2012 Surveillance Camera Reviews

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If you aren’t too knowledgeable with cameras, please read my article on what is expected from a surveillance camera here: Choosing a Camera

After you finished the above article and are now more familiar with camera features… please read on…

There aren’t many camera options for P.I.’s and options are getting slimmer. I reviewed every camera that came out this year and narrowed my options down to three:

Canon Vixia HF R300

Sony HDR-CX260V

Panasonic HC-V500M

Plus I added an older model Panasonic TM55 to this review

These three brands are the only brands that have the needed zoom (30X + Optical) and a decent stabilizer. I chose the highest end model of each of these three brands to give the best review. When I say the highest end model… I mean the highest end model before the optical zoom numbers drop to 10X.

I was planning to do a ton of testing on zooming, stabilization, focus, and start-up speed, video reviewing… However, after taking these three cameras out into the field, 5 minutes of testing already knocked out one of the competitors: the Canon R300. The Canon has a very bad stabilizer in comparison to the others and much worse auto focus. Night-shot on it is basically useless as well. So the Canon is out of the running.

The other three cameras (two Panasonic’s and the Sony) I took into the field with me on a 5 day case that I worked for 16+ hours per day. In brief, this is what I learned…

The V500 is without a doubt the best daytime use camera. The Sony stabilizer is great in optical zoom but basically doesn’t exist in digital zoom. As most of our field work is in digital zoom (even slightly digital), the Sony is not a great camera if you need to film while driving or can only film with one hand. It’s great if you have the time to stop your vehicle and use your knees and two hands for filming, but in the field that’s not always the case. Panasonic auto-focuses faster as well. The Sony and Panasonic both have similar zooming quality.

The V500 and the TM55 are similar daytime use camera’s. However the V500 has a slightly better stabilizer and has more optical zoom.

As for night filming… the V500 is almost useless. The Sony is much better in the night than the V500, however the Sony night-shot is somewhat grainy and headlights from oncoming traffic ruin the shot. The TM55 has a slightly worse night-shot than the Sony but headlights do not affect the TM55 and there is no graininess. So basically when you are filming at night on a street with lights from headlights, stores, and street lamps, the TM55 is your best option. For a near dark street the Sony is better. Plus the Sony can film through tint much better than the TM55.

One more issue with the V500 is reviewing video. If you write your report while reviewing the video on the camera, with the V500 you must press pause on the camera and wait 5 seconds for the time-stamp to show up. On the Sony and the TM55, the time-stamp is always there. The 5 second wait doesn’t sound like an issue, but if you need to look at 100+ clips for your report, it gets really annoying.

So what’s the best camera for surveillance??? Well it depends on your needs. If you work strictly workers comp cases than without a doubt the Panasonic V500 is your camera. If you work night-time domestic cases and you can only afford one camera, I would recommend the Sony. For me, the Panasonic V500 is my primary day use camera. The Panasonic TM55 is my primary night camera. And I kept a Sony as my backup night camera for the very low light shots. Since I needed the Sony only for night use, I downgraded to the Sony CX190 as it has identical night features to the 260. For video reviewing on the V500, I take the SD card out of the V500 and pop it into the TM55 and I get the best of all worlds. I also just bought a box of TM55’s as this in my opinion is the best all-around camera. However the TM55’s are very difficult to find new, so good luck. It took me a while to track down a box of them.

ZOOM

The # of optical or digital zoom is irrelevant. I used cameras with 25X Optical zoom that are clearer then 70X optical zoom. I would say the Panasonic HC-V500 and the Sony 260 have the best overall zoom quality. The Canon and Panasonic TM55 are slightly worse.

STABILIZERS

The Panasonic V500 takes the lead again with Panasonic TM55 coming in at a close second. The Sony 260 is great in optical mode but when you get to digital zoom, you need two hands. The Canon is just trash in comparison.

QUICKSTART

As most of you know, how fast a camera starts up is essential. If the camera takes longer the .5 seconds, you WILL lose valuable video. The Panasonic’s start up within .5 seconds by simply opening the lcd screen. The Canon does as well but you need to open the lcd screen, press the power button, and manually open the lens protector. The Sony sometimes starts up within .5 seconds and sometimes it will load the memory card data for 1-3 seconds before allowing you to record. Panasonic takes the category.

FOCUS

I know manual focus needs to be used at times but auto-focus is essential as well for investigators when you need the golden shot and don’t have time to get into manual focus. Based on my testing the Panasonic V500 finds its focus the fastest. You almost don’t need manual focus. The Sony 260 comes at a very close second. The Panasonic TM55 will take slightly longer to get into focus at times, but it’s rare that you will see an issue. The canon loses focus frequently.

NIGHT-RECORDING

The Sony takes this category as it will record in near dark setting. However the graininess of the video and the fact that headlights interfere with the shot make the Sony a bad choice for settings with a lot of street light from other sources. The Panasonic TM55 has no graininess and no headlight issues, making this camera my primary choice. The V500 is poor in low-light and required you to manually turn on low-light in the menu. The Canon is useless in low-light.

Most of my testing I cannot edit and show you samples of. However I took a few shots so you can see each of these cameras in action. Because they are on youtube, the quality was degraded.

PANASONIC V500



SONY 260



CANON 300



PANASONIC TM55



And if you go to the following link you will see many more samples of my filming with the TM 55 Camera. SAMPLE VIDEOS


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