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There's been a similar discussion over at the BI forum on these cams, and user rockcrawl had this useful info to post (http://www.cam-it.org/index.php?topic=2646.0):

I've got some IP8332 night pics up here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&p=188429#p188429 The target is a lot closer, so any IR halo is diminished by the IR reflected from the building, but I don't have much of a problem with it or my other IP8332. I believe the IP8332 is pretty similar to the IP7332, and mine have the foam donuts as the only separator. My Messoa has plastic rings glued right on the front glass, as well as a foam donut that fits inside the ring and around the lens. That can help give a little overlap if the donut's not right against the glass (but it keeps me from using fatter lenses). That said, at least one other user has been complaining about halo on an IP8332, so it may be they changed the material at some point (mine are older cams), and it shrinks faster or doesn't stay in place as well. It would take comparing them side by side to know for sure.

No, I'm an ebay geek - 80% of my cam gear came from there, most of it used. It's more the $100 price for 1080P that makes me cautious about the quality, and my previous experience with Rainbow gear. A lot of the low price could be due to them being orphaned, but there are several other Rainbow models, also 1080P, going for more. I haven't found anything that compares the features of the various models, and it could be this is someone wanting to blow them out cheap and move on. I ordered one, just for grins, and can report back on it over the next week or so.

Looks like it doesn't go into BW mode, as the light coming through the window above the door is still in color. Pretty even illumination, though, with the IR hotspot going down a hallway like that. Lots of people buy the Foscams because they're inexpensive, and some have good luck for the price, but there are some threads on the various QC and support problems over at the BI forum, www.cam-it.org, about all the problems people have with them.

Heh! There's someone on ebay selling Rainbow 1080P POE ONVIF network cams for $100 shipped, if you search on rainbow ipm. It's always a risk buying orphaned electronics, and it seems unlikely the quality would be great (and certain that support is non-existent), but for those who like to dabble with inexpensive gear, it's tempting.

Totally off topic, but here you go! - Make sure your charger is 12Vdc, and has the current needed. Your light strip probably doesn't require a lot of current (amps), so almost any 12Vdc power supply should work. It should be labeled with the output, and often is labeled with the polarity. If you don't have the right output, many Goodwills or similar places will have cheap power supplies. - Make sure polarity is correct - + to +, - to -. Most LEDs don't fry if you hook them up backwards, but it can happen. If it doesn't work one way, try the other. - To verify all this, buy or borrow an inexpensive digital volt meter (DVM). Radio shack sells them for $15 or so, and Harbor Freight or other cheap import places often have them for under $10. This will tell you if your power supply is working and which leads are + and -. Please, whatever you do, don't take apart the charger or start messing around with connections directly to the wall. This is very dangerous if you don't understand electricity.

I'm having issues with one of my NVR PCs dropping the network connection intermittently, maybe once every week or two. So far, the only way to get it back online is to reboot, and because it's so infrequent, it's a bit hard to troubleshoot. Does anyone know of a Windows network watchdog program that can reboot a PC if it drops out, maybe after failing to ping the gateway router or something similar? I've found a fair bit of *nix stuff, but nothing yet for Windows.

Simple answer: In general, 3 things affect CCTV video quality, usually measured in TVL: - The lens quality - The camera imaging capability (combo of sensor, electronics, software, and settings, but it's all in one package) - The image compression (for IP video or recorded analog video) Like most things, you're limited by your weakest link in that chain. The viewing angle from the lens makes a difference in how far away you can resolve something, but lens quality is what matters when comparing, say, a $30 6mm and a $300 6mm lens. Neither one will let you identify a face at 100' on an analog camera. As was pointed out, your resolution in analog is inherently limited by the analog standards. Going to MP IP cams can give a dramatic improvement in video quality, often at a considerable increase in per camera price, but once you go MP, it's hard to go back to analog, in my experience.

I think Rainbow's out of business, but I won't guarantee that. I've noticed their IP cams going really cheap, and have been tempted to get one to test, but not much feedback out there on them. I've got a bunch of Rainbow lenses from back in the day, and they're mostly mediocre, but they also weren't very expensive. Not as good as Computar, for comparison - mostly plastic bodies, not the best image performance (especially in low light), etc. They were pretty reliable, though.

