Compro IP 70 Network Camera Review
by Ganesh T S on July 28, 2011 11:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- IP cameras
- camera
- camcorder
The Dropcam Echo review used the Handsome Case to gain an understanding of the image and video quality. We dusted off the case again to evaluate the Compro IP 70.
The gallery below indicates the stream info and video settings used in the evaluation (30 fps VGA @ 1 Mbps as the primary stream). Note that we didn't choose the HD resolution (1280x1024) because of the low max frame rate.
Stream 1
At different light levels, the 100% cropped screenshots are shown below.
.Note the contrast in the images below at different illumination levels:
In the next picture, we have a test case for skin tone handling:
For both contrast and skin tone, the camera seems to perform best at 250 lux (nominal light levels). In the course of our experiments, we found that IR kicked in at 100 lux. The Dropcam Echo kicked in IR at much lower illumination levels, so this is something we are not entirely happy about with the Compro IP 70. This also meant that we couldn't evaluate the chroma noise under low lighting conditions because of the black and white nature of the IR video.
Stream 2
The second stream is meant for watching on mobile devices, and so, we just have a look at the composite picture.
The Compro IP 70 has barely acceptable image and video quality (when compared with the Dropcam Echo).
We are also not impressed with the supported frame rates and resolutions (despite being better than the Dropcam Echo when considering the paper specifications). Considering the price point of the unit ($159), one might be tempted to overlook these shortcomings for certain applications.
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dac7nco - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
That picture with the banana, altoids, calculators and dolls is the creepiest image I've ever seen in a tech review. Congratulations!Daimon
GridConnect - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I am from Grid Connect and we are a re-seller of this product. You can find it on our website here:http://www.gridconnect.com/ip70fixedipcamera.html
I believe as the posting of this article we have the lowest price on this device available, its a very nice cameras as the review said and definitely worth checking out.
If this comment is read by the author we would appreciate it if you could update the post and put in the link to the product by our name.
ArtShapiro - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Why would a technical review of a product promote one particular vendor of said product?GridConnect - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
They have linked to vendors in previous reviews that tell you where to buy it. If they dont want to thats fine, I was just trying to save people a step from having to Google our name, find the product, etc.Hrel - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Only use I see for these things is security surveillance. Image quality looks WAY above minimum needed for that. Set it up to only record when it detects movement to save space and back it up to hard drives for later review. Still, I've seen whole systems for 200 bucks that include a DVR and 8 cameras. 1 Camera for that price is insane.Maybe there's another niche use for networked cameras I haven't imagined? Probably, people do crazy stuff with camera's and tech.
GridConnect - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Actually for these types of cameras with comparable features these are very affordable. Most cameras with all of these features would cost you 3-4x that. The types of systems you are speaking of dont have things like email notifications, movement detection, and monitoring via cell phone just to name a few things.sc3252 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Those $200 systems suck! As someone who has setup these cameras you do not want to go cheap, it just means they will fail or something else will go wrong. As they say, "time is money" you will find this out fast if you cheap out on security cameras, you will constantly be driving to and from the place of work to reset the camera or to make sure they are working, and good luck getting a usable picture in court...PS: $200 is cheap for a security camera, the cheapest you really want to spend is around $400, going up to $2000 per camera...
bobbozzo - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
There seems to be a word or two missing on page 5:"so this is something we are not entirely about with the Compro IP 70"
ganeshts - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Thanks! fixed :) It was something we were not entirely happy about with the Compro IP 70Nihility - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Is the feed encrypted?