buellwinkle

Mobotix doesn't yet make an M14, they make a D14 or an M12. Mobotix has properties that makes it unique, the built in NVR software, no moving parts, dedicated day and night sensors. I have yet to work with any color camera that does as well at night as the Mobotix B&W night sensor. The image quality from Mobotix is great, best I've ever used both day and night. They do offer h.264 on their newer cameras, but it's probably best to stick with their compression that has better image quality on stop motion single frames. If their cameras fit the bill and their cost is justified, and many times it is as you don't need a central NVR, then this is the way to go. Brickcom makes a great camera but with it's own set of unique features. For example, varifocal lens, something that Mobotix does not offer as well as WiFi and 4G wireless connectivity. If you need features that Mobotix does not provide, then Brickcom cameras are well made, have very good image quality and they provide free NVR software. I have reviews on the cameras you are looking at on my blog.

As with anything purchased online, if the price is too good to be true, it may be worth asking why? For example, if one vendor is selling a camera $100 cheaper than anyone else, ask them why, will the warranty be valid in the U.S.? If you've bought photographic equipment online then you know what I mean. People buy Nikon or Canon cameras in countries that have lower prices, favorable exchange rates and then sell them in the U.S. bypassing the U.S. distributor. Then they provide 3rd party warranties because the U.S. distributor won't warranty cameras purchased abroad. I have wholesale price lists and when someone is selling below wholesale, it sends me a red flag. Having said that, I bought Axis products from PCRush, not an authorized dealer and Axis still provided support. Why did I buy from PCRush when I could buy from a number of distributors, because they are local and they were cheaper at the time, go figure.

Most online places are not authorized dealers and may be selling gray market cameras and won't likely come with a U.S. warranty. That includes Amazon. Buying from Alibaba means buying directly from China and if you expect zero support, you won't be disspointed. EBay is another source of products directly from China, again, cheap, but you won't likely get any support. Also, it will be tough to get software that supports unbranded cameras from China. B&H is a decent place to buy from. They've been around a long time in NYC and have a good long standing reputation in the photography business and carry a wide assortment of IP cameras, lenses and accessories. If it's inappropriate to mention then, the please remove this post.

Don't know from a cctv perspective, but Fujifilm and it's Fujinon lenses is a respect camera company with cameras and lenses costing thousands. Hasselblad, a very high end professional camera uses lenses made by Fuji on some of it's cameras. Tamron is a lens company for DSLR cameras as a lower cost alternative to Nikorr or Canon lenses. Don't know many pro's that put Tamron lenses on on their cameras. So based on brand name alone, I would go Fujinon over Tamron.

Many of these cameras that don't play outsite of IE usually have a streaming URL that can be used to send video directly to a browser. For example, to get the full web interface for ACTi cameras you have to use IE, but you can do a get_stream that brings it to any browser, like Safari on my Macbook but just video, not the entire interface.

If you want to take it up a notch in night performance and you don't mind a box camera, the ACTi KCM-5611 is awesome at night. I like the TCM-7811, but the KCM-5611 is much better and it's 1080P. Not sure of price difference, maybe $50-100 more.

Don't stress over h.264 as you'll probably expose only mjpeg as that's a universal standard that most browsers can see.

It may be more cost effective to dump the Vivotek as used cameras, replace with all ACTi and use their latest ACTi NVR software which is the best I've ever seen, uses minimal CPU resources, is fast and is FREE. 16 cameras are free. If you are using or tried the old ACTi software from a month ago, the new one is many times better.

ACTi and Axis make excellent cameras. Check out Mobotix. Their M12 uses only 4 watts, pretty low and has a complete NVR solution built into the camera. No PC or NVR ever needed for anything. You can have it write directly to NAS, you can use a tablet with a browser, smart phone or in a pinch a PC to view live or recorded video. Some Axis cameras support Edge recording and can be viewed via their Camera Companion. So you can record to a NAS via a mount point or FTP. Camera companion can then be used to view the cameras live and and recorded video. Somewhat like Mobotix, but you need a PC with windows to run Camera Companion, not browser based like Mobotix but easier to use. ACTi can FTP video, but there's no easy way to review the video as there is with a complete NVR solution. I know the ACTi's usually have a 12V connector as an alternative to PoE. The Mobotix and Axis are typically PoE only but you may be able to find a PoE Injector that takes 12V in and outputs 48V PoE standard.

