Amcrest UltraHD 4K (8MP) Outdoor Security IP Turret PoE Camera, 3840×2160, 98ft NightVision, 2.8mm Lens, IP67 Weatherproof,

10 reviews for Amcrest UltraHD 4K (8MP) Outdoor Security IP Turret PoE Camera, 3840×2160, 98ft NightVision, 2.8mm Lens, IP67 Weatherproof,

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   IsThisThingOn – October 28, 2019

   A 5-star camera, however it could use an easier SD card install processTl;Dr version: A five-star 4k camera if you don’t require SD storage or don’t mind a more involved disassembly process to insert a SD card. However, it’s 4-star for me due to that disassembly process to insert a SD card and the potential to damage the camera and/or allowing dust ingress which you may not catch (until the IR kicks on at night and you see dust halos in your image.)Full version – I have a pair of outdoor Amcrest cameras that look over my residence (IP3M-943 WiFi @ 1080p, and IP8M-2496EB-40MM @ 4k/POE), so I was familiar with their setup, apps, and their major resolution differences. Seeing how much I loved the 4k of my bullet IP8M-2496EB-40MM, but needing a bit wider field-of-view given where I was going to mount it (inside corner, front of house under roof easement, with view of garage/driveway/street/porch), I purchased this IP8M-T2499EB-28MM with high hopes. For the most part it fits the bill, but I am disappointed in one aspect of it that may not impact you, depending on how you prefer to record captured footage – inserting a SD card — see the first Con below. As my reviews for those other cameras state, the reason I like the Amcrest cameras so much is that it gives you several options to record footage (SD card, NAS, Blue Iris, NVR) and does NOT require any type of subscription service like Nest, Arlo, Ring, etc. (although you can choose a cloud storage subscription option if you’d like — the cloud storage costs being relatively in-line with those vendors), and very high 4k resolution for a reasonable price. In my setup, I personally use local SD storage + Blue Iris running on a dedicated i7+32GB RAM Windows 10 laptop + the free 4hr recording of Amcrest Cloud so that I have multiple layers of recording.Pros:* 4k video resolution @ 15fps — I wish it were 30fps, but you’re not going to get that at this price range. You can drop the resolution down to 1080p or lower and get 30fps but that defeats the purpose of a 4k camera. The image is fantastic at 4k in daylight, sharp at night but with some loss of resolution/depth* Turret style camera allows for more flexible mounting as the camera “ball” aiming isn’t as limited by the camera “stem” that the bullet camera has. You mount the flat base, place the camera ball in that base, and the shroud/cover go over both and secure with an Allen head screw (tool included). This allows you to rotate the shroud/camera ball and tilt the ball until you have the view you want and simply tighten the screw.* Incredibly sensitive microphone — I was picking up conversations being held across the street, easily over 200 feet away — I had to dial-down the microphone gain in Blue Iris because it picks up EVERYTHING* It’s Power over Ethernet (POE), so its a 1-cable solution for power and video. You will need to have the POE equipment to support that though, which may be an additional cost to consider. You also have the option of powering it via 12vDC 5.5mmx2.1mm adapter (not included)* Wide-angle 2.8mm lens — close objects do seem further away, but the 4k resolution allows for a fairly good amount of digital zoom (when reviewing footage) without losing too much in the details* Good night vision, with a decent and fairly wide IR illuminationCons (and the reason for losing a star):* SD card access requires completely taking the camera ball apart, as its mounted inside and underneath a circuit board — this increases the chance of dust ingress to the lenses (which happened to me, and required completely taking the camera apart again to clean it, as it caused dust “halos” in the image at night), smudging the ball lens and/or camera lens on the inside, or worse breaking the delicate ribbon cables that attach the two circuit boards inside. Go slow, wear rubber gloves, and have something soft and lint-free to place the dissembled camera on while inserting the SD card! (.5 star deduction)* For some reason this camera, unlike my previous Amcrest cameras, would not set up properly in the mobile app using the P2P/”scan the QR code” option. I had to switch to IP/DNS+manual serial number discovery, and that further prevented me from viewing this camera using the mobile Amcrest View Pro app while off my home network. I’ve since been able to correct this through repeated attempts and setting a dedicated IP to the camera (which I typically eventually set, but a DHCP’d IP didn’t cause problems with initial setup on my other Amcrest cameras). That inconvenience cost it an additional half-star deduction as it shouldn’t require that type of workaround to begin with. Maybe I was just spoiled by how easily my first two Amcrest cameras set up using P2P and no special configuration steps, but it still cost it that half-star.* Good, but not great, night vision as at 15fps: vehicles driving by are blurry. You’ll be able to make out a vehicle type, maybe even a make/model if you know the headlight/taillight configurations, but you’re not going to be capturing license plates with this camera at night. Slower moving humans are captured much better (and with more detail) than moving automobiles. Since I’m more concerned about the humans that have roamed the neighborhood breaking into cars, I didn’t deduct anything here because it captures them beautifully.* Questionable inclusion of a bagged silica desiccant inside the body of the camera, which made me a little nervous about having the camera mounted outdoors. It made me wonder about its efficiency, but I may be over cautious about this. No star deductions for this, but time will tell…The Amcrest apps will get special mention here because there is “nuance” to them. Even if you invest in Blue Iris (which I strongly recommend if you want to record multiple cameras and manage them from one interface), you will need to use the apps for local SD recording and initial “camera only” settings like resolution, IP address, passwords and accounts, etc. For setting up motion zones on the cameras (for recording to SD) using the Chrome plug-in can be frustrating: high resolution monitors will force you to hunt for the motion zones to select because they will be very far from what is being selected with the mouse. Essentially, you would need to click and select several inches _away_ from the actual area you want because the bitmapping will be off due to the high resolution. Honestly, I’ve seen worse apps/plug-ins, so nothing is terrible with them. It’s just that they have a steep learning curve. Once you learn their nuances, you’ll be able to zip around with them if you need to (downloading captured footage from SD, setting accounts/passwords, other tweaks you may want to do, etc).Overall, I’m very happy with this camera and absolutely feel its worth the price as the 4k resolution is outstanding – even if it isn’t as plug-and-play as I’d expected given my experience with other Amcrest cameras.

