Looking for 10x optical zoom as cheap as possible

bp2008

bp2008

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IPCT+ Member
Mar 10, 2014
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I'm looking for as cheap as possible of camera to watch a small panel of analog gauges on industrial equipment, indoors. It needs to meet these criteria:

  • Able to zoom to 20 degree horizontal FOV or narrower. More zoom is very welcome.
  • RTSP video streaming
  • 1080p or higher resolution (unless made up for my longer zoom)
  • 12v or PoE powered
  • Functional exposure control

Bonus:
  • Wired ethernet
  • PoE
  • LEDs (IR or visible) for illumination of target at night
  • WDR (helps read gauges in changing light conditions)
  • Built-in microphone

Deal-breakers:
* Cloud-connected crap, forced mobile app, etc.

Doesn't matter:
  • Sensor size / light sensitivity
  • PTZ
  • Powered zoom
  • Onboard analytics / AI

Looking for price under $100 USD.

Been using an old Dahua 2MP starlight varifocal for this in the past but the zoom is a little insufficient. Gauges are often dirty with some glare making them not quite readable with confidence.

Empiretech "Z4E" cameras could do it but it is very much overkill and overpriced for this job.

I see Revotech has one with a modest optical zoom range that would probably outperform the current camera here, but the actual FOV is a bit of an unknown factor.
 
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I have one of those particular Revotech cameras that I have yet to place in service but use several of their other fisheye and pinhole varieties. This one does not have IR and has manual zoom and focus which is not a problem,
If you tell me the distance from camera to gauges, I will set it up and show photos at max zoom and field of coverage.
 
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The Revotech did not perform well for me. did not get good focus at 10-12 feet under artificial lighting.
Their stated 22mm zoom is lacking also. Did not zoom much over an old Dahua 2.7-12mm that I compared it to.
 
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bp2008 said:
Great to know, thanks. That one would have been a waste of time then.
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You can probably get away with using a cheap $60 Indoor Amcrest PTZ Camera (powered via PoE). I used one for several months for reporting my metered (vintage dial gauges) electricity usage to the utility company. Worked out well until we were suckered to go with "smart" meters.

1771158446604.png
 
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Arjun said:
You can probably get away with using a cheap $60 Indoor Amcrest PTZ Camera (powered via PoE). I used one for several months for reporting my metered (vintage dial gauges) electricity usage to the utility company. Worked out well until we were suckered to go with "smart" meters.

View attachment 238231
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These are cool cameras. I have 3 of them. But they do not have optical zoom, and at only 4mp, 10 feet will likely be too far for the digital zoom to read a small gauge like that.
 
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d5775927 said:
Can you explain what you are trying to observe?
Are you trying to read the small round dials or you want to have an overview of the entire nuclear reactor?
Click to expand...
Just trying to read the dials with confidence in all lighting conditions.

I'm not sure if the little one by itself to the far right is relevant.

This one looks possibly promising at $80 from Annke directly. Sounds like the Blue Iris integration sucks balls but it should at least be able to load the video stream which is the most important thing.
 
We used to have one of the old first-generation Ubiquiti Aircam in there because it was trivially easy to remove the front cover, unscrew the lens, and swap the lens with any focal length you wanted, even with IR support (which that camera didn't natively have). I forget what format of lens it was, but the lenses were dirt cheap on ebay. Of course within a matter of months the lens went out of focus and the guy maintaining the machine didn't know how to fix it, and then the camera died anyway due to the fairly extreme summertime heat, vibration, dirt, etc in that place. We haven't had this clear of a view in 11 years, and this view even kind of sucks still.

Gauges 20140820093533.jpgGauges 20140820220534.jpg
 
Jessie.slimer said:
These are cool cameras. I have 3 of them. But they do not have optical zoom, and at only 4mp, 10 feet will likely be too far for the digital zoom to read a small gauge like that.
Click to expand...
Interesting, because anytime I zoom in, it does not feel like I am digitally zooming in. Seems to mimic optical zoom - pretty cool that it can maintain clarity when digitally zoomed in. Its my oldest set of indoor cameras in my fleet, lol
 
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Real on-camera digital zoom is better than if it is only implemented in the video player alone. I wonder if that is what the Amcrest are doing.

When digital zoom is done within the camera before video compression, you avoid basically all loss of detail from compression artifacts.
 
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bp2008 said:
Real on-camera digital zoom is better than if it is only implemented in the video player alone. I wonder if that is what the Amcrest are doing.

When digital zoom is done within the camera before video compression, you avoid basically all loss of detail from compression artifacts.
Click to expand...
That makes sense
 
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