Quick, slick performer: the SPD-3750T dome camera from Samsung Techwin

08 Oct 09

What our experts say...

Claiming to be or have the 'World's First' something or other is virtually guaranteed to grab a few headlines, as indeed it has with the Samsung Techwin SPD-3750T dome camera.

This particular boast concerns a 37x optical zoom, and we doubt very much that anyone is going to challenge it, but here's a tip for other surveillance camera manufacturers.

Our very brief research suggests that magnifications of 31x, 33x, 35x, 39x and most odd numbers before and after are all up for grabs, so get in quick with your 'World's Firsts', before the novelty wears off…

Fortunately for Samsung the 3750 has a lot more going for it than the admittedly powerful optical zoom, which is a pretty impressive piece of optical engineering.

And whilst we're on the subject, there's also a 12x digital zoom, which bumps the magnification up to a whopping 444x, though you better make sure the camera is bolted to something very substantial if you want to make use of it, and chose your subjects with care, but more about that later on.

Running through the rest of the key features we have, in no particular order: Intelligent Auto Tracking, for following moving objects; a very nimble 500 deg/sec pan/tilt action; 255 position presets; day/night operation down to 0.7 lux; 550 line resolution, courtesy of an 0.25 inch double-density interline CCD (752 x 582 effective pixels) and 128x wide dynamic range (WDR) for clearer views of backlit, strongly lit and contrasty scenes.

Installation should be fast and simple with a quick-release mounting/connector module. It can be used in conjunction with a wide range of controllers as it supports most popular protocols, there's a built-in motion detection, a privacy mask, multi-lingual OSD, auto flip, switchable 3D noise filtering, four alarm inputs and two outputs, plus a full set of manual and automatic exposure controls.

It's a distinctive shape; the camera sits beneath a gently tapered silver cylindrical housing. One point worth making here is that casing and dome are, not to put to fine a point on it, made from fairly thin plastic and will not offer much in the way of protection, so bear that in mind if it is to be installed in a potentially hostile or vandal-prone location.

Hardly any attempt has been made to protect the clear dome, it is a simple screw fit, and the quick-release catches are also very easy to get at so make sure it's mounted well out of reach.

All of the power, telemetry and video interconnections are routed through a set of connectors on the top of the camera that mates with a mounting module. Here too is the exhaust vent for the small cooling fan and two sets of DIP switches for configuring the camera's communications settings and ID. Almost everything else is handled by the menu-driven on-screen displays.

A hinged door mid-way on the cylindrical case opens to reveal a set of controls and sockets, including a sub-miniature USB socket, but no mention of this is made in the manual, which suggests they are for testing or diagnostic purposes or, as yet unannounced, features (a brief fiddle revealed that pressing the button invokes a system reset, whilst the toggle switch turns off the camera).

Inside the case there are two circular PCBs in the top section, these are concerned with connections to the outside world and power regulation (it requires a 24 volt AC supply).

The camera module comprises two more circular PCBs mounted inside the base of the plastic chassis, which it shares with the pan motor and its associated toothed belt drive. Camera tilt (-6 -186deg) is also controlled by a stepper motor/belt-drive arrangement.

Apart from the insubstantial outer casing the overall quality of the materials and the standard of construction appears to be very high indeed. There is rather a lot of untidy looking cabling in the base unit but it's not somewhere an installer would normally need to venture and it's very unlikely to cause problems

Setup and operation

All of the cabling comes together in the well designed mounting module and that combined with some unusually helpful guidance in the instruction manual means that the basic mechanical installation should proceed fairly smoothly in most instances.

The only other preliminaries are to set up the communications protocols and ID on the DIP switches on the top of he unit.

This is a real throwback to the bad old days of cross-checking impenetrable charts and diagrams against microscopic switches in inconvenient and usually dark corners. Once past that hurdle it should all be plain sailing as the setup moves to a set of on-screen menus.

The main menu lists 7 sub menus. They are: Camera Setting, Sequence Setting, P/T Setting, OSD Setting, Alarm Setting, Initialise and Status.

Each sub menu leads to another set of sub menus, which in the case of the Camera menu is: Focus and Zoom, White Balance, Exposure, Back Light, AGC, SSNR (Samsung Super Noise Reduction, in case you were wondering…), Day & Night and Others (Sync, Stabiliser, Image Adjust – sharpness & colour, Freeze and Dome Cover focus optimisation).

There's really no need to go into any more detail, it's mostly self explanatory and, suffice it to say, that almost all of the camera's primary functions are accessible through the menu system, which is reasonably well laid out and easy to use.

A couple of features warrant a special mention because they are unexpectedly easy to setup and use and the first one is Auto-Tracking.

It's a notoriously difficult trick that few cameras or monitoring systems manage to pull off in all but the most ideal situations and the 3750T is no exception.

The instructions have a long list of provisos and exemptions (dirty lens, low contrast between subject and background, too many movements, lighting changes, moving object on lens, reflections object tracks moves too fast or behind a telephone pole, and so on) but in our tests, provided the basic requirement of not having more than one principle target is met, it works really well.

