New Camera - Ctronics

http://www.ctronicssecuritycameras.com/shop/wifi-720p-ip-camera/ctronics-bullet-wifi-ip-camera-hd-720p-30m-ir-3-6mm-lens-onvif-2-0-36-leds-night-vision-indooroutdoor-sd-card-slot-ctipc-245c720pws/#!prettyPhoto

It was a pretty good deal on Amazon. So far, it looks like it might be pretty good.

Working on setting it up. Using Onvif worked fine, however the picture is “small” in the video view. I chose the main stream. I will start experimenting with other methods soon. I would love to know if this is a rebranded something else and play with those profiles as well.

Trying to capture the profile from Onvif device manager …can’t select the text. Any other suggestions?

Thanks… NCS has been working great for me now since 1.6… Wish i could keep my computer up and the camera from rebooting itself :slight_smile:

Here’s a quick view of the basics.

Hi Johns,
In the specs they mention Hikvision and Dahua. Hikvision is pretty consistent how they write their rtsp. But in the specs it says nothing about supporting rtsp. It the video is small you probably have the 320x176. Go into the camera and change that to 720p.
I don´t understand the problem with onvif manager. You cannot select the text?
Since you connect the camera with onvif in NCS, after selecting and saving a profile go to the Custom URL and you find the URL you are using.
Interesting camera, but the field of view seems small?
-Henrik

Hi Henrik,

Doh, I figured it out, not all the main stream profiles were loaded the first time I tried to add it. So, I went through it again and now there were two (2) main profiles available. 1 was jpeg and the other was RTSP both were 1280x720 but I chose the RTSP and it looks great now. The jpeg one was the one that showed up small. I must’ve hit the dropdown selector to quickly before all the profiles loaded.

Thanks for the quick response (as usual!).

I had the same issue with ODM last time we did a new camera… don’t know why i can’t select the profile text. a fluke in my install??

Excellent! Thanks for letting the community know. Always questions about cameras.
I am myself on my way to buy 3-4 new cameras and this one looks interesting, but can you say something about the field of view, angle that the camera cover. Specs say Lens: 3.6mm (F:1.4 ) which usually is around 60 degrees? I need around 85deg.
-Henrik

I haven’t had enough time to fully set it up yet to see the field of view etc. it’s just in my office while i get it all configured. I can give you an update when i find out more.

Here’s an amazon link:
http://amzn.to/2eMqCWB

There are quite a few that look all the same and I bet they are. Some are a bit cheaper. I wish I could find the OEM source etc. so i can save some digging (like figuring our the RTSP path to add to my NVR.).

But from first glance… it’s very solidly built. Heavy and lots of metal. The picture appears to be quite good too. for ~$40 it’s not bad. I still worrry about the Wifi. Never had much luck with wifi cameras but I really need this one to work over wifi.

I’ll keep you posted.

I would test:

rtsp://username:password@cameraIP/ch01.264
or
rtsp://username:password@cameraIP/11

Also, if you add the camera using onvif go back to edit camera config and then to Custom URL. There you can see the rtsp that the camera use.

-Henrik

I was trying all those in VLC and they didn’t work. But, yes, I did see the rtsp://username:password@cameraIP/11 in the custom URL.

I did figure out the problem. My NVR ‘client’ wasn’t picking up the video but when I went to the NVR itself, it showed the video. So, it was an issue with the client. My system is LAView but it’s a rebranded Hik. So, when i used the hikvision client I could see the video.

Now… to get the darn wifi to work, these wifi cameras are sooooo weak. They can’t seem to connect very well even to a router thats 50 ft. away. Arrgh…

Also, another helpful link for people. Connect to Ctronics cameras

Netcam is waaay better than iSpy - NCS is just so much simpler and does just what most people need without all the extra ‘stuff’. But, they do have a good DB of camera data.

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Henrik,

I got it installed. The field of view isn’t that wide (20ft away you can see about 30ft wide - don’t know what the deg is). But, I must say the picture quality is excellent. Night mode is quite good too. My other one (the DBpower PTZ dome) has a good picture in the day but the night mode is horrible. This Ctronics one has a great picture even with the IR. I would say it’s almost as good as my 1080p Laview ones (rebranded HIk). I think I could use a bit wider view as well but I may just keep this one since the spot i needed it for isn’t that big.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the feedback.
I calculated the theoretical FOV to be 88 deg and with your numbers it is about 74 deg which is closer to the truth since not the whole sensor area can be used. That´s a rather standard value. They have to cut the quality somewhere and they do it usually on the electronics and therefore the night vision is not so good. But for this price it is OK. I think I go with Hikvision since I also need a FOV of 85-90 deg.
Thanks,
Henrik

Yep. You’re right. I just went back to the product page and it say 72deg. Just discovered another drawback… not a real 3 pt. pivot. So positioning might be limited in some circumstances.