CTVMAN HD IP PTZ Camera Outdoor 1080P 10X Optical Zoom Lens 5.1-51mm Pan Tilt LED Array IR 80M 2MP ONVIF Security Bullet IP Cam

CTVMAN HD IP PTZ Camera Outdoor 1080P 10X Optical Zoom Lens 5.1-51mm Pan Tilt LED Array IR 50M 2MP ONVIF Security Bullet IP Cam I purchased this camera primarily to watch wildlife around my house.As an introduction, I've come to realise there is a lot of conflicting info contained in Amazon reviews, and I'm not talking about the people who can't tell the difference between reviewing a product and reviewing a service, (like shipping and packing), but post their shipping review about the product all the same. Put simply with Amazon reviews, the signal to noise ratio is not good!In spite of reading for days, I ended up purchasing a number of products which seemed like viable solutions, but either didn't work at all, faulty etc, or didn't work to specification, and 4K cameras with appalling image and video quality.Of course being able to shop from your desk, and return products make Amazon an excellent marketplace.I'd also mention, having been an Amazon customer for some 20 years, I've had to return more cameras and related items as described below in the last weeks, than my combined returns of the last 2 decades. Shopping for security cameras really is a minefield, and hopefully this review will save a few people the frustration I've had over the last few weeks.I started to write a review of the CCTVMAN camera, model CM405IP-V10 primarily as there was no review on Amazon, and I was very impressed with it, the build quality, features and optical quality at this price point.However I also realised the isn't a single Amazon review that covers POE, (power over Ethernet, IEEE 802.3at), which is essential if you're looking to use the Ethernet cable to also power a PZT camera.The simple difference is, Pan/Zoom/Tilt cameras have internal motors which allow you to rotate the camera mount around each axis, and of course, when the motors are running, they require more power.The previous POE standard, IEEE 802.3af only supports 15.4W maximum, which is fine for static cameras, but most PZT models will require ca 25W or more.I was amazed at how few IEEE 802.3at products are available on Amazon that actually do what they say on the tin.It was far more of a challenge to get a working solution for the POE than it was to get this great little camera working.So, rather than just review the CTVMAN CM405IP-V10 camera, I decided to include some of the trials and tribulations of the last 5 weeks, and conclude with some real world solutions that actually WORK, and list all the products I purchased that DID NOT work.This way, should anyone need a turn-key package, at least you can avoid making all the mistakes I made along the way.My working package:CTVMAN CM405IP-V10 cameraTenda POE30G-AT 30 W IEEE802.3 Gigabit PoE InjectorDelock Network PoE + Splitter 802.3at GigabitEthernet Gigabit Lan Network Cable (RJ45) Advanced CAT 7 Cables.Review: CCTVMAN CM405IP-V10 cameraThe model has a somewhat cryptic name, CM405IP-V10, I guess the "V10" means 10x zoom, and the "IP" means it's an IP camera, but the rest is a mystery.In the last weeks, (April 2017), I've read a LOT of Amazon reviews, covering every 2Mp and 4Mp camera available, and even though there were no reviews for this camera, I chose it anyway, purely on specification.That said, there are some omissions in the quoted spec.Quicklist: It's a 2Mp camera, 1920x1080p @30fps, comes with an micro SD card slot, integrated PZT, UK power plug and it's own very compact powersupply. It has the ability to record audio, but has no built in microphone.There are several listings for this camera and it's sibling models, and I opted for the Amazon prime listing, so I could return it direct to Amazon if I wasn't happy with it.Ironically, this camera turned out to be even better than I expected, (and almost the ONLY thing I didn't have to return), and I subsequently ordered another one, (with 16GB SD card), which shipped direct from CCTVMAN in China, and took about ten days to arrive in the UK.As mentioned above, also missing in the quoted spec, is this camera DOES have a micro SD card slot, but comes without an SD card.You can get a 16GB and a 32GB model also, the cameras are identical, only the SD card, (none, 16GB, 32GB) differentiates them.A digression on internal storage:Having read a lot of Reolink camera reviews, I noted many of their models have SD bards built in, and while I'm not a fan of "built in" storage, (what happens when storage fails?), the ability to have the camera record locally is a very