Hey Guys,

Today we’ll be reviewing the hardware features and specifications of a PTZ (or Pan, Tilt and Zoom) security camera by a company called VIKY-LIN. Right off the bat, it has a 20x optical zoom lens, which grabbed my attention right away. To tack onto that, it offers 4k video and features a microphone and an outstanding night vision range 100m, that’s well over 300ft.

VIKYLIN 8MP Auto Tracking PTZ PoE IP Camera with Audio,Pan Tilt 20x Optical Zoom 4.7~94mm Lens, Smart Human Vehicle Detection, 328ft IR Night Vision, IP66,Compatible for Hikvision (PTZ-4820-IZT) #1
VIKYLIN 8MP Auto Tracking PTZ PoE IP Camera with Audio,Pan Tilt 20x Optical Zoom 4.7~94mm Lens, Smart Human Vehicle Detection, 328ft IR Night Vision, IP66,Compatible for Hikvision (PTZ-4820-IZT) #2
VIKYLIN 8MP Auto Tracking PTZ PoE IP Camera with Audio,Pan Tilt 20x Optical Zoom 4.7~94mm Lens, Smart Human Vehicle Detection, 328ft IR Night Vision, IP66,Compatible for Hikvision (PTZ-4820-IZT) #3
VIKYLIN 8MP Auto Tracking PTZ PoE IP Camera with Audio,Pan Tilt 20x Optical Zoom 4.7~94mm Lens, Smart Human Vehicle Detection, 328ft IR Night Vision, IP66,Compatible for Hikvision (PTZ-4820-IZT) #4
VIKYLIN 8MP Auto Tracking PTZ PoE IP Camera with Audio,Pan Tilt 20x Optical Zoom 4.7~94mm Lens, Smart Human Vehicle Detection, 328ft IR Night Vision, IP66,Compatible for Hikvision (PTZ-4820-IZT) #5
VIKYLIN 8MP Auto Tracking PTZ PoE IP Camera with Audio,Pan Tilt 20x Optical Zoom 4.7~94mm Lens, Smart Human Vehicle Detection, 328ft IR Night Vision, IP66,Compatible for Hikvision (PTZ-4820-IZT)
(as of November 13, 2024 15:17 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

This is a pretty cool security camera with some impressive specs. At just over $300US, this camera comes in at less than half the price of bigger brands with similar features. Here’s what’s on tap for today.

  1. Unboxing – I’ll quickly show what’s in the box
  2. Spec Review – And then we’ll review the camera’s parts and specifications

In order to give a better appreciation for this camera, I’ll create additional detailed videos on how to mount the camera in various locations, accessing the camera on your network, reviewing daytime and nighttime footage, using the autotracking feature and connecting the camera to Blue Iris and the Hikvision Network Video Recorder (I can do that because this camera support ONVIF and will work without restriction to its own interface). Today though is just about the physical specs.

5 Gigabit Ports: Includes 4 Gigabit POE ports, 1 Gigabit Uplink Ports(not PoE), all ports support gigabit rate(1000Mbps), can provide more bandwidth and connect 4 poe devices. High POE Power: Maximum support 78W high output power, built-in power supp...
MokerLink 5 Port Gigabit POE Switch, with 4 POE+ Ports 1000Mbps, 78W IEEE802.3af/at, Unmanaged Plug and Play, Sturdy Metal Fanless #1
MokerLink 5 Port Gigabit POE Switch, with 4 POE+ Ports 1000Mbps, 78W IEEE802.3af/at, Unmanaged Plug and Play, Sturdy Metal Fanless #2
MokerLink 5 Port Gigabit POE Switch, with 4 POE+ Ports 1000Mbps, 78W IEEE802.3af/at, Unmanaged Plug and Play, Sturdy Metal Fanless #3
MokerLink 5 Port Gigabit POE Switch, with 4 POE+ Ports 1000Mbps, 78W IEEE802.3af/at, Unmanaged Plug and Play, Sturdy Metal Fanless #4
MokerLink 5 Port Gigabit POE Switch, with 4 POE+ Ports 1000Mbps, 78W IEEE802.3af/at, Unmanaged Plug and Play, Sturdy Metal Fanless #5
MokerLink 5 Port Gigabit POE Switch, with 4 POE+ Ports 1000Mbps, 78W IEEE802.3af/at, Unmanaged Plug and Play, Sturdy Metal Fanless
Available for Amazon Prime $32.89
5 Gigabit Ports: Includes 4 Gigabit POE ports, 1 Gigabit Uplink Ports(not PoE), all ports support gigabit rate(1000Mbps), can provide more bandwidth and connect 4 poe devices. High POE Power: Maximum support 78W high output power, built-in power supp... read more
(as of November 13, 2024 15:17 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