   Loading...
2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   SmartHomeConsumer – May 18, 2020

   At $109.99, the 4k Turret Camera to Beat. Amazing Daytime Video. Night time is AverageThis is a 4K ethernet networked security camera. I have used wifi cameras from Google (Nest Doorbell), WyzeCam, Ring, and the Unifi networked Power over Ethernet (POE) cameras. This camera will be compared against the Unifi networked cameras as this is also a hardwired camera.Basic Facts:This is a 1/2.5inch 8mp CMOS sensor with a 2.8mm fixed lens. The camera has a 112 degree horizontal field of view. The housing allows the camera to pivot 360 degrees around or 78 degrees up/down (all manual).It has an ethernet port that is 10/100.The security camera has a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 128gb. The unit can be managed by any NVR software that supports ONVIR or through an Amcrest dedicated NVR, or through Amcrest Cloud. I would recommend using a dedicated NVR or NVR software on a dedicated computer. The MicroSD card should be used as a fail safe instead of a primary means of storing and playing back camera footage.This camera gives you the option of H.265 or H.264 compression. For the low price of $109.99 it’s nice to see that it comes with H.265. The Unifi G4 Pro (4k sensor) at $450 does not offer H.265.The camera also has a build in mic to record sounds with video. There is no speaker with this unit, but that is consistent among networked security cameras. They are intended to record and not serve as means of two way communication like many wifi cameras sold by Ring, Nest, Arlo, etc. They do one job, record video, and do it well.Build quality: This is a solidly built security camera using all metal housing. The camera housing is able to generously pivot providing me flexibility in mounting options. With Unifi cameras, the camera itself has an ethernet port to plug in your own cable. With this camera, there is a cable permanently attached for 12-18 inches, and at the end is the port. The box comes with a connection cover to help with waterproofing. Normally, I would be concerned that this hardwired ethernet cable would be a point of failure on something that sees more use and abuse, but given that this is a security camera which will be installed once and not moved, I feel reasonably comfortable saying that this approach to the ethernet connection will not create a device longevity issue.Other than that, I saw no issues from this early review. I will update this review in 3-6 months with any new observations. The Amcrest 4k camera was tested inside for 1 week, and was installed under an eave so I cannot comment on its waterproofing.Image Quality:I have used the Unifi G3 Bullet camera and the G3 flex. Both of these Unifi cameras offer good daytime quality at 30fps. This Amcrest camera with 4K resolution blows away the Unifi cameras during daylight hours, even though it is only at 15fps. In smoothness, I can’t tell a difference between 15fps vs 30fps or it is so small that it does not bother me. If your goal is automatic license plate recognition, I would do a bit more research to see whether you need a beefier 4K security camera with 30fps (more opportunities per second to read a license plate clearly). However, for my use, to look at our property and the street in front of it, this camera works perfectly.I read online that for security cameras, the most you should put them at is 20fps, and anything more than that is wasting hard drive storage space. I was skeptical of the claim and never bothered to test it because I have enough space on my storage drive. Using the Amcrest 4k turret security camera, I can confirm the 15fps limit at 4k resolution is not a hindrance to my uses and I imagine it will not be for you if you have a typical use case: monitoring your home or business.This Amcrest 4K POE camera was partnered with the Sighthound Video software which immediately recognized the camera and took only a few minutes to set up. I would recommend finding the camera’s IP address, logging in, and then changing the default password. The default username and password are admin and admin, respectively.Looking at daytime video quality, I am absolutely blown away by the 4k image quality for only $109.99. It is significantly better than my 1080p Unifi cameras. The Unifi G3 bullet is $150 and the G3 flex is $79 for cost comparison purposes. Ubiquiti also sells a 4k camera called the G4 Pro for $450. It has a 4k image sensor and records at 24fps.This camera includes a microphone. The microphone is adequate but I would say the unifi microphones or the one included on the Nest Hello doorbell are more sensitive. That may not be a bad thing — those microphones are so sensitive in the Nest and Unifi cameras that they pick up noises from 500+ feet away.The only real downside of this camera I see is that the night vision could use improvement. It is in general difficult to find a camera that can mate night vision and a 4k sensor and it holds true here. There is a lot of noise in the image, and night vision on my 1080p Unifi camera looks better. The IR led on this camera is fine for about 30ft. 164ft as claimed by the product manufacturer would be a stretch, but I doubt you would ever use 1 camera to look for objects 164ft away. The same is true for the Unifi cameras – they are good for up to 30ft away. For normal use, this camera’s IR led is more than adequate. Moreso, most 4k security cameras in the consumer/prosumer product area range from $200-500. Given this product’s low price, you could add an IR flood light for $20-70, or normal flood lights to improve the night time illumination of your area. If you add an IR flood light, it will aid in black and white illumination. If you add a normal flood light, it will make it easier for the camera algorithm to switch to color-mode, turn off the IR LEDs, and record a more vivid image at night.Overall: This is a great security camera priced extremely aggressively. For the price, $109.99, most consumers would expect a 1080p or 4mp camera. Instead, this is a 8mp/4k security camera recording at 15fps, IP67 weatherproof, microSD card slot for backup storage, and a wide temperature operating range of -22 F to 140 F.I have been looking for a 4k camera to monitor the intersection in front of my home as it sees a lot of traffic with people taking turns fast. There have been a few instances of drivers nearly hitting children, or they have hit our landscaping. The Unifi 4K camera at $450 is too much even though it gets good reviews. Many Hikvision and Dahua 4k cameras hover around $180-$220. This camera, for $109.99, hits 90% of the mark compared to the unifi camera for 25% of the price. It does not offer a motorized lens, and it could benefit from better night time video quality. However, I did not anticipate using the motorized zoom lens. So, for 1/4th the price of the Unifi camera, I can recommend this as a suitable alternative. I used the Sighthound Video app to record video but BlueIris is another popular alternative. The daytime video quality of the camera is superb and works well in a variety of lighting conditions from straight-on sunlight to cloudy days. License plates are easy to read and faces have more detail compared to my 1080p security camera.I would like to review this Amcrest turret 4k camera against Amcrest’s bullet camera, which is a bit cheaper at $89.99. However, if you are in need of a turret style camera, I would strongly recommend considering this.

