MaxIcon

I don't know dhgate, but aliexpress is popular for people who want to save money, at some risk of costing extra if a camera needs to be sent back. The Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I is a popular camera to start with, and can be had for under $100 on sites like this (from another post; I haven't bought anything from them): http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1010031 Search the forum for aliexpress to see what people are saying. ETA: A quick google of dhgate showed this resellerratings page, with some of the worst reviews I've ever seen: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/DHgate

Lol! So it is! That's the first 720p analog system I've seen. Yes, avoid analog in general.

The forum auto-deletes this vendor, in both posts and PMs, unless it's misspelled. Lots of old drama still floating around here.

Another solution would be to disable the on-board IR and use an external illuminator. This lets you point the camera where you want without having the IR pointed at the same center of view.

Generic charts like this are useful for rough estimates, but are not very precise. They assume the sensor is exactly 1/3" class (which is about 1/4" diagonal) and that the lens image circle is exactly the same size as the sensor, which is rarely the case. In addition, this one appears to be for analog cams. An IP cam will have a different FOV at 1080p and 3MP, and sometimes at 720p and 1MP as well, depending on how the cam's firmware handles it. Many cams maintain the same FOV at all the 4:3 resolutions and another one at all the 16:9 resolutions (because customers complain otherwise), but you can't have the same FOV at 1080p and 3MP without distorting one or the other. Really, the vendors need to provide this level of detail directly on the cam's spec sheet. Hik provides it in a technical bulletin on their web site, but not in their cam specific web pages, last time I checked.

Here's a technique that can help find the OEM for cams like this. Find the page that reports the firmware version, and google that, as well as other software versions. This may lead to a page that has the info you need. For instance, the Hik Swann reports the same firmware version as the Hik it's based on, so if you google that (in quotes if it's got spaces/dashes/whatever), it will take you to Hik pages.

If you want to leave the existing system up and put in a newer system around them, that should be no problem. If you want to add to these systems in the future, you'll be limited to other coax gear, either analog or digital over coax, and you'll have to research each of them to find out if other cameras will be compatible or if you'll have to use gear from the same manufacturer. I wouldn't bother with analog, personally, but many people still run it because it's inexpensive. Whether that makes sense is an individual decision. If I were constrained by price, I'd go for the 720p system, but I'd want to read some reviews on it first.

I have a 6mm lens mounted now on a 2032, but didn't have time to measure it before putting it up a few weeks ago to watch a bird's nest. I took it down this weekend, and will measure it this week. This is a random ebay 3MP 6mm lens, and I haven't done any testing on it to see if it's any good, so the results may not be very useful. Chinese no-name specs - who knows what they mean? This one didn't screw in as far to focus, and ended up hitting the glass when I re-assembled it. There was barely enough room to get the sensor board screws in well enough to hold it in place. My other 6mm lens, from M12lenses.com, is still on the Dahua 2100, and I won't be taking that one down anytime soon, but the measurement post has the Dahua results. Changing lenses on these compact cams, and M12 cams in general, is always a gamble. The manufacturers should sell different size replacement lenses for their cams, giving the actual FOV and such, but few of them do that.

Here's my post on how I measure FOV. The gear is inexpensive and easy to use: http://www.cam-it.org/index.php?topic=5424.0 The image size issue isn't cropping, as you can't crop a directly sampled 1080p image into a smaller FOV 3MP image; you have to re-sample. On the Hik, either the 1080p or the 3MP image is re-sampled, and I've pulled images that indicate it's the 3MP image, but it's hard to know exactly what's going on at the sensor level. The image circle is the size of the image projected when the lens is screwed in to its focus point. This will be different for different lenses, depending on the design. It's more complicated for M12 lenses, as the back focal length varies from lens to lens, so the distance from the rear of the lens to the sensor (which directly affects the image circle size) will vary from lens to lens. The fact that Chinese lens specs are loose to nonexistent doesn't help to figure this out. So, one 4mm lens will have a larger image circle than another, and a given sensor will capture a different portion of the image circle. Even with CS/C mount lenses, which have a fixed back focal length, the image circle size varies between lenses. There are image circle size databases on the web for people who use certain types of camera systems. What you'll see is if you put 4 different 4mm lenses from different manufacturers on the same cam, you'll get 4 different FOVs. The only way to know for sure is to measure them.

How long is your cable run, and what's the power draw on the camera? If there's a cable problem, like a marginal crimp or connector problems, these can get worse over time until the camera stops working. Likewise, problems in the junction box (or whatever protects the connections at the camera end) could contribute. Unfortunately, this is hard to test without getting up to the cam, though you could re-crimp the switch end easily. One test would be to run a new cable temporarily to the camera to see if it starts working again, but if you're up at the cam, it would be worth re-crimping a new connector just for grins. If you're going to go up to the cam, you might as well bite the bullet and buy a replacement and swap it out while you're up there. You can get better specs for a lot less money now. Would you be able to get at it with a cherry picker? That should be cheaper than erecting scaffolding.

