voip-ninja

OK thanks for the info guys, this looks like a very interesting camera, but my NVR software does not yet support it, so I will be keeping an eye on it for possibly picking one up if/when the support arrives. My install is residential at my own home. I have standard low voltage gang boxes so usually I can drill those out a bit and hide cables inside, but there is one spot where I just have a small pilot hole drilled and will be running conduit... for this location I might have to be willing to cut a larger hole to hide the cable and ends. In any event, these look like interesting cameras. I've just gotten a pretty good deal on eBay on a Vivotek 8361 (2 MP IR with fan/heater) so will be an interesting comparison.

I have used a somewhat similar one from Netgear that is a 16 port 10/100 switch with 8 ports of PoE for the IP phones at my wife's office. What's nice about it is that since you have some non PoE ports to use, you can use one of those to trunk up to the rest of the network and really have all 8 ports available for PoE devices. With the one you have linked you will only really be able to drive 7 devices if you plan on connecting this to the rest of the network. The downside is that all of these small PoE switches use an external 48V AC transformer, and they, or the power input on the switch are somewhat prone to failure. I've already gone through one of the Netgear units at my wife's office, after 3 years it gave up the ghost and died. If I wanted something like that, I would get this one from Cisco, it's cheaper and probably better supported; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?is=REG&sku=813246&Q=&O=&A=details

How big is the circuit board on the SNV-5080R? Can it fit into a small 1/2" conduit opening or would you have to use a junction box of some kind?

5080-R looks quite interesting actually, I didn't even realize Samsung was in this business. Unfortunately it looks like my Synology NAS does not yet support it, although a bunch of other Samsung cameras just got added for support in the very last software update they pushed out a few weeks ago so perhaps the next update will include support for some of the other cameras.

Vivotek clearly markets the 8134V as an outdoor camera (from their website); However, the unit does not have a fan or heater and is only rated for temperatures of 0-50C so clearly it will not work in ALL outdoor environments. The Vivotek camera that looks most capable of full outdoor use, that is a fixed dome, is the $650 FD8361.That one has a heater and fan that run off of class 3 PoE. The 8335H looks very interesting as it has WDR, full weather rated housing, with720P resolution, but it is, as of yet, not available, only announced... no pricing given. //update. FD8335H looks like some places are selling it (or maybe it's just pre-order) for $550.

Outdoor 720P IP camera that has a "good picture" for under $300 USD? There is SOME stuff just above that price range, but I think that your price/expectations are somewhat unrealistic. You also have to say what you plan on using to do your NVR recording, because some manufacturers (Acti, Vivotek, etc) include software, otherwise you are going to have to probably purchase something. As someone else mentioned, if you get into the $500-$600 there's a lot more available (Vivotek 8361 looks pretty interesting), although you are still dealing with pretty low end cameras. From all of the research that I have done, the 8134V Vivotek is the only one that's close to fitting the bill for you. There are resellers on Amazon who have it for about $310 shipped.

Thanks for the review. I am considering this camera as a replacement for an older Panasonic PTZ at the corner of my home... the 3mm wide angle looks like a useful focal length to me but the image looks quite blurry at the edges which might be typical for cameras in this class but nonetheless I found it surprising... there is enough resolution loss in this situation that facial recognition looks like it would be almost impossible. I do have a question about the PeE capabilities of this camera. Like some other outdoor domes the camera indicates it can either power off of class-3 PoE or 12V DC. To get the lowest temperature support, the 12V DC is required to operate the heater. Is there a 12V injector that will work over CAT5 so that I can just use that in lieu of my regular poe injectors?

Yup sorry, I was referring to the 8134 domes, not the bullet cameras. I might potentially just break down and buy one ACTi and one Vivotek dome and have a fight to the death between them!

So I asked this question in the system section of the forum but might get a few more specific recommendations in this forum. I have three BB-HCM531a cameras installed around my home. They work pretty well, but their night time performance is pretty bad. I would prefer not to leave lights running 24/7 or installing security lighting as in this neighborhood, there are a lot of covenant controls and I am already getting weird looks with my boxy non pod security cameras in the front of the home. So, I've been considering foregoing these cameras as I almost never use the PTZ capability and instead getting some more discreet dome type PT fixed or vario focus lens cameras that have automatic IR cut filters. I would also like to get cameras that have a fairly wide field of view, as the Panasonics don't appear to be particularly wide angle. Any recommendations? I'd like to keep costs down to <$450 per unit if possible as that's about what I can flip the Panasonics for. Two of the cameras will be installed in semi-enclosed areas (under porch overhangs) and as long as they can tolerate cold Colorado temperatures they will probably do okay. Third camera sits under a corner roof overhang and will likely need to be fairly weatherized as it will get some rain and sun exposure. I've seen very mixed reviews on the Vivotek and Acti cameras in this forum, so not sure what else is out there, and I'm open to suggestions. It had previously been recommended that I go with analog cameras and use an IP converter box to convert the signal back to IP. I'm not 100% opposed to going this route, but I'd rather go PoE/IP if possible as I'm already set up for that... I would have some concerns about how well an IP Converter setup would function with my recording software. Thanks

I appreciate that, thanks.