handy feature.What's great about the CCTVMAN camera is, it DOES have internal storage, and it's not "built in", and is an internal, removable, standard micro SD card, so you can replace it, or increase the storage if you need to.I'm pointing this out, as it wasn't clear in the specs from CCTVMAN, their camera also has a storage card slot, so for me it was a great surprise, and I installed a 32GB card myself. NOTE: 32GB appears to be the largest supported card size. (I initially inserted a 64GB card, simply because I had one to hand, and while it WAS detected as 64GB, the camera failed to format it.Right, lets get back to the camera itself.Controlling the camera: Initially I had some issues, while I could connect, it wasn't apparent that to actually do most things, you need to download and install an activeX plugin. (This browser plugin is stored on the camera itself, so no internet connection is required).As I was using Chrome, (and most browsers will be the same), I was unable to control this camera as Google blocked support of ActiveX (and flash), and this resulted in a lot of time trying to work out what I was doing wrong, and failed attempts to configure Chrome, Opera, etc. There are a bunch of web pages describing how to get this to work, and it's not a problem unique to this camera, there are many many devices that utilised activeX, and they all have similar issues if you're wanting to use a newer browser.As it happens, Microsoft's Internet Explorer works fine, and as you can't deinstall it, ALL windows users will have it regardless, even in Win10!Now, there is a lot of debate out there, ActiveX being old technology, not so secure, Google don't allow it any more, etc etc (they did until last year), but to be honest, it's all rather irrelevant when it comes to the CCTVMAN camera!This is a wired camera, it has no wifi, and assuming you have a firewall, and the camera is on the inside, (like 99% if not ALL homes will have), then it's NOT on the internet anyway, and you can think of it as on your own INTRANET camera.In Internet Explorer, you can set different security levels for internet and intranet.So, it's quite safe to carry on using Chrome, or even Iexplore, with tight security setting for internet, and you simply relax the security of intranet. I chose medium-low, and you can simply add the cameras IP address as a trusted site. Bingo, everything worked great from that point on.For Android, I'm also using Qvis Explorer, free on the google play store. It's also able to control the PZT, and you can record locally onto your phone.The image quality is really very good. When it comes to image quality, it's always ALL about the optics. (More on this later).With a 10x motorised optical zoom, and the motorised pan and tilt, this is a great little camera.One of the challenges with watching wildlife, is for the most part, none of it likes humans, and even if you spot something, chances are it spotted you first, and is already high-tailing it away from you long before you can point your camera at it, let alone focus, compose and shoot.Having used this camera for some 3 weeks now, I'm amazed at what's out there, especially at night.The motors are very quiet, and so far, panning, tilting, tracking, zooming, I have yet to startle or scare anything.Here's a list: Bats, Bunnies, Birds, Cat, Deer, Fox, Hedgehogs, Owls (which CLEARLY noticed the camera/motor noise, but weren't bothered), rats, mice, squirrels, and wait for it, OTTERS. That's right, OTTERS in Essex!!! Now maybe everyone else knows about them and nobody told me, but that was quite a surprise and it's really become the focus of attention, with plans to get another camera up ASAP.The codecs supported are H264 and H265, and delivers dual streams. Another cool feature is you can set the main stream to H265 for the files stored locally on the SD card, and set the substream to H264, and lower bandwidth, for remote, wifi connection to your phone.Actually the CM405IP-V10 substream, at 704*480, 30fps, H.264 and 1024Kbs video looks far superior to the Reolink 4K! (More on Reolink below)Auto Focus: This camera has a real autofocus system, (not a fixed focus, relying on the lens depth of field to provide sharpness like most of the cameras out there). It's actually been pretty impressive too, when tracking wildlife and something pans into the foreground, (like a fence or tree branch), the focus algorithm seems smart enough to maintain focus on the subject, and not pull forward to the fence etc.Possibly my use case is somewhat atypical, so for those of you looking for a camera for security applications, I'd