Certain animals, especially ones that are nocturnal like hamsters are affected by infrared light. Just because IR light is not visible to humans does not mean you may be affecting the hamsters in a harmful way. So you may want to research that before having a dozen IR LEDs in their face. Panasonic does make some consumer level cameras that are reasonaby priced. Up close, you may be able to use a 7w night light to provide enough light to provide an effective image. Also, the AVTech cameras I've reviewed have very good low light performance and they have a built in white light LED. Even though they are 1.3MP, you can configure them to lower resolution as you wish. The advantage to white light is the abiity to have a color picture 24/7. The Foscam does not have an IR filter, meaning that during the day, the colors will be way off in some cases, and at night it will be b&w.

That's just a snapshot, not video.

Syscom -- not working in Firefox here, it just disconnects. Den works fine for me with Firefox... Doesn't work for me. I see large blue Q with dots underneath running back and forth.

Yes, tough call as my first priority is finding the right software and worry about the OS afterwards. Heck, I run OSX Lion on my Mac, and run Linux and Windows in VMWare Fusion so I can run all the software I want to run. I run Hadoop and database software on Linux, IE on Windows (for some cameras that require IE) and MS Office on OS X, all on a 1kg Macbook Air 11. But say you find software that runs on both, equally, then Linux is free, that's a plus, it's designed to be a server platform vs. Windows is more of a desktop platform pretending to be a server and you need to pay for it. I find both equally easy/hard to configure properly. Yes Windows gives the illusion of being easier because of it's native gui vs. gnome desktop on Linux, but setting up some things is harder than Linux. Of course if you only use Windows, anything different will seem hard and vice versa. In general, my experience, as a server on the same identical hardware with an i/o intensive app, Linux tends to be about 30-40% faster. With that said, I've run websites on Windows IIS using ASP that were twice as fast as running Apache HTTP & Tomcat server using JSP on the same hardware so the OS is not always the determining factor. I developed a web for an oil company that got bought out and the new company made me re-write the same app for Linux. I laughed so hard when I had to show them that it was twice as slow as Windows IIS. A telecom had me take an application and port it to Linux for the front end and Windows for the database, Oracle, that too was a disaster, worst of both worlds. Oracle was a pig on Windows. They asked why it was so slow, I said it's because you picked the infrastructure, I just write code, haha. As for reliability, in the old days, when Windows had memory leaks and had to be rebooted at least once a week, I would have said no to Windows, but it's actually very reliable these days. My NVR software is Windows based, performs very well. What was really unexpected for me is I have a Tivo Premier, their latest box and uses Linux internally and it's not that stable, sometimes I have to reboot it once every month or every other month as it freezes. I tried two different Tivos, same issue. I also have DirecTV DVRs, for some reason, it freezes once in a while, has to be unplugged to reset it, it runs Linux. In the same house as the Tivo, plugged into the same cable TV, I have a cheap ZBox nettop, atom processor, running Win 7 with Media Center to do the same thing that Tivo and DirecTV DVR does. In one year it's been in use, I've never had to reboot it and it performs significantly faster than the Tivo.

Thanks. I hope AcTi gets this feature enabled in the KCM line soon. Their cameras seem like a good value and I'm very interested in trying one out. Maybe I'll splurge for a TCM. Their knowledge base says - TCM-series: version 4.12 or newer (from June 2012); KCM-series: version 5.08 or newer (from July 2012). They were on track for the TCM-7811 but towards the end of the month, could be they will be on track for the KCM series at the end of July. I'll ask them next time I talk to them.

You can make a dome camera out of any box camera. Just mount it to a round piece of plywood and attach a clear plastic salad bowl under it. Then apply a Dahua decal to the outside. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oval-Clear-Plastic-Serving-Salad-Bowl-40-oz-/180930534740?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a204cdd54 You all know I'm kidding right? Let me put some smiley faces to make sure

It does not have support in the firmware for the SD card slot yet.

I use a $50 switch from Trendnet with 4 cameras per switch and all ACTi cameras, all with illuminators so they use more power than the acm-7411 and one with a motorized zoom and never have trouble with cameras dropping signal. So it could be the switch is bad or you have a cable issue.

