IFSEC Insider is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
A CCTV and IT professional since 2004. Adam has worked at such distinguished companies as Cisco, Panasonic, and CCTV Center and has front-line experience with servers, networks, cabling, and the CCTV market as well as product and technical knowledge in IT, CCTV, and access control. He has expertise in system solutions, product reviews, and key testing, having privately provided these services on request to installers, consultants, and end users since 2010.
A smart, sleek network camera that is ideal for small commercial installations or even residential properties, the Axis M1054 features 720p images, a PIR sensor to detect movement, and, with its two-way audio, it can be used for door entry or video conferencing.
4/5
Good:
720p HD image resolution
PIR sensor
Power-over-Ethernet support
Two-way audio
I/O port
Bad:
No memory card slot
Axis is well established as a market leader for high-end projects within security. Education, commercial office space, transportation, and retail are just some of the verticals in which Axis has enjoyed tremendous success.
Competing at the entry-level section of IP is something most of us don’t associate with the brand, so with its small, sleek M1054 model, what can we expect? Will it sacrifice on some of the principles and features that have made the company what it is, or will it make this camera pack a punch?
720p resolution
A key reason Axis is so widely used is the quality images its cameras can produce. Axis is well known for producing powerful cameras that process images at the edge to ensure colour, sharpness, and noise reduction are maintained.
Despite being an entry-level camera, the image quality is good. The 720p resolution really helps with facial detail, and colours appear very true. There is little noise or blemishing in the image, and just by looking on the monitor this would not look out of place in an established installation.
At night time, more noise and picture breakup is introduced, as we would expect. To help keep costs down, the sensor quality isn’t quite to the level of higher, more established ranges, but for the money (and intended usage) the night-time quality is very good.
PIR sensor
Most professional cameras have some form of motion detection built in. Most cameras do this in software, so extra processing power is needed for accurate movement detection. The M1054 has an actual PIR built in, meaning accurate detections occur and less processing power is required.
It’s a very good feature but nothing new for this level of camera, necessarily.
Power-over-Ethernet (PoE)
A bugbear of mine, historically, for this section of the market has been good-quality cameras that require local power for them to operate. If we install cameras in a museum or office in the modern world, we expect them to have PoE support, as more and more devices use this. Cameras for SME or residential use typically still require DC power, which is sometimes impractical depending on where the camera is being installed.
Fortunately Axis has included PoE (and optional 5V DC power). This enables us to cable an SME property as we would for any other install, using Cat 5/6 cable and powering the camera from the same cable run.
For residential use, we can power from the mains using the supplied power adaptor or, as is becoming more common, we can use power-over-mains adaptors to provide a PoE plug for the camera. Again, this just gives us more options, and it is a great credit to Axis.
Additional features
A nice touch with the camera was the decision to include two-way audio. The camera features an internal microphone and tiny speaker, allowing us to mount the camera at a door and provide a door entry system.
The audio quality is good, however due to the small speaker the volume isn’t mind blowing.
Axis has also provided an I/O port that can be used to wire the camera into another system — an alarm system for a premises for instance — to toggle the PIR on/off if the building is empty.
One frustration with the camera is a lack of an SD card slot. This is a technology that has become increasingly standard within IP video, and competitors at this level have included it. The benefit would be we’d have an all-in-one surveillance product. Without it, we are reliant on PC (VMS) or NAS storage for recording images.
The verdict
All things considered, this camera is very good. It is an entry-level camera, so with price being a key selling point, a feature or two is always going to be missing.
The M series is a range encompassing many models; some have WiFi and some have SD card slots. The only downside is that no single camera boasts the lot, so we are left a little wanting regardless of the model we choose.
The plus side is the range gives us great options. When building a small SME solution, we can create a great system made up of homogeneous cameras, each with a slight USP depending on what we want at each camera location.
Given that it is a budget camera, the most impressive feature is the video quality. This camera produces excellent images, day or night, and allows us to choose to record all the time or purely for special events, thanks to the PIR.
I am a bit greedy, thanks in part to the flux of features and development in the last few years. WiFi and, especially, an SD card slot would have been the icing on the cake. But for a cheap, quality, cabled camera, the M1054 is a great choice.
