1. Home
  2. CCTV, Alarms and other Physical Security
  3. Trying to find info on a no-name camera.

Trying to find info on a no-name camera.

Alright, let me just get this out of the way right off the top: I don't want anyone trying to sell me anything, I don't need anyone telling me how shitty this camera is, or any recommendations on something different to sell the client on. We've tried to tell him numerous times how... unworthy these things are, but he gets them cheap from China and insists on bringing them in and continually trying to sell them to us. Everyone got that?

Now here's the thing: he's brought in this little beastie that looks like any standard 1/3" camera, but with a built-in zoom lens (spec sheet says it's actually only a 1/4" Sony chip). It does powered zoom (22X,

3.9-85.8mm) and autofocus. I've got the power hooked up and the camera running - image quality is mediocre at best (for what purports to be a "Sony Super HAD CCD"). Autofocus operation is... well, practically useless, I have to fine-tune anything it does manage to lock in on.

Zoom and focus can both be controlled through buttons on the back of the camera, or through wires in the combined remote/power connection (5-pin mini-din). The connector's pins are labeled +12VDC, GND, ZOOM, COM, and FOCUS.

What I'm trying to determine is how to use/connect the external zoom/focus controls via this wire, and hoping someone might have run into one of these things and/or have some documentation for it that's NOT mostly in Chinese. I've tried connecting both ZOOM and FOCUS wires to COM, as well as giving them +12 and GND, with no response at all.

Reply to
Matt Ion
Loading thread data ...

zoom com focus + - + or - + -

Reply to
rabbid

Makes sense... I'll give that a try...

Yup, that's the secret. Thanks.

Reply to
Matt Ion

Reply to
rabbid

Nope, that worked, at least for the zoom (didn't try the focus).

No idea if I even want to attempt to come up with any way to connect these functions to the DVR; for this guy's purpose, probably not. He wants to use it to replace a dome camera at a paypoint in his store, and quite frankly, it's nowhere near the quality of the current camera... but he thinks because it was so much more expensive than the other cheap junk he imports ($200+ vs. $30-$50 for all the little domes he's getting) that it's got to be all that much better.

The dome he wants to replace is actually a decent-quality 420TVL 1/4" name-brand camera (although the name escapes me at the moment) that was probably $300+ when new. All the extra cost for this thing is, of course, for the power zoom (which he doesn't need) and autofocus (which doesn't work right); it's still a $30 Chinese knock-off camera inside.

Reply to
Matt Ion

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.