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I use camera mount clamps in a lot of situations. These cams don't have standard screw mount threads, but with the right platform you can use cable ties or similar to hold them. I cabled tied a webcam to a tripod and leaned it against a viewport the other day to record plasma processing on a troublesome tool. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dsporting&field-keywords=camera%20mount%20clamps#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=camera+clamps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acamera+clamps I also use bungee cords sometimes, depending on how critical stability is.

One thing I really liked about dedicated NVRs when I ran them was the stability. I could go for years between reboots if there were no power outages. These were from the early days of online access, so networking was primitive, and we didn't use it much.

I can't help with the network info, but one option you should check out for NVR software is Blue Iris. It's easily the best value out there for home use, and has lots of useful features, while still being easy to use. Support is exceptional, it handles lots of cameras, and has very flexible motion detect. It comes in a demo version. Downsides are that it needs a powerful PC to run a lot of MP cams, and it gets updated very frequently, sometimes with bugs introduced by the updates. Once I install a stable version, I don't update until something compelling comes out in the new version, and then I read up on the support forum and test it first.

I record to 2 or 3 NVRs at once, no problem. System 1 - Blue Iris on an i5-3570 box, recording motion detect on 9 cameras. This is the primary system, and has about 2 months of recording. System 2 - Aver NV6480 on an i3-540 box, recording 24x7 on the same 9 cameras. It only has space for about a week, but this is the backup if something happened and I missed something important due to motion detect. System 3 - Blue Iris on an i3-540 box, used as a test bed; it'll record 6 or so of the cams at once. This is where I test new versions of BI before installing them on the main system, as well as doing any tests that would interfere with full-time recording. It would be easy to hide one of these somewhere - all you need is a network cable and power. Typically, you wouldn't need a full blown system for this, since a few days' recording would be enough backup to catch video from someone who took the main system. This won't help someone cutting the cam cables, but it will give backup if someone steals the obvious NVR. On your camera positions, I like to set them up one of these ways: - No one can approach the camera without being recorded, like if it's mounted on a wall with no rear access. My front cams are right next to each other with slightly overlapping coverage, and no one can get to either one without being seen by one or both. - One camera watching the other, so that anyone messing with one camera is seen by the other. This can be a problem if the cams are very far apart, as you may not have enough pixels per foot to ID an unknown perp, and can require a lot of cams, depending on your layout. Still, this is easily bypassed with a mask, but we all have to draw a line on redundancy and coverage somewhere.

Here are the measured and calculated details on the 2 resolutions: Hik 2032 3MP bullet with 4mm lens: 1080P - 77 degrees horizontal FOV 3MP - 69 degrees horizontal FOV Hik 3MP going from 1080p (1920 x 1080) to 3MP (2048 x 1536): 7% increase in horizontal pixels, 20% decrease in field of view 42% increase in vertical pixels, 18% increase in vertical field of view. The trade-off is more width with the 1080p vs more height with the 3MP, so whichever fits your needs best is good.

The beta version has been released on the US site. It has the ability to turn off IR. There's a thread on it now.

Yeah, it's all about price vs features, and how much time you want to spend on it. Adjusting and focusing most varifocals takes minutes at most and can be done in place if the camera's accessible, while the mini bullets require dismounting the camera, disassembling it, changing the lens and/or focusing while it's disassembled, then reassembling and re-mounting. Once it's done, you should be good to go, but if you wanted to change things regularly, the time saved for the varifocal would be considerable. Plus, there's always the small risk that things won't work right after re-assembly. Looks like the difference between I and I(S) is: (-S) Audio I/O, Alarm I/O

My Hiks are 4mm. I don't have any 12mm except a lens I'll be testing on a Dahua. Varifocals are often not as good as fixed focal at the extremes, but that depends on the lens. There's no way to tell for sure except to try it. BW's shot isn't super sharp, and whether it could be sharpened by focusing is something else you'd have to test to know. This may be because it's so close; each lens is different, and the specs aren't very standardized. As mentioned before, it's a pain to change focus on these cams, hence BW's advice to get an easily focusable cam. Some lenses are very hard to precisely focus on MP cams. M12 lenses tend to fit loosely in the threads, which is why you need a few wraps of teflon tape; otherwise, the focus can change when you let go of the lens. You'll want to print out a Siemens star and use that for a focus target at your preferred distance to make sure you get the best possible focus if it's important. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_star With inexpensive Chinese gear, the first line of quality control is often the purchaser. It's hard to say what results you'll get without actually testing a particular combination of gear.

There was an issue with the Swann branded Hik 2032 bullets when they first came out where the focus was soft on the left side. Swann replaced the cameras for people who complained, I believe. Yours definitely shows softness on the left edge. Whether it's acceptable depends on your needs. Whether it's worth returning depends on the costs and overhead of returning stuff to an Aliexpress vendor.

