Can anybody explain - who actually makes these megapixel cameras - Arecont or CBC?! And how comes that CBC cameras are SO much cheaper?

http://computarganz.com/product_subcategory.cfm?subcategory_id=11

Arecont makes those cameras for Computar/Ganz. Can't explain the price difference though.

How do you know that? It doesnt sound real - Arecont sells camera lets say for 500$. CBC asks to make some for them and it ends up CBC selling the same camera for 400$.

No sense here

I've been to Arecont's offices and seen the manufacturing of the cameras. My impression is that Arecont would rather design and build cameras for other companies, than have to deal with customer support. Arecont charges way too much if you buy direct from them.

Arecont does make them for CBC. I have talked to Computar/Ganz and they admit it.

Then I dont understand Arecont as manufacturers - CBC sells these cameras so much cheaper.

My competitors started selling CBC cameras this week for 180$ less than Arecont.

Does anybody sees any logic here ?

I have an explanation purely from reading their specs/documentation. They took out H.264 encoding and only support motion-JPEG! I suspect in low quantities an H.264 encoder costs $35 to $40. Add some extra logic such as memory and such, and material cost difference is in $50 range. Mark that up by the time it gets to retail and it explains the differnce.

Still, not a bad option to have if cost is more important than storage/transmission costs. Clever way of quickly differentiating products...

Actually, they are just OEMing the non H.264 Arecont cameras. Only a handfull of Arecont cameras are H.264, and they are relatively new. I wouldn't be suprised to see Ganz H.264 not too far in the future.

The simple fact of the matter is, these cameras do not cost very much to make. Not THAT much more than an Analog camera. Ganz isn't going to buy from Arecont unless they give them the kind of deal that the other overseas companies do, so Ganz is buying it well enough to be able to sell their branded model at a lower price than Arecont usually gives to their dealers.

It's actually not that uncommon in the IP Video market. I've seen it with Vivotek before too. And it's a very common thing with Videotec or Videolarm camera housings.

Here they are, coming in January..

http://computarganz.com/product_series.cfm?series_id=40

Anyone ever use this one? http://computarganz.com/product_view.cfm?product_id=775

Would anyone want to pm me a decent price on one?

I have used MP3DNs with the H2Z0414C-MP lenses. I have been more or less satisfied with its performance. If I had any complaints, they would be:

1. Image is a bit noisy in low light conditions.
2. At dawn and dusk, the IR filter goes back and forth every few seconds for a couple of minutes despite any attempts I have made to reduce the behavior. This must be significantly reducing the life of the mechanical components.
3. The web interface provides limited configuration options and its UI is poor.
4. The bundled software is a massive CPU hog compared to third party offerings.

Basically, anything good or bad about Arecont applies to this camera.

I've been buying from cablegiant dot com. Pricing is decent and service has been good.

Funny....I actually find that Ganz cost me less than the identical CBC one. Not sure why it's different for me.