   Loading...
3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   J. Beer – February 11, 2022

   Works great with Blue Iris, occasional freezing.For my setup I am using this camera in my backyard using POE to a BlueIris server. The camera comes with a torx key for adjusting and locking down the turret, water resistant Ethernet connector, four screws with drywall anchors, and a coupon for 1 month of cloud storage if you go that route. I currently have similar cameras from Dahua and Hikvision but they are only 2MP and 4MP so I can’t really compare the video quality but, the web interface for configuration is by far the best with this Amcrest camera. Though some of the setting are not where I would expect, I did find setting for everything I could think of. Using an IPhone app I could easily find the camera and setup the app. Be aware that you won’t find all of the configurations in the phone app that are available in the web interface so it’s best to configure the camera on your PC via the web interface.This camera also supports on board recording, and Amcrest offers a cloud service with a per camera fee based on how many days of recording you want to have access to. At this time the service starts at $6 a camera for 7 day recording of motion only. Hardware NVR’s and software NVR’s are also available. I use BlueIris with my cameras so I only needed to learn one NVR system that can work with any camera. I’m not sure if the Amcrest DVR’s will work with other brands of cameras.Being an 8MP camera the image quality is vastly superb to my 2MP and 4MP cameras I have during the day. At night the image is very close to my Dahua 2MP camera with STARVIS CMOS, I’m still playing with the settings but this camera may be slightly less crisp.To power this camera you can use POE or a 12v power supply that you will need to purchase separately. I purchased the Amcrest POE injector to test with this camera and it works fine to power the camera with POE.It appears that most of the problems people have been having is with the NVR software which I don’t use. Some people have had issues with firmware upgrades but the camera I received came with the latest firmware.The biggest problem I have had is that the camera freezes up about once a week and I can’t get the stream nor can I connect to the web interface. I have tracked this issue down to the camera and contacted Amcrest Support. I was told that this is an issue and a workaround would be to set the camera to auto reboot. This can be found in the System -> Auto Maintain menu. I’m still testing this to see if it will auto reboot when it’s already frozen. My first guess is that this will not recover if the camera freezes before the auto reboot. I currently have a remote switch powering the POE injector so a simple power cycle will also recover the cameras stream.With the high resolution this is a great camera for daytime recording, for nighttime recording there may be some better options but in general this camera does quite well. For the price of just over $100 I’m considering upgrading some of my other cameras with this one but with the limited zoom of the 2.8mm lens it would not be good for focused viewing at longer distances (for license plates). Consider a camera with a variable lens using the STARVIS CMOS for capturing details at night. Amcrest has a few offering using this technology but the cost will substantially higher.Because of the freezing problem I would normally give this 3 stars but because of the responsive support from Amcrest I will give it 4 stars. Upped to 5 if a solid solution comes from the support team to address the freezing.

