What our experts say …
Following a brief run of exotically specified and sometimes unusually shaped PTZ cameras, our finely-tuned antenna have been on high-alert recently, so our suspicions were immediately aroused by the apparent normality of the Dennard 2060…
As we all know it’s the normal-looking ones you have to watch out for, but on this occasion the 2060 is a reassuringly conventional design that should find favour with specifiers and end-users looking for a robust high-performance outdoor dome that can cope with a wide range of conditions.
The 2060 is based around a high-performance colour day/night camera module sporting a .25-inch Sony Ex-View HAD CCD sitting behind a 36x optical zoom lens (an 18x lens is optionally available) and this can be augmented with a switchable 12x electronic zoom.
Resolution is a claimed 460 lines with minimum sensitivity 0.05 lux in colour mode and 0.01 lux in mono/night mode. It has a modest assortment of automatic and manual camera functions controlled through a set of menu-driven on-screen displays and these include manual colour mono switching, auto/preset shutter, preset/auto focus and variable gain and lift, to compensate for cable length and type.
Pan/tilt speed is a nimble 0.05 to 300 degrees/sec and a total of 200 preset positions can be stored, each with a 20-character ident. Up to 100 tours of 16 preset positions can be created and it has 24 programmable privacy zones (up to eight on the screen at a time), with an auto-flip feature to assist tracking subjects as they pass beneath the dome.
There’s a programmable clock and calendar functions for on-screen time/date and selective alarm masking. Coaxial and RS485 telemetry are supported and it is compatible with a wide range of popular controllers and protocols. The camera is housed inside a tough, vandal-resistant, weatherproof cast alloy enclosure and this can be attached to an impressively wide range of mounting hardware and brackets. These have been designed for rapid installation and power (24v AC), video output, and RS485 telemetry are carried by a single cable terminated in an Amphenol connector that mates with a weatherproof socket fitted to the top of the unit.
Six screws keep the transparent dome and its fixing collar in place; the join is well protected by a rubber gasket, ensuring nothing can get in. Inside the dome the camera and the main PCB are mounted on a chunky-looking cast-alloy chassis. The pan and tilt stepper motors both use simple toothed belt drive mechanisms and the use of heavy-duty bearings and conspicuously over-engineered components ensures that movement in both planes is smooth and precise.
The only slightly unusual aspect of the camera’s construction is the use of exposed slip rings and spring-wire contacts for the electrical connections between the rotating platform and the stationary mounting assembly.
The vast majority of dome cameras use either rotary transformers, or sealed slip ring assemblies, and although the dome’s outer casing appears to be well protected, it does seem odd to leave these potentially vulnerable contacts open to the elements. On the plus side, should they become intermittent they will be easy to clean…
The other minor curiosity was a disparity between the manufacturer’s marketing blurb and our test unit. The operating range is remarkably wide and quoted as being between -34 to + 50 degrees centigrade. The specs suggest it is fitted with a fan and heating element, however neither were fitted in our sample, which may indicate this model is designed for milder climes.
Setup and operation
A simple keyboard shortcut calls up the camera’s main menu, which opens with four selections: Go to Preset, Start Tour and two PIN-protected sub menus for the ‘Technician’ and ‘Supervisor’ setup. The Technician menu deals with initial and infrequently used settings and leads to a set of five sub menus. The first one is Colour and used to manually select colour or mono mode. The next one is Enable/Disable Options and this covers Local/System controller text Edit, Head info Display, Error Display and Power Fail – go to preset 1, resume tour or last position.
Menu item three is Joystick Control and the choices here are Divide By, for setting the relationship between fast and slow pan/tilt speeds, linear speed and pan and tilt direction. The fourth item on the menu is Miscellaneous Services, which covers a range of troubleshooting aids relating to communications settings, servo motor reset, factory reset and so on. The final item on this menu is used to change the default Technician PIN settings.
On the Supervisor sub menu there are seven choices, headed by Store/Edit Preset, which covers programming a position and composing an on-screen ident. The second, Store/Edit Tour, does what it says and is responsible for setting up camera tours and this is followed by the Alarm Setup menu. This determines what the camera does in response to external alarm trigger, and this can be further controlled by the internal clock, so that actions can be set according to the time or day of the week.
The next menu is the Supervisor Options and it includes switches for the digital zoom, Bottom Flip, Freeze Frame (hold last image whilst repositioning) User Timeout, Set time and date, Language Options, Preset Text Options, Supervisor PIN change and Privacy Zone setup. The latter is a little unusual, and unexpectedly simple to use. The user merely uses the pan, tilt and zoom controls to fill the frame with the item or view to be blanked, then enables the zone, and the whole screen turns black – no messing around with sizing buttons, it’s fast, and once you get the hang of it, very intuitive.
Unfortunately that’s more than can be said for some menu operations which are not especially logical, at times painfully slow, and it can be difficult to navigate and make changes using the controller’s joystick.
Performance
Starting with the mechanics, as we hinted earlier the pan/tilt mechanism is a good example of precision engineering. Movement at all speeds is smooth and well controlled and even at the highest speeds there’s not a trace of overshoot.
Resolution is close to the manufacturer’s specs and image quality in decent light is generally very good with crisp clean colours, lots of fine detail and a responsive exposure system that reacts quickly to variations in lighting level. As light levels fall there is a small increase in noise but it’s certainly no worse than similarly specified day/night cameras.
The switchover point has been well judged and it occurs well before there’s too much loss of detail and even at very low light levels the image remains clear and sharp.
There are a couple of small problems, though. The lack of any colour controls puts a lot of emphasis on the performance of the automatic white balance system. It’s fine in natural light, the picture was a little too warm for our taste with a touch too much red, particularly at reduced light levels, but our sample seemed to struggle with fluorescent and mixed lighting, which resulted in a slight yellow caste.
The other area of concern was the auto focus, which had a tendency to hunt, especially at higher magnification levels and even when the object or scene was well lit and the image contained plenty of contrast.
There were some internal reflections from the dome in extreme lighting situations though on balance they were no worse than most other dome cameras of this type. Stability is excellent and it passed the SI rubber mallet test with flying colours.
