My church chose this camera to produce service broadcasts, and I was given the task of integrating the camera in with our network and OBS set up. I am not very tech savvy, but I did my best, and of course I screwed it up pretty bad (learn from my mistakes, do NOT update the firmware without consulting the AVKANS tech support first…I did this using the wrong firmware update from a different company and the camera no longer had an NDI license). It took the tech team quite some time to fix my mistakes, but they were very diligent and determined to get my system running properly. The tech support rep Jenny and the tech engineer Joe worked with me until we finally got everything working. The camera itself is very impressive. I and very happy with the image quality, the zoom capacity, and the NDI function of this camera. Just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not be like me and try to integrate this camera into your existing OBS setup unless you really know what you’re doing. The tech team is so very helpful, just contact them and let them walk you through it. You’ll save yourself a ton of headaches. Trust me, I learned the hard way!

I bought this camera to use for various outdoor and indoor video shoots for a musical performing group. I was able to (barely) get by with it for the first event, but there were enough video quality problems using it outdoors that Im going to return it. For use in indoor environments, this camera certainly seems usable to me, so I would have no trouble recommending it for someone who wants a basic PTZ camera for a conference room or whatever. In the process of testing this thing out, Ive written large amounts of custom software to throw commands at the device, enabling me to see exactly what does and doesnt work. Im providing this detailed review for anyone who cares about using this for semi-pro live streaming purposes, which tends to have much steeper requirements than, for example, a conference room camera. I hope this detailed review is helpful for folks when deciding whether the cameras limitations are something you can work with, and I hope the manufacturer addresses the firmware limitations Ive encountered in the near future. Indoor video quality: Video quality seems comparable to other cameras on the market, and having a 30x zoom is, of course, great. Its the difference between being able to put a camera at the back of a church and having to put it smack in the middle (though I do wish that the NDI camera manufacturers would include screw threads so you could put teleconverters on them for reach applications). Outdoor video quality: This camera seems to get the exposure badly wrong outdoors when you have a wide contrast ratio (e.g. brightly lit people in the foreground, but shadowed trees in the background), resulting in massively blown highlights. I did not experience this with other NDI cameras (NewTek, Marshall) in the same position, so this should be considered a bug in and of itself. (For that shoot, I was able to swap it with a different camera and put it in a spot where the lighting wasnt so challenging.) Unfortunately, unlike most other cameras on the market, this camera does not provide any web-based control over exposure. This firmware limitation really needs to be fixed ASAP, because unless youre using the camera in a conference room, youll probably eventually run into a situation where you really need exposure compensation. That said, in most indoor environments, it shouldnt be a problem, because the camera *does* have backlight compensation (brightening the highlights further), which is available from the remote and the web UI, IIRC. It is possible to partially work around this limitation with the right external hardware or software. Specifically, this camera supports full manual control over the shutter speed, iris, and gain. You can control that with VISCA-over-IP with the right software. I have not tested the NDI exposure adjustment APIs to see if they work. Its worth noting, however, that neither NewTeks video monitor app nor Siennas similar app supports any exposure control whatsoever, so the answer to that question is mostly academic. The biggest disappointment here was that the camera does *not* appear to support exposure compensation, even over VISCA — only full manual control. (Nothing happens when I send the exposure compensation set command; Ive tested the same code on Marshalls 4K cameras, and it works, so Im reasonably certain that this is an actual firmware limitation.) Unfortunately, the lack of exposure compensation makes it challenging to deal with this camera for what I was planning to use the camera for. Position recall: Like all NDI PTZ cameras, it fully supports storing pan/tilt/zoom locations for near-instant recall. If you have multiple cameras, you may find yourself using this frequently. The motion is fast, so youd never want to have it move on its own while the camera is live, but the feature makes it easy to point the camera at a known location while youre streaming video from a different camera (or other source). PTZ control: Over NDI, pan and tilt work as expected, but zoom control is a single speed (fast). Again, this is a common bug in a lot of these cameras; the same bug exists on cameras by NewTek and Marshall. The workaround is to control the cameras using VISCA-over-IP. VISCA-over-IP behavior: This camera supports two different VISCA-over-IP modes: TCP-based control on port 5678 and UDP-based control on port 52381. That last one was hard to discover; its not the port that PTZOptics uses (1259), and the protocol for UDP on that port requires somewhat different data than the TCP port does, or else weird stuff happens. I ended up finding out about the protocol differences by reading a document from Marshall about their IP cameras (very different hardware, but apparently similar firmware). With this mode, the camera supports... probably eight zoom speeds, though my limited testing so far couldnt confirm that all of the speeds are actually different; there are at least four distinct speeds, and probably eight. In other words, always use VISCA-over-UDP with this camera, at least in the current version of the firmware. Note that this problem is not unique to this camera. Ive seen the same bug with 4K30 cameras from Marshall and 4K60 cameras from NewTek. In other words, Im pretty sure the problems Im having are probably in the NDI SDK itself (or perhaps in their sample code). Besides the zoom speed bugs, theres one other bug I ran into. When a client disconnects suddenly and tries to reconnect, this camera can freeze, requiring you to power-cycle the camera. This bug also exists on older firmware revisions from NewTek (I have not seen this in v.105), and on current firmware from Marshall; this seems to be a really common firmware bug. As long as your network is robust, youre probably okay, but you should be aware of this bug. If the camera stops providing video, power-cycle it. (This is where PoE can come in handy.) The manufacturer has assured me that theyll take a look and try to figure out whats going on, as has the NDI SDK team. I could fairly reliably (accidentally) reproduce the failure as follows: 1. Open an NDI connection to the camera. 2. Disconnect the network for a while (no idea how long — maybe a minute or two). 3. Reconnect the network. 4. Try to reestablish the connection. Or instead of waiting, reboot the computer. That has the same effect. While in the crashed state, the camera responds to low-level network traffic (DNS service discovery), so NDI apps can see the camera, but you cant get video or audio packets from the camera. PTZ control is also nonfunctional, whether over the NDI protocol or VISCA-over-TCP (didnt try VISCA-over-UDP). In short, some critical process in the camera likely crashed or froze and never came back or got restarted. One other thing to be aware of is that the SDI connection sticks out a long way. Ive seen this on some other SDI gear as well, so this isnt unusual for SDI hardware, but it is baffling. Im not sure why they didnt use a standard BNC connector and went with one that sticks so much farther than normal, but it is what it is. Be aware of the snag risk. Also, be aware that the green block thats sticking out of your camera when you get it is a removable terminal block. It isnt obvious that it is unpluggable at a glance; I realized this when I bought a camera from another manufacturer, and they shipped a similar block, but in a plastic bag. Its probably worth unplugging that immediately unless you plan to use it, because having extra plugs sticking out the back of the camera is an accident waiting to happen, IMO.