   Loading...
4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   PR from Colorado – January 21, 2023

   Very good consumer level security cameraI own two of these and use them with Blue Iris. The software integration is simple and has been very reliable. Streaming rate is adequate for 15 fps on both main and sub stream. Image quality is excellent during the day, and seems to be very good during the night, but that is deceptive: the clear static picture you see is achieved at the expense of massive smoothing of the pixelated image. This becomes apparent whenever anyone walks through the field of view at night, all you see is a “comet” with a blob for the face and a blurry tail. I tried to experiment with the amount of 3D and 2D smoothing that the web interface provides, but to achieve realistic motion capture in the dark I had to sacrifice image quality so much that the pixelation and digital noise made the image unusable anyway. Long exposure mode showed promise but I had to extend the exposure to the point of reaching the frame rate, and also had trouble having the camera switch between night and day mode. That resulted in the long exposure mode extending into daylight, saturating the sensor and whiting out the image. The IR illumination only seems to blur the image instead of making it better, so I turned it off. Note that the camera is not even in a particularly dark area, there are 4 garage night lights lighting up the driveway that it is looking at. So that is a little disappointing. But that said, my other brand of consumer camera that starts with R performs more or less the same in the dark, and much worse in all other aspects with Blue Iris, so I will not complain. But take the “starlight” label on the box with a grain of salt. You probably need a $700 camera for that to be true.The second one I have looks at an area under a street light. That one is doing better at night, which makes me think that the IR from the street lamp helps it a lot (the garage lights are LED, so they probably are lacking in the IR range). So if you stick with these cameras, you may want to add a dedicated IR illuminator over the area it is looking at.During daylight this camera is great. The mic works fine.I wish it had field curvature correction in the firmware as the FOV is very distorted on the edges due to the wide angle. Alas, you don’t get that at this price point.Overall I like these cameras and recommend them to people using Blue Iris.

   Loading...
5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Zi – December 3, 2020

   Awesome 4K POE Camera, app needs a little workPros:• All metal construction• Water resistant RJ45 connection connector• Sticker drill guide• Easy to set upCons:• Does not work with the Amcrest Smart Home App• ~7 seconds to switch between day and night modes• QR setup code is printed on a plastic sticker on the cable• 12V DC power connector freely dangles if using POEAbout a year ago, I started the outdoor security camera journey with an Amcrest video doorbell. I signed up for cloud recording and also purchased the Blue Iris software so I can record the video footage locally 24×7. Recently I decided the backyard needed to be monitored. Monitoring the back yard will let me keep an eye on the kids while they play outside and also observe the wildlife that passes by at night.The camera and all of its accessories came nicely packed. What surprised me the most was the camera along with its base was all metal! The only plastic pieces are the lenses on the camera and IR LED. This does add some weight overall but it is very rugged.The camera also included water resistant gasket and connectors for the RJ45 (Ethernet) connector. Other water resistant connectors I have used in the past require a bare (un-terminated) cable to be inserted into the gasket then terminated. The design of this gasket/connector allows pre-terminated cables to be used, which is a huge plus and speeds up the installation.The drill template for the mounting screws was not printed on a sheet of paper; instead it is printed on a sticker. This is the first time I’ve seen this but it makes a lot of sense. I wish they included more than 1 just in case I decide to move the camera to a different location in the future.Obviously the physical install and the wiring will vary person to person so I won’t talk too much about it here. I will mention again how awesome the sticker drill template was in locating where I should drill.There were two things that could have been improved upon. The first one is the 12V DC plug. Since I am using POE, the DC plug is not used and just dangling out in the open. I also worry about water finding its way into the plug and damaging the camera. A waterproof plug of some sort would help with this situation.My other issue is with a sticker. Attached to the camera cable about a foot away from the camera is a plastic sticker. This sticker has a QR code on it which you scan to initially setup the camera. I can see this sticker falling off from being exposed to the elements overtime. This is the only QR code on the camera unit. It would have been better if there was a second QR code on the camera body itself. I actually removed my sticker and placed it in a safe place.Since I have the Amcrest video doorbell, I had the Amcrest Smart Home App loaded on my phone. I have to take 1 star away because this camera requires a different App (Amcrest View Pro). If I want to see who’s at my front door then see the back, I must switch between two different Apps which I am not a fan of.Setting up the camera in Amcrest View Pro was straightforward and I did not run into any issues. I scanned the QR code, followed the prompts, set a password and it was online. Once the camera was online, it was very simple to add it to Blue Iris for NVR recording.Overall I am very impressed with the camera and the image quality it delivers even at night. With the wide lens, it captures my entire back yard. Switching between day and night modes does take about 7 seconds or so to switch between day and night modes. This has not been a problem for me but it might be slow for some people. If I could use the same App as my video doorbell, this would have been a perfect 5 star product.

