HiLook 2MP ColorVu Indoor Turret Dome Camera, Colour Night Vision

The HiLook THC-T129-P is the indoor version of HiLook ColorVu: a 2MP 1080p Turbo HD turret dome camera that keeps recording in colour after the lights go off, for a shop floor, reception, passage or garage. Its F1.0 lens works down to 0.001 lux, and a built-in white light with a 20 metre reach takes over in a completely dark room. There is no infrared and no microphone, and the camera has no weather rating, so it stays indoors. It connects over coax to a HiLook or Hikvision Turbo HD DVR and runs on 12V DC. Alectra supplies the camera only.

What's in the box

• 1 x HiLook THC-T129-P 2MP ColorVu turret dome camera, 2.8mm F1.0 lens, on its turret base

Hikvision's datasheet lists no other contents. The 12V power supply, RG59 cable, BNC and DC connectors and the DVR are sold separately.

Which HiLook camera do you need?

Choose this turret for a room where you want colour after dark, such as a till area or a storeroom with the lights off. If black and white at night is fine indoors, the HiLook 2MP indoor turret dome uses IR instead. For an outside wall you need an IP66 bullet: the HiLook 2MP ColorVu bullet is the outdoor version of this camera, the HiLook 2MP Turbo HD bullet has IR only, and the HiLook 2MP dual light bullet has IR, white light and a mic.

Indoor use only

Hikvision lists the THC-T129-P as an indoor camera and gives it no IP rating, so it must not be mounted outside or in a wet area; the plastic body is not sealed against rain or dust. Its working range is -40°C to 60°C, so a hot ceiling or a cold storeroom is fine. The base pans 360°, tilts 75° and rotates 360°, and at Ø85 x 71mm and 123g it is a small camera for a ceiling or the top of a wall.

HiLook ColorVu indoors: colour after dark

The F1.0 aperture lets in far more light than the F2.0 lens on the IR turret, so a passage light or the glow from a window is often enough for a colour picture: Hikvision rates the minimum illumination at 0.001 lux with the AGC on. When the room is completely dark, the white light built into the camera comes on and lights up to 20 metres; it can be set to Auto or Off. There is no IR and no black and white mode, so the day/night setting is simply Colour. 3D DNR cleans up low light noise, and digital WDR, backlight and highlight compensation handle a bright window or glass door behind the subject. The 2.8mm lens gives a 102° horizontal view, which takes in most of a room from a corner.

Connecting it to a DVR

The video output is 4-in-1: it can be set to TVI, AHD, CVI or CVBS to match the DVR channel, so the camera works with HiLook and Hikvision Turbo HD DVRs such as the HiLook 4 channel Turbo HD DVR and the HiLook 8 channel eSSD DVR. It does not work with an NVR and has no PoE: power is 12V DC only at a maximum of 2.4W, and Hikvision recommends one 12V feed per camera rather than sharing one adapter between cameras; a multi-output Hikvision CCTV power supply gives each camera its own output. Run RG59 cable with a power pair, crimp a BNC connector on the video core and fit a DC connector on the power pair. Where the building is wired with CAT6, a pair of passive video baluns carries the video instead. The system is installed by your installer; Alectra supplies the equipment only.