【Review】IMX482 1/1.2" 5.8um Camera, King of The Ultra Low Light Camera World?

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ipcamuser11

Getting the hang of it
Sep 4, 2021
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Sony released IMX482 and IMX485 in 2020, both type 1/1.2", IMX482 is basically the 2x2 hardware binned version of IMX485, making its pixel size to 5.8um*5.8um, the largest pixel size in Sony's all CCTV sensors. SNR1s goes from IMX485's 0.19 to 0.07, also the lowest one so far in the world

5 years after released, there's still very rare IP camera with IMX482 inside. I've got some cameras with IMX485 and the newer Starvis2 IMX585 sensors, but never got one with IMX482, which should be the king of all low light CCTV cameras

A few days ago I came across this camera, it was retired from some kind of special service which I don't know, definitely not regular surveillance usage. It's very weird that they used HiSilicon Hi3516EV300 with this super expensive sensor, that SoC is typically used in sub $20 low-end consumer cameras. Anyway, it's still capable of processing the 2M pixels IMX482 can give

Camera tested in the same room where I tested IMX585 and IMX385 before, it's a storage room with no window, door closed, no any light except the indicating LEDs of my UPS, network switch and router. It looks like the following black picture with human eyes

To fit the big 1/1.2" sensor size, I also used a F0.95 Ø72mm big lens, focal length 15-45mm, which is set to minimal to give a same view filed as the previously tested IMX585

lens.jpgroom.jpg


Following are snapshots from the IMX482 rtsp stream.
Shutter speed from 1/25s to 1/2000s, sensor gain set to auto, so that camera will try to give a best visible image with lowest possible gain automatically. ISP gain turned off


25.jpg50.jpg75.png100.jpg150.jpg200.jpg300.jpg500.jpg1000.jpg2000.jpg

The testing result is pretty good, definitely much better than IMX585, which has a 0.17 SNR1s. Judging by my eyes, 1/25s shutter speed of IMX482 equals 1/10s of IMX585. Testing chart is still visible at 1/1000s shutter.

Due to sensor driver issue, I failed to set shutter slower than 1/25s. If someone can share datasheet of IMX482, I can set shutter speed by setting sensor register directly
 
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As someone aslo interest in seeing better sensors used in CCTV, the best low light camera I've seen was produced by Sony some years ago. Someone had one on here, although after the initial posts, I don't think anything more was really posted. The issue was the cost. I believe from memory it was about $10k by the time you added a 35mm (?) lens?

I would have thought by now Sony / Dahua / Hik would have managed to get the cost down, but it seems not. The Sony camera was discontinued after a short period of time, presumably due to low sales due to it's high price. What always surprised me about the picture it produced was whilst there's no telling what shutter speed was used, so whether it would suffer blur on movement, the picture itself in the Youtube demo posted by a 3rd party company was as clear as day with no real visible grain despite the extreme low light.

Another suprise to me has been that Dahua or Hik haven't managed to get their hands on any of the Sony A7S sensors especially as it's now at version 4 which surely means the version 1 or 2 versions of these sensors could be made available by Sony cheaply given they're no longer the latest tech.

Anyway, for comparison, here's a video of the previous Sony low light offering from @ 2016, the model was Sony SNC-VB770 unsure what the exact sensor used was apart from it was an 4K (!) Exmoor and I believe from memory from the person who had one on here, 35mm in size:

Edit I found the specs although it still doesn't give the exact sensor model other than it's 12mp in size:

 
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CCTVCam said:
As someone aslo interest in seeing better sensors used in CCTV, the best low light camera I've seen was produced by Sony some years ago. Someone had one on here, although after the initial posts, I don't think anything more was really posted. The issue was the cost. I believe from memory it was about $10k by the time you added a 35mm (?) lens?

I would have thought by now Sony / Dahua / Hik would have managed to get the cost down, but it seems not. The Sony camera was discontinued after a short period of time, presumably due to low sales due to it's high price. What always surprised me about the picture it produced was whilst there's no telling what shutter speed was used, so whether it would suffer blur on movement, the picture itself in the Youtube demo posted by a 3rd party company was as clear as day with no real visible grain despite the extreme low light.

Another suprise to me has been that Dahua or Hik haven't managed to get their hands on any of the Sony A7S sensors especially as it's now at version 4 which surely means the version 1 or 2 versions of these sensors could be made available by Sony cheaply given they're no longer the latest tech.

Anyway, for comparison, here's a video of the previous Sony low light offering from @ 2016, the model was Sony SNC-VB770 unsure what the exact sensor used was apart from it was an 4K (!) Exmoor and I believe from memory from the person who had one on here, 35mm in size:

Edit I found the specs although it still doesn't give the exact sensor model other than it's 12mp in size:

Click to expand...