These first and last are coax systems, if that's the way you're going in the future. The middle PN didn't come up, and the last one looks like it's analog. If you want to go with a standard IP system with network cables in the future, you'd have to re-cable, and I'd end up replacing analog cams completely if it were me. I'd recommend going for fewer IP cams of better quality, then adding additional cams as you can afford them.

Yes, you can transfer registration to a second PC, and you don't need to remove it from the old PC. The first one will drop back to demo mode. Your best bet for BI questions is the community support forum at cam-it.org. There's lots of info and expertise there.

This is a 3 axis dome, so yes.

The actual sensor sizes vary a bit these days, and the image circle of the lens will affect the FOV for a given sensor size. One 4mm lens will have a different image circle size than a different 4mm lens. Many Chinese cam manufacturers don't give accurate FOV data in their specs. Hik also doesn't specify which resolution this is for (turns out it's 1080p). Most cams, 3MP would give a wider FOV, but on the Hik 2xxx series, they sample the output at 3MP and give a narrower horizontal FOV at 3MP. I've measured the actual FOV on my 4mm Hiks, and here's what it is: Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I Resolutions: 3MP = 2048 x 1536 1080P = 1920 x 1080 OEM 4.0mm lens - Hik's original lens 3MP = 69 degrees H 1080P = 77 degrees H

You know, if you just watch all your movies on a cell phone, you won't notice the pixelation at all...

Best bet for software is to try these 2 packages. After this, you'll have a good idea of what you need and want. These connect with a wide variety of cams, so you may be in luck, but no-name cams are always a risk. You do need to know the camera's IP address for any software package to work... Blue Iris demo: Great support, lots of options, more supported cams than any software I know, has ONVIF detect function. Tends to require a more powerful CPU for multiple MP cams. $40-50 to register if it fits your needs. Milestone Xprotect Go: Requires less CPU power, free for up to 8 cams with 5 day recording limit, also supports lots of cams. Can update to the more full-featured version for $50/cam license.

One of the config tabs lets you choose profiles - day and night. I don't have the screens in front of me, but they're easy to find. You set your parameters however you want in the day and night profiles, and it changes between those profiles at the scheduled times. The manual may help with this as well.

AVI and MP4 are containers, not a compression formats. They'll be big or small, depending on what kind of video they contain.

It's easy to reset the 15 day trial period by deleting the Registration section in the BI part of the registry. I frequently do this while testing cams on my secondary systems. I shut down BI, delete the Registration set of keys, and restart, and the 15 days starts over. You still have the demo overlay, of course. These are the registry locations: 32 bit location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris 64 bit location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Perspective Software\Blue Iris

I haven't used one, but the manual for these lists compatible cameras and the resolution it supports: http://www.hikvision.com/en/products_show.asp?id=9042

I don't see this, and am running a slightly older version of BI (3.49.05), but when I change resolution on the Hiks, it sometimes crashes BI. That may have changed in the newer updates. Now, I always take the camera offline before changing resolution, then put it back online. This wouldn't explain the OP's problem, but could be related to problems after resolution changes. If you're seeing MJPEG and a low bit rate, you won't get much in the way of video, as MJPEG just can't carry much info at low bit rates.

To see your cams outside your local network, you need to port forward on your router/gateway. This assigns each camera's IP address to a port on your external IP address. Here's a web page that covers port forwarding for lots of routers: http://portforward.com/ Also, search on port forward or port forwarding on the forum; there are lots of posts on it.

You can permanently convert a Chinese cam to an English cam with this code fix: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=41225 I haven't used it myself (no Chinese cams) and am not sure of the cost, but reports have been good.

For people who don't have the PC yet, it's less of a difference for a small number of cams, as you spend less on the PC for Milestone, but more on the licenses. With BI, you spend more on the PC, and the software's a fixed price for as many cams as the hardware will handle. I believe Milestone uses the camera's motion detect, though it's been a while since I used it. BI has one of the most flexible MD setups you can get in home software, at the cost of higher CPU usage for it, and it won't use the camera's MD.

It looks like the Channel Vision interface works with specific systems, which may also be the case with the Holovision bits I linked above: http://www.smarthome.com/83647BZ/Channel-Vision-DP-0252-Front-Door-Unit-for-P-0920-and-P-0921-Phone-Entry-Systems-Oil-Rubbed-Bronze/p.aspx