UL Standard For Cameras? UL2802 Is Effectively Dead

Samuel, we are tying to get more information on this. The only details we see so far are:

"The standard will be used to grade digital cameras on a scale of 1 to 5 for a number of characteristics including image sharpness, field-of-view confirmation, signal-to-noise ratio, TV distortion, relative illumination, color fidelity, dynamic range, maximum frame rate, gray level, sensitivity, bad pixels, veiling glare and housing tamper protection."

I am really curious to see how they are going to do such 1 to 5 ratings as it's not very granular. Also, it has the potential for a ton of spec gamesmanship, i.e. only cameras with a field-of-view confirmation of 5 will be allowed.

I found and bought a copy of the draft (40 pages) for $105. Here's some key highlights:

• Lower number is better: 900+ points is a level 1, 750 - 900 is level 2, etc. There's no talk about releasing or sharing images from the test.
• "Five cameras of the same model and design shall be tested", "Lowest of the sharpness score of the five tested cameras will be the model’s Image Sharpness Score"
• Image sharpness will be measured in lw/ph - see this tutorial on image sharpness; for the center, 2500 lw/ph will be a perfect score, 350 will be the lowest; presumably all cameras regardless of resolution will be rated on the same scale
• Dynamic range: "This specification characterizes the video camera dynamic range by measuring the video camera grey level under different lighting conditions. For example, if a video camera can work properly under a maximum illumination of 200 kLux and under a minimum illumination of 1 lux, the dynamic range of the video camera is 200 thousand times." This is weird because it doesn't really test WDR in the sense of handling a scene with both really bright and dark portions simultaneously. It seems that their relative illumination test might address that with "one diffused and uniformly illuminated light source in the center and one diffused, uniformly illuminated light sources in each of its four corners."

I didn't see anything about low light testing so either I missed something or that's a strange omission.

I'd love to see UL add specs for SDI cameras... that would drive one of my good pals up the wall ;)

Carl? AMIRITE??

Another bureaucratic boondoggle!

UL should stick to what they do best and not bother trying to expand into areas where they don't belong. Next, they'll try replacing Consumers Union and IPVM.

Here's an updated whitepaper from UL about their video / image quality testing.

Here's an article citing a UL sales person. This chart helps explain what they are doing. Note they have moved from a 0 to 5 scale to a 0 to 100, which is obviously much more granular.

This could be useuful though it depends how many manufacturers pay to get their cameras scored and how much the scores vary (i.e. does everyone get a 90 something or will there be significant, meaningful variances amongst them).

Dahua issued a press release saying it has 1 of its cameras passing the UL2802, noting that "(Relative Illumination / Dynamic Range / Bad Pixel) were perfect scores, with others (Gray Level / Sensitivity / Veiling Glare) scoring strongly as well"

This actually makes sense for Dahua because since many will expect their quality to be lower anyway (perception or not), a 'good' score could help validate them.

Now the question is do big brand manufacturers pay UL as well and risk their scores being the same or close to companies who sell at 1/2 their price?

Got feedback from Dahua. Here's the UL2802 test report for their 2MP bullet camera. There's 2 columns - the 'performance score' (0 - 100) and the 'converted unit score' which is more useful since it's based on real metrics (like lux, fps, etc.)

I found one other test report from Uniview. There are 2 cameras on that report but most of the stats are fairly similar on that one.

You can search for other or new ones on the UL Online Database form, just enter VCAM as the category code (as of this post, only 2 are listed).

Update on this. There are now 5 manufacturers with cameras on the UL2802 list (see UL Online Database form, just enter VCAM as the category code). 3 are from China and 2 from Taiwan.

Some progress but not that much.

Also, I was told by a manufacturer that it cost ~$3,000 per camera to be rated / listed.

Update: Looks like even UL stopped mentioning it. At ASIS, they moved on to new promotions. And no new listings have been added to UL2802 database listing.

It appears dead.

Axis praised it at the beginning of 2013 but it appears they, as well as all the big Western manufacturers were not interested. Again, not surprising to us, given the risk that such standards would help reduce the brand advantages better know manufacturers have against lesser known, less expensive one.