Compro IP90 review

Compro’s IP90 sets new standards for affordable office IP surveillance. It offers a 2-megapixel resolution, plus more features than you can shake a stick at, and yet costs less than £150.

There’s support for MJPEG, MPEG4 and H.264 codecs, an internal microphone and speaker, a microSD card slot, and a wireless USB upgrade option. It also has six infrared emitters for low-light surveillance, and it can be connected to a TV via its S-Video out socket.

The lens is manually focused using the outer ring and, with the software installed, we found the live view to be particularly good. The focus is on the soft side, but the top resolution is impressive with an accurate colour balance. Sunny windows can cause problems for the device’s auto-iris function, but otherwise it handles artificial lighting well. A brightness control is provided on the live view so you can easily adjust this on the fly.

The top resolution supports up to 15fps and motion is smooth. Two video streams are available, with the second aimed at 3GPP mobile viewing.

For audio, the internal microphone works well, although the speaker sounds a little tinny. This isn’t a huge problem, though, since the IP90 has two 3.5mm jacks at the rear for adding an external microphone and speakers.

For low-light operation, the IR emitters activate automatically and we found them capable of delivering the claimed 8m range. This isn’t good enough to recognise faces in the captured footage, but the array is easily bright enough to see any activity within this range.

For motion detection, meanwhile, you can set three areas of interest, which can send snapshots to email, FTP, image, HTTP or SMS servers when triggered. Audio levels or the I/O connector block can be used to trigger events, too, and we were also able to record to a microSD card inserted in the camera.

The IP90 is an impressive IP camera with surprisingly strong image quality. Add in the bumper bundle of features and the low price and you have the perfect product for office surveillance on a shoestring.

Author: Dave Mitchell