Specifications

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adjust the lens. Lag can make focussing
an IP camera something of a nightmare,
so it is certainly a positive move.
Installation and set-up
The hardware installation is simple. It's
very similar to the set-up for a composite
video camera, but there is obviously the
network connection to add. This is a
simple RJ45 connection.
Once the connections are made, the next
task is to address the camera. Samsung
supplies a utility for this. It runs from the CD,
and so does not need to be installed on the
machine. Our first attempt saw the program
blocked. An attempt to allow it to continue
resulted in the machine locking up, before
restarting. Our second attempt saw the firewall
disabled and the utility run in Administration
mode, and this resulted in it working as
expected.
Once the camera is found you can login using
the master username and password, and then
you are prompted to install Microsoft
Silverlight to render the video. This is simple,
although the install did hang for a minute or
two at the end. Once completed, the iPolis
viewer screen loads and the video can be
configured.
Installation is simple; the security settings of
the base machine will determine whether or
not the utility works first time. We feel our test
unit may have been too secure for the task of
searching all connected network devices.
Otherwise, it is straightforward. There is a
printed Quick Start guide, but if you need more
detail, the full manual is only supplied as a PDF
document on a CD.
Performance
In recent times, Benchmark has looked at a
number of HD cameras, and what has been
interesting is that often the best image quality,
for a general view, is in 720p mode. Of course,
much depends on the balance between image
quality and processing capabilities.
With the SNB-5000, the only HD resolution
is 720p. Whilst many people seek out 1080p,
the reality is that if correctly set up, you’ll only
really notice the difference is you employ
digital zoom.
The camera does also offer 1.3 megapixel
resolution in a 4:3 format, but the quality isn’t
really different to the HD 720p image.
Colour fidelity is high, and there’s no real
obvious bias towards either warmer or cooler
tones.
Definition is certainly high,
and fine detail is very well preserved. Even with
minimal compression and high bit-rate, motion
is smooth, and whilst it will always have some
slight lag, the Samsung camera is very good.
Raising the compression and tweaking the
settings does allow any ‘jitters’ in the image to
be tuned out.
One of the more interesting functions is the
IVA. Benchmark has tested a composite camera
with this functionality, and found it impressive,
even though it is basic. On the SNB-5000, it is
slightly simpler to set up, and with a few
tweaks it soon becomes an efficient tool.
The SNB-5000 includes numerous features
typical of the Wisenet and SV-V platforms; both
are very similar, with the former for network
cameras and the latter for composite models.
As such, this camera can be considered as a
higher resolution top-end Samsung camera,
and that’s not a bad thing to be!
In summary
In recent years, Samsung has established its
cameras as more than capable of holding their
own against the leading models in the market-
place. The SNB-5000 carries this on, with HD
720p or 1.3 megapixel performance.
The market-place for HD cameras is growing,
and there are now some cost-effective HD
1080p models appearing. That’s what we
expect this camera to develop into, and we are
eagerly awaiting that move.
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