buellwinkle

Yes, sorry about that. There's a reason that app has 1.8 stars on iTunes, LOL.

LOL, I assume he would pre-focus the camera before he put it in the freezer. Helped a friend on a project in a meat processing plant. Most of the building is a large fridge where the meat is processed and stored. As for -40, never even came close and don't think I want to. That has to be northern Alaska or Antarctica temps.

The D31 is sort of the TCM-1111 replacement, is in your budget. Just above your budget, and maybe mixing cameras to achieve various goals may work best is the D32 which is 3MP and works quite well and slightly above budget. Indoors, the D54 IR dome should work well, should be under $250. Trick with ACTi is to find an authorized dealer and most on the net like B&H are not. If you need help, PM me.

I would say the D82/E72 at night are the same other than the option of WDR on the E72 and varifocal on the D82. The Hikvision dome is not ready. It has LED light bleed issues, but their engineering is actively working on it.

And you were expecting perfection because you bought one of the top brands? I don't know a single brand of camera that I've reviewed that is perfect, they all have their quirks. Just have to learn what they are and work around them. Best thing is to report the problems otherwise the product never gets better. So how do you feel about the 5MP P33 vs. the 1MP P33s? Also, how about the difference between the P3384 and P3364?

If they support generic RTSP, that's usually pretty universal. For example, I use BlueIris software which has a ACTi cameras as a choice through it's video port, but I find I get better video recordings choosing generic RTSP.

The P33 does, works quite well. Have not tried the Avigilon, but with the P33 series, you can define the focus window to get pretty accurate focusing and zooming. But the reality is, you set the focal length and focus once and doing that manually is not a big deal. If the OP needs true zoom (18x) with fast focus and presets, the ACTi KCM-5611 is awesome in low light and is rated to -40C/F with standard PoE switch/injectors.

There are some good cameras that work down to -40C/F that use standard PoE switches/injectors. Axis P33 series and ACTi bullets for example.

I personally avoid products made in the UK, maybe because I'm from the country they were last declared war with, but putting that aside, have you considered the free product from Axis? Axis Camera Companion runs on the cameras, so no NVR needed. It can write to a NAS or internal SD cards if the models you chose have this feature. Not all Axis cameras support this, so make sure the specs say Edge Storage. Then you run PC software to configure it, view the cameras and recordings and did I tell you it's free. If you prefer a more traditional approach to NVR software, I use BlueIris, costs about $50 per PC, supports many camera brands, has smartphone apps available (not free). If you want something a little more commercial grade, ExacqVision Start is about $50 per camera, has free smartphone apps. Milestone XProtect Go is free for up to 8 cameras and 5 days of storage. Supports a huge variety of cameras and is a free version of their commercial software. Axxon costs nothing for up to 16 cameras, I believe with a 1TB limit for the free version. Has built in analytics.

OK, be lost no more. Do not go by the lens focal length or aperture. I can tell you that side by side, the E32 with F1.8 4.2mm lens has better low light capability, and about the same horizontal viewing angle at the D82 F1.4 varifocal lens set at it's widest setting, 2.8mm. I didn't believe it at first so I re-adjusted the lens on the D82 and that's as wide as it gets. Theoretically, same 3MP sensor. I have them side by side, so looking at the same view you can judge the viewing angle. Weird huh?

I'm seeing the same issue on a few of their cameras, something ACTi has to fix.

Mostly WDR helps during the day with high contrast situation. For example, say someone has a ball cap on and created a shadow half way down his face. The top part of the face may not be easily identifiable. So WDR enhances/brightens shadows and darkens part of the image that is overly bright to even out the image. The way I feel about WDR is that it's nice but when I dissect a video to get snapshots to law enforcement, I use Photoshop CS6 to enhance the image and it does a way better job at it than most if not all cameras I've toyed with including high end DSLR cameras. In a perfect world, sensors would be noise free and worked in very low light and had a wide dynamic range. But since they don't, at least not in this price level, manufactures compensate with this image processing. It's not magic, the sensor on a camera with WDR is not better than one without it, it's in the processing of the video.

Most new cameras have M12 lenses, rare that I see a CS lens anymore. I think it's size, people want smaller more discrete cameras. I have a Hikvision 3MP mini bullet on it's way with a 12mm lens, lets see how that compares to the Q-See 720p bullet with a 6mm lens. I'm hoping it's half the viewing angle. As for the D vs. E, yes, WDR should be the only difference so it should provide a better picture as WDR tends to add noise and reduces contrast on many cameras, so a trade off.

