry.
We’re almost there, and to round off it has a camera title/ID option, remote menu control and setup using RS 485 comms, multi-language OSD, video/DC auto-iris lens support and it can be powered from a 12-volt DC or 24-volt AC supply.
It’s a chunky little camera with a tough and crisply styled extruded alloy body and cast alloy front section with a C/CS mounting collar. A small lockable lever protrudes through a slot on the side and this is used to adjust back focus. A standard 4-pin socket for an auto iris lens is on the left hand side and on the rear there’s a routine assortment of connections and controls.
In the top left-hand corner a cluster of five buttons are used to navigate around the menu-driven on-screen display. Next to that is a BNC socket for the video output. A four-way screw terminal in the bottom right hand handles the AC/DC power supply and a five way spring terminal opposite is used for RS232 comms and an output for the motion detection system; a discreet green LED in the centre of the back panel indicates power on.
The main camera board is mounted on the inside front panel and that’s attached to a pair of PCBs that sit inside the case, these are responsible for video processing and power regulation and they’re connected by a ribbon cable and flying lead to the rear connection and control panel. There’s plenty of room inside the case for cooling air to circulate and the standard of construction appears to be very good indeed, all of which bodes well for reliability and longevity.
Setup and operation
Pressing the middle ‘Set’ button on the rear panel brings up the main menu, which displays nine numbered sub menus. From top to bottom they are: Lens (DC, Video, Manual and brightness), Exposure (shutter – auto/manual; x256 to 120,000th sec in 27 steps, AGC & Sensitivity Up), White Balance (manual, ATW, ATC, Indoor, Outdoor), Backlight (WDR, zone set), SSNR (Samsung Super Noise Reduction variable level), Day/Night (auto with dwell time and level adjustment, external and colour/BW modes), Image Adjust (freeze V/H Flip, 10x variable digital zoom and variable sharpness) and Special.
Selecting Special menu leads to another set of menus which cover setting up the Camera Title (one line of 16 characters, positionable anywhere on the screen), Sync (internal/external), Motion Detector setup (eight variable sized zones), Privacy Mask (eight variable sized zones), Digital Image Stabiliser, Comms Setup (ID, Baud Rate, UART mode, Return Packet, display ID), OSD Language (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese) and Factory Reset. Everything works pretty much as you would expect it to and the menus and options are well laid out and very easy to use. The only minor exception is the Motion Detector setup, which uses some rather odd conventions. To begin with the detection zones are coloured, which clutter up the screen and makes it hard to see what you are doing. Zone size and shape is determined by moving the corners of the coloured areas, and it’s not easy. It appears that each area has a different sensitivity value, though this is a complete guess as it is not clear from the instructions. It has its good points, though, and in addition to an on-screen indication there’s also an external alarm output, though once again the instruction book doesn’t have much to say about it and you are left pretty much high and dry on how to make use of it.
Performance
Even without all of the frills and fancy features, the SHC-735 gives an excellent account of itself, and with everything switched off, and in good daylight, resolution is close to the manufacturer’s figure and it produces a clean, crisp, well-balanced image. The picture is full of fine detail, with noise levels as near zero as makes no difference and colours are accurate and generally natural looking. Under mixed lighting conditions the auto white balance system managed to keep everything in check, though some manual intervention may be required when the scene is predominately lit by fluorescent tube, which results in a slight yellowish caste. All of the many processing and exposure options have an impact on image quality, to a lesser or greater extent. Needless to say features like the zoom and image stabiliser can have a quite noticeable effect, but the various low-light modes have a much lower impact and are more than offset by their usefulness.
As light levels fall picture noise increases, but it is not intrusive and even when it gets down to the point where the day/night function kicks in, it’s still well below that of most of its similarly specified rivals. In fact it is still capable of producing a useable image in near dark conditions, though by this time noise levels have risen dramatically. The bottom line is that there are enough manual exposure controls and options to cater for almost any fixed lighting situation, no matter how awkward it might be, and the automatic systems are capable of dealing with the widest possible range of illumination levels, from near dark to bright sunlight, without any difficulty. Mechanical stability is excellent and it remained rock solid whilst undergoing the ritual assault with the SI rubber mallet.
What the manufacturer says …
The SHC-735 has attracted massive interest from installers throughout the UK and mainland Europe. This remarkable camera incorporates SV IV, the latest fourth generation chipset in the Super Vision series, as well as three dimensional noise reduction technology SSNR II. As a result it can deliver bright and clear colour images even when lighting levels are as low as 0.0001 lux by implementing the 256x Sens-up, and high quality monochrome images at just 0.00004 lux.
Advanced pixel image processing ensures that the new 560 TV lines SHC-735 Day/Night camera from Samsung Techwin has a Wide Dynamic Range feature that compensates for backlight 128 times more effectively than previous models.
The SHC-735, which is a true day/night camera with an infrared cut filter, boasts an endless list of advanced functions, including Digital Image Stabiliser, which compensates for camera shake in strong winds, privacy masking for up to eight areas, and Intelligent Motion Detection which allows users to programme different detection levels for up to eight separate areas of an image.