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What's your budget? If it's small, it's hard to go wrong with the Hik 2032 or similar, or one of the Dahuas if you don't mind no tech support.

So it looks like the 4XXX series uses different firmware than the 3XXX series: 2XXX/3XXX series = HX3(2)XXX 4XXX/5XXX series = HX5(4)XXX This makes sense, as the 4300 uses a different sensor and (presumably) CPU than the 3300/3200/2100. I've ordered a 4300S to test, against my better judgement, and will see what firmware it comes with and whether I'll have any better access to firmware updates (probably wishful thinking). Anybody know about English NTSC firmware for the 4300S? Googling the key bits of the firmware name above only gives that novosec site - one result.

I had a problem similar to this when I did a firmware update on my HFW3300C. Apparently, it was reading the exposure settings from the wrong location and causing it to overexpose to all white. Mine was set with manual exposure, and had limits on the exposure time to prevent motion blur at night. By changing these to something different and back again, it started working. Try changing your exposure mode to manual, and put some different numbers in the limits to see if that changes anything. If it does, try going back to automatic to see if it starts working.

I haven't tried this one yet on my HFW3300C, which I haven't been using much lately. I'll probably install it soon to see how it works out.

Some half-power switches will allocate the power among different ports. For instance, my 8 port 52W switch only supplies 6.5W average per port, but will also provide 4 ports with 13W, with none left for the remaining ports. Typically these are managed switches, where you can set port priorities so it won't starve something important to feed something you don't care as much about.

The real question is whether they both use the same sensor. If so, the image quality will be about the same with either, though the lens will affect image quality as well. The 2032 benefits from extra IR, as the night image is noisy without more illumination, so the different LEDs on the 2232 may help that. I haven't seen any direct comparisons between the two.

Also, if your ISP account has bandwidth limits, uploading multiple cameras can cause you to hit that limit pretty quickly, depending on what you're uploading. YMMV, of course.

The Chinese 5.1 version is available through a link here: http://wrightwoodsurveillance.com/forum/thread-69.html Direct link: http://www.wrightwoodsurveillance.com/stuff/Chinese%205.1.zip I haven't tried this (don't have any Chinese cams). Is there a Chinese Hikvision support site?

I have a pair of older Areconts - an AV5100 and an AV5105DN. I liked the idea of 5MP, a 1/2" sensor, and CS lenses - seems perfect for low light capture - but the cameras have never worked well. Spec is 9 fps, which it can get if a single client is pulling RTSP only, but if you connect another client (like the camera's web page), or a different client (I use Blue Iris), it barely gets 5 fps. Connecting the web page and BI together drops it to 3 fps. The software is primitive and has limited options by today's standards, and I've never come up with a good use for them. I removed the fixed IR filter from the 5100 to make it a bit more useful, but the basic camera operation just isn't worth the investment to mount them in an enclosure. The 5100 has since died and just power cycles continually. I still use the 5105 for lens testing sometimes. Maybe the newer models are better, with better software and a more powerful CPU, but I'd definitely want to demo one before buying, as they're not cheap.

That's not so bad. They must have lowered their prices; this was what someone posted in 2012:

One of my 2 Hik 2032 bullets drops out every now and again, and usually needs a power cycle reset to go back online, since you can't contact the IP address when this happens. This is a good first check - ping the IP address to see if the camera's responding. While out of town over the holidays, the pair of them went offline for a few days, one a few hours after the other, then came back on before I got home to do anything about it. The other 7 cams were all OK while this was going on. I'm still puzzled about this.

And yours are POE? It would be nice to have different model numbers for the Chinese vs English firmware, since that surprises people and can't be changed easily. They should document this if that's the case.

That's very good decode performance; they must have some nicely tweaked software. Is the Exacq licensing model still the same, with annual per-cam update costs that accrue even when you skip a few years? I remember a discussion where Exacq costs could run to pretty large numbers over a few years. I'm not sure how that compares to other per-cam license cost packages; I try to avoid those! ETA: Here's the thread, complete with high-cost horror story! viewtopic.php?f=19&t=30738

Theia also makes correcting lenses, from $200-400. I don't know of anyone who makes them for M12 cameras, though. Most of them are for CS mount cams. The plus of correcting lenses is that they don't depend on software, so the stream is usable by any app that talks to the camera.

Via whatever you do to run Windows on a Mac. Several members of my family have Macs, but I only support them in emergencies, and rarely use them. Cams are just recently supporting browsers other than IE. The industry moves slowly that way.

That is impressive. What's the frame rate on those cams?

Likewise, if your NVR is only going to be a recorder, and not a viewer, that drops the CPU load considerably. If you run the viewing client on the same PC, or if it's integrated with the recorder like Blue Iris, it consumes more CPU, as decoding multiple camera streams is very CPU intensive.

One of the inherent problems with ultra-wide angle lenses, including hemi models, is that your pixels-per-foot resolution may be good at the center of the view, but drops off rapidly as you move towards the edges. De-warping software can't do anything about this. Any lens that has fisheye distortion will show this. It can be measured easily with an object of known size placed at different locations, then measuring how many pixels it covers with an image editor.

what (low cost or free) vms software is compatible with this Swann camera (using ONVIF)? Blue Iris works with these, and is $50 with no per-cam license fees. Xprotect Go is free for up to 8 cams and 5 days recording. I'm sure there are others.

Many people with Macs run Windows on them for this. I'd say the market share is just too small for the range of solutions you can find on the Windows side.

Lens calculators often don't work well for M12 lenses, having been designed for CS/C mount lenses, which have a back focus length defined by specification. M12 lenses don't have this spec. The Hikvision spec should be fairly close, though they usually are not very precise and/or don't have all the info. If you measure the actual FOV for the 2032 bullet with the 4mm lens, here's what you get: 1080p - 77 degrees horizontal FOV (spec is 75.8 degrees) 3MP - 69 degrees horizontal FOV (Hik doesn't spec this FOV) Assuming the same sensor, 2.8mm will be a good bit wider angle, and on the Hik bullet, it shows part of the housing.

Same thing on my 8 Silicon Valley IR cams. The bugs aren't really attracted to the IR here - I just get random shots of bugs flying by, never get swarms of them around the cameras. Maybe the type of bugs we have here don't care about IR. Likewise, the spiders use the cams as part of the web's framework, just like a branch or mailbox. I check them daily and have to grab the Webster once a week or so, usually for the same 2-3 cams, which must be in locations where spiders like to hang out. Two of the cams never get spider webs. It's possible the spiders like the extra warmth in the winter, but it's hard to say without tracking how often I have to wipe webs.

Here's a thread with the link to the tools and instructions: Several people have used this to upgrade over the language mismatch error.

If your user isn't very technical, a dedicated NVR is hard to beat for robustness and simplicity. The bulk of my support for dedicated NVRs is telling them where the procedure is for copying clips to a thumb drive, and re-sending it when they're unable to find it on their PC's desktop. I have to replace a hard drive every few years, but that's about it. PC based systems are great, but definitely require more monitoring and hand-holding, especially if they start browsing the web with it. You could always try Xprotect Go on the G620, which may have enough horsepower for it. BI would definitely choke it.

Some cams call that option mirror. The imager doesn't rotate on 2 axis models, I believe, and not all of them will rotate a full 180 degrees from center.