suggest it's also a good choice.You can easily read the text on a cigarette packet at 15metres in total darkness! Faces, features, and what people are doing is all very clear, day or night. The motors are quiet, and it has a lot of features for security applications also.Also missing in the quoted spec, this model has no built in microphone. The firmware DOES support audio recording, but there is no microphone, which is actually sensible, as it would be so close to the motors, you'd only record motor noise.I contacted CCTVMAN support in China to see if they had a model with audio, (they have several) and had a very prompt and polite reply, and in response to my query about audio, they offered to customise a CM405IP-V10 for me, adding an external microphone input! How's that, for customer service!The auto exposure, autofocus, and especially the IR at night is really amazing. Another technicality that isn't elaborated on in the spec, is the IR illumination. Most cameras on Amazon are using small IR LEDS, or SMD IR LEDs in arrays, and while this is probably ok, it's actually a cheap and nasty solution, as most of these LEDs have low output and un-focused dispersion, and the manufacturers attempt to make up for that by adding more and more LEDs to the array.What's really cool about the CTVMAN camera is it has 2x2 IR LEDs, and I'm guessing they are CREE or similar, as they are blindingly bright (IR).Further more, they are mounted in pairs, each with it's own parabolic reflector, which focuses the illumination, and gives a balanced homogeneous dispersion pattern. The firmware is also very clever. With the zoom at 1x, (wide angle), only the 2 wide-field IR LEDs power up, and these are able to illuminate the entire field of view. The cool part is, as you zoom in, somewhere about 3~4x, the second pair of IR LEDs fire up, and these have a more narrow projection angle, and all 4 stay illuminated right up to 10x zoom.These activation profiles are also tune-able in the firmware, but the default settings are already good, so I have yet to play about with these controls in earnest.Initially I mounted this camera overlooking a wide open, grassy field, the hedge-lines run out to 25 metres up one side, and 90 metres perpendicular to the camera, at 10x zoom in total darkness you can clearly see the leaves on the trees at 90 metres.Watching the illumination pattern through a starlight scope as the camera pans around, it's actually very eerie as it appears as if someone is shining a spotlight around, but to the naked eye you see nothing of course.The panning range is awesome, and you can define 2D travel limits as well. This is useful, because with such a wide panning range, you probably don't need to view the wall or bracket holding the camera to the house, so you can set these travel limits and the camera will stop where you like.Firmware: This camera is running some form of embedded Linux, and as a native control system, it is stand-alone and you need to use a web browser, enter the IP address of the camera and log in, from there you get a load of features, motion detection, scheduled recording, alarms, triggers, ftp, emailing and all the setup, configuration settings etc. Live view with 2D and 3D selection tools.The CM405IP-V10 is of course an IP camera, so you can also "connect" it to an NVR or monitoring service.It has 2D selection, so wherever you click on the live video image, the camera pans and tilts to centre that spot.Ans with 3D selection, you simply click as before, but can drag a box around your target, and the camera will centre, and zoom into that area and focus. A nice feature here, is drag box/select top left toward bottom right, and the camera zooms in, if you drag bottom right, to top left, it zooms out.I didn't find these feature for a few days, but they are really intuitive and simple to use, and allow you to control all 4 camera motors with one click or click/drag of the mouse. Basically, you point and click, the camera does the rest, very cool.I would suggest disabling UPnP, both on your router and on the Camera. Interestingly, the Camera that Amazon shipped, came with UPnP enabled, and if you have this enabled on your router, it WILL OPEN 3 external ports.The Camera that shipped from China, was more sensibly configured, with UPnP disabled by default.I'm not intending to expand on the security weaknesses of UPnP, but did have a chuckle with all the scaremongering about ActiveX, which pales in comparison to what UPnP can allow. As I have no interest at this stage in viewing from anywhere by my house, I didn't have to worry about