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Well they guaranteed that they are upgradable from hikvision website directly. They have the red white box with English labels. What I will get remains to be seen.

Aliexpress. search hikvision cd ....2532 the complete model number

Well... I bought my cameras last night. I ended up getting English region. I guess due to a combination of cold feet and small enough difference in price. I paid 456$ on 3 Hik-2532's with 4 mm lens, wifi and shipping via Fedex. The most I could have saved going with Chinese version (and all the 11.11 discounts they had) was 50$ for all 3 cameras. So I figured it may be worth it. Remains to be seen how everything else goes and if I actually get anything for that money Thank you all for the help and see you soon after I put them to work.

I am attaching how some vendors present the difference on aliexpress. I understand from what you guys said that there is also a third posibility of brown box with english lables and region.

Thank you Digiscan, great tips. I want to bet this has an embeded Linux on it with a locale setting to Chinese and if you manage to change it you are done. Sooner or later someone will post a way to change the region. Charging for it is a bit too much for my taste. Aliexpress beats all prices for now. I think I am going to take my chance.

Sounds mean.... So this is why some vendors say that if I need upgrade they will send me the software? In other words they send me the patched/hacked one?

I have decided to go with the 2532 IWS. To me it makes sense to combine Wifi with SD recording. This way you keep a lot of resources free (bandwidth, NAS access etc). It is also good that you still have the wired option and the NAS option just in case... I have opened another thread regarding the Chinese/English versions (Brown vs White box). There is a good price difference and I would like to clearly understand what happens there. Vendors say there is no differnce between cams. Thank you all for the the time you took helping me.

I have been reading a lot on this subject and I am trying to make sense of it all. Some people report that when trying to upgrade a Chinese version (brown box) camera it reverts to Chinese firmware. I have discussed with several vendors and they tell me both versions are same camera. Only box color is different. The vendors have no particular interest as they sell both versions. There is a sensible difference in pricing >50$ and since I buy them for myself I don't care much about the box. As for warranty it seems you don't get much anyway unless you buy from authorised US vendors. To me it doesn't make sense that if I download the English (International) firmware and upload it to the camera to get Chinese firmware instead. The only way this may happen is if you enter the ftp server and choose automatic upgrade and get Chinese only firmware based on some MAC or serial number. Has anyone had any experience in this matter? I need to make a decision soon. Thank you

It does look that all the lower priced are not upgradable without a hack. I swear to god, this morning wrightwood had it at 280-something. I must be getting crazy. Now I see it (the IWS model with 2.8 lens) at 234. The IS model is at 214. As Winnie-the-Pooh put it: Oh bother!

Speaking of English Firmware. What is the deal here? I read some horror stories that when you upgrade "international firmware" you end up with chinese firmware which pretty much bricks your cam. Is this true? Any way around this junk? Wrightwood sells it for $280. I don't mind giving it a shot at 160... Also: I want to say that the 79-degree viewing angle at 4mm lens is enough. Is there a way to order/change the lens to 2.8 if I need wider angle? Is it changeable or just get another one and sell the 4mm on ebay?

That's a lot of great info. Thank you. I was thinking the other day that I will stay with the SD card and WiFi idea. In the same line with what Digiscan is saying memory cards will only get cheaper and better. I would hate to rely on my NAS only. Just as with Wifi, it's good though that I have more options. I am thinking to go with the Hikvision 2532 and move away from bullets. What I like about the domes is that people cannot tell where it's pointed and how wide the viewing angle is. I also tried their app for Android and it looks good. Pitty I cannot connect to some test 2532 so I can get an idea of the capabilities. Like I said I am only a home user in a good neighborhood so I don't need to go paranoid with safety. It matters a lot that they exist (are visible) and there is a sign on lawn about video surveillance. In the same time, I don't want to spend 200$/cam on a piece of junk that is nearly useless. I would love to get a Mobotix but I have a wife... A bit of philosophy.... I learned this when I took over my Alarm System and went DIY. It seems there is quite a difference between the point of view of a professional installer and a DIY which has nothing to do with how much knowledge either one has. It's just that the priorities are different. Any suggestions where to get a 2532? Tried Amazon but they have without wifi. I'll try ebay. Found them on alibaba (aliexpress) with $160 english firmare. Ships from China... Any advice? Never tried alibaba.

I noticed that the 2532 may be installed vertically. I am good with that. What happens if there is direct sunlight on it. I have 2 places where it will get sun on it. I am not familiar with domes and how they reflect light. I like the unit otherwise. If I were to drop wifi and SD I would choose the EXIR ones. Running ethernet cable doesn't sound that bad anymore. I do have a NAS but I wanted to avoid runing it all the time. Did not think about the limited lifespan of SD. Hmmmm...

Thank you Digiscan. It sounds that I have to reconsider Wifi. Or get a wifi access point behind the wall. In terms of power (what buellwinle was saying) they are located at the top of the rake and I have attics behind the wall where I can run the low voltage wire (ethernet) through the brick and plug into power in the attic. All OK. FYI I do have outlets under eves but the location is too low for security camera.

Thank you. I was expecting to hear something in those lines. I do understand and also see the predominance of PoE. I may reconsider this... But let me focus on data load: This is what I liked at the Lorex. It can record locally on SD without loading the network whether wifi or not. Then if someone "scratched your car" you can check last night's recordings. Otherwise the camera just records 5-min clips one after the other overwriting the oldest one. I thought that was decent idea for a consumer security. It can also save on NAS but here, like you say, you eat-up bandwidth for nothing most of the time. Another aspect is that if you loose wifi for some reason it keeps recording which is a good thing. If you are paranoid you can record on both. You can also conect it PoE. Pretty flexible that Lorex. In terms of 2532 IWS: The main reason for bullet is that I install them on walls not eaves. I could get a wall bracket but... I will keep looking.

Hi forum. You have surely seen many cases like mine. I am a DIY and tried to do an easy setup using an IP camera (Lorex). The more I worked the more I got frustrated and I see that Lorex does not have a good name here. In short the cameras are LNC226X. They are in general a great idea but the hardware and mainly the software are buggy and look like a poorly tested and unfinished job. I searched some other mfgs: Hikvision, Swann, Grandstream, Mobotix etc. The search is intensive and I don't seem to find what I want/like So my qestion to you is can you put me out of my misery and point me into some decent manufacturers that actually have what I'm loking for? Here is what I liked about this Lorex cam: Not terribly expensive Bullet easy to point and install. 720p (can be more) WiFi IP-Cam SD card and NAS recording (I like the SD recording as it does not depend/overload wifi) Acessible on Android (IOS) even outside the LAN SD recordings are also acessible outside LAN Outdoor (IP66) Day/Night, All that stuff.... Swann seems to have something similar but reviews are even worse than Lorex Hikvision has good stuff but no WiFi to what I can see. Prices go higher Plase help!