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re: General security camera discussion (was "Unifi Protect security cameras")
Posted on 1/1/21 at 7:20 pm to Korkstand
Posted on 1/1/21 at 7:20 pm to Korkstand
So I do not yet have a Cloud Key Plus to put the Protect system to the test, but I do have a G3 Bullet camera that I have put in rtsp mode to compare to a cheaper camera. There are still a lot more scenarios where I'd like to see more side by side images, but here is what I've noticed so far.
The cheap cam is a Reolink RLC-410, which probably costs less than $50. Installed right below it is a UniFi G3 Bullet, which costs $150. Both are being monitored by Zoneminder, both are in 1080p mode.
I have to say, in the afternoon daylight the Reolink looked to have the sharper image. Face and other details were easier to make out on the cheap cam. Low light and night is another story, however. The Reolink suffers from significant smearing, which I guess is caused by longer exposures to let in more light. I tried "anti-smearing" exposure mode, and it didn't seem to make much difference other than cutting the frame rate to almost half of what it was set to.
RLC-410
G3 Bullet
That's my kid riding his bike in the back yard a while ago. Obviously I have cropped out the majority of the image. Also obviously neither image is good enough to ID anyone, but the G3 clearly performs better at night. Range to the kid is about 50'.
I don't know if that's worth the 3X price difference, but I thought it was significant.
I don't have any dahua or hik branded cams, but I do have a couple amcrest which I believe use dahua internals. They cost a bit more than the reolink, maybe around $80 or so, but they are still not quite as good in low light as the UniFi.
I still have no idea whether I will get better images from the G3 cams using the Unifi NVR vs. what it puts out via RTSP. Maybe their software does some tricks, I don't know. I also wish I had a dahua or hik cam in the $100-150 range to compare to, but I don't at the moment. Anyway, so far with the mixed results I'd say the Ubiquiti cam is definitely NOT worth 3X the Reolink, but of course the whole selling point of the ubnt stuff is the software and user experience. Again, I'll try to report back next week with a review.
The cheap cam is a Reolink RLC-410, which probably costs less than $50. Installed right below it is a UniFi G3 Bullet, which costs $150. Both are being monitored by Zoneminder, both are in 1080p mode.
I have to say, in the afternoon daylight the Reolink looked to have the sharper image. Face and other details were easier to make out on the cheap cam. Low light and night is another story, however. The Reolink suffers from significant smearing, which I guess is caused by longer exposures to let in more light. I tried "anti-smearing" exposure mode, and it didn't seem to make much difference other than cutting the frame rate to almost half of what it was set to.
RLC-410
G3 Bullet
That's my kid riding his bike in the back yard a while ago. Obviously I have cropped out the majority of the image. Also obviously neither image is good enough to ID anyone, but the G3 clearly performs better at night. Range to the kid is about 50'.
I don't know if that's worth the 3X price difference, but I thought it was significant.
I don't have any dahua or hik branded cams, but I do have a couple amcrest which I believe use dahua internals. They cost a bit more than the reolink, maybe around $80 or so, but they are still not quite as good in low light as the UniFi.
I still have no idea whether I will get better images from the G3 cams using the Unifi NVR vs. what it puts out via RTSP. Maybe their software does some tricks, I don't know. I also wish I had a dahua or hik cam in the $100-150 range to compare to, but I don't at the moment. Anyway, so far with the mixed results I'd say the Ubiquiti cam is definitely NOT worth 3X the Reolink, but of course the whole selling point of the ubnt stuff is the software and user experience. Again, I'll try to report back next week with a review.
1
Posted on 1/2/21 at 2:51 pm to Korkstand
Going through some more daytime footage, the very cheap Reolink RLC-410 still looks much better than the UniFi G3 Bullet which costs 3X as much.
Again, these cameras are mounted right next to each other looking at the same exact scene, both 1080p@15fps. The following images were captured of the same vehicle at the same exact time. It is about 200' from the cameras and moving at about 25mph.
Reolink RLC-410
UniFi G3 Bullet
Obviously there are just not enough pixels at 1080p at this range to capture license plates without optical zoom (and that is not the purpose of this camera location, the street is just background noise), but the Reolink has a clearly better image in the daytime than the UniFi cam.
So unless the UniFi Protect Cloud Key Plus (NVR) exposes some hidden camera settings or features, at this point it seems safe to say that you shouldn't buy UniFi camera gear if you want daytime image quality and clarity. Of course what I've posted here are kind of extreme examples (nobody is going to monitor passing vehicles from 200' with 1080p), but I hope it helps someone to see what you're getting with the cheap chinese cameras... pretty good value!
At this point it seems the *only* reason to look at the UniFi gear is for the UI/UX. Which, again as a fanboy, I really want to like enough to overcome the downsides. I will find out soon enough I guess.
Again, these cameras are mounted right next to each other looking at the same exact scene, both 1080p@15fps. The following images were captured of the same vehicle at the same exact time. It is about 200' from the cameras and moving at about 25mph.
Reolink RLC-410
UniFi G3 Bullet
Obviously there are just not enough pixels at 1080p at this range to capture license plates without optical zoom (and that is not the purpose of this camera location, the street is just background noise), but the Reolink has a clearly better image in the daytime than the UniFi cam.
So unless the UniFi Protect Cloud Key Plus (NVR) exposes some hidden camera settings or features, at this point it seems safe to say that you shouldn't buy UniFi camera gear if you want daytime image quality and clarity. Of course what I've posted here are kind of extreme examples (nobody is going to monitor passing vehicles from 200' with 1080p), but I hope it helps someone to see what you're getting with the cheap chinese cameras... pretty good value!
At this point it seems the *only* reason to look at the UniFi gear is for the UI/UX. Which, again as a fanboy, I really want to like enough to overcome the downsides. I will find out soon enough I guess.
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