You have to admire LJD Digita Security’s balls… and we are of course referring to the clever spherical camera housing inside its latest vandal-proof dome. That’s not all. This well appointed day/night camera has got more secondary functions than you can shake a stick at and it does indeed look as though it would give the average vandal a run for their money; but let’s gets back to the details and start with that camera module.
It’s based around a Pixim chipset, which the specs say is capable of resolving up to 480 lines. Minimum low light sensitivity, with all of the various gain up and slow shutter functions enabled, is claimed to be in the order of 0.08 lux. Mounted in front of the CCD there’s a servo-controlled IR filter for the day/night function, and that’s topped off by a manually focused 4-9mm DC-controlled auto-iris lens.
The full list of features and control options is a long one, so here’s some highlights. It has a programmable and positionable 12-character camera ID, switchable mirror image mode and gamma, sharpness and saturation settings. There’s a variable Frame Repeat mode (more on that in a moment), freeze frame, 4x digital zoom, 4-mode AGC and variable dynamic range.
A switchable slow shutter mode can be preset for low light situations, there’s auto/manual white balance, a built-in colour bar generator (very nice touch), zone exposure, switchable PAL and NTSC operation, and a well-featured motion detector with on-screen alarm display.
There’s some confusion over the camera’s power requirements – it definitely works from a 12v DC supply but the instructions seem to imply it might also work on a 24v AC feed; features like AC ‘Autosense’ and external line-lock sync would appear to confirm this, though someone has taken the trouble to black out 24v AC on the specs panel, and the details on the supplier’s web site makes no mention of it, so it’s probably safest to assume it is DC-only powered.
Apart from the clear polycarbonate dome, the case and its mounting plate is an all-metal affair. The main body is in two parts, and although there’s no mention of weatherproofing it looks reasonably well protected against the elements. A single lead emerges from the top and this splits into a BNC line socket for the video output and a 2-pin socket for the power supply.
The top is held in place by 3-pairs of screws and when removed the all black camera ball and socket assembly is accessible. The camera ball is a simple friction fit inside the cup-like socket and can be easily positioned, and it stays put even if subjected to shock or vibration. Access to the lens adjustments and the camera’s setup functions is via a set of five buttons, concealed behind a removable panel on the bottom of the ball housing.
Inside the ball the CCD and lens assembly and processing circuitry are mounted on two square PCBs, whilst the control board for the AI lens and the menu buttons are on a pair of smaller boards, accessible through removable panels on the sides of the case. The standard of construction is reasonably good, though the internal wiring looks a little untidy, but it’s solid enough and nothing came loose when we gave it a good hard shake.
Setup and operation
Pressing and holding the middle setup button for a few seconds brings up the main page of the camera’s on-screen menu, and this has five options. Language is the first, and there is a surprisingly limited choice, just English or Chinese. Next is Preset, which has a choice of four programmed exposure and white balance settings labelled ‘Normal’, ‘Indoor’, ‘Outdoor’, ‘Fluor1’ (fluorescent lighting), and Customize, though the latter doesn’t appear to do anything.
Item three on the main menu is Basic Setup, and this has sub-menus for setting PAL/NTSC operation, video output voltage (1.0v – 1.2v p-p), composing and positioning the camera ID, selecting lens type (DC auto iris or manual), synch mode, supply ‘Autosense’, mirror image switch, gamma mode, sharpness and saturation adjustments. Exposure on the main menu leads to a set of sub menus for setting Frame Repeat (freeze frame or variable interval single frame display 0 – 255ms), AGC (low, medium, high, custom – variable shutter and level), Wide Dynamic Range adjustment (variable bias and limit) and low light mode (variable limit slow shutter, gain up).
Finally there’s the Advanced Setup menu and this deals with White Balance (auto tracking and auto tracking extended – for Sodium lighting, Auto, Manual and preset), PTZ (digital 4x zoom and electronic pan and tilt controls), Day/Night setup (auto, night mode, gain boost), Colour Bar, Resolution (normal/high).
Zone Exposure (normal and backlight manual exposure controls for up to four definable zones), and Alarm (motion detector, variable size zone, delay time and sensitivity).
We have no complaints about the scope and range of the controls, indeed it puts most rival fixed dome cameras to shame, but the designers do appear to have overlooked one crucial factor, and that’s ease of use.
With all of the controls mounted on the camera module – and there being so many of them – it could be a real swine to configure in-situ. It is simply crying out for some sort of remote setup option. It certainly wouldn’t be difficult to achieve as the button panel is connected to the rest of the camera by a single 7-way cable, and this could be easily extended, or a wired remote unit could be plugged in, in its place.
Performance
With the processing and exposure options disabled, picture quality is very good indeed, and it produces a crisp well-balanced image containing a lot of detail; resolution is within a whisker of the manufacturer’s claims. However, in darker areas of the image, or when the scene lighting is reduced, some fine texturing is always visible, and despite lengthy fiddling with the controls, there didn’t seem to be any way of eliminating these processing artefacts.
The extensive range of exposure controls and above average low-light performance means there will be few situations when the camera won’t be able to deliver a useable image, though the downside is that configuration can be a time-consuming business. Left to fend for itself, with most of the exposure systems on their automatic of default settings, it copes well with both gradual and more rapidly changing lighting conditions. Low light performance is fine, the image does get quite grainy quickly, though, and at very low levels with all of the processing systems doing their stuff the picture is a tad mushy.
Internal reflections from the dome were no worse than normal. Several good taps with the SI rubber mallet didn’t produce any instability and the quality of construction appears to be generally very good.