The Eyes have it

Having become accustomed to wading through inch-thick and often quite badly written or presented manuals before daring to connect up a new piece of video surveillance equipment, the Eyes To Eyes CCD683 colour camera makes a very welcome change. The instructions, if you can call them that, comprise one side of a sheet of A4 paper, and most of that is taken up with simple layout and wiring diagrams.

From that you may rightly infer that there's not a lot to worry about when it comes to installing and setting up this camera. In fact, apart from the basic cautions and warning notices the instructions could be summed up in just one sentence: fix to a flat surface and plug in the power supply and video output cables…

That's not to say the CCD 683 is entirely featureless. In fact it is fairly well appointed but apart from aligning the camera on its mounting bracket there is simply nothing to set up or configure.

The camera is billed as a weatherproof 'Day/Night' model and it is based around a 1/3-inch Sony HyperHAD image sensor with a 752 x 582 pixel array. This gives a claimed resolution of 480 lines. The Day/Night feature is courtesy of a ring of IR emitters mounted around the lens; the spec box on the instructions claim, somewhat optimistically, that they provide illumination up to a distance of 60 metres.

All exposure and day/night functions are automatic and opening the case to make any adjustments – even fine-tuning the focus – would invalidate the warranty. For the record the electronic shutter operates over a range of 1/50th to 1/100,000th sec, AGC, white balance and backlight compensation are all automatic but the manufacturer provides no more details. The low light sensitivity is equally vague and the camera is simply rated at 0 lux, with the IR illuminators switched on.

The 683D is built inside a cylindrical weatherproof housing measuring 150mm x 80mm and made of a lightweight alloy with a brushed silver finish. It's a two-part design with a rubber-sealed, screw-fit cover with protective window keeping moisture, dust and bugs out.

A single metre-long cable carries the power feed and video output; this emerges from a weatherproof gland on the rear. The cable terminates with a BNC line socket and DC power connector – an AC adaptor module is supplied. A detachable extruded alloy sun/rain hood bolts to the top of the case; alloy blocks with a standard 1/4-inch mounting threads are attached to the top and bottom of the rear of the housing.

Inside the case it's mostly just air since the camera is a compact board module with integral 16mm lens, giving a viewing angle of around 21 degrees (similar to the 22 degree beam spread of the LED IR emitters). The camera module is attached to a metal plate, which in turn is screwed to fixing lugs moulded inside the front of the case; the whole assembly is very rigid and well put together. A small power-supply/control board slots into a moulded rail in the base of the case.

The circular PCB supporting the eight IR emitters fits around the lens barrel and this is held in place by the front cap. A light sensor at the base of the ring is responsible for switching the LEDs on when light levels fall below a preset threshold. There's a couple of chunky resistors of the back of the illuminator circuit board and the whole assembly gets quite warm, indirectly acting as a heater. As far as we could see there's no on-board temperature sensors but it should prevent the protective glass at the front from icing up during really cold weather, at night at any rate.

Setup and operation

Since there are no user or installer adjustments inside or outside the case it's a case of fix and forget. The only thing to watch out for is the position of the mounting blocks, which are well behind the camera's centre of gravity. It's a fair weight (750g) so it can put a strain on joints on the mounting bracket, which need to be up to the job and securely tightened.

The Eyes To Eyes CCD-683D day/night colour camera is a robust, competitive product...

Performance

In natural light general image quality is very good indeed. Resolution is at or very close to the manufacturer's figure and the auto exposure systems respond quickly to both slow and rapid changes in lighting levels. Contrast balance is fine, and although the backlight compensation system is quite basic, it will deal with one or two bright lights in the scene area without too much fuss.

It is difficult to make too many judgements about white balance control since the one area of concern on our sample was colour saturation. This was very weak and even heavily saturated colours look washed out, greens hardly register at all, and the picture looks almost monochrome at times. This may well be an alignment problem and confined to our sample, so it's something to check if accurate colour rendition is important in a planned application.

At lower lighting levels picture noise starts to creep into the image. It's not serious and only becomes apparent at or close to the switch on point for the IR illuminators, at which point the saturation is further reduced until the image becomes black and white.

The IR illuminators operate in the 880nm range and emit a dull visible red glow, providing a pool of well-diffused light directly in front of the camera. It's definitely useful up to a distance of around 30 to 40 metres but at 60 metres only the most reflective and lightly coloured objects will be seen.

Mechanical and electrical stability are both excellent and the picture from our sample remained solid whilst the camera was subjected to the customary beating with the Security Installer rubber mallet.

What the manufacturer says ...

When it comes to day and night surveillance, the new Eyes to Eyes CCD-683D has everything covered. It brings you sharp picture quality with 480 TV lines and also eight big IR Led Lights that covers a distance of 60m IR. The CCD-683D is fitted with a 1/3-inch Sony SuperHAD CCD image sensor and 16mm lens to provide a 21.30 degree viewing angle and 20 degrees for the IR angle. The camera also comes with features such as Auto Gain Control, Auto White Balance and also Auto Back-Light Compensation.

There are a few different solutions to low light problems. One of the solutions is to use good quality IR LED lights. Some users might think that the more IR LED lights a camera has the clearer the picture it gives you during the night.

In fact, the more IR LED lights there are doesn't exactly mean it will deliver clearer pictures from a further distance. The quality of the LED light actually determines the IR distance. The CCD-683D manages to cover 60m with only eight pcs of quality IR LED lights. There is no doubt that users can get the most of CCD-683D and stay safe in the dark.