I was in the market for at least 2 PTZ, NDI cameras that we could use with vMix to stream our Sunday church service. I did quite a but of research to see what was available and at what price, since my budget was quite low. Naturally I looked at the PTZ Optics and similar brands but they were out of my reach. I stumbled upon this camera and after reading what was available, I decided to buy 1 camera to tryout before buying a second one. Now Im not one to give a quick review either for or against a product before I have actually tested it properly. Nor am I one to give 5 stars unless Im completely satisfied and can find no fault in the product, for what I was expecting it to do. Furthermore, I have had my colleagues at the church operate the camera and listened to their feedback. After running the camera for 5 services lasting more than 2 hours each time, I can say that the camera performed flawlessly. The default picture quality of 1920x1080 @60fps is crisp and sharp, so we have been using that. There is no sound from the camera motors when it moves. We are connected via NDI to the vMix laptop and this works well. Point to note is that we are not using the built-in vMix PTZ controls nor are we using the controls from the cameras web interface. Surprisingly, PTZ Optics has a free utility on their website for controlling PTZ cameras and this is more powerful and flexible than either vMix or the native camera controls. This utility can control up to 8 PTZ cameras simultaneously and this is working well. After seeing how well the utility worked I decided to have a deeper look at the PTZ Optics camera interface. Lo and behold, it is exactly the same as this AVKANS camera. Im almost tempted to say its a PTZ Optics camera in disguise. So I have tested and used the NDI link and the direct HDMI link and they both work well. I have tested the PoE link and it works fine, however we dont use it since there is a power source near to where the camera is located. I have not tested the RS232 functionality. My final thought is that I would certainly recommend this camera and will definitely move ahead with buying 2 more. For the price and camera functionality, its certainly worth it.

