Axis 212PTZ IP Camera Review

This is indeed a superb camera, with excellent image quality and good reliable operation. Low light performance is not the best, but this is for indoor use so plan you deployment accordingly.

The one glaring omission is the lack of the ability to rotate the image in software. This is available on more expensive cameras in the Axis range and really needs to be added to the 212 - especially if you are using the angled mounting to point the camera downwards to avoid filming large areas of ceiling. Using the included mount to point downwards rotates the camera 90 degrees and unless you use some sort of gaffa tape bodgeup, you'll have a rotated image as well.

Otherwise excellent.

Actually I have the Axis 212 to be really disappointing. We did a training session with Axis when I was working for one of their distributors when it was first released. The Axis trainer explained in the course that the 212 really needs a lot of bright white light to get a good image result - otherwise you will get a lot of ghosting/blurring in the image. This camera was not a great seller for the wholesaler I worked for in those days, as the image quality was not what it promised. I think this is mainly due to the fact that the 212 has to compress the image > send the image to an NVR server > then decompress the image. So you are actually pan tilt zooming within a very processed final image, and the results I think are really disappointing, with a lot of artifacts and blocking in the image. There is product that we have found to be ok, its the Q22 from a German group Mobotix. What they are doing is storing the image in the camera, which means the raw image doesn't need to be compressed, and you can pan tilt and zoom in the actual raw image. The image quality actually is pretty good - well much better than the Axis 212 that is for sure. If you are looking for a digital PTZ IP camera, I recommend you evaluate both the 212 vs. the Q22 and compare for yourself.