UPS delivered the small 4" x 4" x 6" box on time and surprisingly in excellent conditions. I'm surprised, the box looked as if it was was picked myself instead of having it shipped halfway across the country.
The box arrived and upon opening the contents were packed immaculately. The boxes were placed perfectly in the shipping box and hand packed with biodegradable packaging peanuts. It looks as if the peanuts were placed by hand, and I don't mean just poured in the shipping box in hopes that the contents will "make it there" regardless of the shippers intent. You know what I mean.
Unpacking consisted of removing the three boxes, two camera boxes and one KT&C plain white box containing the additional lenses. Okay, you've waited long enough - here's the pictures!
The two camera boxes
Camera box in comparison to coins
As you can see above the contents of the box contains a small metal mounting bracet and screws for the camera to be mounted nearly anyplace you'd like. The camera power cord and video output cable is in another package. The silvered static wrap contains the camera, as you can see the image of the camera in the static wrap is barely visible due to lighting reflections. Finally, you will also see the single sheet of paper detailing the camera specifications, power consumption, and a brief bit about warranty information.
A closer view of the contents in comparison to some various sized coins. You can see that the cable is going to be the largest item due to its size when you compare the actual mounting bracket and camera to a quarter as seen below.
As you can see the camera is small, but the ccd is 1/3". The ccd sensor is the same size used for the majority of most home and business security cameras.
As you can see the lens protrudes from the "box" and is considered a "micro lens" by most security people. A pinhole lens option is available for this box camera, which reduce the "snout" sticking out by 1/4" to 3/8" of an inch. Pinhole cameras do require more light than a micro lens, but use of an IR light can improve vision seeing.
In the image below you can see the back of the camera and the small clip mount female receptacle for the power and video output. You'll also notice the power requirements, model number, and camera's serial number plainly labeled on the back of the camera.
Spending several minutes becoming acquainted with the camera and it's accessories is to say the least mesmerizing. I have several miniature board cameras which are smaller than the KT&C mini box camera, but they don't quite inspired the eye to their quality. The quality of these components is truly impressive.
You get what you pay for, but these cameras judging by looks alone are a notch above the Chinese "knockoff" mini box cameras that I've seen advertised on the Internet. I'm not saying that Chinese manufactured items are of inferior quality, but sometimes trying to save a dollar will end in little manufacturing imperfections that these cameras do not exhibit. However, image tests have still yet to be done and will describe the end results of their quality.
As you can see from the picture above, the additional lenses are thread mounted and held in place by a set screw on the side of the camera "snout." You cannot see the difference between the two lenses, but the lens at the bottom right of the image is an 8mm lens. The 6mm lens in the upper left of the image shows there is no difference in lens sizes between the two.
The 3.6mm lens that ships with these cameras offers an advertised 92 degree field of view. The 6mm lens is advertised as 53 degrees and the 8mm should provide approximately 40 degree field of view.
KT&C does offer lens options for these box cameras anywhere from 1.78mm at 170 degree field of view all the way up to 25mm lens at 13.8 degree field of view.
Personally, for outdoor premises I find that 40 degrees to 70 degree field of views are those used most for my premises. Oddly enough, the same field of views diagonally are what I use for Meteor astronomy as well. Coincidence, I'm not sure, but I do not that wide sweeping views for security and astronomy don't sit well with me. The main reason is that I like to give up the field of view so I can have larger images. It's the personal and fine balance between seeing what I want with the clarity that I want.
For security purposes, clarity should be the main concern whenever possible. If you cannot see with enough definition the area you are attempting to secure, then you won't be able to determine if anything is "amiss" or "usable" for identifying people doing what they do best - doing wrongful things when they think no one is looking.
What to expect next in the final review of the KT&C KPT-S20B Sony Super HAD and Sony ExView 1/3" low light mini square cameras. Pictures should cover rudimentary indoor and outdoor image tests, plus my final thoughts on both of these cameras and their practical uses.
Of course, I couldn't help but not connect both cameras us to make sure they were working properly. They were and under normal indoor lighting conditions both cameras performed flawlessly. However, I do believe for night time use for outdoor security the use of bright lighting or IR lighting may be required. More on this in the next and final review.
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