After using this camera for five months, I can honestly say that this was one of our best purchases for our church. This camera checked all the boxes for me. I was debating whether to get an HDMI camera or an SDI camera for our church and this camera has both and more. We stream our services globally and we usually get asked what type of camera are you using? Im powering this camera with POE which kills three birds with one stone. (1) power supply requirements (2) NDI to grab video and audio from the network (3) Quick access to the settings by typing in the IP address in a browser. The 30x zoom is the camera to get for churches and this camera works well with our existing Sony Joystick remote. Were using this camera for video only and our audio comes from our sound board so I was glad to see that the camera has an audio in port to embed the sound board audio with our video feed. With this setup we can distribute the HDMI feed to other TVs to share the broadcast throughout the church. I did have an issue not getting any audio out of the HDMI port at first and after a quick email to the seller I was told to go into setup on the camera (using the remote) and then change the DVI Mode to HDMI. This didnt work for me but after powering down the camera for 15 seconds and powering it back up again, the audio and video came in crystal clear through HDMI. Even though the manual is not very in-depth, the Seller is super responsive to emails. I have plans of picking up another camera in the future.

I have had the Avkans 30X NDI PTZ camera for two weeks. I have put it through its paces to see how well it preforms. I used differant control proticols, differant lighting situations with strong to low light. I tested its speed and accuracy with presets. I tested its ability to adjust white balance correctly and it out preformed all other PTZ cameras in the 1080p class that I use at my church. I have been using five PTZ cameras over the past six years and the Avkans PTZ camera works flawlessly. Picture quality with its color and image sharpness puts my other cameras to shame. This PTZ camera is identical to the PTZoptics camera accept for one thing...the price! It uses the same 1/2.7 Panasonic CMOS image sensor as the PTZoptics camera. I will be replacing all of my old PTZ cameras soon with this 30x zoom NDI PTZ camera from Avkans. Its great to be able to connect a single Cat5e or Cat6 cable to this camera for power, control, and video. The NDI compressed video over our network works perfect with our NewTek TriCaster. This camera has a lot of differant ways to connect to other equipment with 3G SDI, HDMI, NDI over IP. I also use a Black Magic ATEM mini extreme ISO in our livestream setup. The Avkans camera simultaneously sends video to both the TriCaster and ATEM with no problems. You can mount this camera on a tripod, wall or ceiling, just flip the image in settings. In the photo the Avkans PTZ 30x NDI camera is on the right. The Avkans camera has no problem adjusting white balance and reproducing color and has a sharper image than the camera on the left. Both cameras are 1080p and have the same size image sensor. This Avkans camera is amazing and I am very impressed with its quality and preformance.

We purchased 3 of these for our church, all configured with static IP and they are working flawlessly on NDI!

We purchased both the 20x and 30x cameras for use in our church. Their performance have been rock solid for several months. Picture clarity and color have been a big step up for our livestream services. There are plenty of features via the remote control, including image flip, zoom speeds and up to 10 preset frames. You can control up to 4 separate cameras with the same remote control. We had been planning on purchasing a separate PTZ controller, but the remote works so well that we see no reason to expend the time and money for another device and cabling. Remember to use the remote control from the front quadrant to get clear reception. We may purchase another camera to fill out our coverage. Overall a great value for a great camera!

We do not have access to tech savvy individuals at our church. Jenny was excellent to work with. Very polite and understanding of our situation. She went out of her way to work around the 12 hr. time zone difference. We had a major issue getting the NDI working in this camera and she was able to solve the problem on-line. As for the camera, it was easy to install and connect, has excellent picture quality and zoom features.

After considerable research and viewing of many YouTube video reviews of various manufacturers of PTZ NDI cameras, we decided on the Avkans 30x NDI PTZ cameras for the streaming of our Church Services using vMix. A key factor was that they are officially approved by New Tek. We are using NDI Tools with the NDI Studio app on our Windows 11 PC with an external HDMI monitor as an extended display to view and adjust the camera shot and zoom for our Joystick’s preset calls. Our installation is Cat 6 cable and a POE switch for power and control of the cameras. The clarity of video is great from the Avkans cameras and our local network router. Our first purchase was the Avkans 30x NDI PTZ 2-camera bundle with the Avkans Joystick. We have added a third camera to our installation. The cameras are easy setup, have great picture quality and color. There are videos from Avkans on amazon.com item description/order page on Camera & Joystick setup. I did have a question, I contacted their support, the next morning I had a response and answer from Avkans. Very satisfactory considering the time difference between Arizona and China.

The best PTZ camera, It helps me a lot in projects with little staff, very good customer service, i am very happy with the purchase. I recommend it!!!!