Cheap eBay camera's

BigFoot · Jun 1, 2019

Hello all,

Does anyone have any experience of the cheaper IP camera's available on eBay ?

I have a requirement for an ancillary camera (or 3). The Uniview cams I have cost me £83 (about $105) each and they are great, but I've found a few generic bullet camera's for around £28 each ($35)

Both are 4MP, .265, ONVIF, POE IP, etc...

If anyone has any direct experience of these cheaper camera's I'd love to know what you think of them, how well they perform, how easy to set up, etc...

Many thanks & kind regards

knedit · Jun 1, 2019

I have a £20 camera which has no web interface and awful compression, but it works and a £30 one that is fantastic, works fast and in full HD. Its really a gamble.

mat200 · Jun 1, 2019

BigFoot said:
Hello all,

Does anyone have any experience of the cheaper IP camera's available on eBay ?

I have a requirement for an ancillary camera (or 3). The Uniview cams I have cost me £83 (about $105) each and they are great, but I've found a few generic bullet camera's for around £28 each ($35)

Both are 4MP, .265, ONVIF, POE IP, etc...

If anyone has any direct experience of these cheaper camera's I'd love to know what you think of them, how well they perform, how easy to set up, etc...

Many thanks & kind regards

Hi @BigFoot

Do be cautious with random cheap cameras sold on ebay / ali / amazon - numerous Chinese vendors are selling products which have no real software updates or support available. Also, after reading many ads / product pages on ebay / amazon / ali - I can tell you that many Chinese vendors for what ever reason ( language issues, ethical issues, .. ) are not completely honest about the products they sell. In fact I have found a lot of them gaming the reviews and the system. Those that others here have found good and reliable are highly recommended ( see the vendor section ) as they've been honest and good with customer service. Thus I recommend only going with recommended vendors.

Even the larger and well established camera vendors / OEMs fail to keep their products secure enough imho to be exposed to the internet.

In the USA we are often able to find some good deals on ip poe cameras when a vendor switches OEMs and puts the older OEM products on clearance. ( Swann is an example )

For example one brand ( Q-see ) of a Dahua OEM IP PoE bullet 1080P sold at Walmart online for 2 for $50. Of course, not the top of the line camera - but still a solid deal on a solid functional camera. ( useful for less critical areas compared to my pricier cameras )

TonyR · Jun 1, 2019

@BigFoot ,
For just a few more well-spent coins, consider these 2MP, 1080p ONVIF, POE bullet cams from Nelly's Security for $45. Sold and supported in the U.S.

Questions? Ask forum member and Nelly's Security man @Sean Nelson .

mat200 · Jun 1, 2019

@BigFoot

FYI - here is an example of a Hikvision OEM camera rebranded by Swann which was quickly sold when it hit $119 USD in the Swann Clearance section
Swann 4K Ultra HD Dome Outdoor Security Camera with EXIR LED IR Night Vision - NHD-881 2 Pack

c hris527 · Jun 2, 2019

TonyR said:
@BigFoot ,
For just a few more well-spent coins, consider these 2MP, 1080p ONVIF, POE bullet cams from Nelly's Security for $45. Sold and supported in the U.S.

Questions? Ask forum member and Nelly's Security man @Sean Nelson .

Those Cams look pretty decent for the price, They are the little cousins of the Go Swift line and I have been using them with NO issues.

thendawg · Jun 10, 2019

On the topic of EBay Chinese cameras... I've been waiting to pull the trigger on one of these to test.

5MP SONY IMX335 IP Camera Audio Record Outdoor Waterproof 4MP 3MP 1080P POE | eBay

The 5MP variant is (supposedly) equipped with the IMX335 sensor from Sony's starvis lineup. Thats what Im curious of - will these have a genuine IMX335 sensor? Is the firmware and encoding complete trash? Dont need a lot of functions as long as the stream is decent/stable. If these test decently, there are PTZ's on both ali and ebay that claim to use the same sensor Id love to test as well. If anyone has already tested these and has some feedback, let me know if Im making a mistake lol.

fenderman · Jun 10, 2019

Nick Pound said:
On the topic of EBay Chinese cameras... I've been waiting to pull the trigger on one of these to test.

5MP SONY IMX335 IP Camera Audio Record Outdoor Waterproof 4MP 3MP 1080P POE | eBay

The 5MP variant is (supposedly) equipped with the IMX335 sensor from Sony's starvis lineup. Thats what Im curious of - will these have a genuine IMX335 sensor? Is the firmware and encoding complete trash? Dont need a lot of functions as long as the stream is decent/stable. If these test decently, there are PTZ's on both ali and ebay that claim to use the same sensor Id love to test as well. If anyone has already tested these and has some feedback, let me know if Im making a mistake lol.

Buy it and learn the hard way. You will soon learn why they are priced this way. The design of the camera will require cleaning spiders nightly when its warm out.
The imx335 does not perform well at night or low light.

thendawg · Jun 10, 2019

Understand, I know many recommend turret designs because of this. Im more interested in the image quality as a test of sorts, its more a gamble than anything.

