Mavrik 0 Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) I've had it with the China crap so I'm looking to upgrade, the largest issue is it's not clear what cams are reliable and won't lighten the wallet too much. I'm looking for a HD, IP, PTZ with some optical zoom, smaller the better (miniature best), under $500 if possible. Edited April 1, 2015 by Guest Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cctvmann 0 Posted March 31, 2015 ive got domes pts types from a trusted chinese supplier and found the couple of compnaies that i deal with to be superb. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mavrik 0 Posted March 31, 2015 So have I, Foscam, which wasn't fully functional new and picture turned purple only after a couple of hours of run time and months later getting blurry. It won't adjust out the purple (had to go B/W) and the lens is clean. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boogieman 1 Posted March 31, 2015 So have I, Foscam, which wasn't fully functional new and picture turned purple only after a couple of hours of run time and months later getting blurry. It won't adjust out the purple (had to go B/W) and the lens is clean. Foscam is crap...look at dahua or hikvision ptz...there are US sellers selling these albeit at a premium over direct from china. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mavrik 0 Posted March 31, 2015 Opps, I didn't realize good cams come from China. I just get so sick of shopping and research. I did start looking at Dahua, specs are good and you say they last? Looks like some on eBay are selling clones. Are these cams controlled via PC or do I need a controller or do they come with a controller? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Securame 0 Posted March 31, 2015 They say that "you get what you pay for". You buy at crap prices? You will get crap. There are good products coming from China. But if you expect to get them as cheap as possible, well, you know what you will get then. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mavrik 0 Posted March 31, 2015 There isn't always a correlation between price and quality. The bottom line is to come to this forum and ask what is actually working well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Euly 1 Posted March 31, 2015 They say that "you get what you pay for". You buy at crap prices? You will get crap. There are good products coming from China. But if you expect to get them as cheap as possible, well, you know what you will get then. Generally, that's a good rule of thumb, but not in this case. I bought a 720p Foscam in 2013 for $150, which was absolute junk. Nobody should trust a company with "scam" in it's name. In 2014, I bought my first Dahua IPC-HFW4300S for $140 and I love it. Since then, the IPC-HFW4300s has dropped to $120 and lower. I bought two more and all three are reliable. The only problem I've had was when I bought my third HFW4300s, HDSecurityStore (an Amazon seller) sent me the HFW4300s-V2, which seems to be an inferior attempt by Dahua to cut corners. I bricked the V2 with the first firmware update because it is not the same as the original HFW4300s, so I returned it to Amazon and bought the camera through a different seller. cctv_007 has a fantastic thread about Dahua cameras http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=44928 The post is generally about unbricking the camera, but it has a lot of helpful relating info too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
