Inexpensive 1080p IP Camera from OWSOO

Lately, I’ve been focusing more on budget-friendly ways to upgrade older surveillance systems that can reuse the coaxial cable already in place. But almost every time, people wrote to me about IP cameras, saying analog was dead and there was no point trying to revive it.
That’s not entirely true, since AHD cameras aren’t analog cameras in the usual sense of the word; they’re a different category. Still, I took their advice and decided to look for a simple IP camera, with a few requirements.
The main requirements were:
1. Price: the lower, the better.
2. Resolution: at least 1080p (1920x1080)
3. Sensor: preferably 1/2.7 inch
4. No options that “bloat” the feature set, such as WiFi.

So I ordered one, received it, and here’s my report.
To me, this camera is a complete no-name, even though it does have a name. There are plenty of brands like that, so I didn’t take the name into account.
It comes in a plain white box.


The box lists very few specs. All you can tell from it is that the camera has a 2 MP resolution and a 3.6 mm lens. There’s even a space on the box for a 1/4-inch marking, but it’s left blank, as are the other spaces.


The store listing, however, gives the following specs:
Processor: Hi3518E + OV2710
Image Sensor: 1/2.7 inch CMOS
Pixels: 2.0MP, 1920*1080/18fps
Compression Format: H.264
Focus: 3.6mm, 80 degree angle
LED: 24pcs, IR distance 15-20m
Low Lux: 0lux (IR LED on)
Light Sensor: Yes; Motion Sensor: Yes
IR-CUT Filter: Yes; Image Flip: Yes
Dual Stream: Yes; Digital Zoom: Yes
Region Cover: Support 5 areas block
APP Name: NVSIP (can download on APP store)
PC CMS: support windows xp, win7, win8, win10 OS
Browser: support IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc
Remote View: www.nvsip.com
OSD Languages: English, German, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, etc
Protocol: Onvif2.0, P2P, HTTP, DHCP, SMTP, DDNS, RTSP
Indoor/Outdoor: Indoor only
Material: ABS plastic; Power Consumption: 5W
Power Supply: DC 12V, 5.5*2.1mm plug (not included)
Camera Size: 9.3*9.3*7cm

The package is basic, but it includes one very handy item.
1. Camera
2. Manual
3. Mounting hardware
4. Cable gland.


1. The manual is quite simple, but it includes a QR code for downloading the app. The app is useful and works well, so I’d say the manual is worthwhile after all.
2. The mounting hardware is standard for Chinese cameras, but I was a little surprised to find a cable gland for the network cable included.
The thing is, the camera is marketed for indoor use, so why it needs a cable gland remains a mystery. Still, it’s a useful item, so I’ll count it as a plus.


The camera is quite compact, though I’ve seen smaller ones. The housing is plastic, of course; the intended use and price leave their mark. I’ve come across very few dome cameras with metal housings, and those cost 6–7 times as much.


The front has the lens, IR illuminator, and light sensor. The sensor is slightly recessed into the housing. There’s a glass insert in front of the lens; everything else is plastic, dark red in this case.


The camera mounts at three points, and there’s a dedicated channel in the housing for the cable.


The camera’s design is much like that of the AHD model I showed in one of my earlier reviews. The only thing worth noting is that the ring that locks the camera’s position has notches for a more secure fit. They won’t stand up to constant loosening and tightening, of course, but cameras aren’t usually installed with the intention of repositioning them all the time.


The connection cable has two connectors: power and RJ45. The network cable connector has an activity LED. It’s handy during setup, but it gives the camera away when it’s running and makes it obvious whether it’s working or not, so I recommend covering it with electrical tape after installation.


The camera module is easy to take apart: just twist the two halves relative to each other. Inside, you can see the camera lens and IR illuminator.



The illuminator board is secured with two screws that thread into metal standoffs.
I should note that all the connectors are additionally secured with glue.


I posted this photo just in case. The local network connector has 6 contacts, while the connector on the board has 8. The connector is installed closer to the power connector, leaving the two contacts farthest from the power connector unused.


The illuminator is similar to the ones I've shown in previous reviews, but it has 24 LEDs instead of 36. The automatic switching works quite precisely; the transition between on and off is almost unnoticeable.