Thanks for the lead. I looked at their web site and it appears to be capable of doing what we want. I'm a little concerned about the lack of documentation on their site, as well as the lack of contact information for the company. But if I can't find a more professional application, we might just use this. Blue Iris is pretty awesome software for the money, and has a great feature set. The main downsides are that it doesn't scale well with MP cams, and recording search isn't up to the higher-end software capabilities. It'll handle D1 and 1MP cams pretty well, but starts to bog down as you add 2MP cams, and requires a lot more CPU cycles. Still, it's a very inexpensive way to get started with a handful of lower res cams, and you can use it in demo mode on a mid-range PC to figure out how well it'll work for you.

For better quality than the Foscams, you could look at the LTS LTCIP830MV on Amazon - it's very similar to the Y-cam, and currently about $110. I've got 2 of them, one mounted outdoors in the Y-cam Shell enclosure and one indoors, and they've been very reliable and easy to use. On-board recording, good IR, decent wireless (though I use mine wired), and decent image for a D1 IP cam.

Thanks for the pointer; that's a very handy device. I'm hoping for a software solution, but this would solve a different problem that I've had with remote access while on the road. The only problem is I've got all my non-NVR PCs encrypted now, and need something to let me type in the password remotely before the boot, which is a whole different level of problem. Based on a suggestion on another forum, I'm looking at a batch file running under windows scheduler. I'll see how that works out.

I don't know about the pet lamps, but I have a 250W IR incandescent heat lamp that I've used for the last 15 years to dry rustable metal parts before I reassemble stuff, and when I tested it with the cams, it lit up the backyard like a bonfire! Not very energy efficient, I'm afraid, and still pretty noticeable, but not nearly as obvious as a 250W white light, or even the 100W motion detect light in my yard. Still, you could get a lower wattage and/or put it on a dimmer. They're not very expensive, and easy to test.

You're talking about the FD8134 dome, and not the IP8332 bullet? My outdoor cams are the IP8332s. I have an 8134 as well, but only use it indoors, and it's a good bit less flexible (like most domes), due to more limited mounting orientations. My 8332s had the dessicant packs in them when I got them, but I took them out and haven't replaced them, and have had no problems so far. The 8332s hold their resale value pretty well, I find. I bought both of mine used on ebay, and they were in the $225-250 range, compared to $300-ish new. My 8134 was only $100, and there was a lot less action on the auction.

Depending on how many bugs you get, you can extend the trigger time for motion recording. I'm in NorCal, and we don't get that many bugs at the cameras, so extending the trigger time from 1/2 second to 1 second really reduces the bug-induced triggers, while still catching normal motion (mostly cars and cats for me). If you attract swarms of them, this won't help as much. It's also no good when a spider builds a web across the lens, because of how much they crawl back and forth, but this can be helped by attaching a bug spray soaked cloth near the glass.

I've found my outdoor IR cams aren't really very noticeable. Mine are on a residential house with streetlights, porchlights, etc, and the red glow really doesn't stick out that much from the various white/yellowish ambient. If it were pitch black, they'd probably be more noticeable.

Next he'll ask for his money back!

I ran a Bosch DME6PCH55 analog dome cam under my eaves, hanging 24" from PVC conduit, for years with no problems. I recently pulled it to replace it with an IP cam and was surprised to find it's an indoor dome, not outdoor. I bought it used back when I was first starting out in home cams, and assumed dome==outdoor. I'm sorry to see that old cam go. It was a great performer!

Yeah, that sounds unreasonably high. I'm in Silicon Valley, and weather's pretty moderate here, but we get down into the 20-30F a few times a year, and I haven't seen any problems. Mine are both under eaves, so are protected from direct weather. Though pretty low power, they're fairly compact and well sealed, and I'd imagine the heat of operation keeps the interior temp up a bit, especially at night with the IR on. If I had a spare, I'd pop it into the freezer and see how it holds up. I'm considering getting another for a particular spot, but haven't decided to pull the trigger yet. If I do, I'll give it a test. Despite its flaws, I'm happiest with these out of all the cams I've been testing, and I haven't found anything to compare for under $300.

Interestingly, they're marketing this as a camcorder with "Home Detection Monitoring" capabilities, including limited motion detection and remote control from a phone - sort of a crossover camcorder/cctv cam. You'd probably get more user feedback on a camcorder forum. There's not a lot of detail on how it works, but based on the screens, it looks a lot like it would be similar to browsing the internet on a web-enabled TV - that is, you can do it, but it's clumsy and inefficient. You can't adjust frame rate (except in time-lapse mode, which is 1fps and slower), the motion detection has to be within a pre-defined frame in the field of view and pre/post frames can't be adjusted, it's got a .17" sensor and little to no specs on low-light performance, it's not weather friendly, there's no option for hardwiring, and so on. You can say nothing's going to be perfect, but this is clearly designed as a camcorder first with surveillance capabilities as a bit of frosting. I'm guessing anyone trying to use this as a surveillance cam would soon be frustrated by the lack of controls and options, and poor low-light performance. I'm sure it's a fine camcorder, though. It'll be interesting to see what the reviews say when they show up.