It can be hard to get firmware support on amazon and ebay Dahuas, so you should check that the vendor will support you. I've never been able to get either Dahua or K&D to support the firmware for either of my Dahuas - one bought on ebay, one from someone selling an extra K&D branded Dahua. Just something to consider.

That's a huge improvement, and your night shots with full lighting look great. Are you in a PAL country, vs NTSC? If so, that's why you have 1/25 and 1/50 instead of 1/30 and 1/60. If not, it's probably because you have video standard on the Image configuration page set for 50 Hz instead of 60 Hz. If that doesn't match your local line frequency, it can cause issues with rolling bars from the lighting, but you'd probably have seen that by now.

Since it works fine connected directly to the PC, the problem should be in one of the things added when you connect through the switch - cables, more cameras, or the switch itself, or the PC is having a hard time with the packets the switch is sending out. If you only connect a single camera through the switch, do you still get lag? If so, that would indicate that the switch is introducing the lag, even with a light load. If one camera is good, but adding more increases the lag and introduces the gaps, it's also the switch, but is unable to handle the increasing load. Another possibility is that one of the cameras is sending out corrupted packets, causing problems with the others. Since this is an unmanaged switch, there's nothing you can do about settings, but you might check to see if there are firmware updates for it. Likewise, it could be that the PC doesn't like what the switch sends (this isn't very common), and updating the PC's network and port drivers may help. It's also possible that one of your cables is causing problems, which is easy to check.

Yeah, this is an area that the mid-to-low-end manufacturers do poorly. You can focus the lens by turning it in and out of the lens adapter. This is how they do it originally and when you need to re-focus. The Hik has a spot of glue to hold it in place once it's focused, so that needs to be broken loose, and it's a pain to get at it because of the compact camera design. You might want to consider a varifocal version, which will give you a lot easier flexibility when you're not sure which lens you need. If you do adjust or replace the lens, you'll want to put a few wraps of teflon tape on the threads to keep it from moving and changing focus due to vibration, temperature shifts, or whatever. They should do this instead of putting glue on it, or using setscrews or locking nuts the way some cams do. On most of these cams, the difference between focusing at a few meters and infinity is pretty small, because the depth of field is quite large. It's when you need to focus really close that you need more adjustment. My Hiks are in good focus at 5 feet away, as well as much further out. Here's a reduced view of the Hik 2032's focus at 24", from my post on measuring actual FOV (http://www.cam-it.org/index.php?topic=5424.0): Your vendor's table is essentially showing the longest distance that a given lens is good for, but there's no detail or specs, so it's really pretty worthless, and it's guaranteed inaccurate for this camera. It's also not showing anything about the shorter distances. Virtually all cams will show good images with good focus at 5 feet or so, and your 4 meters is 13 feet - really shouldn't be a problem, and will probably be in focus off the shelf. The only real way to find out about range and coverage with a given lens is to try it. If you got 4 different 12mm lenses, each would have a different FOV and image quality. The specs and quality control on M12 lenses just aren't very good, and there's nothing to be done about it except try one and see how it works. More expensive cams have better controlled and tested lens specs, in general, but not in this price range.

Here are a couple of versions of 20130517. All firmware updates are at your own risk, especially with Dahua. The version, PAL vs NTSC, is designated by the P or N after the ENG designator: General_IPC-HX3(2)XXX_Eng_P_V2.210.0001.0.R.20130517.zip (PAL version, never used by me, full version with a bunch of files that you probably don't need unless you've got the mythical TFTP update working) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5RXJz1sMJ9VcjVkbWlUeFpNYW8/edit?usp=sharing General_IPC-HX3(2)XXX_Eng_N_V2.210.0001.0.R.20130517.bin (NTSC version, bin only, which is what you need, currently installed on my Dahua HFW2100N and HFW3300C cams) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5RXJz1sMJ9VWll1eldiajFXZDQ/edit?usp=sharing C'mon, Dahua, get it together!

The Hik uses the defacto standard 2.1x5.5mm connector. If your PS already has these, verify the polarity, and you should be good. Otherwise, you'll need a connector for it. When I'm doing short term power connections or testing stuff, I like to use these screw connectors: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5Pair-Male-Female-2-1-5-5mm-DC-Power-Jack-Plug-Adapter-Connector-for-CCTV-Camera-/390720830006?pt=US_Surveillance_Cables_Adapters_Connectors&hash=item5af8c6ba36 Search for cctv power connector to see lots of options. You can get them from Amazon, too. If they go outside, you'll need to protect them, but this would be true of any connection to the Hik's short pigtail.