Free Download: The Video Surveillance Report 2023
Discover the latest developments in the rapidly-evolving video surveillance sector by downloading the 2023 Video Surveillance Report. Over 500 responses to our survey, which come from integrators to consultants and heads of security, inform our analysis of the latest trends including AI, the state of the video surveillance market, uptake of the cloud, and the wider economic and geopolitical events impacting the sector!
Download for FREE to discover top industry insight around the latest innovations in video surveillance systems.
Axis M1054 ReviewA smart, sleek network camera that is ideal for small commercial installations or even residential properties, the Axis M1054 features […]
Adam Vered
IFSEC Insider | Security and Fire News and Resources
Related Topics
The future of cargo is visible: Driving digital transformation with video insights
“We create the best opportunities, innovations, and ideas together”: Axis on the power of open communication
Opening security to new opportunities as video surveillance goes beyond its borders
Subscribe
8 Comments
Oldest
NewestMost Voted
safeNsane
October 21, 2013 7:51 am
For the price this is a nice little camera. We looked at some of them for entryways and narrower fields that we needed to cover. The one thing that kept us from using them was the lack of IR and that the compensation for low light just wasn’t good enough for us. A dark hallway would give us a blob moving around up until someone was within about 10 feet of the camera and we had much longer shots to cover where we needed to see more than movement in the dark.
One thing that strikes me is the form factor. It doesn’t look like a camera that you’d expect to work well in low light conditions, which is actually a good thing — the form manages the expectation.
Yes the form factor doesn’t pretend to be something that it’s not. You’re not going to mistake it for a higher end camera but it is plenty capable for use in well lit areas. If you don’t need a more expensive solution I like that Axis is offering models like this that play nicely with NVRs just as well as their higher end cameras.
Sheh
October 28, 2013 11:24 am
– Network security using multi-level password protection, IP address filtering and HTTPS encryption.
– This type of security features help in protecting the surveillance data.
Sheh
October 28, 2013 11:27 am
Camera only works good in low light conditions if it is IR.This camera is not a IR so it faces problem in low light.This problem can be solve by putting lights in such direction that it will glorify the video.
Sheh
October 28, 2013 11:30 am
M1054 includes one I/O port for linking to an external sensor or a storage device. Businesses are more likely to appreciate and need this feature. The same is true of the camera’s ability to require digital certificates and 802.1X authentication in order to maintain stream security.
But your lights aren’t going to be on 24hrs are they? If you need low light, you need IR or one of the cameras with new low light tech eg. axis lightfinder.
Robert Grossman
October 31, 2013 2:17 pm
I can also think of a number of uses for this camera. But, context is everything; used in the right application, it inexpensively fits the bill. Asked to reach beyond the design intent, as with most products, it will come up short.
4/5
For the price this is a nice little camera. We looked at some of them for entryways and narrower fields that we needed to cover. The one thing that kept us from using them was the lack of IR and that the compensation for low light just wasn’t good enough for us. A dark hallway would give us a blob moving around up until someone was within about 10 feet of the camera and we had much longer shots to cover where we needed to see more than movement in the dark.
One thing that strikes me is the form factor. It doesn’t look like a camera that you’d expect to work well in low light conditions, which is actually a good thing — the form manages the expectation.
Yes the form factor doesn’t pretend to be something that it’s not. You’re not going to mistake it for a higher end camera but it is plenty capable for use in well lit areas. If you don’t need a more expensive solution I like that Axis is offering models like this that play nicely with NVRs just as well as their higher end cameras.
– Network security using multi-level password protection, IP address filtering and HTTPS encryption.
– This type of security features help in protecting the surveillance data.
Camera only works good in low light conditions if it is IR.This camera is not a IR so it faces problem in low light.This problem can be solve by putting lights in such direction that it will glorify the video.
M1054 includes one I/O port for linking to an external sensor or a storage device. Businesses are more likely to appreciate and need this feature. The same is true of the camera’s ability to require digital certificates and 802.1X authentication in order to maintain stream security.
But your lights aren’t going to be on 24hrs are they? If you need low light, you need IR or one of the cameras with new low light tech eg. axis lightfinder.
I can also think of a number of uses for this camera. But, context is everything; used in the right application, it inexpensively fits the bill. Asked to reach beyond the design intent, as with most products, it will come up short.