This time, the camera module supports only one type of mount; earlier boards were universal.


The lens is marked 1080P, with a focal length of 3.6 mm and the sensor size it is designed for: 1/2.7 inch.
There is a locking screw on the side, but the lens itself is also secured with glue. So when I tried adjusting the focus out of curiosity, I couldn't get it to budge, even though I tried turning it quite hard.


The board is very neatly made, and a small heatsink is installed on the processor (SoC). I didn't encounter any problems during testing, but after several hours of operation I took the camera apart without disconnecting it and noticed that it was getting quite hot. I think it could overheat at night in summer, especially indoors, since the illuminator adds extra heat.
I didn't remove the heatsink, since its marking, Hi3518E, was already listed in the camera specifications. It's a fairly well-known SoC, and I doubt I could tell you anything new about it. There's even a separate article about it.


The underside of the board also has the lens shutter driver and a power converter. Interestingly, most components are labeled, and even the converter's output voltage is specified. There are also unused USB contacts.


For a closer look, I removed the lens—or rather, the lens and the shutter mechanism.
And as always, I don't recommend doing this.


This side is also neatly laid out. It has the sensor, a voltage regulator, and a pair of EEPROMs: one stores the SoC firmware, and the other the built-in Ethernet controller's firmware (presumably).


I recently reviewed a camera whose specifications claimed it had a Sony sensor. At the time, I wrote that I wasn't sure, since there was no marking.
This time, the sensor manufacturer wasn't specified, but it looks exactly the same, so now it's even less clear: either the previous one was a no-name sensor, or this one is also Sony :)


The sensor measures 5.5 × 3 mm, which roughly corresponds to the stated 1/2.7 inch.
A little dust got onto the sensor while I was inspecting and measuring it, so I had to blow it off before reassembly.


That wraps up the external and internal inspection. Next, I'll move on to the software and testing.
When I connected the camera, I ran into a small problem—or rather, two.
First, I didn't know the camera's network address.
Second, after I found software that detected the camera and revealed its address, I tried accessing it through a browser, but was greeted by Chinese characters.


My suspicions were right: the web interface is almost entirely in Chinese; only the numbers are understandable.
I tried to get into the control menu, but couldn't. There is a tab for it (I figured that out with a translator), but clicking the button does nothing.


I had to visit the manufacturer's website—fortunately, it's listed in the manual—and download the software. And I can say I didn't regret downloading it for a second.
The software detected the camera immediately, displayed the image on screen right away, and turned out to be quite convenient and “user-friendly.” But I'll talk about that separately.


One thing to note: if you have even a basic grasp of English, I recommend selecting it during installation. I chose Russian out of curiosity and realized I'd made a mistake—the translation is absolutely mangled.
The settings are divided into software settings and camera settings. Although some camera settings can also be changed in the software, such as the resolution and stream bitrate.


There are also settings for:
1. Recordings: where to save them and what limits to set. I'll say right away that one camera streaming at 4 Mbps and recording continuously uses about 1.7 GB per hour during the day and 1.2 GB at night.
2. Notifications about abnormal situations
3. Access permissions, with different access levels for different users.
4. The time between reconnection attempts to the camera, automatic reboot, and other useful things.
The screenshots are clickable.


Since I figured out the resolution and stream bitrate options almost immediately, I wanted to find out how to access the camera's full settings. It turned out, though, that you can only access them if you run the program as an administrator; otherwise, the software reports a missing DLL.
The menu item for accessing the settings (right-click the corresponding window) is Remote Settings.
The Snapshot and "Pop-up window" options are also handy, but more on those later.
The "Change channel" option gives you access to the camera's IP address and its number for internet access.

This brings up the menu for accessing the camera settings. By the way, the program expands to full screen, and since even Alt-Tab doesn't work in this mode, taking screenshots was a bit of a struggle.


System menu.
1. Set the camera name, OSD position and size, and port number. You can also view the information needed to connect from a smartphone.
2. Access permissions, passwords, secret hideouts. By default, the camera is set to the Admin login with a blank password. Be careful: I recommend setting a password right away, since anyone who knows the camera ID can connect to it without any trouble.
3. Update. The online update didn't work, and there are no firmware files.
4. System logs; nothing interesting.


