ELP 1080P Day Night Vision USB Camera IR Infrared Webcam for Computer, Laptop, Mac, Android - High Speed HD PC Camera with 3.6mm Lens, 100fps, 60fps, 30fps

This is a simple 2 mp video camera with a fixed wide angle camera with a 3.6mm lens. The lens is fixed focus and comes from the factory focused at infinity. There is no software included but there is capture software downloadable from the company website. I downloaded AMCap and had no trouble finding the camera and getting it connected via the included fairly long USB cable. The image is what you would expect. The attached image of my shop is without any lighting or image adjustment of any kind. I needed something that was able to focus closer than the factory settings. I was able to unscrew the front panel, which contain the IR lights. Under that is found a single setscrew keeping the lens from moving. That was unscrewed and by unscrewing the lens slightly, I was able to get it to focus at 50mm. That is seen on my second image. The IR lights go on automatically when the camera is in a dark environment. This is regulated by a photocell on the bottom of the front panel. The second image is the front panel removed, the third image is the adjusted close focus image and the fourth is close focus under IR lighting. For what it is, I feel it is a good value for the money and works as advertised right out of the box. I am running Windows 10. No drivers were required to be installed.

I am making my own night vision set up. It’s basically going to consist of this camera, a processing module, and a small field monitor. I haven’t decided if I’m going to use an Arduino or a raspberry pie for the processing and I’ve only done testing on the camera so far. But the images I’ve got have been very promising so I’m looking forward to this project. I have yet to test it in total darkness but on the very dark night I am getting adequate images at 20 yards or so which to me seems pretty good. The IR illuminators on the camera are pretty small so I might add a larger infrared light when I make my set up. Perhaps a focused IR flashlight which will give me some additional range in the dark hopefully. But the optics on this are surprisingly effective. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect so I’m pretty happy so far. I will post some images as I get further along on my project. This is a not just a board it has a housing so even though I am using this as a project camera not a finished product, it can be used as is. I’m interested to see if I can adapt it to use the interchangeable lenses that the other ELP cube cameras use. It’s definitely a fun little toy to play around with.

If you already do things with a webcam, this will do all of those things, but don't get too excited about the 100 frames per second claim. Let's start with the best: this is very solidly built, having a thick aluminum shell with built-in tripod socket. The picture quality is very crisp, with good contrast, and great performance in the dark when the IR lights come on. As with most IR security-type cameras, you (or at least _I_) can see the IR LEDs when they are on, but they don't put out enough visible light for the eye to see anything if this is in a dark room. So I'm just saying, if you want a hidden camera, the LEDs will give it away. Next, it works perfectly as a webcam. I connected this to my MacBook, and it worked as well as the built-in webcam in applications such as Zoom, QuickTime, and OBS. According to the instruction pamphlet, it can produce 1920x1080 at 30 frames/sec, 1280x720 at 60 frames/sec, and 640x480 at 120 frames/sec. And this is what it reports to applications that use it (there is no 100 fps mode). And yes, it does produce 1920x1080 at 30fps, and 1280x70 at 60fps. However, most applications won't even show the option of either 120 fps or 100 fps, in any case. My last hope was to capture some video from it using ffmpeg, which is a free download, if a bit tricky to get working. I WAS able to get this to work at 1080p30, 720p60, and 480p120 with ffmpeg, BUT I had to tell ffmpeg that I wanted 120.1 fps, or it just gave me I/O errors. If you want to try this, just google ffmpeg capture webcam, and there is plenty of help out there. This camera works great running into a USB2 port, but don't believe for a second that it will work with USB1.1 as stated in the description. There are two quibbles I have with the picture. First, it is a bit greenish when it's in color mode in daylight (as opposed to IR mode, which is perfectly gray). And second, there is a LOT of barrel distortion. If you ever wondered what it was to watch 1970s TV sets with their curved screens, just point this camera at a perfectly rectangular monitor, and you'll see a convincing simulation of that. But this is due to it being such a wide-angle lens. It is SUPER wide angle, and there is no zoom control (except that which is added by some applications in the form of digital zoom). The IR lights are plenty bright, allowing for pretty good performance in otherwise total darkness. The price is a little high as webcams go, but the really solid build and the ability to mount it on a tripod make up for it, in my opinion. Just think of this as a webcam with decent night vision, and you won't be disappointed.

In my opinion this should only be bought by someone who already has cameras. Something it can hook up too. And know what they are doing. If you are starting from scratch you may encounter problems. Like I did. First for those of you who read thru the item real fast, like I did. It’s not wireless. The picture however is pretty decent. I got it to work somewhat work on my computer. The problem and why I said warning is you need software to make it work. It gives you some suggestions but the problem I encountered is all of them set off my antivirus software and warned me not to go to the sites. WTH? So I have not gotten this to work yet but still working on it so I can give it a proper review. Just wanted to give you a heads up until then.