@CCTVCam Thanks for the info. 35mm full frame sensor on a CCTV camera, that really sounds incredible. I don't think Sony was using a sensor from their security product line, they must have used one for DLSR cameras. Specs of SNC-VB770's sensor is identical to Sony's DLSR α7S II, 12.2M pixels, 35mm full frame Exmor, ISO 409600
The largest sensor from Sony's security sensor product line is still IMX294, type 4/3" 10.2MP, pixel size 4.63um. but it's still smaller than IMX482's 5.8um. My friend has a PTZ with IMX294, its low light performance is not quite good, maybe due to the F1.6 varifocal lens

I don't see any hope that Hikvision or Dahua will use DLSR sensor on their CCTV cameras, especially sensors from Sony. Actually they have all switched to Chinese providers a few years ago after the US sanctions, which are OminiVision and SmartSens. Hikvision uses OV OS08B10 on all their high-end 1/1.2" models, Dahua used to use Sony IMX485 but later changed to OS08B10 too. From my own experience, Hikvision's OS08B10 is even better than my IMX585 module in low light performance, maybe because it's better fine-tuned by Hikvision's engineers, but OV also has better specs on paper than IMX585 even though OS08B10 was released earlier. SmartSens also have a 1/1.2" 8MP sensor SC880SL, but seems never used on any actual product, its smaller version 1/1.8" 8MP SC850SL is already widely used. Specs on paper are much better than its Sony competitor IMX678, ~100% QE on visible light band, 70%+ QE on 850nm IR band, while Sony's Starvis 2 sensors has only 80% and 50% QE
 
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ipcamuser11 said:
@CCTVCam Thanks for the info. 35mm full frame sensor on a CCTV camera, that really sounds incredible. I don't think Sony was using a sensor from their security product line, they must have used one for DLSR cameras. Specs of SNC-VB770's sensor is identical to Sony's DLSR α7S II, 12.2M pixels, 35mm full frame Exmor, ISO 409600
Click to expand...

Yeah that's the kind of sensor I would think they used. Surely now Sony no longer produces these (MkII) for their cameras, they have the fab equipment used to produce these dies lying unused, there's no chance of these competing with their DSLR lineup as they've moved on by several generations plus a CCTV camera lacks the ability to adapt and be used like a DSLR. If they're worried about people canabilising them out to use in DSLR's, then could then not nerf the processing functions of the processor board or sensor to ensure it only has the features suitable for CCTV alone eg limit metering to a single multipoint mode, limit the number of metering points to maybe 6, remove other DSLR functionality etc? The cost of producing these surely now must be low given all the fabbing exists and presumably the research costs were recovered a long time ago. So could they not now produce maybe a $350-400 camera with a cheap Chinese 35mm fixed lens? It doesn't need to be fluorite or top quality for CCTV, only the type of quality of lens you see in camera kits ie basic, decent and takes good pictures but not pro level. The higher $350-400? price might make it slightly exclusive but on the other hand with that performance, I still believe it would sell at that price range. $500+ maybe not, which is where the original camera probably fell down. Bit slighly above current market price for the best fixed cameras and I see a market especially if the performance is so outstanding there's nothing out there to compete.
 
CCTVCam said:
As someone aslo interest in seeing better sensors used in CCTV, the best low light camera I've seen was produced by Sony some years ago. Someone had one on here, although after the initial posts, I don't think anything more was really posted. The issue was the cost. I believe from memory it was about $10k by the time you added a 35mm (?) lens?

I would have thought by now Sony / Dahua / Hik would have managed to get the cost down, but it seems not. The Sony camera was discontinued after a short period of time, presumably due to low sales due to it's high price. What always surprised me about the picture it produced was whilst there's no telling what shutter speed was used, so whether it would suffer blur on movement, the picture itself in the Youtube demo posted by a 3rd party company was as clear as day with no real visible grain despite the extreme low light.

Another suprise to me has been that Dahua or Hik haven't managed to get their hands on any of the Sony A7S sensors especially as it's now at version 4 which surely means the version 1 or 2 versions of these sensors could be made available by Sony cheaply given they're no longer the latest tech.
Click to expand...

CCTV cameras require NIR (Near IR) enhanced sensors.. Normal sensors for DSLR like cams don't have support for enhanced IR...

Also prices for those sensors are very high..

More interesting for today standards for next generation CCTV cams should be using Quad Bayer Sensors, like used today in modern mobiles (iPhones, top-end Androids, drones, sport cameras)...

Those sensors have 4x more resolution and pixels are clustered in groups of 4 for the same color (red, green, blue)...

This allow sensor to work in different modes:

t-21_5_QBC_02_en.png


- full resolution (4 * 8Mpx / 4K = 32Mpx / 8K) in day ...

- half resolution (only 8Mpx / 4K) where 4 the same color pixels are binned into ONE BIG pixel for NIGHT mode with 4x more sensitivity

In day configuration you have 4x more resolution, in night config You have much better sensor sensitivity.

There are tons of new video processing algorithms which do CRAZY tricks with those sensors (like double zoom with 'optical quality' without varifocal lenses using middle of the sensor or double shots at the same time with different gain/ISO to have dual-ISO functionality)..
 
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