How Well Does Sony’s 4K IP Surveillance Camera Perform?
SSI put the Sony SNC-VM772R fixed dome camera under the microscope.
Sony's SNC-VM772R fixed dome camera.
SONY has been supplying products to the CCTV industry for many years. Its video surveillance offerings have primarily been based on the IPELA line of CCTV cameras. If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!
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 sensor. We will examine one of these cameras, the SNC-VM772R fixed dome.</p>
<h2><strong>Construction</strong></h2>
<p>The first thing I noticed about this camera when I pulled it out of the box was its size – it is BIG compared to the standard fixed IP domes I have worked with or seen in today’s market. I initially thought I had been mistakenly sent a small-sized pan/tilt/zoom (p/t/z) dome for review as this unit measures 7½ inches across and is almost 6 inches high. This footprint is almost as large as several IP p/t/z units on the market today. </p>
<p>The next thing I noticed about this camera’s construction was its weight, which is just a bit above 4 pounds for the camera assembly itself. As you can imagine with such weight, the camera unit has a very solid feel. </p>
<p>Upon opening the camera to view the internal components, I noticed the mating edges for the dome cover and the camera base lined up nicely and fit snugly. The castings were well polished and did not have any rough edges or protrusions that would allow water or dust to penetrate the dome assembly. This is very important when an integrator is mounting any camera assembly since water and dirt are mortal enemies to electronics. The design of the components and housing for the SNC-VM772R allows it to survive in harsh environments. The camera is rated IP-66 for water resistance and IK-10 for impact resistance, and is rated for a -40â° to 122â° F temperature range. </p>
<p>The test assembly I was shipped included a mounting bracket and cap to allow the camera to be mounted in a traditional wall mount method. The bracket and cap were also of high quality and the pieces mated well for assembly. </p>
<p>The only issue I had when assembling the parts to test their fit was with a gasket that is part of the cap assembly. I worked on getting the gasket to sit in the groove inside the cap for 10 minutes and didn’t have very much luck getting it to stay in place. This was with the unit sitting on my test bench, so I can only imagine what it would be like trying to get the gasket to stay in place in the field on top of a ladder. It may be possible to get the gasket to stay in place with a couple of dabs of silicone caulk but, that is something I wasn’t going to try with a demo unit. </p>
<p>As can be seen in the photograph above, the camera has a half moon of IR illuminators built into the camera housing. The camera also has a rubbery lens protector/shroud that, when placed properly, allows the lens to block out the majority of the IR “blowback” that can be seen on the domes of IR equipped cameras. </p>
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<h2><strong>Features</strong></h2>
<p>The SNC-VM772R has many nice features and is designed to provide the end user with a robust video image. The unit gets its picture quality from a 1.0 type back illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, which allows the unit to render the 4K video image. This sensor also allows the camera to obtain excellent detail in bright sunlight or in very low light conditions. </p>
<p>The camera provided a detailed image when set up in an outdoor test environment. The colors were vibrant and the image was clear throughout the image field. The camera’s lens assembly can be remotely zoomed in or out to provide whatever field of view is desired. The camera can optically zoom in 2.9x plus the unit can also zoom in 2.0x digitally and “clear image zoom” for a total of 11.6x zoom. </p>
<p>The SNC-VM772R has several unique design offerings when it comes to the video images that can be configured from the camera’s video streams. The camera’s Intelligent Coding programming allows the end user to focus the camera’s higher image quality on two specific zones of interest while retaining the peripheral areas at a lower image quality through a high compression ratio. With the Intelligent Cropping feature, the end user can focus on up to four areas of the camera’s field of view with 4K resolution while retaining the overall field of view in full HD mode. Both of these settings allow the end user to reduce their overall network bandwidth by up to 50% versus the 4K standard image. </p>
<div class='photowide'><img src='http://www.securitysales.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Sony_4k_IP_Camera_2_cropped.jpg' alt='' height='530' width='800' /></p>
<div class='inlinecaptionleft'>The SNC-VM772R has a half moon of IR illuminators built in to its housing, and a rubbery lens protector/shroud to block out the majority of IR “blow-back.”</div>
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<p><strong><a href='/article/how_well_does_sonys_4k_ip_surveillance_camera_perform/P2'>Keep reading to see the final report card…</a></strong></p>
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