Mine are both set at 1/30th max, but can go to 1/15 or 1/5 if blur's not an issue. I got them used, so I don't know if that's the factory setting. They get a little blur with low light, but not too bad. They're also set for exposure level 4 (out of 8 ) and max gain 4x (vs 2x or 8x). I haven't played with those settings at all, and probably should to see if I can clean up the low light signal. I just realized I can set profiles for day/night/times, which may help as well, since I've got them optimized for bright sun/deep shadow. I guess I should spend more time exploring the options on these things! eta: I added a shot with IR on, no light, and gain reduced from 4x to 2x. It reduces the noise a good bit and doesn't seem to have any downside, at least at this fairly short distance. Changing the exposure levels didn't make much difference. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&p=188429#p188429 eta - edited to change to 8 )! lol!

Well, this is a pretty easy case to make. For starters, ignore the stuff the Flip can't do easily because of software and hardware, and do a comparison. Set the Flip out for a week watching your front yard and street or something similar (use one of the $15 Amazon IR illuminators), record full-time video, and see how it comes out. Post some video of the images and clips at 2am, document how much HD space the week's worth of video took, document impressions of how easy it is to search the video, etc. In other words, review it as if it were an IP cam. If it performs admirably, it's time to find out how much it would cost to make it remotely configurable, add email/ftp/whatever alerts, weatherproof it, change the lens focal length, convert the output so an NVR can record it, etc. To stack the deck in the Flip's favor, you could compare to a $300 Vivotek IP8332, which is only 1MP resolution and is known to have mediocre nighttime performance. Presumably, it will kick the Vivotek's butt, due to better specs.

That sounds great, thanks. The area that the camera would be going is more or less pitch black at night and we simply want the ability to determine if someone is there or not, not necessarily high quality detail for facial recognition and the like. I've posted a variety of nighttime pics from the Vivotek IP8332 in the IP cam pics thread. It's very similar to the FD8334 dome cam. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&p=188429#p188429

Here's a set of day/night/IR on-off pics from a 1MP Vivotek IP8332, 1/4" CMOS sensor, 3.6mm F/1.8 lens. Minimum shutter speed is set for 1/30 second to reduce motion blur; at 1/5 second, the no-light shots are better. The camera's about 20' from the building, and the 100W motion detect halogen light is about 45' away. At night, my light meter gives about 3 lux at the near corner of the building with the 100W light on. With no lights, it's pretty dark back there. Basic settings are: 1280x800, h.264, 10fps, fixed quality - excellent (best setting) Brightness 0, Contrast -3, Saturation 0, Sharpness 0 I've reduced contrast because of overly dark shadows in bright sunlight. I've included one color night pic due to Buellwinkle's findings that night picture quality is better in color than BW on the 2MP version. There's not much difference on this model, but contrast is a little better with more light. Edited to add one - nighttime, IR only, with gain turned down to 2x from the default 4x. It reduces noise quite a bit. Also added 1/5 second shutter speed with no light, just ambient, and 2x gain. Daytime, bright sun: Nighttime, no light, no IR, BW: Nightime, no light, no IR, color, 1/5 second shutter: Nighttime, no light, IR on, BW: Nighttime, no light, IR on, color, gain reduced from 4x to 2x: Nighttime, 100W light, IR off, BW: Nighttime, 100W light, IR on, BW: Nighttime, 100W light, IR on, color:

If you don't want to go IR, the best bet would be to find a 1/2" camera with excellent low-light performance (lots of recommendations for those around here), and put the fastest lens you can on it. I have an old Panasonic WV-CL924A with a F/0.95 lens that gives pretty durn good low light performance, but it still needs some ambient light. It's a fair bit more expensive used than your Ultrak, but they show up used on ebay pretty regularly (where I got mine, back in the day), and can be found for well under $200, often with lens (but maybe not the lens you need). Lots of used 1/2" lenses going cheaply, too (stick with the good brands), as 1/3" is a lot more popular these days. Another option, if IR washout is an issue, is to reduce the output from the IR emitter, or put a diffuser over it to reduce the glare (but reducing throw at the same time).