This is true. However, I've got several Arecont 1/2" manual iris MP lenses, and while they're not as sharp as their $300+ brothers, they're decent performers at reasonable prices. Based on my experience with the manual iris lenses, you're unlikely to find a better performing MPIR lens for anywhere near that price. They have an image gallery for it here, including some images from 10MP cams. You can't always trust vendor info to be accurate, but it's something. http://www.arecontvision.com/resources.php?pid=375

As long as you can focus the 12mm lens at 4M, you should be fine, if that's the amount of zoom you need. M12 lenses can be tricky, as the lens screws in and out to focus, so if it hits the IR filter assembly before it's focused, you're out of luck. Still, I'd expect that the 12mm lens will focus at 4M. Their table doesn't specify which setting the field of view angle is for, and the Hik 1080P and 3MP settings have different FOV angles. The image shows a 3MP 4:3 aspect ratio, but I'm guessing he's sent you a generic image showing typical FOV, not the actual Hik 2032 FOV. This is common. The Hik 2032 bullet with 4mm lens has an actual FOV of 77 degrees at 1080p and 69 degrees at 3MP, which is way off from the table. I wouldn't trust their table to be accurate.

The Hik 2032 is heavily reviewed, and is a good camera for the price, but is fixed focal length, and changing lenses is a pain. The Hik varifocal bullet BW mentions is probably the best choice in your price range. I'd say pull the trigger and go for it, and then you'll know better what you need next time you want to upgrade. The Dahua HFW3300C varifocal bullet is more expensive, and has image quality issues in the shadows, which you might not want for birdwatching. I don't know if the new 4400 series fixes these problems, or what the price is. Here's a post showing the HFW3300C image quality issues: viewtopic.php?p=237284#p237284

I don't have that model Hikvision, but I'm not happy with the HFW3300C image quality in mixed light. The picture is very soft and muddy in the shadow portions when part of the image is bright. Between that and the awful Dahua tech support, I've given up on them. Maybe the next generation will be better, though. Here's an example. 25' away from the HFW3300C in 3MP mode, mid afternoon, lots of light - shouldn't be very challenging. These zoomed snaps were taken about 5' away from each other within a minute or two. On the first one, you can see that the detail right behind me is completely blurred, even though the well lit detail is not bad. Good lighting: Shadow a few feet away:

Here's a post with a link for 20130517, NTSC version. I don't know if it works with the 4300 or not. There's also a 20130313 version. You can find links to various versions by searching the forum for 20130517 or 20130313. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33328&p=232953&hilit=20130517#p232953 Note that there's always a risk upgrading Dahua firmware, and their technical support is essentially non-existent. There's a reason the Dahua firmware thread is at 24 pages now...

That one's not POE. It'll work if you feed the cams 12Vdc at 1 or 1.5A. This type of power supply isn't expensive, and can hold your 2 cams until you spring for a POE switch. Alternately, you can go for an inexpensive 4 or 8 port POE switch dedicated to the cams. This is a good time to think on your longer term plans for both camera and networks, such as how many cams you except to have (which you should probably multiply by 1.5 for reality's sake), whether you want/need a Gb uplink for the POE switch, want a managed switch or not, etc.

If you're not using IR, there's little difference between domes and bullets, though smoked domes will reduce the light a bit. To change zoom remotely, you need a PTZ camera, which adds quite a bit to the cost. Almost anything under $500-ish is either manual zoom or junk, and good ones with lots of zoom will cost over $1000. Most PTZ are pendant style. Ignore digital zoom specs; only optical zoom counts. Here's Dahua's line-up of PTZ cams: http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products_category/network-ptz-camera-5.html

A 1/3" lens may cause dark corners on your image, though many have a large enough image circle to cover a 1/2.5" sensor (from the website specs). A 2/3" lens will work, too, but will give the field of view of a longer lens. Lenses for bigger sensors tend to give higher quality images, as image quality usually drops near the edge of the lens. 1/2" lenses are less common than 1/3", but still pretty available. They tend to cost more. It looks like the camera supports auto-iris and day/night switching, so you'll likely want a lens that has auto-iris and is IR corrected. You'll also want one that's MP rated to get best use of your 5MP. That camera supports CS and C mount, but to use a C mount, you'll need a C to CS adapter. Fujinon, Computar, and CBC are all decent brands, and there are others as well. Take a look at this link for a big assorment of 1/2" lenses, then google the ones you're interested in to see if the prices are good: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Format_1%2f2%22&ci=3659&N=4045021054+4291756354

If you're not sure what focal length you'll need, you should go with vari-focal, as swapping M12 lenses is a bit of a minefield.

Who, me? It's when the full frame is sent, which is then updated with the p-frames. If you're wondering why this would help the Dahua avoid drop-outs, I have a few theories unsubstantiated by data, but I can verify that it worked for me and multiple other people.