Hikvision ColorVu 4MP Turret Camera, 40 m White Light, 2.8 mm DS-2CD3347G2-LSU(2.8mm)(C)

What this Hikvision ColorVu camera is for

Black and white night footage leaves out the colour that helps describe a car or a coat. This Hikvision turret camera aims to keep that colour through the night, using a wide lens and its own white light.

It can suit a homeowner covering a front path or a small business covering a shop floor. A turret housing holds the lens in a ball, with no dome cover over it.

How does ColorVu work?

• ColorVu: Hikvision's name for its colour-at-night range. The F1.0 aperture lets in more light, so the sensor has more to work with.
• White light: a visible lamp that lights the scene, so the picture can stay in colour when it gets dark.
• Target alarms: motion and perimeter alarms can be limited to human and vehicle 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 aluminium alloy 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.

The 2.8 mm lens has a wide 112° horizontal view, so it suits areas a few metres from the camera. As a rule, aim the lamp away from a neighbour's window.

What the figures mean in practice

• DORI distances: DORI stands for detect, observe, recognise and identify. Plan on 11 m to recognise someone you know, and treat 58 m only as seeing that something moved.
• 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 8 Mbps rate this works out at about six days of constant recording, and far longer at lower rates or on event recording.
• Sound: audio exception detection is one of the smart events, and can flag a sudden change in sound.

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.
• Extra wiring: the alarm connection is rated up to 12 VDC, 30 mA, which is low. Check the wiring in the camera's manual before connecting a device.
• 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.

In most installations, recording sound raises extra privacy questions, so decide early whether it stays on.

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.