bike_rider

Yes. You can write to the SD card and have video stored on a PC running Blue Iris, and record to a NAS and record to off site as needed. You left out - "get an email on my phone with images" and yes you can do that too. Frankly, the firmware on the Hikvisions is so far ahead of what was available just a couple of years ago from most companies, if I had to do it again I don't think I would even bother with an NVR or PC for home. Get some cameras with SD storage (and maybe PIR on a couple), a NAS to hide in the house and go with that. Live with it for 3 months to see if you really need to have a central station (aka NVR or PC)

Mine took 21 days to get. Did you get a shipping confirmation with tracking number?

For this level of device, POE is POE. You'll be fine.

I'm recording to a PC using different software, but as a rough estimate I get about 50M per minute of recording. So: 1,000,000M/50M/min = 20,000 minutes. That's 333 hours or 83 hours for each camera.

Samples part 2. I'm not sure why the bottom of the 16mm image is dark. Might be cloud shadow, might be my finger over the lens. This might be the best lens in the set. The 12mm isn't great. There is a lot of edge softness. I don't have any samples of the 2.8mm because they do not fit correctly. I dn't have a comparable sample from the 3.6mm because it is installed in another camera. The 3.6 works well, but does have some port holing effect.

At promised, I've taken a bunch of sample images from the pack of lenses I bought. I was concerned about IR coating too, until I realized that lots of cameras with M12 lenses have built IR and very few aftermarket lenses mention IR coating. From that I guessed that many of these board lenses have IR coating and do not bother to mention it. The couple of lenses that I tested in the multi pack (2.8, 3.6 and 12mm I think) do fine with Ir light. Now, on to the samples. Part 1. (The crop is because there was somebody in the image.) The 6mm aftermarket isn't quiet as good as the original. You can see the blur in the sign on the left. OTOH, the aftermarket seems to have a little more contrast in the center. The aftermarket 8mm looks good. The clouds rolled in while was testing, but in bright sun there was purple fringing on the right side of the images, around the bright white trim. No samples of that.

I finally found the manual on the web site and Switch by Period isn't even covered. I'll just play with it.

Does anyone have the manual to these? I've tossed mine and I'm trying to figure out how the "Switch by period" function works. It looks like I can set a start time and an end time for when the camera is in B&W mode. The way it seems to work is that I only get one period, say 00:00 to 06:00. I'm going to try 18:00 to 06:00 to see if that works, but I wonder if anyone can look in the manual to see if this setting is valid.

It means exactly that. SD cameras are tolerant of lower quality lenses. MP cameras can see the difference, so it isn't a pure marketing ploy. Not all lenses are created equal.

Do you mean IPC-HDB3200CN? it supports 2.8mm/3.6mm/6mm fixed lens. know of any website that has these available in the USA? any specific specs of these lenses so we can look around? Amazon B&H

Thanks, but it does switch under very, very low lighting. It is all in one's definition of "dark". When I get final position on the camera I may put a neutral density filter over the sensor. gabe, if the light source in the the frame, I expect the camera to be reluctant to switch. I'm still playing with the "Switch by period" feature to see if I can get it behave.

Sorry man, busy weekend with chores. But hey, the tomatoes got transplanted and the cold frame is setup. I did remove the 2.8, it just doesn't work. The 16mm is mounted, but the image is a little soft. It might be out of focus. I'm on vacation next week, so I plan to wrap all my testing and get these things mounted. FWIW, as others have noted, it can be very difficult to get these cameras into night mode. The sensor is too sensitive to things like porch lights. Even with "switch by period" it doesn't want to switch to B&W.

I can only speak to the bullet cameras. These cameras use an M12 AKA Board lens mount. These are inexpensive and easy to to find. Deal Extremem sells a multi pack (part 15774) for $14. - 2.8, 3.6,6, 8, 12, and 16mm. The dx 2.8 and a "Gino" brand 2.8 from uxcell, via Amazon, did not fit properly. It is impossible to screw them in far enough to focus - they are too long.

Curious which 3.6mm? the $2.70 or the $2.10? Don't know. I bought a bag of lenses for $14. Part 15744. Deal Extreme has all sorts of interesting CCTV parts.

My order of lenses from DX came in (17 days from Hong Kong). The 2.8 just doesn't fit. The 3.6mm is good. It covers about 75 degrees of field of view. Sometime this weekend, I'll play with the 12mm and 16mm lenses.

I think it is pretty clear in that letter that there are 4 POE ports.

Me neither. Shipped on Oct 24th. Tracking shows in in HK on the 28th. No sign of it since.

Thanks. Checked on your review for settings. I'm using the same settings. Interestingly it works fine on my phone, but not on my tablet. Weird.

I swapped out the 6mm lens with 2.8mm and found that the new lens is slightly to long. When screwed in enough to focus, it presses against the IR filter. I removed the filter and forced the camera into B&W mode. It'll do. Has anyone connected IP Cam Viewer on android to one of these cameras? I can get an initial connection using either the Dahua RTPS settings or the generic RTSP, but the image never refreshes after the first frame.

Fixed shutter speed (1/1000 for me) and a high powered, narrow beam IR unit solved my problems.

I played with these this weekend and I'm impressed with the value. They are not $800 cameras, but they aren't $800. These are the things I noticed that separates them from more expensive cameras Slow to respond to light changes. It can take up to 10 seconds to respond to things like opening a door that significantly alters the lighting. Blacklighting compensation is pretty bad. Turning on this feature really reduces the contrast of the overall image. No on board storage. No IO and no way to trigger an alert via http. This is one thing I really miss. If this was included, I'd be totally happy. Can't turn off the IR. I took the camera apart and disconnected the IR, but that caused the camera to switch to B&W mode. This is because the cable for IR power is the same bundle that communicates with the ambiant light sensor. I don't know if the IR filter moved over when it was in B&W mode. It might be possible to snip the correct wire to disable IR, but I'm not that brave. Dark images overwhelmed the compression algorithm and the image was very blocky. Some image adjustment fixed that. OTOH, there are things I like: The price. The day time image quality is fine. The night time IR sensativity is very good. Low light images are good (enough) You can set a range for the "shutter" speed. This can be used to keep the camera from using stupid long exposures in low light. Taking the camera apart to swap the lens is pretty easy. Lenses this size are cheap. The size is good. I'll be able to put these in some obscure locations. Things to watch for - no power supply is included. Plan to use POE or buy a power supply. I got a weird message in Chrome on one camera "This page in is in Chinese, would you like to translate?" Sadly the translation didn't do anything and the page loaded fine after that. I never installed the included software.

Got mine in today. Thanks for the lead that they default to port 85. There are two hard coded logins 888888 and 666666. Can't remove them. Their default passwords are 888888 and 666666. As expected, you cannot turn off the LEDs. No time for pictures today. This weekend for sure.

If you are mostly interested in play back and you will only have a few cameras, skip the nvr entirely.have the camera write to ftp or the on board card, if there is one.

I think the IR question was actually "Are those IR coated lenses, so that the focus does not shift under IR?" Which is a question I've been meaning to ask.

Following up on this, I bought a 3364 and I'm very happy. IR sensitivity is very good. You can tell the camera to switch between a fixed night time shutter speed (1/250 for me) and auto shutter during the day. You do this with an event trigger. There is a trigger event for day mode on, night mode on. Based on that trigger, you use an http command to tell the camera to reprogram itself. Setting this value on and off, ImageSource.I0.Sensor.ManualShutterControl gives the ability to have a fixed shutter at night (it remembers the last set value) and an auto shutter in the day.