Description:
The LOFTEK® Professional 3x Optical Zoom Dome Wireless Camera is designed for indoor and outdoor enterprise class security surveillance applications. View and manage the tamper resistant dome IP camera from any Internet connection with the free DDNS.
New Feature:
Supporting 3x Optical Zoom
4″ compact design
Iphone APP downloadable (app.: Apexis IP Control)
Support Gmail/Hotmail function
Freely control alarm sound ON/OFF,record ON/OFF
8 preset positions monitoring
Free DDNS for Remote viewing
Basic Feature:
MJPEG video compression format
Support two-way audio function
Freely control upload image to FTP
Freely control Pan/Tilt angle by software
Support up to 9 users online simultaneously
Multi-level user management with password protection
Wi-Fi compliant with wireless standards IEEE 802.11b/g
Support both WEP & WPA WPA2 encryption for wireless
Support Mobile phone login from User Interface via browser directly
Specifications:
Image Sensor: 1/4″ Color CMOS Sensor
Resolution: 640×480,320×240, Pixels(300k Pixels)
Lens: 3x Optical Zoom(4mm-9mm)
Mini. Illumination: 0.5Lux, F=2.0
Lens Type: Glass Lens
Viewing Angle: 30°~ 69°
Image Frame Rate:15fps(VGA),30fps(QVGA)
Ethernet Interface: 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet Port
Supported Protocol: TCP/IP,DHCP,SMTP,HTTP,DDNS,UPNP,PPPoE,FTP,DNS
Pan/Tilt Angle: Horizontal: 355°& Vertical: 90°
Note: The item is precise instrument, parts collision may occur in transit. Please open the encloser and remove the sponge before you install it.
You should have router support wifi, so that you can connect camera wireless. if want to view the camera remotely,just do port forwarding. We offer specialized tech-support for IP camera.
$ 147.99
Good performance for price,
Overall, fully acceptable performance. I purchased three Foscam cameras for inside the house and decided to try the Loftek Sentinel for outside. It is the only one that offers pan, tilt and zoom in an exterior camera at anywhere near this price. I am impressed by the clarity and colors. Low light vision is acceptable for in-city use. My outside lights are sufficient to see colors on the porch, and I can see the street and other houses but not as clear. There are no infra-red lights so do not expect much performance if you yourself can not see in the darkness. Daytime, the colors are correct and not washed out. Response time is acceptable, although it occasionally will do a full pan rather than a step movement. The field of view is more narrow than I expected.
I have not had it long enough to see how high wind and rain will affect it. The bracket has four U slots, but it is difficult to get the screws in as the camera bulb and antenna plug are in the way. I ended up using a 90 degree offset screwdriver.
The AC adapter sucks. It is a rather large, palm-sized brick that plugs in sideways – goes to the side of the plug receptacle rather than hanging down. This would not be too much of an issue inside, but for outside receptacles, it does not fit well and will not fit any of the exterior receptacle boxes that I found. The power cord is only four or five feet long; for an exterior camera a 20 foot option would be a nice accessory. (Philmore 48-1024 12′ power line extension cord runs about $6; plug size is 2.1×5.5mm)
The cables are an octopus of wiring! Ethernet, audio in, audio out, alarm and power! Over a foot long, and how are you suppose to waterproof this mess? I bought a 4×4 plastic junction box from Home Depot, drilled a hole for the electric extension cord (I cut the female end off of 110 AC extension cord, inserted into box then attached a new female plug) and a slot for the octopus and managed to fit the mess inside – the wiring would have been easy, but the AC adapter and extension cord plug will barely fit.
I am running Blue Iris (which is great software) so did not bother to load the included software. If you have installed a Foscam, you will find this pretty similar and easy to install. If you have never installed an IP camera, most of your time and trouble will be spent dealing with your router, not the camera. I am now a semi-expert on routers! The camera’s mobile phone setting works surprisingly well.
