buellwinkle

The key emailed to me didn't work, was a single camera license. I had to email their tech support to get a proper trial key.

They do have lots of cameras on their website that you can't find anywhere for sale. That camera you mention is too chunky for indoors for my tastes, probably work well outdoors. Also, it has a lower frame rate compared to their other cameras.

That's why I do my reviews with typical house lighting, suburban street lights and you get noise or cameras that don't have noise because of noise reduction have lost detail. If I put that same camera in big city, urban environment it looks fantastic. They do video's in downtown Taipei and wow, that camera is amazing. No it's not, you just don't realize how well lit most urban areas are.

Mobotix is not that expensive when you consider you don't need an NVR solution and that one S14 is really 2 cameras in one, with 2 separate lenses that can be about 12' apart, so two cameras for the price one one. Also, sits flush with the ceiling tiles, only about 2" diameter, a lot more discrete than standard domes.

A really cool low light camera is the Mobotix S14. First, no need for an NVR, it's built in. Just need a small PC to run their CMS software, MX ControlCenter. You can order the S14's with 2 night sensors which are really crisp sharp b&w you can't get from any color sensor I've seen.

I'm waiting for the IPC-HDW2100 to come out. It's an outdoor camera but looks compact enough to work well indoors. http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/ipc-hdw2100-195.html

Yes, the Axis Q6035E does it all. I have the review on my blog. Excellent camera and well worth the modest price tag.

CK2 is how he refers to NVR software he sells called CastleKeeper2. You would think he would see an opportunity to make his product compatible with a camera brand that's received a lot of attention where more popular NVR software maybe unaware of Dahua although Milestone is on top of it. Instead he attacks it without having tried it. I can tell you that on my blog, for all the cameras I've reviewed, Dahua get the most hits and it's not just because it was my last review.

Be careful of the -P model's with the built in PoE router, it's not a switch, so you may have trouble if you are expecting to plug that into your home router for remote access or even connectivity within your home network.

I get it, I didn't believe any camera from mainland China would be any good. I thought the buzz here over Dahua was just people getting excited over a low cost product, like Foscam that so many people buy. So I asked them to send me a demo camera for a review and I was very surprised that indeed it is a good well made product that rivals cameras costing 2-3x the price.

Because I help someone with a camera problem or can't find where to buy doesn't mean I profit from them buying it. I have no financial relationship with any camera manufacturer. Just about all camera companies lend me cameras to do reviews. I paid for every single camera that I use at my house. Don't know your software, but I tested Dahua with NVR+ software that worked very well, got the full 30fps at 1080P in live view and recordings. BlueIris gets 30fps at 1080P in live view and recordings but they are working on a problem with some dropped frames in the recorded video. The reason I'm actively testing NVR solutions with Dahua cameras is because I really like the camera and want to use them at home to replace some of my aging ACTi cameras that are over 3 years old and have a mix of both. And not so much because of price, I just find it to a good camera period. When I buy Dahua cameras, I do it like anyone else. Dahua that lent me the camera won't sell to me directly. Same with ACTi, I get cameras on loan from them, but I still have to go to my distributor and buy them.

You can't pay for it if they don't make it and if you use their NVR and there's a 1080P limit, it is what it is. The cost differential between 2MP and 3MP is pretty small, on the bullet camera, it's a $15 difference. My concern would be that the NVR may auto-detect that its a 3MP camera and not allow it. Has anyone tried it? The reason is I'm setting a system where the customer prefers domes and prefers an NVR.

Why is it h.264 vs. Mobotix. Their D14 Dual Dome has the option of h.264.

That is an HD-SDI camera..not IP camera. Also using CMOS and not CCD so it will be quite expensive. ahh. yeah! Can't you use the 3MP dome in 1080P mode if you want to? I was wondering if it will work with their NVR that only mentions 1080P support, but my guess would be that if you run the 3MP camera in 1080P mode in theory it should work but may not even recognize that model. Then later if they provide 3MP support in the firmware for their NVR you can take advantage of the unused MP. For what it's worth, the 3MP dome cost less than the 1080P Bullet so I can't image that if they did come out with an IPC-HDWB2200 that the price would difference would be that different.

Goldserve, from my understanding you installed newer firmware and that fixed your problem, no? As for RTSP, I've used the camera with BlueIris via RTSP, the url is common knowledge. 40th, do you need help getting it working with Castlekeeper? I can give you remote access to the camera so you can test it. You have to learn to snuggle not struggle.