I'm currently reviewing the ACTi KCM-5611 which may do what you want, not as cheap as $500 but a lot less than the Axis q1604. It has WDR, it has really good autofocus, it has 18x zoom, it did well, better than comperable cameras from Brickcom and IQEye in day color mode 24/7 but has a night mode with IR illuminators and it's 1080P. It's a box camera that is sealed for outdoor use like a bullet, so no additional enclosure needed. The 18X zoom may be good in your situation to get close in on aircraft on the runway landing/taking off since it's linear and pan/tilt may not be needed. This just came out, got one out of their early shipments. You can also add pan/tilt capability with a 3rd party gizmo should you want to in the future. ACTi provides NVR software for free that is quite good. Another box camera that does well is the Axis M1114, 720P, about your price range, can be ordered as the M1114-E for outdoor use. Is a day only camera, but does well in low light because if it's large varifocal lens. Review is on my blog. Some Axis cameras can use their free Camera Companion software, but not this model so you may need buy NVR software for recording. Both Axis and ACTi provide very good support and service, something that may not be there if you buy something just because it's cheap from China.

Before you go direct to China for a camera, consider support, service, NVR software. Even if the camera is good, where will you get support, will you be dealing with someone in China by email, skype, phone? How long will it take to turnaround a defective camera, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year? Will you get help configuring the camera? Are the cameras built to last? I personally use ACTi at home for decent camera at a reasonable price with great support and service. I also use Axis cameras at my weekend home, also great service and support, but more expensive. Certain Axis models work with Camera Companion, free software from Axis that allows you to view the cameras and recordings directly from the camera. ACTi provides free traditional NVR software that works very well with their cameras.

Have you looked at the new Mobotix S14. The camera is a small box you hide somewhere, the lenses are on 6' leashes and are pretty small, one for daytime color that is 3MP and one that is 1.2MP b&w. If you can build your home it so the camera box is inside the wall, in the attic, somewhere you can get to it if it needed servicing, then recess the lenses in the wall or sofit for a clean look. The lenses are small, maybe 2" diameter. The night sensor on Mobotix is best I've seen for low light viewing and the color 3MP, it's a nice crisp clear image. I know you will be shocked at the price, but consider that you don't need an NVR or PC with NVR software as it's built into each camera.

I tested a 4G camera from Brickcom on my blog. Did not try the 4G part, but the wireless part was awesome. Clearly with 4G limitations, it's just to view occasional video, not as a 24/7 camera. Also, if you can record in megapixel resolution, but view a different lower frame rate, lower resolution stream across 4G, you can save a lot of bandwidth.

Oh man, thanks, I needed a model train cam.

Just about any IP camera will do what you want. I personally use Axis for this as they let me use the same file name each time so I can have it on a website with a fixed name where most cameras only let you FTP images using a timestamp or sequence number for the file name which makes it difficult to say have for a webcam on a website. If having a fixed file name is not an issue, I would say really any IP camera with the known exception of Arecont. What I do is find the camera with the image quality and price point I want and then download the user manual from the manufacturer's website to see if does what I'm expecting it to do.

SDI, Analog, either way, not IP cameras, and follows the same principle of being a dumb camera attached via coax to a DVR that provides the recording and intelligence. When at ISC, the booth people reffered to it as analog HD as their way of explaining it and that's what stuck in my head. I certainy get the appeal for many alarm, security, cctv SI's that don't want the headache of configuring IP networks and switches and can just plug & play the cameras into a DVR and configure just the DVR. But as Sean said, there's no real price advantage over IP and may never be.

What do you mean by not secure, that a thief can physically steal it or are you referring that you feel a CIFS or NFS's username/password is not sufficient on a NAS. Actually, with Mobotix, even if you had the password for the NAS or if you physicaly stole the SD card, you would not be able to access the encrypted videos without the Mobotix camera and it's username and password (Mobotix cameras can not be reset by a button like most IP cameras, must be sent back to the factory for a reset and if it's reported stolen, they will not reset the camera). There will be a thumbnail image for each video event that the person who hacked into the NAS or SD card can see, but not the video. Of course, can't someone just as easily access or steal any NVR if they new the username/password?