Best IP Camera for the money? New or Used.

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777funk
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:53 pm

Best IP Camera for the money? New or Used.

Post by 777funk »

I just bought a few Axis 210 cameras based on the recommendation of Axis by the ZM wiki. I'm impressed by the hardware build quality but the image quality is pretty low, has high latency (not a big deal if only recording), and also very skippy. I would think if someone ran through a zone, they'd likely be through the zone by the time Zoneminder started capturing. My android phone's camera looks better.

I'm curious after trying this one if maybe a cheaper more modern camera would be a good buy? Very much appreciative of any thoughts/recommendations.
trs-80
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2016 6:19 pm

Re: Best IP Camera for the money? New or Used.

Post by trs-80 »

I've just come across these Amcrest IP2M-841 ProHD 1080P (1920TVL) WiFi IP Security Cameras which are only $98.60, shipped!

They have quite a lot of features and seem to be pretty good quality. I remember cameras with this quality and features were $100-200+ just a year or two ago (and many still are in that price range, even today, including some of the ZoneMinder recommended ones!).

It looks like this company is a subsidiary/brand of Foscam, or a rebrand or something. To me this camera looks very visually similar to (or perhaps is the latest evolution of) the Foscam 9000 series, so that would seem to make sense, although this is pure speculation on my part (and/or I thought I might have read that somewhere, plus my own observations).

There are a lot of really good reviews. The sample pics posted (by users) seem to be pretty high quality. They are also the number 1 selling dome surveillance camera on Amazon.

The only thing that makes me leery is this guy's generally negative opinions about Foscam as a company, in particular the way he specifically cited astroturfing 5 star comments on Amazon as their marketing strategy. I am not sure if that is really the case, or perhaps instead this reviewer (Marc) is just much more tech savvy and has higher expectations than most people. I would expect that most of us that come here to ZoneMinder forums and use Linux are probably much closer to Marc in our tech knowledge and expectations however, so take that as you may.

Perhaps after enough refinements and evolution, this is the camera they have managed to produce? Based on reading Marc's Linux Blog above, it seems to me that IP cameras have come a long way, and that he had a pretty frustrating time dealing with many different early models. I actually feel pretty bad for the guy, but give him a lot of credit for blazing a trail. :) Perhaps the time is right and technology has progressed to the point where IP cameras are matured and prices have come down to a reasonable level?

I had been searching around thee internet looking for additional reviews, haven't found many yet (although admittedly I didn't have much time) but I did find a Reddit discussion where apparently some people found these as low as ~$70 USD around the holidays; checking on CamelCamelCamel confirms this.

So, what do you guys think? Anyone have any experience with these?
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