As for the IMX335 sensor, have you personally had bad results with it? I haven't used a camera with the sensor personally, but having had good results with the Dahua starlight 2mp (imx291 iirc?), I assumed based on Sony's product chart the 335 was a similar 5MP sensor, maybe Im wrong somewhere or they misadvertise?

Products Image Sensor for Security & Surveillance | Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation

BigFoot · Jun 10, 2019

@Nick Pound - I've ordered a few, so I'll let you know how I get on

fenderman · Jun 10, 2019

Nick Pound said:
Understand, I know many recommend turret designs because of this. Im more interested in the image quality as a test of sorts, its more a gamble than anything.

As for the IMX335 sensor, have you personally had bad results with it? I haven't used a camera with the sensor personally, but having had good results with the Dahua starlight 2mp (imx291 iirc?), I assumed based on Sony's product chart the 335 was a similar 5MP sensor, maybe Im wrong somewhere or they misadvertise?

Products Image Sensor for Security & Surveillance | Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation

Image quality will be close to any other camera with the same sensor. The 335 is much worse in low light. Dahua has a bunch of cams with these "starvis" sensors. They are not good in low light.
Then you have the build quality and firmware issues. Like I said, its evident that you need to learn the hard way. Its ok, its only 50 bux and some time.

fenderman · Jun 10, 2019

BigFoot said:
@Nick Pound - I've ordered a few, so I'll let you know how I get on

assuming no firmware issues and that you dont have a problem cleaning spider webs nightly (if they are mounted out doors) then cams like this suffer POE or IR failure at the 6month to 1 year mark.

EMPIRETECANDY · Jun 10, 2019

Maybe i will get some cheap original updated firmware for some big discounts

timb999 · Jun 11, 2019

I have owned 3 cheap Chinese cams from eBay...1 was decent, 1 died under warranty and again just after warranty expiration (£300 ptz model...ouch), another the little IR LEDs are all failing 3 years later.

I have owned 3 cheaper cameras from Amazon...a Sunba which lasted 11 months (luckily became faulty just within warranty), a Hitosino (Hikvision clone) died under warranty and an SVC which was so shockingly poor in infra red mode, when I complained that the fps dropped to 10fps maximum at night, they claimed ‘all IP cameras do this’!

I have owned Hikvision cameras since then and not had any problems.

I love a bargain, but have to agree that all things considered, i would only consider established brands now. Not even just from a financial pov...the hassle of installing and uninstalling and testing and complaining etc takes a lot of time, and time is money itself really

EMPIRETECANDY · Jun 11, 2019

if guys need cheap original english and updated version dahua cams, please refer to this link.
Big Discount

thendawg · Jun 18, 2019

Thanks Andy

Think Ill just be buying another Dahua off you. Seems that although these cheap cameras may have actual sony sensors, everything else is complete crap, at least thats what I've found from others and dont really want to spend my own time doing it as an experiment/review at this point.. Curious, is Dahua building any cameras with the IMX307? I understand its essentially a cost-down version of the 291? Thanks again for all your help to the community!

BigFoot · Jun 18, 2019

First of the cheap Chinese camera's has arrived. Comes with a host of programs & configuration applications

The only drawback being that the software comes on one of those stupid mini-CD disks - so useless in either of my desktops (recess in media tray but no detent) - had to use an old laptop & copy it to USB stick, but apart from that, no issues.

Useful device-manager application scans & finds new camera by it default IP address then either automatically (or manual input) reconfigures the camera's IP address to match that of your system / router with a 'Modify' button

Very easy to set up with lots of options available and a nice crisp image in infra-red vision B&W (night time here when I got around to connecting it)

Easily disabled the camera on-board time, date & name overlays (I'll use the BI internal overlays)

Camera format is dome in black, 5mp, .265, ONVIF and surprisingly sold as 'Blue Iris compatible' - will look at getting it up tomorrow, weather dependant, but all in all impressed for US $36 delivered

BigFoot · Jun 18, 2019

fenderman said:
assuming no firmware issues and that you dont have a problem cleaning spider webs nightly (if they are mounted out doors) then cams like this suffer POE or IR failure at the 6 month to 1 year mark.

I'll let you know how I get on, especially over the long term

Either way, it can't be any worse than the P-O-S Hikvision turret I bought months ago. Still can't get the piece of crap working

SouthernYankee · Jun 18, 2019

Bigfoot
Be careful of that CD software has bugs and has been hacked. My antivirus software went nuts when it scan the CD.

Your home network is at risk from the camera software.keep it isolated.

thendawg · Jun 18, 2019

Yeah I really wouldnt trust the sw these cameras come with or giving them access to internet. If you want to experiment with them like I was talking of, it would be best to put them in their own vlan with no internet access.

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Cheap eBay camera's

BigFoot

Pulling my weight

knedit

Young grasshopper

mat200

TonyR

mat200

c hris527

Known around here

thendawg

Getting the hang of it

fenderman

thendawg

Getting the hang of it

BigFoot

Pulling my weight

fenderman

fenderman

EMPIRETECANDY

IPCT Vendor

timb999

Getting the hang of it

EMPIRETECANDY

IPCT Vendor

thendawg

Getting the hang of it

BigFoot

Pulling my weight

BigFoot

Pulling my weight

SouthernYankee

thendawg

Getting the hang of it