That's rather strange to me. My Panasonic PTZ cameras have operated even in temperatures as low as -15F. Admittedly they might be sealed a little better than the average dome camera but I'm surprised that you have had your cameras as intolerant to cold weather as that.

Yes, other than the level of IR glare it produces it is exactly what I need, OTHER than the somewhat higher than normal temperature rating. I know that generally dome cameras don't perform as well in low temps as bullet cameras, but I'm rather surprised that the bullet camera with the same optics is rated down to -20F and this one is rated at 32F. We rarely get sub zero temperatures here but it does happen (Colorado). On the plus side it is incredibly dry here so condensation with cold temps is less likely to occur. My cameras, like yours, are under eaves and other than one location are generally in spots that don't get much direct weather. I might just give it a try... if it doesn't work out I can probably eBay it for 50% of what I paid for it. I might still get an Acti 7811 for my one corner location as I think it has a marginally wider FOV and better IR performance than the Vivotek.

Max, What's the coldest temperature you have operated the 8332 in? Vivotek says 34F which sounds a little silly to me, I would imagine it can go lower than that.

Okay, thanks, it sounds like it might work then. I already have a low voltage box cut into the house siding for the ethernet cabling that will provide a place to anchor the unit (with maybe a little bit of trim installed) so I don't think it will be too tough to do. I will be going on vacation soon but will try to get it ordered soon and provide some feedback here.

Hi Buell, Thanks for the information. Are you confirming that the ACM-3511 camera element can be tilted, rotated and panned so that I can put it on the wall and then orient it down and level it? I would prefer not to have to purchase a pendant style wall mount. As far as the weather sealing and insulation capabilities of the ACM-3511, the information you provide is valuable, but I have some previous experience modifying non outdoor cameras (such as the Panasonic BB-HCM511A) for outdoor use. In the case of the Panasonic I ordered a few parts to make it the equivalent of the much pricier BB-HCM531A. I suspect that I could probably make a foam baffle ring for the ACM-3511 with about $8 of materials from the local hardware store that would seal it up pretty well against the wall and further insulate the body a bit. I love the idea of the 7811 and the demo pictures look outstanding, but it is quite a bit more expensive ($650 vs $400) and seems (to me) to be total overkill for an entry camera that does nothing fancier than recording UPS drivers and dog walkers 99% of the time.

So guys, I think I've ruled out bullet cameras. I built a mock-up of one of the smaller bullet cameras out of cardboard, my wife took one look at it and said "no F*ing way!" So, I think I'm going to try a single camera at the entry as an experiment, before I replace all of my Panasonic cams (and those Panasonics have been so good to me it's going to be hard). I've narrowed it down to the Vivotek 8134V and the Acti ACM-3511. The Acti is not an outdoor camera (as I'm installing it in the corner of an enclosed/roofed area I think I can get away with it), but it does have a lower temperature range than the Vivotek (down to 14F and it only very rarely gets colder than that and normally not for more than a few hours at a time) and the Acti also has a vari-focal lens and from the demo videos it looks like it might have less "IR glare" than the Vivotek. My question with the Acti is that the hardware manual does not explain what adjustments to the lens can be made for wall mounting. Acti shows a wall mounting bracket. Is the lens assembly on the Acti a 3-axis adjustable unit like the Vivotek so that I can place the dome directly on the wall? If anyone knows I think I can get the ball rolling and will update the thread once I get ahold of a unit.

Thanks! That really helps, that's really about what I'm looking for as far as night time capabilities go. Unfortunately it appears that Vivotek only rates the 8134V down to 0 degrees centigrade, where as we regularly need the ability of the camera to survive temps of about 0 fahrenheit, so... the search goes on.

Hi all, hopefully this is being posted in the most appropriate forum. I have a 3300 sq foot house and I have self installed 3 Panasonic 511 PTZ PoE cameras at the front entrance of the house, the front corner of the home and the rear door entry (which opens to a large patio). All of the cameras are recorded with Blue Iris on a small HP Windows Home Server and I am able to access the camera feeds over the internet or from a mobile device. I also use the "iCam" application (also running on WHS) to access the camera feeds from my and my wife's smart phones. Having run this setup for a few years I have observed a couple of things; 1. I almost never use the PTZ feature. 2. Night performance of the Panasonic 511 cameras is terrible and more or less worthless. 3. I could use slightly wider angle lenses. 4. These cameras look terrible in an external application and are totally non vandal resistant (we don't have many vandals in my area but, you never know what might happen when you are out of town). So, now I'm trying to figure out what to go with in the way of an upgrade of the existing system with a minimal added outlay of cash. I think that I would be best served budget wise by some day/night cameras with built in IR illuminators. For the front corner and rear patio locations it would be preferable to get coverage out to about 10 meters at the minimum. For the front door location it only really has to cover the entry itself which is a very small area. I've been looking at the Vivotek 8134V cameras, as they offer day/night, PoE and have a day/night IR cut filter. However, I guess that they are manual focus? I'm not sure if that will be a problem or not... they only cost about $320 a pop. Can anyone offer other camera suggestions? I have a Synology DiskStation NAS in my basement and it comes with a built in camera surveillance recording software that looks pretty decent, and it covers up to 10 cameras so I might give it a shot as a replacement for the Blue Iris software. I would prefer to just do motion recording, but recording on a 2-3 day loop might be okay too as long as I can set it up to do motion alerts during certain times of day. Thanks again, looks like there are some pretty knowledgeable people in here.