   Loading...
6. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Glasssplinter – December 30, 2020

   Good hardware, software needs improvements.First impressions:Well packaged and impressive specs for a compact camera. 4K @ 15 fps plus 164 IR range. Housing and mounting ring are all metal and has a nice solid feel to it. A mounting template and hardware is included but I used my own screws due to install location. Includes a quick start guide for basic hookup etc. Included (but not used) was a water resistant RJ45 cover which was a very nice touch.Install:Replaced an existing camera that was analog but run on CAT5e already. Installed the new camera ring mount and replaced the end of the cable. Hooked up the PoE adapter inside the home and powered everything up. If you have a brand new location without cable it’s going to be a chore but doesn’t matter which brand or camera you buy unless it’s wireless.Setup:Once the PoE was fired up and connected to my switch I navigated to the IP address of the camera. This seemed a little slow through the web interface and has never really gotten faster throughout my use (Firefox and a full gig network speed that is hardwired to my desktop and then to the PoE switch which is 100 mbps). I then went to install the software and found that to run everything much faster, however there appears to be a catch with that. Tweaked a few settings initially but it looked really nice right out of the box.Recording:Here’s where things got tricky. I originally had Amcrest Security Pro 1.14.1R20161018 installed and had nothing but problems getting the PC-NVR to work. Option was totally greyed out and could not get anything to work. Uninstall, Reinstall, still nothing. Off to the internet and started searching. Took awhile but finally found a thread with the same problems. The solution was to download the beta software called Amcrest Surveillance Pro 2.0 Beta. Just like that the problems went away and the PC-NVR was working. Fortunately this appears to now be the default download which should make things easier from the start.Software:I feel this is where a great piece of hardware meets an incomplete software solution. There are at least 4 different ways to configure this camera. Browser, Amcrest IP Config, Amcrest Sur Pro, and through the app. Using Firefox and Edge for the browser config is very slow. Video feed will actually downgrade to the sub stream saying “It has auto switched to substream for better video playing experience.” Switching to main stream will black the screen for a second then repeat the above message. Config does seem faster in Edge though. Amcrest Surveillance Pro so far is the only way to view the original stream on the PC in max resolution.The problem with this many apps / ways to setup is that they seem to overlap and overwrite settings. I had set a motion area via the browser and things were recording normally. However, I opened up either the ASP or the app and that changed my settings without me knowing. So the detection area changed completely and then I have no recordings for a couple of days. Perhaps if I upgrade to an NVR vs the microSD card this would partially go away since the NVR would hopefully set the recording parameters.Although listed, the Alexa video feed is only available if you subscribe to the cloud storage plan. Somewhat of a let down especially since you cannot even view just live video through Alexa without the subscription.Overall I think the hardware is very good and the daytime video WDR and night view is very good. Without software improvements though or just sticking to one viewing platform so things don’t overwrite I’ll be hoping for an update to fix these problems.

   Loading...
7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – April 29, 2020

