Trying to find info on a no-name camera.

[Matt Ion]

Alright, let me just get this out of the way right off the top: I don't
want anyone trying to sell me anything, I don't need anyone telling me
how shitty this camera is, or any recommendations on something different
to sell the client on. We've tried to tell him numerous times how...
unworthy these things are, but he gets them cheap from China and insists
on bringing them in and continually trying to sell them to us. Everyone
got that?

Now here's the thing: he's brought in this little beastie that looks
like any standard 1/3" camera, but with a built-in zoom lens (spec sheet
says it's actually only a 1/4" Sony chip). It does powered zoom (22X,
3.9-85.8mm) and autofocus. I've got the power hooked up and the camera
running - image quality is mediocre at best (for what purports to be a
"Sony Super HAD CCD"). Autofocus operation is... well, practically
useless, I have to fine-tune anything it does manage to lock in on.

Zoom and focus can both be controlled through buttons on the back of the
camera, or through wires in the combined remote/power connection (5-pin
mini-din). The connector's pins are labeled +12VDC, GND, ZOOM, COM, and
FOCUS.

What I'm trying to determine is how to use/connect the external
zoom/focus controls via this wire, and hoping someone might have run
into one of these things and/or have some documentation for it that's
NOT mostly in Chinese. I've tried connecting both ZOOM and FOCUS wires
to COM, as well as giving them +12 and GND, with no response at all.

 

[rabbid]

zoom com focus
+ - +
or
- + -

 

[Matt Ion]

zoom com focus
+ - +
or
- + -

<slaps forehead>

Makes sense... I'll give that a try...

Yup, that's the secret. Thanks.

 

[rabbid]

or it may not even be functional if it's a reaaly cheap import.

 

[Matt Ion]

or it may not even be functional if it's a reaaly cheap import.

Nope, that worked, at least for the zoom (didn't try the focus).

No idea if I even want to attempt to come up with any way to connect
these functions to the DVR; for this guy's purpose, probably not. He
wants to use it to replace a dome camera at a paypoint in his store, and
quite frankly, it's nowhere near the quality of the current camera...
but he thinks because it was so much more expensive than the other cheap
junk he imports ($200+ vs. $30-$50 for all the little domes he's
getting) that it's got to be all that much better.

The dome he wants to replace is actually a decent-quality 420TVL 1/4"
name-brand camera (although the name escapes me at the moment) that was
probably $300+ when new. All the extra cost for this thing is, of
course, for the power zoom (which he doesn't need) and autofocus (which
doesn't work right); it's still a $30 Chinese knock-off camera inside.