What's included?

  1. We have some screws for mounting the camera onto a wall
  2. A weather sealing coupler to protect the RJ45 connection from the elements
  3. A wall mount. It’s aluminum and quite solid and obviously won’t rust. The mounting plate is secured with a screw in the mount itself. This is attached to the wall to hold the mount and camera in place. There are little cut outs on each side and the bottom to allow the wires to exit the mount if you are not feeding the wires through a wall hole.
  4. I misplaced my user manual but it can be downloaded. Check out the description for that. It’s a generic manual for all their cameras. Easy to follow and understand, which is awesome.
  5. And here we have the camera itself. It has a nice weight to it. The shell and dome are aluminum. Wow, it actually feels and sounds like a professional grade camera. The side covering here for the tilt swivel are plastic but very solid and not going anywhere. I believe it’s about 2.3kg or just over 5 pounds. Let’s dive into those spec and reveal what this device offers.

Camera Specs

  1. Here on the top of the camera, this is where the mount attaches to the bracket. Here’s a time-lapse of how to mount this camera. This is a basic install and I’ll show a few more options in the future.
  2. Let’s chat about these 2 leads. One is a 12v power connection, but as you saw, no adapter was included. This is ok and expected since the easiest way to power this camera is through my Ethernet cable, using PoE, or Power Over Ethernet where your switch or NVR supplies power to the camera over the network cable. The camera actually uses PoE+ which is for higher wattage devices up to 30 watts. To know if your PoE switch will work with this camera, look for the standard 802.3at in your switch’s specifications. Look for links in the description on recommended PoE+ switches and all the hardware seen here.
  3. Let’s have a quick look at the dome and its Pan and Tilt abilities. The dome does spin 360 degrees, so there is no blind spot and it spins continuously. The tilt range is from 0-90 degrees which will allow you to see straight out and directly down and everywhere in between. Actually, it appears like the camera will allow us to see above its 0-degree horizon and into the negatives. Cool. Check it out, the lens isn’t perpendicular with the ground and will see higher than 0 degrees.
  4. On the back of the dome, you may have noticed a little door. I’ll show you what’s inside. Interesting right? There’s nothing there. But if I were to guess, I would say this is for other camera models with an SD card slot or maybe for hardware for WiFi. There are little screw holes to attach additional hardware, but who knows.
  5. On that note, there is no memory card slot present on this camera. The footage is meant to be stored outside of the device and since I want to record continuously, that would fill up a memory card pretty quick at 4k. I’m glad the manufacturer didn’t invest in installing the hardware for card recording which helps keep the price reasonable and it’s not a feature I would use anyways on such a device that produces so much data.
    1. To record the footage, you have a few basic options:
      1. You can use the security camera management software Blue iris to record and playback footage. I’ll add a trial link in the description if you want to give that a shot. I’ll show you how to set that up in a future video.
      2. You could also use a network video recorder or NVR. This camera supports the Hikvision protocol and can easily be connected to their NVRs to record and playback footage.
  • The last option is to record the footage through the app on your mobile device. The footage would take up a lot of space however but it is an option for short clips.
