What our experts say…
As you may have gathered from previous Bench Tests, we are always pleased to see cameras and surveillance equipment that dares to be different or where it is apparent that someone has taken a bit of trouble over the exterior and cosmetics. This is often a sign that extra effort has been put into the more important design aspects.
With that in mind the IRB2-84VHQ gets off to a flying start and this rather striking day/night camera is clearly meant to be noticed. It’s much more than just window dressing, though, and inside the cylindrical housing there’s a well-appointed modular camera that’s something of an old friend. As soon as we powered it up for the first time we thought the on-screen display looked familiar. A quick trawl through the archives confirmed that the range of features and the firmware is almost identical to the Samsung SDN-550P, first seen on these pages early last year.
However, this is not a simple clone job and there are several fundamental differences between the two cameras, starting with the prominent IR illuminators suspended beneath the housing. Each one sports 42 850nm infrared LEDs (plus a photo sensor); a simple knuckle joint arrangement allows each one to be independently aimed where the twin beams will do most good.
The next points of interest are two large lockable knurled rings mounted just behind the front lens window. These are connected by a pair of rods to the focus and tele/wide control rings on the lens barrel which, for the record, is a 4-9mm DC auto-iris type fitted with a switchable IR filter for day/night operation.
A 1/3-inch Sony Super HAD CCD sits behind the lens and its array of 725 x 583 (effective) pixels yields a claimed resolution of 560 lines and a maximum low light sensitivity of between 0.002 and 0.0006lux, depending which of the two instruction/spec leaflets you refer to. Otherwise they are in more or less complete agreement that the camera has manual and automatic shutter and white balance controls, switchable AGC, DNR, backlight compensation and sensitivity options. There’s also a handy range of extras, which include a camera title/ID, a simple motion detector, privacy mask and mirror image mode.
The camera is supported by a hefty looking jointed mounting bracket that fixes to the rear of the housing using a single locking screw. The cable carrying the power feed (12VDC or 24VAC) and composite video output passes through the mount and emerges through the base plate so it is very well protected.
The front window, protected by a removable extruded alloy sun/weather shield unscrews to reveal the lens, surrounded by a circular PCB with a row of five buttons. These are used to control the on screen display and menus; there’s also a pair of heater elements and a video output socket for a portable monitor, which should come in handy when configuring the camera. Behind that, mounted on a set of four pillars are two square PCBs, which handle video processing, the OSD, power supply and provide support for the CCD image sensor and lens. The materials used and the general standard of construction is very good and although no specific claims are made to its weather protection the quality of the seals around joints and potential points of ingress appear to be of a very high standard.
Setup and operation
The main menu appears when the Set-up button is pressed and this displays seven sub menus, selected by pressing the up/down buttons. The choices are Lens, Shutter, White Balance, Backlight, AGC, DNR, Sens-Up and Special.
Lens switches between manual or DC iris operation and has a secondary adjustment for image brightness. The Shutter menu selects automatic, flickerless or manual operation, though this latter feature is disabled due to use of an auto-iris lens.
White Balance options are auto tracking, auto set (using a white card) and manual. Backlight compensation has three level settings (high, middle and low). By the way, this is one of a handful of differences between it and the Samsung, which has an additional ‘Spotlight’ mode for masking out very bright lights in the scene area.
AGC also has three levels and for reasons that temporarily escape us, it also leads to the brightness control, the exact same one that is on the Lens menu. Next, the Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) menu, and once again there are three settings, this time high, middle and low. Moving on now to the Sens-Up menu, which switches between Auto and Off; the manual warns that this option is unavailable when the AGC is set to off.
Finally, the Special menu, and this opens a second menu page with sub menus for setting the Camera ID (1-line of up to 15 characters positionable anywhere on screen), adjusting Colour Gain, Internal/Ext Sync, setting Motion Detection (up to 4 resizable target areas), Area Masking (also up to 4 areas), Mirror Mode, picture Sharpness and Reset to factory defaults. The motion detector is easy enough to set up but without any alarm output, and an on-screen indication that lasts for just 3 seconds, it is of limited use.
There’s nothing especially demanding about the camera set-up, though the layout of the menu buttons does take a bit of getting used to. Bear in mind that it could be awkward to get at if the camera is mounted high up or in a difficult location. The only other point to make is that for some reason the designers omitted any manual controls for the day/night function or IR illuminators. Strange, since this potentially useful function is available on the Samsung SDN 550.
Performance
In spite of the exterior design there is a reassuringly familiar feel to this camera and it extends to picture quality, which in good daylight and with most exposure and processing options under automatic control, is very good indeed and a fair match for any of its rivals. Resolution is close to the manufacturer’s specs, noise levels are very low and colour fidelity is generally good. Playing around with the controls, to compensate for various lighting deficiencies produces some variable results. Backlight compensation and AGC both work well but noise reduction is the least successful option. We suspect most users will leave it switched off as it noticeably degrades the image.
Low light performance is very good and even before the IR illuminators and night mode kick in the camera is still producing a very clean looking image. At the switchover point, which in our opinion occurs a little too early, the image looks a little washed out, but as light levels fall further, contrast levels quickly improve and it continues to deliver a useable image down to complete darkness. The infrared LEDs provide a useful amount of illumination up to at least 20 metres in front of the camera. Incidentally, the 850nm LEDs emit a visible dull red glow; at a distance, and in complete darkness it looks like a pair of devilish eyes, it can look a bit spooky and will certainly attract some attention.
The high standard of construction stood it in good stead when it came to its appointment with the Security Installer rubber mallet and the image remained rock solid throughout its ordeal.