Is This An Unobtrusive Camera? Avigilon Microdome

I haven't seen this camera in the wild yet, but per their website, could the below drawing be the reason for the larger electrical box?

Uhhh...from the pic it looks like a spaceship.....like something out of District 9.....

But maybe the perspective of the photo is misleading?

What diameter is the camera and the housing?

Why not pick a camera that can mount to a standard electrical box or something that can thread onto standard pipe thread rather then jerry rigging the camera to a electrical plate and stuffing that box inside the electrical box? In my opinion this installation looks unprofessional and ugly and no mater how unobtrusive the camera is it doesn't make up for how ugly the electrical box looks.

Nice one, Marty.

I was thinking about the Sony DH110 myself as being a better option. The IQV also looks a lot better.

The Avigilon with the box does look obtrusive.

I think the issue here is the subjective nature of the word 'unobtrusive' as a descriptor.

I think we can all agree that the camera itself, mounted in the manner it is intended to actually be unobtrusive (i.e. pez dispender can be effectively hidden), is pretty unobtrusive. At least in comparison to most other non-covert surveillance cameras for commerical use.

However, the install the orginal poster shows is far from the optimal type of install where the small, golf ball-sized form factor can actually be unobtrusive.

With that enormous electrical box attached to the small form-factor camera, most non-avigilon dealers would be hard-pressed to call the install itself unobtrusive.

If you look in my twitter pics, you will see this microdome from Avigilon next to a golf ball the day we got it a few weeks ago. We have installed one in a drop ceiling and one outside a front door for a residence and both worked out well as we could hide the "pez" out of view. I did make a recommendation to the product team to have the wire disconnect from the pez when installing so you don't have to drill a hole the size of the pez to install it.

When I saw that tweet I also said to myself that's not right, why not a 2mp dome -- wrong application and the micro has a fixed lens unlike the domes that have a 3-9mm vari with auto focus and auto zoom.

Btw, here's Avigilon's ad next to the actual camera.

Avigilon shows just the lens and imager but is that a camera? Certainly not the camera that they sell, which is the one on the right above.

Is this materially misleading? Look at our conversation above and the impact the other 'invisible' half has on its use.

Agree with Keefe L

sold and installed about 10 of them

no even one single complain
honestly do not understand what is a big deal to talk about that stupid "pez dispenser"

I can say we have several of these and they are quite a nuisance to install. The dome barely covers the hole you have to drill to fit the POE injector & electronics through... I would prefer a camera that has all the electronics together and simply inserts & mounts to a single gang electrical box with a nice rectangle cover & then maybe a dome sticking out of that. These are also hard to adjust. It's a novel concept but not great in the field from an installation perspective. I will say they are fairly inconspicuous when installed properly though and they do have a good picture.

For those that have installed these microdomes: Would it be a benefit to have the dome and video unit in two separate pieces, even if you had to terminate the video cable at the camera end?

Instead of drilling a 1" hole to cram the unit through, you could drill a 0.25" hole and fish it through. Would this help?

Also, the length of the cable between the camera and the video unit appears to be fairly short compared to other /similar/ offerings, like the Mobotix S14 and the Axis P12/M20.