I think the camera lens would be about 4-5' away from someone's face as they approached the entry, not sure if that would cause washout with the lower end models like the 8134 or not. I would prefer to keep the budget for my front and rear patio cams to about $300 or so a pop if possible. I would be willing to spend a bit more on the camera at the house corner as it would be doing the most recording (records people walking by on the sidewalk, cars driving up and down the street, etc). The ACTi line of cams has been recommended to me in another thread so I'm going to look into those too. It's kind of painful doing this at all, because during daylight hours, the Panasonic cameras have been outstanding. The PTZ is a nice feature to have (even if I rarely use it) and the VGA 30fps quality is quite good. Unfortunately it is killing me that we literally get nothing but a black screen from any of the cameras at night, so I'm going to have to figure something else out.

All their new NAS units have robust CPUs. The DS-212+ says it supports 12 cameras, so I imagine that with 5 cameras it would do just fine. Not sure what your budget is, but the 212+ is about $400 then you'd need to spring about another $160-$200 for camera licenses plus a hard drive. If they could improve the web performance of their app (or even just build a cheap viewer page for viewing video on a non java capable browser over the internet) as well as fix some of these disconnect/crash bugs I'm seeing with the iOS apps they would have a pretty good hit on their hands. I am considering it for my wife's office, but they will have to demonstrate to me that their support is up to speed first.

The Synology NAS gives you the choice of doing in-camera motion detection or using their software to do it. I would imagine that their motion detection, when done in software, is not as sophisticated as that done by the big guys. The 1511+ unit I have can be grown to 20 cameras doing 1280X1024 resolution at 30 fps. It includes a license for 1 and each additional camera license is about $40-$50. Really not cost effective for huge deployments but since I have only three cameras and would at most add a fourth one it's really not too much of a concern.... using 1 camera I never see the cpu go above 5% when it's doing camera recording, so I don't see it as being much of a problem. The advantage for me of sticking with Synology for this is that the NAS is already running 24/7 anyways, which sure beats wasting money and power on a redundant box just for recording. The disadvantage of the Synology solution is that they are relatively new to Surveillance (their 1st Surveillance station version came out in 2009 I believe) and their software relies on Active-X controls and Java, both of which are pretty atrocious in my opinion. Their iPad/iPhone app is really nice since it lets you view motion recordings and even works over the internet on a 3G connection, but, as I mentioned it seems to have some connection/timeout problems.

Does ACTi have an iPhone/ipad app? I don't plan on buying a new server to run surveillance software. I have an older Windows Home Server that I run Blue Iris on, I think it has a 1.6ghz processor and 2GB of RAM. The OS is Server 2003 based. I also have a Synology NAS. I will be using one of these two devices for surveillance software, not getting a 3rd box.

OK, thanks. I see that there are also "wall brackets" for most of these dome cameras, which allow you to suspend the dome camera from the bracket rather than mounting it directly to the wall so I suppose if there is not enough adjustment for panning on the camera that could be a back out plan. I have been playing with Synology Surveillance Station and it has been a frustrating experience. When it works, it's pretty damn impressive, especially as they include a free iPad and iPhone app and it has a pretty slick presentation of recording events and the like. The quality is also very very good when using MPEG4 and the in-camera motion detection of my Panasonics. The frustration is that they have limited web browser support, it uses Java (so it's slow slow slow) and I am having trouble viewing my cameras remotely from some locations (such as my work) and I get connection errors periodically on the iPhone/iPad apps. Blue Iris works fairly well already but I am really looking to migrate onto something more modern and I was hoping to leverage my NAS for more of these tasks... I suppose I can investigate Milestone Xconnect too. This is all a little overwhelming, but the direction that I am now leaning in is a cheap IR dome or bullet for the front and rear entry locations as well as a higher quality dome (ACTi) for the corner. If the field of view is wide enough I really should not need an actual PTZ.... I have no real need to zoom in on license plates or pan up and down the street. The cameras are primarily there for our own amusement and as a deterrent for when we are on vacation. We live in a very safe neighborhood but the occasional break-in has happened over the years.

attachment of current cam location

OK, this is probably a stupid question, but do the dome cameras like the ACTi TCM7811 and the Vivotek 8431 have "pan" adjustment so that if I put it in a corner, on the wall I can pan the camera lens out to see to the right or left of the dome location? I will take a picture of the current installation location to try to make it clearer what I am describing.