Evaluation: Axis Q1755 HDTV IP Camera
The Q1755 is the first true HDTV IP camera from Axis Communications. It is a static camera with a fixed zoom and autofocus feature and it conforms with the HDTV standards as laid down by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). What does this mean? Surely this is just a megapixel camera with a fancy name? Well, no. Let us explain…
HDTV
The key difference between an HDTV IP camera which conforms to HDTV standards and a megapixel IP camera is in the broadcast quality output. HDTV standards stipulate that the camera must output at resolutions 720p (1280×720 SMPTE 296M) and 1080i (1920×1080 SMPTE 274M) at a full frame rate of 25/30fps (PAL/NTSC). Compare that to megapixel cameras which output large, high resolutions images but at much slower frame rates.
The question is, does the Q1755 meet the requirements? Let’s find out.
PERFORMANCE
Here are a couple of example images taken from the Axis Q1755:
Example image 720p (wide angle) – click for full size view
Example image 720p (telephoto) – click for full size view
As you can see the images produced by the camera are of great quality and the autofocus feature is good at keeping them crisp and detailed no matter where the camera is pointing or what comes into view. What these still images don’t show is the frame rate and we can say that the camera doesn’t disappoint in this area. It lives up to its HDTV standard producing high resolution images at full frame rate (25/30fps). This would look great on any HDTV when taking the feed from a PC or by using the camera’s analogue component (Y/Pb/Pr) output.
KEY FEATURES
GATEKEEPER
Something we’ve not seen before in an Axis camera is the Gatekeeper feature. This feature utilizes the motorized zoom lens to automatically move-in to a fixed point based on an alarm trigger before returning to its original position. Uses for the feature are predominantly security-based, areas such as number-plate recognition, door entry systems etc. and it works very well but with no digital pan-tilt-zoom it relies heavily on careful camera positioning.
H.264 COMPRESSION
We are witnessing a strong uptake of H.264 in the IP surveillance industry. What was once a technology enjoyed only by a few top-end cameras is fast becoming the standard for any new IP camera launched and the Q1755 is no exception. H.264 is a much more efficient compression format compared to older MJPEG and MPEG-4 compression. It provides vast savings in terms of bandwidth and storage requirements (80% against MJPEG, 30-50% against MPEG-4) which reduces load on the network and allows you to make cost savings when designing your surveillance system.
ZOOM LENS / AUTOFOCUS
The camera comes with a motorized zoom lens for close monitoring of distant objects. As the camera is fixed the zoom can only be used for areas directly in front of the camera so careful positioning is required for optimum use. The lens also features autofocus which quickly re-adjusts the focus of the camera when the lens has been repositioned or something moves into the field of view and this auto-adjusts quickly and works very well.
2-WAY AUDIO
The camera supports 2-way audio using an external microphone and speaker which aren’t supplied. This further increases the surveillance opportunities of the camera allowing you to not only hear what’s going on around the camera but also issue instructions or warnings to people close-by.
POWER OVER ETHERNET
The camera is also extremely easy to install thanks to its PoE support. The device is compliant to IEEE802.3af Class 3 requiring up to 12.95W of power. This means the camera can be installed using a single Ethernet cable which supplies both the power and data connections to the camera allowing it to be installed quickly in almost any location.
MARKET
Axis is pushing the camera heavily as a IP security camera and we won’t disagree. High definition output is something which meets the professional market’s demands and the level of detail and fast frame rate make it ideal for mission critical applications such as number plate recognition, high level security in banks or high speed applications in casinos.
However we can also see it being very useful as a camera for display on public viewing monitors. Due to its component HD output (Y/Pb/Pr) the camera can be connected directly to plasma/LCD HD televisions and with native support for 720p/1080i formats the camera will offer the best image quality of it class on these types of displays. We won’t have any problems recommending this camera for customers who are looking for live images in their reception areas or at exhibitions etc.
HOW DOES IT STAND UP?
I suppose the downside is its price as it’s definitely not a cheap camera but you get what you pay for with the Q1755. It’s a very high quality camera with a solid build quality, offering outstanding images and super-fast frame rates, easy to install and packed full of robust security features. With Axis you always get quality with a mature user interface which is both easy to use and flexible enough for demanding applications.
As IP camera technology advanced there are more demands from the security industry for better image quality and that’s where this camera delivers. With its high definition output the camera can be used for applications which demand a high level of identification (number plate recognition, passport controls, airport security etc.) and being able to output high definition images at full frame rate the camera is ideal for high-speed applications (traffic monitoring, casinos etc.). Another great camera from Axis.
Great review!
On H.264, did you test or quantify the load on your PC to view and/or record? That’s one of the biggest areas of concern.
What do you say of its lack of Pan/Tilt capability? Axis says it is compatible with Pelco-D and many other Pan/Tilt devices… have you tested any of them?
Greg, I am looking for a megapixel p/t/z IP camera with component/HDMI output and audio input to feed video to my church’s overflow room. I am sending analog audio to the overflow room. However, I need to embed the audio into the network video stream to feed the nursery room as well (that’s why I need audio input to the camera). 25/30 frame/sec is needed too. I don’t need true HD. 1.3 megapixel is good enough. The Q1755 does the job except I can’t pan/tilt it and it is expensive. Maybe you can help. Thanks. Oscar
I would be curious about the following (subjective view is fine):
- Day/Night Performance vs. Megapixel IP cameras vs. Standard Definition CCD cameras
- Pricing
- Zoom lens focal length range and f-stops
Thanks for your review!