Good to see VitaminD support Dahua cameras. You basically buy a PoE switch, plenty of them out there on Amazon, Buy.com or eBay. Had my TPE-S44 from Trendnet for 3 years, works well but there's plenty of others. The camera plugs into the switch using standard ethernet cable. Then you plug your switch into your router using ordinary ethernet cable if you want to access the camera from the internet. Then your Mac, if it's primarily used as an NVR, plug that into the same switch as the cameras. If you want ethernet cables with ends already on them, Monoprice is the least expensive place I know to buy from. 100' cat5 cables cost about $11 there and they come in many colors. I like different colors for cameras so I know which one belongs to which camera if I need to reset the camera. Don't know if Dahua's cameras finder program works with Macs and their web interface to configure the camera requires IE browser. So you may need Windows at least to get it all working. Dahua's are odd that they have a set IP that you have to change it using their camera finder tool as it's not configured from the factory to get a dynamic IP like your Mac probably uses. Let us know how it works out. VitaminD may be a resource hog, so check CPU utilization with the one camera and let us know.

Hm, can't get Dahua cameras to work with Castlekeeper? I understand

About time. They make an NVR that only supports a max of 2MP but then they have these cool 3MP cameras. Dahua seems to put cameras on their website that may not release for a while. Still waiting for their 1.3MP day/night minidome with illuminators to come out. Would be nice indoors. The only thing the specs that raises a red flag is the 12W usage, ouch, I can run two on my 4 port switch. Don't know why because the 3MP version is 10W.

Why do you like that model? I would consider it if it was a day/night camera.

Without having them side by side, who knows. But here's why I would want the newer one. First, it's newer, will likely have any bugs or design defects that may be in the older version fixed. Second, 4.5mm is not wide enough for me for a 3MP camera. For many, the point of having higher resolution is being able to have a wider image and still retain the detail they want. Also, the lens is F1.4 on the newer one vs F1.6 which may explain why the older model has a 10-20m rated IR illuminator vs. the newer one just says 20m. This is technology, you never want last year's model of anything. Frankly, I'm not sure I want the new one, wheres the one coming after that, I want that one '

It could be the FTP is not completing. For example you are doing them too frequently and the camera or network speed can't keep up so it starts an FTP but before it completes another request to FTP comes in and disrupts the first one. Given the poor image quality and the complexity of what you are trying to do, is it worth it?

WiFi as an option is very limiting. Outdoors, having a WiFi camera usually means you need a 110V outlet nearby, it's going to have a transfomer at the end of long 6-10' of wire. On top of that, WiFi does not do well without line of site, so putting it outdoors, while you may get reception with a laptop, the cheap radios that they put in these lower end cameras may not get a strong enough signal. So what happens is frame rates are reduced and it's common to lose connectivity during the day. Simple things like turning on a microwave or walking in the path of the signal may be enough to take a weak signal and make it no signal. With that said, there are very good WiFi commercial grade cameras, but no domes. Seem my review on my block on Brickcom as they put a serious WiFi radio in their cameras but it' a bullet format, not dome. The alternative most of us use to WiFi is PoE. It uses ethernet to connect the camera and also powers it. So instead of needing a 110V outlet you power the camera with low voltage and connect it at the same time. Ethernet cable is cheap, even premade cables of 100' length can be purchased for about $11 at places like Monoprice. That opens up your choice of cameras from a very small handful of decent WiFi cameras to thousands of choices in all price ranges. Allows you to have a 1080P camera that may not be possible with WiFi. Afterall, your cell phone can probably record 1080P video, why would you want a VGA camera. My monitor is 1080P, I can't imagine looking at a VGA image, it would be so small, like looking at a thumbnail. Then you have the issue of how are you going to record? Lesser known or unbranded cameras from China may not be readily be supportted by NVR software. So figure that out first before buying. Zoneminder works with any camera where you can get the RTSP stream from, but consider that from lesser known brand without support, how will you figure out what the URL is for the camera that Zoneminder needs?

I checked with two Dahua distributors, one says it's the 4.5-10mm F1.6 lens, the other is the 3.3-12mm F1.4 lens. Seems like the 4.5-10mm is old stock.

Why not just get a job with Google driving the street view car. Instead of costing you money you can make money.

I haven't bought it yet because I'm going to try and get BlueIris working with it because a) I already have the BlueIris license, b) I can have ACTi and Dahua on the same software. I was just providing the warning that if you buy NVR+, consider getting the USB key option. I'll PM you where to buy it from.