Stream menu.
1, 2. Configure the resolution of the primary and secondary streams, stream bitrate, and compression quality.
The default was 3072. I tested it at 4000; it can actually handle up to 10000, but beyond that it starts dropping frames.
3. Block the display in a selected area; this is rarely used.
4. Brightness, contrast, day/night automation modes, and additional options. I tried the "smart" night mode and will show it later, but BLC/SLS doesn't seem to do anything—or rather, I didn't notice any difference.


Alarm menu.
1. Motion detector settings.
2. Actions for events on alarm inputs. Since there are no inputs, this feature is disabled.
3. Email settings for sending notifications. Everything shown in the screenshot was already filled in.
4. Set the times when the various notification modes are active.


Ethernet menu
1. Configure the camera's IP address, gateway, etc.
2. GB28181 menu. I didn't quite understand what this menu is for or what to do with it.


There are also PTZ and video analytics menus, but this camera doesn't support them.


Naturally, the software lets you view recorded video. Playback speed can be increased up to 16x, but it works smoothly only up to 4x; beyond that, the image starts jumping noticeably.
It's very convenient to use and works very reliably.


I really liked the option to display a "floating" video window on the desktop. It's set to stay on top of other windows, can be moved anywhere, and can even be hidden "off-screen." Double-clicking expands it to full screen. The window is small; for example, I placed it next to Winamp.
I should also mention the well-thought-out way the video is displayed: while it's in a window, the secondary stream is shown; when you maximize the window, it switches to the primary stream. This takes about a second or two and works perfectly. This feature noticeably reduces CPU load when displaying a large number of cameras.


Here's some information from the manual about recommended computer configurations.
The manual will be included in the supplementary materials. It's in English, but everything is explained clearly, with pictures.



And now, lots of screenshots. A hands-on inspection is all well and good, but the image is still the most important thing with cameras.
There are a lot of them, though, so I'd better hide them under a spoiler.


There was a small problem with the video demonstration: the software saves video in MP4 format and exports clips in the same format from the viewer, but VirtualDub doesn't want to read it.
So I just cut out a couple of short clips and uploaded them to YouTube as they were. But first, some information about the file.
The left one was recorded during the day, the right one at night.





A little about the smartphone app. First I downloaded it from the manufacturer's page. It was posted there with a different file extension, although it's actually the usual APK. The app installed, but absolutely refused to launch. So I downloaded it using the QR code in the manual. If anyone needs it, you can do the same.


The app is pretty simple, but convenient in its own way. At least, I liked it.
Since I only have one camera, there's only one option to choose from.
You can choose the image quality, but only LD and MD work properly. Video noticeably stutters in HD mode.
There are settings, but the only one I needed was changing the password. As I mentioned above, the camera comes with no password set, so I set my own right away.


And right away I thought of a use for this app: keeping an eye on my gear :)


That seems to be everything. Time to sum up.
Pros
Price
Full HD resolution
2.7-inch sensor
Decent viewing angle
Neat construction and a cable gland included
Convenient software

Cons
The processor gets quite hot
Nonfunctional BLC feature

My opinion: the image quality is somewhat worse than that of the AHD cameras I've shown before, but considering this is a very budget-friendly camera, I'd say the picture is perfectly acceptable. It may not quite deliver a true 2 MP, but it's definitely noticeably better than the 1 and 1.3 MP options.
Some users may consider the lack of Wi-Fi a drawback, but personally, I see it as an advantage. I don't like unnecessary "hardware."
I was disappointed by how hot the processor gets; I didn't expect it and only noticed by chance. To be fair, the camera performed pretty well in my tests, but as I mentioned, it may overheat in summer, especially at night. To be on the safe side, I'd recommend installing a larger heatsink or turning off the IR illumination.
I could probably also list the lack of PoE as a downside, but I don't know of any cameras in this price range (or even twice the price, for that matter) that have it.

The store manager provided coupon LXXS1224, which brings the price to $22.99. In my opinion, that's quite reasonable for this camera. The coupon is valid until June 10.

Additional materials, computer software and manuals: link.

That's all. As always, I'll be glad to hear your comments and questions. I hope you found the review useful.