Based on the quality of the ford focus badge and number plate, it would appear that the visual resolution of the image is somewhere between 475 to 550. Of course that is just an approximation based on the width ratio of the scene to the known size of the badge and number plate. If the camera is supposedly of broadcast quality, which I doubt very much, then I would have expected better. It would be nice to see a proper resolution test done on the camera to see actual performance. Have you done any visual res tests?
Just bought the camera, it is fantastic. Even in Night you can force the camera to stay in color mode with very good image quality. My previous camera was a Mobotix with the dual optics.
If you compare both images, the Mobotix camera looks like an USB camera, it’s images are terrible :)
@Andrew Young:
Thanks for the comments. To be honest we only had the camera for less than an hour before we had to send it back, it was the only one in the country at the time.
I would say our initial impressions of the camera were good. It provided an HD quality image and very fast frame rates, something we’ve not seen from an IP camera to date. It’s very impressive.
@Sven:
Glad you are enjoying the camera. We were impressed with it too.
It’s a little unfair to call the Mobotix a USB camera by comparison though. The picture you get out of a 3 megapixel Mobotix camera is amazing but it can’t match this Axis camera’s frame-rate.
This camera is a replacement for the Axis 223M and wow!
What initially strikes you about this camera is the high frame rate that it produces, even at night in low light conditions without using an illuminator.
Pictures are generally sharp with only a small amount of motion blur whatever the light conditions.
The zoom and auto focus are fast and reliable and resolution is good enough at wide angle to identify faces at night from a distance of around 10m.
You get what you pay for…
@Daniel:
Yep, the camera does produce a really nice image.
I’m just back from a large security expo (IFSEC 2009) and thought you might be interested to know that Axis were showing off a pan/tilt head for this camera which allowed you to move this camera around 360 degrees and also tilt up/down. Apparently the driver used to operate the PT head is already pre-installed in the camera and operation was through the web browser with the mouse as if it was an Axis PTZ camera.
It worked very well but is still in an early phase of development and they are still to add an enclosure. Keep your eyes on our website for more information when we get it.
I was at the NFR retail show recently and Axis had the Q1755 on display there. It’s not bad image quality but it wasn’t as good as I was hoping. For around USD$1500 I think it is over priced for what you are getting. The camera at the stand was set to the Axis default ‘admin’ ‘pass’ log in so I had a chance to play around with the settings a bit. I found that the 30fps throughput can only happen on the lowest image quality setting at maximum resolution. If you crank it to highest image quality at maximum resolution the frame rate drops to around 12fps. The SD card storage function on it, is a complete waste of time. You cant do any time/date or event searches on recorded images stored there – which is pointless. You can only access them via web browser – its really clunky.
Great Review.
Was just about to place an order for several Axis 223M’s and I think I will pay the $100 difference for the Q1755.
I will be deploying them in an environment which will be well illuminated at night. My question is,in the event that there is a power failure,would it be a good idea to have an IR illuminator illuminating the target area to get better pictures out of the camera?
Does the camera have a built in illuminator?
Will it fit into the standard housings made for the Axis 223M’s
Regards
@Kobina:
You won’t regret it. The Q1755 is worth the extra over the Axis 223M.
IR: No, the camera does not have built-in IR illumination. Remember that every camera needs light to be able to produce an image so if your regular lighting goes off the camera won’t be able to produce an image. Did you know you can get IR illuminators which run on PoE now?
Housings: The camera should still fit in a regular Verso housing (if that’s what you mean by standard for the 223M). It will struggle in the Verso Compact though I think as the camera is a bit taller than the 223M.
What is the file size of single image capture at highest resolution?
I have an old Axis 2120 and upload images via ftp to my webserver
every 5 seconds. Web visitors view javascript slideshow of these images.
This is all done over 3G network as well.
Mahalo,
-Terry
Waikele, Hawaii
Hi,
Can we evaluate an IP camera’s performance against certain measurements like
1. Verification of CPU usage (What happens when low light (for example) kicks in? Does the usage go up or down, etc?
2. Lighting conditions (performance, conditions with Halogen, infrared sensitivity, etc)
3. Picture quality (shearing of colors, etc)
Also let me know whom to approach for performing these tests.
Best Regards,
Siva
We would like to use the camera for streaming video over the Internet. Does anyone know if this is possible at a frame rate of 15fps or higher?
Yes, streaming this camera is possible. To do it right you need a nice, fast PC with plenty of CPU and Axis Video Capture Driver http://www.axis.com/techsup/software/capture_driver/index.htm
You can then stream it out to the web using any PC-based media encoder such as Windows Media Encoder or Flash Media Encoder.
Encoding is processor and bandwidth intensive and if you want high quality HD from this camera over the web you’ll need plenty of both!
Another way to do it is to allow your users to have a direct connection back into the camera over h.264. This will only handle a limited amount of users though and may saturate your connection.
2 Sheldon
Yes, it possible. The best way I found is to stream AXIS h264 rtsp through Wowza Media Server.
Example streaming: http://itconnect.com.ua/demo/eng/index.html
“How to” here http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4403&highlight=axis
[...] through them and see they have included information about their latest technologies, HDTV (see our evaluation on the Q1755) and H.264 video compression, which make for a good [...]