  1. Turning the camera around, up here you’ll find an environmental lighting sensor so the camera knows when to switch between daytime color and nighttime black and white modes. If this camera is installed outside near a light source, a light source that is bright enough to keep the camera from switching into nighttime mode, and the lens is pointed to a very dark area, the camera will not switch to nighttime mode. This is not a deal breaker but keep that in mind on choosing an install location. The camera is installed here in the upper corner. Here at night, the light over my front door is providing enough light on the environment lighting sensor to keep the camera in daytime mode. When the light is turned off, the camera’s IR light turn on and the camera switches to nighttime mode.
  2. On the other side of the base, we have this little hole. I thought this was the mic, but the mic is internal. This seems like an alignment hole for the hardware inside. Speaking of the mic, “This is what the mic quality sounds like.”
  3. This little cutout here actually is nothing. Just a plastic pop-out, maybe used for another model.
  4. Surrounding the camera’s lens, we have the 8 IR lights for night vision. They say the range is 100m (328ft) which is impressive and we’ll have fun testing that in detail in the future. Here is a quick teaser on that upcoming video. One thing to note is the IR lights are static and do not change their intensity when zooming in. The lights have both spot and flood lens for coverage in the zoom and wide-angle situations.
  5. The camera lens here is an outstanding 20x optical lens ranging from 94mm at its widest, all the way up to 4.7mm. That translates to a viewing angle of 64 degrees to 2.9. Keep this in mind when selecting your camera’s install location; 64 degrees is not very wide in a tight location. Here is a comparison of the ring door bell (160 degrees) and this camera at its widest of 64 degrees. However, these are 2 cameras with 2 different purposes. This zoom camera is more suitable for open spaces, like parking lots, farms, acreages, warehouses, businesses or anywhere you have a lot of space and also need the option to zoom in to capture details at a distance. Here is another comparison on this camera installed in the same location as a couple of Reolink fixed 4mm lens with a horizontal field of view of 87.5 degrees horizontally. My last comment on this lens is about focus. As the glass inside slides back and forth for zooming, it also needs to move in order to focus. I reviewed an $800 Hikvision SpeedDome a couple of years ago, and it didn’t focus well in low light, so fingers crossed here.
  6. Lastly, behind the lens, we have a 1/2.8in 8MP Sony CMOS sensor. That’s 4k and at 20FPS, that is a lot of data. That’s about 100 gigs per day when recording continuously with H.264 compression. For more details on this, check out my upcoming video where I connect the camera to my dedicated PC using Blue Iris and also to my Hikvision NVR.
Live View from iPhone/Android or Internet Third-Party network cameras supported HDMI and VGA output at up to 1920×1080P Resolution 8 Independent PoE Network Interfaces, Up to 5 MP Resolution Recording Note: Hard Drive is not included in Package
HIKVISION DS-7608NI-E2/8P 8CH PoE NVR Network Video Recorder #1
HIKVISION DS-7608NI-E2/8P 8CH PoE NVR Network Video Recorder #2
HIKVISION DS-7608NI-E2/8P 8CH PoE NVR Network Video Recorder #3
HIKVISION DS-7608NI-E2/8P 8CH PoE NVR Network Video Recorder
$535.00
Live View from iPhone/Android or Internet Third-Party network cameras supported HDMI and VGA output at up to 1920×1080P Resolution 8 Independent PoE Network Interfaces, Up to 5 MP Resolution Recording Note: Hard Drive is not included in Package
(as of November 13, 2024 00:40 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

Alright guys, that wraps up the physical specs for this impressive camera today. (While I do my summary, here is a nice timelapse from this camera.) I’m very happy by the specs for what you get and the price also puts a smile on my face. I am already in the process of testing the software features (like the tracking) and the footage, so you’re not going to want to miss out on those upcoming videos. We’ll see if all these specs can live up to their name.

Oh yeah, links for the camera, Blue Iris and the PoE switch and everything I use in my setup is found in the description. If you found this helpful, hit that like button or even subscribe so you won’t miss a beat on my upcoming home tech DIY projects, that you can do yourself!