unlocking these security things and exposing my LAN to external risk.This more or less concludes my review of the CTVMAN CM405IP-V10 camera, based on 4 weeks of use, and I may update this as I gain experience with the multitude of other features I've not tried to date.As I mentioned at the start, I'm going to share below some experiences with other cameras, and POE.Cameras:Reolink RLC-420 (Terrible image quality, software ok-ish) (Returned to Amazon)Reolink RLC-410S (Terrible image quality, software average) (Returned to Amazon)Reolink RLC411S (Very poor image quality, software average) (Returned to Amazon)Samsung QND-7010R (Good image quality, software ok, (after update to 1.04)) (Running well, and I'm happy with it).POE Injectors/SplittersAkord Gigabit POE Passive Power Over Ethernet Adapter Injector Extractor Kit (Both Faulty) (Returned to Amazon)ANVISION Active Gigabit PoE Splitter Adapter with Multi-Size Tips (Both faulty) (Returned to Amazon)Tenda POE30G-AT 30 W IEEE802.3 Gigabit PoE Injector. (Excellent, well built, and both worked at gigabit speeds). (Running well, and I'm happy with it).Delock Network PoE + Splitter 802.3at Gigabit. (Build quality not as refined as the Tenda injector, but both worked at gigabit speeds). (Running well, and I'm happy with it).My experience with the above products is described below, a final word on image quality.I wanted at least one camera with a built in microphone, and after reading even more reviews, I opted for a Reolink RLC-420 4MP camera. While it was quite well built, the image quality was APPALLING. It's a POE camera, and even using a short 3metre CAT7a high quality cable, it made no improvement to the still or video quality. Reolink claim it's a 4K camera @30fps, but that is rubbish. YES it's 4K, but it's 8fps at night, the view through the lens is as if it's made of Vaseline. Even with the CCTVMAN camera pointed on the same tree, and shining it's great IR illumination, the Reolink image was smeery, blown in contrast, and even the course bark of an oak tree at 7 metres looked like melted cheese.So much for 4K, like I said at the start, image quality is all about the lenses.It was interesting to compare by setting the Reolink to 2Mp, it was no better in image quality, but neither was it noticeably worse, but the frame rate did go up to 25fps.Conclusion: The Reolink firmware lies about the framerate, I left it set to 30fps for all the testing, but when I checked the resulting files, they were all 8fps.Regardless, 8fps of rubbish, or 25fps of rubbish, 25, or 30fps, it's all just more rubbish per second. The image resolution, resolvability and quality of image is really a disgrace.I also bought 2 other Reolink models, RLC-410S, and a RLC411S, both also 4K like the RLC-420, but have 16GB (fixed) internal storage, and are also POE models. The 411S is equipped with a 4x motorised zoom lens. Not that it made much difference, all 3 of these Reolink models share the same awful image quality issues. To put it bluntly, they are utter rubbish!I upgraded all 3 Reolink models to their latest firmware versions, and that made no difference, and while the software and firmware in each camera, the motion detection and sound recording features are ok, I just couldn't get any decent day or night time images or video from these cameras. All my testing was done with the maximum possible bit rate settings for recording, and even trying lowering the resolution, 1080P, 720P, etc, to no avail. You can't even count the fingers on a hand at 8 meters in broad daylight.If you wanted to identify a person, or a number plate at 10metres, you'd fail.I've now returned all these Reolink cameras to Amazon, it's a shame really, they look quite well made, the software is pretty good, has an graphical event timeline, (which the CCTVMAN camera does not), but really the CCTVMAN camera is so vastly superior in image quality, it's like chalk and cheese compared to the Reolink models.In the end, I purchased a Samsung QND-7010R, 4Mp dome camera with built in microphone. It's got a great wideangle lens, and covers the entire field. With 4Mp and 20fps, and YES this one really is 20fps, it's great for spotting things, and then I use the CCTVMAN camera to zoom in on them. Another complement to the CCTVMAN camera, at 2Mp, even though it has half the pixel count of the other cameras described here, again it's stills and video quality, detail contrast is better than the 4K Samsung. This is probably somewhat unfair a comparison, as the Samsung does and an exceptionally wide angle lens, so everything appears to be further from the camera, details