   Easy to Use with Blue Iris, Lots of Features Even Without! Can use as your first Camera or Addon!Hey everyone, I wanted to give a review of this camera as it may help others that are in a similar situation of picking a new cam or just adding one to their existing environment. The camera that I decided on for my front walkway was this Amcrest turret cam and I have to say that right out of the box I am highly impressed. I have recently (maybe 4 months ago) got into setting up an NVR (Blue Iris) and PoE Cameras. My first purchase I made was multiple Reolink 510 turret cams which ended up being a pretty decent cam for my use, but I wanted more pixels (4K). Now there is a price point difference of course but you are getting not only higher quality image but seems to be better quality materials.The first thought I had as I opened the camera was impressed due to the fact that the entire chassis is metal and had a much higher quality feel than the Reolinks I started out with. The camera has a memory card location that is inside the camera meaning you will have to take it apart to get to it. While this is inconvenient to access, from a security aspect this is quite nice and much more secure as most people aren’t going to walk off with your camera. Especially this one if it is mounted properly and out of reach. Some of the other cams I have and even considered before this have a door/cover that provides access to insert a card, which is ok but also could be compromised some what easier.The physical install of the cam was quite easy, there is a sticker template included that you can stick on the surface where you are planning to mount it and then just drill through it, put in your (included) anchors and then mount the base. The outer piece that holds the camera is also full metal which made me feel better about mounting it as it did require some force to hold the cam in place and secure the Torx bolt in place. Once the bolt was tight the cam was solid and would not move even with a lot of force, this is most likely due to the rubber used to cradle the camera to the base.I installed the camera above front door off to the side so it watches my main walk way. There is a overhead door light that comes on at night to help with lighting at night. The quality of video in the day time has been phenomenal everything has been sharp and looks great and no issues capturing or frame stutter etc. It’s not going to read license plates by the street, but it is more for the closer coverage at the door. At night performance does take a little bit of a hit but its much better than anything I had leading up to it. The image is still very sharp, however with light sources coming at the camera does tend to make things hard to see clearly. Close up the quality is more than acceptable with a camera of this price point.My install of adding the camera to my NVR setup was extremely painless, I logged into the webgui, set a new password and static IP and pointed Blue Iris at it and that was it. I of course checked for updates and did make some other changes but as far as adding the camera that is all that was needed to get it going. My current setup may be a little different than most as I run a full reporting server that I use to watch most of my network and hardware allowing me to also watch network bandwidth and have it report into a dashboard. This allows me to Compare file sizes with regards to quality, resolution and bandwidth used.I am using Blue Iris to do my captures and am using motion triggers vs doing a 24/7 record. With my Reolink cams I am running 2556×1920 @ 15FPS and 6144 kbps using H264 codec. Typical file sizes were between 20-30 MB per clip (varing 20-30 seconds). The Amcrest I am running 3840×2160 at 15 FPS using the highest quality setting and the same 6144 kbps with H265 codec and my file sizes are coming out around the same size. SO because Amcrest has supported the use of H265 I am getting a much bigger frame size and everything else being the same, I am getting a better quality image at the same storage cost. Furthermore when looking at my network usage my Amcrest is running a pretty constant 10 Mbps where all my other cams (Reolnks) are running similar bandwidth. So better over all performance at the same bandwidth and file size.Overall since installing about 3 weeks since writing this, I am still highly impressed with cam, I find it has become my favorite one to watch as the wider angle has allowed me to see much more than just walk way, I can actually see most of the drive way and even into the street. I played with the audio feature a little bit and it seem to pick up quite a bit and can be even used as a record trigger. The web GUI while I haven’t used it much since my initial setup, I found has a LOT of different settings that were available. In fact, there were much more than I expected. You can control everything from quality, encoding, audio & video settings like brightness, hue, profiles, alarm, cloud settings all of it available right inside the gui, so even without a NVR system you could check in on this cam or even the app, and see events. Amcrest has a done a phenomenal job of having all kinds of ways to utilize the camera in a way that works for you. There really seems to be no wrong way to use this camera as it can be used as a single stand alone camera all by itself or you can add it to a system like I did. This would make a great addition to anyone’s existing setup or even as a first purchase camera that they just want a little added security.One last thing to keep in mind will be you will need power adapter (if not using PoE) and a wired network connection. If you are possibly adding this camera to an existing setup like I did, this camera has a 10/100 Mbps requirement is great as you can use a PoE rated RJ-45 splitter (2 pairs of wires to each camera power/data) using your existing (4 Pair any Cat5/6 etc) cable run if installing near an existing camera saving you a lot of time to add the new camera. I am currently doing this and has worked out excellent.Hope that anyone reading this has found it helpful!

   Loading...
8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Nicole – October 1, 2020

   Good camera, app could use some improvementsAbout a year ago, we purchased an Amcrest doorbell camera. It’sbeen a great investment, so we decided to try this Amcrest security camera. Itis well packaged, and the camera appears to be good qualitywith the housing and outer shell cast made of aluminum. It comes with atemplate on a sticker so you can easily place it in your desired camera location and drill right through the sticket template. It has four screw holes andone center hole for the wiring. The camera has onepower input and one POE (ethernet) input (which can also provide power). Thepower supply is not included if you need to power the unit with thepower port, otherwise you will need a POE switch or POE router. Wefound a 4 port POE switch on Amazon for only $20 which was plug & play, no setuprequired. I should also note that if you are also using the switch withnon-POE devices, some of the extremely cheap POE switches cannotdetermine if you are plugging in a POE device or any other device whichdoes not require power, so make sure that the one you get has autodetecting if you want to keep things simple. One ethernet from therouter to the switch, then you can have four cameras fed off of theswitch. Setting up the app was pretty straight forward, other than thedirections stating that the serial number & QR code was typically on theback of the camera, which it was not. After a phone call with techsupport, he insisted it was there somewhere. I found that it wasactually on a sticker, wrapped around the wire, quite a few inches awayfrom the camera. This portion of the wire happened to already bestuffed up through the hole in the soffit, but once I found it andscanned the QR code, setup took minutes. The picture quality in 4k farexceeded my expectation. You also have the option to digitally zoom/panquite a bit before major degredation. The night vision is pretty goodas well. Our driveway is about 60ft. long and there is enough infraredlight to show a clear picture up to about 40-50ft. out. The bestfeature is the push notifications to the app for events such as motionor sound detection. You can easily set the dead zones to prevent falsealarms. The microphone seems to pick up sounds very well, although I’veonly tried it out a couple of times. We have used the basic cloudservice on the doorbell in addition to storing on the SD card, but wehave not setup the cloud service on the turret camera yet, instead we’re just using anSD card. I should also note, if other cameras are added, the appallows simultaneous viewing of multiple cameras with the ability to fillthe screen with just one. If you prefer, Amcrest also offers an appfor PC which can do it all, as well as some 3rd party software that canalso be used.On the negative side of things…. The motion detection at night usinginfrared seems to only pick up motion up to about 25′. There are someadjustments for the sensitivity, but I haven’t been able to sense motionbeyond 25′ yet. I couldn’t find an in-depth user guide for the AmcrestView Pro app which details all features, only a handful of guidesshowing a handful of features which is found in the support area ofAmcrest’s website. The app is fairly clean, but could use some work.A lot of Amcrest’s other cameras use the same app, so for a camera likethis with fewer features, the app still shows the buttons for the moreadvanced features which other cameras would use. I feel like theseshould at the very least be grayed out. After using the app for ashort time, you get used to which items are available and which arenot. In reality, once you get things setup the way you want, you reallydon’t do a lot on the app. When a clip is recorded to your phone, yourframe rate is limited by your internet connection. A 4k recording mayoutput only a frame every few seconds if you are not on your homenetwork, making the recorded video very choppy. You can choose to sendthe files or export to view on a computer. For some reason, when clipsare exported, the delay between frames is removed, so you get all theframes quickly one after another right away, then the remaining time isjust the last frame on the screen, so something is off there. Keep inmind, this is only when you click the record button on the app, not whenevents are recorded straight to the cameras SD card. My biggestcomplaint is that there are three main subcategories to view live video,saved video/pics, and recorded events. On the live view screen, thereis no shortcut to view any recorded video, events, or pictures. Inorder to view automatically recorded video from a triggered event, youhave to click the menu, find “push notifications”, “event list”, thenchoose which event to view. However, once you are on the screen andviewing your recorded events, there are shortcuts at the top to switchto snapped pictures, and live video feed. It would be nice to have themall accessible anywhere in the app. It seems like a lot of work to getto your recordings. I should also point out that the Amcrest smarthomeapp does have shortcuts to your recordings from the live video feed,which works really well. Both apps are very different, and I’d assume theAmcrest cloud app is also different.All in all, it’s a great camera and easy to get used to once you runthrough the app front to back a few times.