The other welcome surprise was how easy it was to set up preset positions, sequences and tours and to later edit them. It's all very intuitive with few of the usual convolutions involved in setting up a high-end PTZ camera.

Performance

In good daylight and with all of the camera functions set to auto or their default setting image quality was excellent. There's plenty of fine detail and picture noise was negligible, only becoming apparent when the light level fell to close to the default day/night switching threshold (which can be adjusted if necessary).

Colours are crisp and natural looking and the auto systems quickly and accurately compensated for both slow and rapid changes in lighting conditions. This includes the white balance system, which manages to maintain a reasonably neutral colour response under tube and mixed lighting.

The auto focus system proved to be a little touchy and was prone to hunting on our sample, especially at higher magnification levels.

We couldn't see a clear cut reason for this and it happened even when the scene or subject was well lit and there was plenty of contrast between the subject and background. Switching between the options made little difference and when it wouldn't settle down the only recourse was to switch to manual control.

Internal reflections, even without the dome in place can be quite pronounced, particularly when a strong light strikes the unit at an oblique angle.

Against a dark background and when the camera is pointed downwards you can clearly read the numbers around the edge of the lens barrel, deep inside the camera housing.

It would be unfair not to mention the world-beating 37x optical zoom. And very good it is too, though our guess is it is responsible for at least some of the internal reflections.

It also has to come with the health warnings that we alluded to earlier, namely that the focus can be a tad lively, and the need for a rigid mount. Not just stiff or tight, but absolutely rock solid.

At higher zoom settings the slightest movement or vibration is magnified and it doesn't take much to render the image unusable; needless to say it only gets worse when the digital zoom is used.

The electronic image stabiliser helps but it reduces the size of the image slightly resulting in a small loss of resolution.

PTZ speed, resolution and stability are both very good with little or no overshoot on fast pans. It can be linked to the zoom, allowing for very precise positional adjustment, even at higher magnification levels.

Overall assessment

The Samsung marketing machine appears to be keen to promote the virtues of the powerful optical zoom and it can prove useful for wide area surveillance, but its value diminishes in more confined locations.

Of course it really comes into its own when the camera is used outside, however, this is not a role that this camera is naturally suited to unless it is installed inside one of the optional weatherproof housings.

It's possible to argue that a tougher, weatherproof housing probably wouldn't have added significantly to the overall cost but we suspect it would have given it a much broader appeal and wider role from the outset.

But this is largely nit-picking. What we have here is a quick, slick, versatile and highly proficient dome camera that's easy to install, set up and use.

The powerful zoom is a genuine asset and we were pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the auto-tracking facility, though again it's important to be aware of its limitations.

It has its fair share of quirks too, the number of internal reflections was unexpected but otherwise the negatives can be compensated for and mostly outweighed by its many positive attributes.

What the manufacturer says...

The newest model in Samsung Techwin's range of PTZ dome cameras, the SPD-3570T can claim to incorporate the world's first 37 x optical zoom lens.

Samsung Techwin design engineers have pulled out all the stops with this remarkable Day/Night dome camera. It is packed full of features and functions such as Intelligent Auto Tracking which should ensure the SPD-3750T becomes a firm favourite with installers when they are looking to recommend solutions for shopping centres, car parks and public space projects.

The SPD-3750T, which can pan at 400 degrees per second, offers the option of automatic scene tours or can be programmed to move to 256 preset positions.

Utilising SV-IV, Samsung Techwin's latest generation chipset, the SPD-3750T boasts enhanced Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), digital image stabilisation and SSNRII 3D noise reduction technology. Together with the 37 x optical zoom capability, these advanced features can deliver high quality colour images of far away objects at 550 TV lines, even when lighting levels are as low as 0.7 lux.

The SPD-3750T is one of eight models in the highly popular Samsung Techwin SPD speed domes series. Collectively these high speed domes cameras offer solutions for a wide range of CCTV projects from small shops and offices to large applications such as shopping centres, car parks and public spaces.

Seven models in the range share the same design and are suitable for use internally with a range of outdoor housing options for external operation in all-weather environments down to -40 degrees Celsius. "Hot-swap" back boxes with integrated memory allow a site to benefit from a flexible surveillance solution where any of the seven models can be quickly relocated from back-box to back-box.

These seven models are available with 27x, 33x, and the world's first 37x zoom module options, ensuring that all viewing demands can be met.

Two models within the range, the SPD-3700T and SPD-3750T, benefit from Samsung Techwin's automatic tracking function, which can automatically track subjects and zoom in on them for evidence gathering purposes without any operator intervention. This functionality can be essential for applications such as out of office hours surveillance and perimeter protection.

Selected models have enhanced Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) functionality for use in challenging lighting conditions.

Continuous 360 degree rotation, privacy masking, DIS (Digital Image Stabilisation), motion detection, multi-language on-screen display and preset, learn and group tour functions with 500 degree per second pan are all included as standard.

The eighth model in the range, the SPD-1000, offers 350 degree pan at 100 degrees per second, shares many features of its counterparts and comes complete with a 10x optical zoom module.

Get the latest stories first with info4security's newsletters: Click to signup

Post and bookmark this story at the following sites:

What is this?

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit	Google	Newsvine