That's one unique feature of Axis is they have the concept of apps like your smartphone. We are going to getting an app that will do license plate recognition as an app running in the Axis camera from a 3rd party company. To bad it's not 99 cents like smartphone apps

Don't know at the moment because I'm testing their 2MP models and they are both varifocal. I did play with the E72 which is fixed and was not happy with low light sensitivity as I was with the E32 which is fixed but has an F1.8 lens and that's back with ACTi for further testing. BUT, I do have an ACTi D82 which is the same 3MP but with the F1.4 varifocal lens on my desk and hope to have it up and running later today and I can tell you if the lens makes a difference.

My guess is different engineers testing each model came up with different calculations, all correct yet all wrong, mostly wrong. I can tell you their new domes are physically identical except where some have fixed and some have fixed or varifocal lenses. The E82 as an example has a 1/3.2" sensor and 2.8mm lens in the spec sheet. The E86 has a 1/3" sensor. They are probably the same sensor, so lets say 1/3". You should have a 81.2mm horizontal viewing angle if the information is correct. The E72 should have the same 1/3" sensor, 2.93mm lens, but F2 so lower light capability than F1.4 on the E82/E86. This should give you a 78.6 degree horizontal viewing angle. In contrast, the Lorex domes have a fixed 4mm lens, 1/3" sensor, claims 83 degree viewing angle BUT, if their lens/sensor specs are correct, you should have a 61.9 degree viewing angle. But what's odd is with the same lens, Hikvision shows it as 75.8 degree viewing angle. Again, goes against the realities of math. From personal experience, this camera lens can't be 4mm as I feel it viewing angle is wider than a 4mm would suggest. Just compare on my blog, the images of my driveway from reviews of the Swan vs. ACTi E32, two bullets, same sensor size, the ACTi seems like a true 4mm lens, the Swann seems to be too wide to be a 4mm lens, I would guess it to be more like a 3.2mm lens and same with the Hikvision DS-2CD2132-I dome.

Let me remove some misconceptions of ACC. ACC is an app that is installed on the camera and runs on the camera. It does not take any of the camera settings you made like motion detection into consideration. For example, say you setup motion detection on the camera and have it write to the SD card. In ACC, you will not be able to see these recordings. But recordings you make via ACC to the SD card you will be able to see on the web interface. If you setup both, you will get double the recordings. Yes, you have very limited control over the sensitivity or any parameters for motion detection other than a single detection zone where you control the shape. Wait until you want to use ACC remotely.

ACTi has their KCM-5611, 1080P IR box camera to me has comparable low light capability, is double the resolution of Axis Lightfinder cameras and has IR LEDs that work in complete darkness. The ultimate is the Mobotix cameras with dedicated day and b&w night sensors. The new D15 dome dnight model has a 5MP color sensor during the day and 3MP b&w sensor at night for great low light sensitivity. We use the older model, the D14 without any additional lighting.

1.8 star rating on an IOS app costing ~$9 is a concern. In contrast, IP Cam Viewer on Android has a 4.6 star review, but not the IOS app. You can live view on EyeSpyPro, but according to the reviews, it does not take the ACC configuration into consideration, so you have to configure each camera separate, so I see no advantage to using it over any other app, maybe even one with a higher than 1.8 start rating.

But many of the reviews I read it says it doesn't, so maybe the reviewers are mistaken. This is the top review on iTunes - This is on Android

Try Axxon, free for 16 cameras, works with Dahua cameras, has video analytics.

What value does that app add to ACC. I don't believe you can look at recordings.

I use IP Cam Viewer Pro, $4, handles all my cams. Try the free lite version first, then upgrade if it works for you. Axis does have an app but has poor reviews and is not written or maintained by Axis and can't view Axis recorded video so no real advantage and it's expensive.

I'm working with a large camera company to provide the exact functionality you want. Write to a NAS, then have a web interface that resembles an NVR in that you'll have a way to play back the recordings using a timeline on the web interface. So an all in one solution, PoE, megapixel resolution, albeit each camera will be separate, sort of like Mobotix but easier to use. If it works, it will be huge and priced well. Also, not sure as I have not personally used it, but Dahua can record to SD card, and then you use their CMS software call PSS to view the recordings. More like the way Axis works. But doing that way, like Axis means no web browser nterface.

Here's a brand new D82, same physically as the E84. I have the E84 setup under my eave, same orientation as you and you saw the image straight from the camera above.