   Loading...
9. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   4johnybravo – August 9, 2021

   not great for fast moving objects if using SD cardMy review is based on someone who was wanting to use this soley with an 256gig sd card and not an NVR, so I put my camera up on my front porch facing the front street of my house, the street is very busy with cars, I set motion to record 50 minutes long snippets and sometimes it recorded 8 minute snippets, over a hundred of then too many to count, but as of the time of this email I have 33gigs left of the 256 gigs and I recorded all in 4k and 15 frames per second. So im impressed with the storage capacity, although they do make 512 gig memory cards now so amcrest should think ahead on their next camera revision and implement the larger storage card if they wanna do something to set them apart, now onto the bad, I didn’t like that the playback snippets within the mobile app wont play the full length 5 minute snippets, I was angry for hours using the mobile app first wondering why the camera wouldn’t increase the recording length once motion was detected, was about to send the camera back, but then noticed on the amcrest pro pc version software all the events were fully viewable and was pleased about that but it isnt easy to cut and snip video as thier timeline isnt easily scalabel, also its buggy,, now, I am very dissatisfied with the 15 frames per second, and don’t think this is a good front yard camera were cars are moving fast through the screen, I couldn’t even make out half the cars, because at 15fps only HALF the stry is there… I know the camera is capable of forced 30fps IF your using an NVR but not when using motion detection, I think this is an “OK” backyard camera, Imy suggestion is this, if amcrest could wright in the software and the firmware of the camera to give it this option to select in the configurations; when the camera detects motion it then shuts off further AI processing of motion and picture for facial recognition and vehicle tetection and just shifts the camera into 5minute 30fps mode, recording 5 minutes of 30fps then and the end of the 5 minutes if switches all its processing power back to detection mode at 15 fps, most people don’t needs the fancy facial recognition and such, they want fluid motion recording at 30fps, but I doubt the amcrest camera’s processor is capable of does both 30fps while trying to facial recognize or detect motion, BUT it could do one or the other very well so just make a simple motion detection mode that once tripped send the cammera into 30fps record mode for 5 minutes, all that time the camera isn’t using processing power to detect motion anymore its just recording 30fps, then at the end of 5 minutes it switches back to motion detect and if there is more motion detect then it shoots the camera back into another 5 minute 30fps loop.. most of the footage I have of passing cars are unusable, cant even make out the vehicle when rewinding and playing slow mow, and its very hard to even frame by frame select a good quality shot, but when I use my other camera from a nother company that is running in 30fps I CAN see the cars and make out the make and model, either the shutter speed is so slow and the camera only taking 15fps making the videos so motion blurred that I could even use them in the court of law. However I do know using another camera at 30fps accually does do what I need and they are mounted side by side to the amcrest. All in all, if I had to pay the full 109$ for this camera, I would have returned it if I wasn’t getting it at a discount, but I think I will relegate it to the backyard camera were nothing would be moving between 10 and 25 miles and hour.. when a bettwe amcrest camera comes out with 30fps recording on the sd cards, I’ll buy one and use it on the front of the houseSo I guess to sum it up, the camera cant do all the fancy facial and car recognizion AND do 30fps, so just make the software have a setting for basic general generic low motion detection mode so it can free up the processor to do a full 30fps 5 minute recording per motion detection for sd card users. Amcrest wanted to get too fancy when I feel people just want 30fps snippets….we don’t need 30fps AND all the special facial stuff or anything… just a simple tripwire that sends the cam into 30fps for 5 minutes or 8 minutes or just whenever it detects a basic motion… no need to have the processor over analyze the frames, just let the camera do what a camera does and record 30fps.