One thing I have learned is that after three or four wireless IP cameras, the b/g network performance will degrade significantly. I am now running most interior cameras in lower format (320×240) and slower FPS. If you can run wired cameras, by all means do so. For an older, two-story home, wireless is pretty much the only option.
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|Overall pleased but with a few hitches.,
This is my 2nd PTZ IP Camera, the first was a Wansview and I also have a review up of that one.
I bought this one specifically because I wanted a weatherproof outdoor remote IP camera and the price on this item is great for the features. Some people have taken stars off cuz it’s not a nightvision camera, but nightvision won’t work inside a dome due to reflection so it is not really fair to complain about that on this product.
I had read that people had spotty luck with getting this camera in good working order, specifically there are issues with white balance and focus out of the box. I had some minor color issues which so far can be easily corrected and a big issue with the focus, which is what prompted me to write this review. I was able to open up the dome and fix the focus issue myself and took some pictures which unfortunately did not come out clearly, my cheapo camera can not get close enough. I think I will post the images here anyway because though they are blurry you can make out the little set screws that you need to loosen to fix a focus issue and might be helpful to someone else.
Once the item ships from Amazon you get an email from Loftek’s tech support telling you to write to them with any technical issues. Shows that they have lots of issues with their cameras, but also shows they are proactive about addressing them with the customer and others have commented already how great their support is, so that’s really not a negative either, it’s a positive I think.
When my camera arrived it was set on maximum zoom and the focus was not clear. When I zoomed out, it was a total blur. As I got the camera set up and used it for a day or so the focus got much worse, so I decided to respond to the Loftek’s email and ask for help. While I waited I nosed around and found out how to adjust it so I did so without waiting for their help.
Anyway to the focus issue, the dome unscrews easily and then the camera and the mount is exposed. You want to be very careful when you adjust it since you don’t want to force the PTZ mechanism, that could break something. I used the remote controls via the browser to move the mount into its furthest position so there was less available movement then held it carefully fixed there with one hand so I couldn’t accidentally break something inside.
To adjust the focus on this camera you actually have to physically move the camera itself in or out on a short neck that attaches it to the frame. There are two small silver set screws that you can loosen or remove in order to slide the camera in or out. There is not much to play with and a slight change in position makes a huge change in focus. I was extremely happy with it when I got the focus right, wow what an improvement and my opinion of the camera shot way up! (Take a look at the user images to find my blurry closeups.)
You probably don’t want to remove those screws or you might need medication to overcome the anxiety attack you will get trying to put them back. I accidentally removed and dropped one of them which was the worst part of the whole operation. Once the camera was in focus I replaced and tightened the screws and put the dome back on and now am entirely happy with this product. I can’t give it the five stars though since I didn’t buy it as a DIY project.
I mentioned color issues, it developed a greenish cast over time. I found that if I aimed it at a white background and zoomed in the color came right back true…so it needs a white balance reset from time to time, but it’s easily done.
A quick remark on the software…though it has different colors etc., it is really recognizable as the same software that my Wansview cam uses, and the two applications can see and control both cameras. I am also using Blue Iris which has a big learning curve but also easily finds and controls both cams. The booklet and software that comes with this camera really is not all that bad, allowing for some translation details etc. the info is actually thorough and accurate.
I would definitely purchase another of these cameras or another Loftek product based on this experience.
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|Loftek Sentinel,
Initially I was impressed with the price / performance but when zooming items more than a few meters were completely out of focus. There needs to be an auto focus on the camera. The seller I bought mine from advised me to unscrew the dome, loosen a screw and slide the camera in or out to focus. Since it was mounted on the side of a building this required many trips up / down a ladder to view changes via a laptop. Eventually distant items were in in focus but then others were out of focus. Price is attractive but because of the focus problem I ended up returning mine.
The software that is embedded in the camera has a multi-device option allowing you to configure / view up to 9 cameras. Unfortunately the security is lacking as the administrator defining 8 other cameras for him to view / control are available to visitors with less privileges. Users should have their own multi-device view, not the same as the administrator.
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