G3 ColorVu Cameras - First Impressions/Review

[Kyle]

Hi @Kyle, do you have plans to stock the 4mm versions of the new G3 mini bullets ?

I'm afraid not anytime soon - Hikvision seems to have cut back on bringing 4mm mini bullets into UK stock as they've become less popular.
There's still a good amount of stock of the 4mm 2xx7G2H cameras, so I suspect we'll see some 4mm G3 mini bullets start to arrive later in the year as the G2H cameras sell out.
Of the back orders we're aware of, there are only 4mm G3 turrets and larger bullets, but even these are smaller quantities compared to 2.8mm cameras.

These are the models that are in stock now in 4mm:

Hikvision DS-2CD2347G3-LI2UY 4MP Smart Hybrid Light with ColorVu 3.0 Fixed Turret Network Camera

Key features: - 4MP (2688x1520) Resolution, at up to 30fps - Fixed-focal Lens - 2.8mm or 4mm - M16 Lens Mount, F1.0 Aperture, Fixed Iris - Angle Adjustment - 0° to 360° Pan / 0° to 75° Tilt / 0° to 360° Rotate - Smart Hybrid Light: Integrates IR and White Light; 3 Supplemental Lighting Modes -...

www.use-ip.co.uk

Hikvision DS-2CD2387G3-LI2UY 8MP Smart Hybrid Light with ColorVu 3.0 Fixed Turret Network Camera

Key features: - 8MP (3840x2160) Resolution, at up to 30fps - Fixed-focal Lens - 2.8mm or 4mm - M16 Lens Mount, F1.0 Aperture, Fixed Iris - Angle Adjustment - 0° to 360° Pan / 0° to 75° Tilt / 0° to 360° Rotate - Smart Hybrid Light: Integrates IR and White Light; 3 Supplemental Lighting Modes -...

www.use-ip.co.uk

Hikvision DS-2CD2T47G3-LIY 4MP Smart Hybrid Light with ColorVu 3.0 Fixed Bullet Network Camera

Key features: - 4MP (2688x1520) Resolution, at up to 30fps - Fixed-focal Lens - 2.8mm or 4mm - M16 Lens Mount, F1.0 Aperture, Fixed Iris - Angle Adjustment - 0° to 360° Pan / 0° to 90° Tilt / 0° to 360° Rotate - Smart Hybrid Light: Integrates IR and White Light; 3 Supplemental Lighting Modes -...

www.use-ip.co.uk

Hikvision DS-2CD2T47G3-LIS2UY/SL 4MP Smart Hybrid Light with ColorVu 3.0 Fixed Bullet Network Camera

Key features: - 4MP (2688x1520) Resolution, at up to 30fps - Fixed-focal Lens - 2.8mm or 4mm - M16 Lens Mount, F1.0 Aperture, Fixed Iris - Angle Adjustment - 0° to 360° Pan / 0° to 90° Tilt / 0° to 360° Rotate - Smart Hybrid Light: Integrates IR and White Light; 3 Supplemental Lighting Modes -...

www.use-ip.co.uk

Hikvision DS-2CD2T87G3-LIY 8MP Smart Hybrid Light with ColorVu 3.0 Fixed Bullet Network Camera

Key features: - 8MP (3840x2160) Resolution, at up to 30fps - Fixed-focal Lens - 2.8mm or 4mm - M16 Lens Mount, F1.0 Aperture, Fixed Iris - Angle Adjustment - 0° to 360° Pan / 0° to 90° Tilt / 0° to 360° Rotate - Smart Hybrid Light: Integrates IR and White Light; 3 Supplemental Lighting Modes -...

www.use-ip.co.uk

Hikvision DS-2CD2T87G3-LIS2UY/SL 8MP Smart Hybrid Light with ColorVu 3.0 Fixed Bullet Network Camera

Key features: - 8MP (3840x2160) Resolution, at up to 30fps - Fixed-focal Lens - 2.8mm or 4mm - M16 Lens Mount, F1.0 Aperture, Fixed Iris - Angle Adjustment - 0° to 360° Pan / 0° to 90° Tilt / 0° to 360° Rotate - Smart Hybrid Light: Integrates IR and White Light; 3 Supplemental Lighting Modes -...

www.use-ip.co.uk

 

[johnfitzy]

I'm afraid not anytime soon - Hikvision seems to have cut back on bringing 4mm

I promised myself never 2.8 again... and.... let's just say planned obsolescence aint in my future... like George Bush said fool me I don't know just don't try fool me

 

[murcod]

Thanks Kyle.
The G3 image has a lot more visible noise than the G2.

There's a lot of ambient light in that scene too.

Compare the top of the "Dover Beacon" sign - the G3 picked up the writing, the G2 shows nothing. The face on the person- the G2 looks slightly like a face with facial features sort of there, the G3 a smudged mess.

Neither are great given the amount of light there is.

 

[JB1970]

There's a lot of ambient light in that scene too.

Compare the top of the "Dover Beacon" sign - the G3 picked up the writing, the G2 shows nothing. The face on the person- the G2 looks slightly like a face with facial features sort of there, the G3 a smudged mess.

Neither are great given the amount of light there is.

As Kyle mentioned, he'd left that camera on its default settings; Auto Exposure with 100% gain, 1/12sec exposure time (will cause image blur), H265+. I do think that the G3 provides a clearer image than previous models; better colour image day and night, brighter and sharper mono image when theres no ambient light. However I'm not seeing any drastic changes or improvements to support Hikvisions claims in their promotional material:

1 - I don't think the low light performance is necessarily better. I don't see the blur reduction that was mentioned. If this blur reduction is part of the 'AI', then perhaps the improvement is limited to H265+ which is the default for this model (I do not use H265+ ever)

2 - AcuSense 2.0. No additional information is provided for what the improvements are. There is no difference to the settings available for adjustment. I had some false alerts for cars picked up as human and had to restrict the coverage to get around that (I didn't have that on the previous camera)

3 - Audio 2.0. The claims of improved clarity with the dual array microphone seem to be wildly exaggerated. The audio is no clearer than the previous generation and unusable if the Environmental Noise Reduction is turned on. This is the case on both of the cameras I installed so doesn't appear to be a faulty unit.

4 - Dual VCA or Smart Search for non human/non vehicle targets is not possible and will always return 'no results'. As @alfaclvi has posted, 5.7.15 was the last version on the G5 platform (previous ColorVu models firmware) that this feature worked. As this newer model uses different firmware and is on its initial release, it wouldn't be possible to get this feature supported without Hikvision fixing it. That seems increasingly unlikely as it's a year now since the feature was removed on the G5's.

As yet there have been no firmware updates since before the cameras were available (in the UK)

 

[murcod]

It has got me pondering (again) why I keep buying Hikvision equipment.

The slow exposure time doesn't explain why the writing on that sign was completely missed by the G2.

Edit: Actually, looking at the G2 picture again the highlights are over exposed compared to the G3. That would explain the missing detail on the sign. There's a shop with lights on to the right of the truck , and the whole shop is a blown out mess on the G2, it's better on the G3.

Both cameras need a lot of tweaking to get a meaningful idea on any differences.