   Loading...
10. 

    Rated 5 out of 5

    David S – June 11, 2019

    Was Amcrest’s Best 4K Night Vision Camera Yet. Now dead after 1 year, 6 months.Update 12/10/202:Amcrest reconsidered:”I have consulted with our techs and they have assured me that our firmware updates are working properly and this issue is mostly likely caused by the power being disconnected during the install process. However we have decided to issue a one time replacement.”Note, the firmware update was done via the web interface while the camera was still mounted on my house and connected to an Amcrest POE injector installed in my garage and continuously powered, so I’m not sure how the power could possibly have been interrupted. On the bright side, they are RMAing this camera and sending a replacement. Thank you Amcrest!Update 12/9/2020:Sadly, I updated the firmware on this camera and now it is stuck in a reboot loop. The camera was working perfectly until I pressed the Upgrade button on my browser to update the firmware to V2.622.00AC000.0.R.201022.bin. Now the camera starts up, displays live video for a few seconds, then reboots. I contacted support who were unable to resolve the problem. They suggested contacting the RMA group which I did. They said the camera was purchased 1 year and 6 months ago, so it was out of warranty and Amcrest does not warranty firmware upgrades.Maybe it was a coincidence that the camera failed during the firmware update and has nothing to do with the firmware itself. My experience tells me the camera would be working perfectly today if I hadn’t put Amcrest’s latest firmware on it….sure seems like just a software problem.I am still very satisfied with my other Amcrest cameras, but I won’t be updating their firmware.*************I’ve been using Amcrest IP cameras for several years now for home and business security. I purchased this camera to be the primary camera covering my driveway and front yard. It has a 112 degree field of view which is perfect for my application. The daytime 4k video is amazing but I was surprised by the great night vision quality compared to the other models I’ve used. I highly recommend this camera. Now for some more specifics of my experience.This is a POE (power over ethernet) camera which also has an optional 12V power connector. I went with Amcrest’s POE Injector for ease of installation. I just connected an ethernet cable from my network to the DIN port on the injector and then connected the camera to the injector with a second cable. I was delighted to find the weather seal has been re-designed to allow the ethernet cables RJ-45 connector to fit through the seal cap so premade cables work great.The camera has several options for where the video is recorded. I wanted at local copy stored on the camera which requires installation of a micro SD card. I’m using a Samsung 64GB 100MB/s (U3) card. Using motion/sound triggered recording at the highest resolution, highest frame rate, and highest quality on my active street, this gives me about 4 days of stored video. Installing the SD card was a bit more of an operation than I had expected. Other Amcrest cameras I have used have small a weather sealed panel which can be removed revealing the sd card slot. This camera requires not only removing the back cover, but also the camera board inside. It is not a difficult process, just 5 screws to remove, but the documentation is not very specific. Fortunately, this is a one time task so it is not a big deal. Just make sure you don’t touch the camera lens itself, or if you do, make sure you clean it before closing it up.I used the free Amcrest View Pro app on my Android phone to setup the camera. It is very straight forward and walks you through the process step by step. Once complete, I was able to view the live video and audio feed from anywhere. I can also playback the stored recordings as well. In addition to the app on my phone, I use Amcrest Surveillance Pro on my pc. This app is also free and the primary way I monitor multiple cameras simultaneously during the day.Once the camera was setup, I went the the extensive customization options provided by the camera. Amcrest has done a great job giving you access to nearly every aspect of the cameras operation so you can set it to meet your needs. I went through the more detailed configuration options to specify motion detection recording and sound detection. The options provided are excellent. You can specify the times/days you want motion detection to be active, the thresholds for the amount of motion require to trigger the recording, up to 4 separate regions, etc. Likewise, the sound detection allows you to define your schedule and threshold by viewing a live graph showing the sound level.Once the sun went down, I was able to check the night vision capabilities of the camera. It was immediately clear that this camera does a much better job than the 3 or 4 MP models from Amcrest. I’m not sure if it is the new Starlight sensor or the improved built in IR illuminator, but I have no problem seeing people walking 70 feet away at night. Not only that, but the camera maintains a good shutter speed so moving people/cars are not a blur. I am very happy with the night vision performance.The built-in microphone is very sensitive. I have no problem hearing people in my yard, dogs barking, birds singing, sirens, etc. The camera has a noise reduction option to filter our some of the background noise, but I found the audio quality to be better without noise reduction.Overall, this is a fantastic, versatile camera. The daytime 4k video performance is excellent, the night vision is great and the audio recording is impressive. The android app is very good at home or away. The PC app works well, but I’d say it is due for an update. Alternatively, Amcrest suggests purchasing Blue Iris software which works well with their cameras. Considering the features and performance this camera offers for a relatively little extra cost, this is an excellent value.

    Loading...