Hikvision ColorVu 8MP Bullet Camera, Smart Hybrid Light, 4 mm DS-2CD2T87G2H-LI(4mm)(eF)

What this Hikvision ColorVu camera is for

Infrared night footage loses the colour that helps describe a car or a coat. This Hikvision ColorVu bullet camera is built to keep that information whenever there is enough light.

It can suit a homeowner covering a long drive, or an installer who wants one network camera for a yard or car park. A bullet housing points plainly along the area it watches.

How do ColorVu and Smart Hybrid Light work?

• ColorVu: Hikvision's name for its colour-at-night range. A wide F1.0 aperture lets in more light, so the camera can hold colour in dimmer scenes.
• Smart Hybrid Light: the camera carries two kinds of light. IR, at 850 nm, gives night vision without a bright visible beam, while white light lets the picture stay in colour.
• Deep learning: software trained on examples sorts what it sees into people and vehicles. Alarms can then be limited to those targets.
• H.265+: a video compression method that needs less bandwidth and storage than older formats for a similar picture.

Where to use it

The metal body and -30 °C to 60 °C working range suit outdoor walls and soffits as well as indoor spaces. Keep it away from salt air and chemical plants, as those sites call for higher anti-corrosion levels.

As a rule, white light is easier to live with where it faces your own property and not a neighbour's window.

What the figures mean in practice

• DORI distances: DORI stands for detect, observe, recognise and identify. Plan on 10 m where you need to identify a stranger, and treat 109 m only as seeing that something moved.
• Close limit: focus holds from 3.8 m outwards at 4 mm, so do not expect sharp faces right under the camera.
• WDR and lux: WDR balances the bright and dark parts of a picture. Lux measures light falling on a scene, and AGC is the camera's automatic gain.
• 512 GB card: at the top 16 Mbps rate this works out at about three days of constant recording, and far longer at lower rates or on event recording.

Installing it

• Power budget: a PoE switch port needs to supply Class 3, one of the PoE power levels. On a 12 VDC adapter, reverse polarity protection guards the camera if the supply is wired the wrong way round.
• Fixings by code: the options also include the DS-1275ZJ-S-SUS pole mount and DS-1260ZJ junction box. As a rule, check each one's finish and fixing pattern on its own page before ordering.
• Set-up: use plug-in free live view in Chrome 57.0+, Firefox 52.0+ or Edge 89+, or the iVMS-4200 client.

Planning your system

A recorder is optional for small jobs, because the camera can also save to a NAS (network attached storage) drive. Up to 6 live views can run at once and up to 32 user accounts can be set.

For longer retention, add a network video recorder that shares one of the profiles below.

Standards and ratings explained

• IP67: dust tight, and protected against temporary immersion in water.
• ONVIF Profile S, G and T: ONVIF is the Open Network Video Interface standard. S covers streaming, G covers on-device recording and T covers advanced video such as H.265.
• EN 50130-4: an immunity standard for alarm equipment, covering electrical interference.
• ISAPI, SDK and ISUP: Hikvision's own routes for connecting software and management platforms to the camera.
• Hik-Connect: Hikvision's app for viewing cameras remotely.