are smaller etc.But unlike all the Reolink cameras, that Samsung is a keeper, it's doing everything it says on the tin. (After updating to firmware 1.04 that is. It delivered with 1.03, and it was impossible to download any videos it had recorded on its 128GB SD card).Now, a word about POE.The CCTVMAN camera is NOT a POE camera, (but can be POE with the addition of accessories).The CM405IP-V10 comes with an nice small power supply, but with only about 2.5 metres of cable, and that includes the main 240VAC power cable.As this is an outdoor camera, you will need to think about this, (2.5M of power cable is not enough to get outside), and how you're going to get power to it.I certainly didn't want to run 240VAC out there, and decided on using a POE injector and splitter.This turned into another nightmare. Finding the devices that work at gigabit speeds is the first challenge, and eliminated 80% of the devices for sale on Amazon.My first attempt failed, when I purchased two of these: "Akord Gigabit POE Passive Power Over Ethernet Adapter Injector Extractor Kit - Injector and Extractor Both Included"Only one of the two injectors worked: I use "worked" loosely here, in that the integrated LED lit up green on one of the injectors, but as both splitters were dead on arrival, no LEDs lit up, I have no idea which end, injector, splitter or both are faulty.Both were returned to Amazon.As I have a POE network switch, I then decided to try using that to inject power directly, I didn't really want to do this, as the CCTVMAN cameras use 3~4 times the power of the Samsung. This is acceptable, remember they have Pan, Zoom, Tilt motors built in, and of course don't use as much power if the motors are static, but you need to allow for 24 Watts/camera and that was close to the limit on my POE switch.Anyway, as the Akord solution was a dismal failure, I was running out of options, and decided to try two of the "ANVISION Active Gigabit PoE Splitter Adapter with Multi-Size Tips"These also both failed out of the box. When connected to the POE switch, their green LEDs DID light, and it looked promising, but as soon as I connected anything to the power output, the LEDs started to pulse bright/dim and measuring the DC output, it was ranging between 1~12V DC, and even with just a 12V car numberplate bulb, it was enough to cause these to breakdown. This behavior was repeated when I tried to use the CM405IP-V10 power supply. As both my POE switch and the CM405IP-V10 power supplies worked fine, my conclusion was the ANVISION splitters were faulty.So, back they went to Amazon, and I resorted to running a 8m DC cable extension out to one camera, and this is also by far the cheapest solution. (£3.50)However, I wanted to start what I finished with POE, and eventually found a nice tidy solution, to run the CCTVMAN camera via POE.Tenda POE30G-AT 30 W IEEE802.3 Gigabit PoE Injector, power distance extension of up to 100 meters for standard cat. 5e and cat. 6 Ethernet cableIs a beefy injector, supplying 30W, so well in excess of the 24W required by the camera, and well made with high quality plastic casing.And FINALLY I found a splitter worked: Delock Network PoE + Splitter 802.3at GigabitSo I now have a single CAT7a cable running out to the other CCTVMAN camera, with the Tenda injector, and the Delock splitter. GREAT.I should also point out, the whole injector and splitter debacle, had nothing to do with the cameras, I never even got as far as connecting a camera, there is just so much rubbish available, either faulty or not the specification that claim to be.If you're going to purchase a PZT camera, you have to accept it's naturally going to need more power. In comparison the Samsung QND-7010R is only using 2.4W, (during day time) even though the spec quotes 7W.I guess I should point out, I have no association or affiliation with CCTVMAN or their distributors. By profession, I'm a systems automation and robotics engineer, with some 35 years experience in the imaging sector, spanning some 20 years in the photo industry, then medical diagnostics, and latterly life science and laser imagery, Ir, and multi-fluorescence imaging. Photography has been a hobby all these years, and as is abundantly clear with my stumblings as documented here, remote video, and IR video is a new branch for me, albeit drawing on technologies I'm pretty well versed in.So while no means am I claiming to be an expert here, I do know a few things about imaging, and what is required to accurately record imaging data, and given the price (currently £147), of the CTVMAN CM405IP-V10, I'm both impressed and amazed at the quality/price point.YES, the CM405IP-V10 is £27 more than the Reolink RLC-411S, and if you need POE, via the products I found to work above, (another £36.15), that brings the total up to £183.15, but to be honest, considering the features and quality, that's still great value for money.If you want to run out a DC power extension, this is a really cheap solution with Kenable selling 10M extensions for £3.50!So while the Reolink RLC-411S is a POE model, it's 4K and 4x zoom lens are vastly inferior to the 2K and 10x optics on the CCTVMAN CM405IP-V10.In conclusion, if I didn't already have a POE switch, (and wanted to maintain my simplified cabling architecture), or I was starting from scratch, I'd suggest the cheap DC power cable extension is the way to go. Let's face it, running 1 network cable, or running a network cable AND a DC power cable, is a negligible additional task assuming installed together. Certainly I could have done this from the start, and save myself 2 weeks of POE grief in shopping for products that didn't even work.A parting observation: Even if you add the above POE package to the cost of the CM405IP-V10, at £183.15, I doubt there is any camera out there with this list of features, and this level of image quality, under £500.Some early morning colour screen grabs from the CTVMAN CM405IP-V10 and some IR at night.Also one comparison with Reolink RLC-410s are below. (Note: the Reolink Image is benefiting from the ir illumination of the CCTVMAN camera, without this, the images are worse still).

Ordered Friday on standard delivery, delivered next day, have it up and running via IE and have no fault with it, only problem i had was the software came on a cd and i dont have a cd drive on my pc, so if you read this cctvman please contact me to link me up to a download, i tried your website but unfortunately the zip file was corrupt.Thank you.edit:17/07/2017My software problem was promptly sorted out by Robin(CCTVMAN) so customer service is excellent and i shall be ordering more from him in future of that i am certain, i now think 5 stars is appropriate, thank you Robin.

Great Camera, love the ZOOM, and so compact, great response, and fairly priced for the range.

excellent webcam picture quality is great smooth operation 10x zoom is works a treat would definitely recommend

Quality product

This is a review of the CCTV Man pan tilt zoom outdoor security camera.I've had this camera installed for 5 months. In that time it has had to endure some extreme UK weather, heavy driving rain, heavy driving snow and I must mention temperatures of -10°C accompanied by 40mph+ mean winds. The camera is in an exposed location and during the whole time has not failed, once I had started using a fast enough computer! (jumpy initially using an old xp machine). And during the heavy driving snow I was able to clear the lens of snow by pan and tilting it.I'm not very technically minded software wise, leave those bits to others, but know my optics and sensors. I picked this camera because of these.A feature that I find outstanding and so pleased with are the auto-focusing when using the zoom and the sharpness of the optics which give a fantastic picture when at wide angle of 10x zoom..Another feature of this camera is the infra red night vision. It blew me socks off when I first used it..... and I could hardly believe it. Not only does the night vision illuminate 300' away clearly, it auto-adjusts the infra-reds intensity mean its rare to get a bleached out view. I can zoom in and it will just about illumoinate stuff 1km ... not in clarity as it is.at up to 300 or 400' but enough to make a difference. Stunning night vision. The infra red is visible, but thats a deterrent I feel.The software is stable but I havn't explored its capabilities much.....I just enjoy watching wildlife at night live... and being able to record the good bits.It would have had 5 stars bar one minor problem. A small foreign body in the lens..... I would have returned it but when I purchased it I was called away for a time and so wasn't able to set it up.

CTVMAN HD IP PTZ Camera Outdoor 1080P 10X Optical Zoom Lens 5.1-51mm Pan Tilt LED Array IR 80M 2MP ONVIF Security Bullet IP Cam The camera only worked for 2 and half weeks then became faulty. It cost me fortune to get it installed by local cctv installer, sellers support was very poor had to call the local installer instead few times to fix the fault and again cost me more money. I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THIS SELLER AGAIN, DON'T BURN YOUR FINGERS LIKE I DID, THINK TWICE BEFORE BUYING