Indoor camera advice

2

2018

n3wb
Feb 10, 2018
17
3
Hello,

I have poked around the forums a bit and it seems there are a lot of knowledgeable people here. Most of the recommendations seem to be for outdoor camera's though, I am looking for something indoor that is hopefully fairly compact. I want to setup my condo with indoor network camera's in several rooms to watch while I am away.

I am looking for something standards based so:
+ POE support
+ ONVIF
+ Wifi (Not needed for most of my camera's but for 1-2 spots it might be nice where running a network line would be hard to do)

Other nice to have features:
+ Night vision
+ Audio would be good, two way a nice novelty
+ Pan/tilt
+ Optical zoom

Things I don't want:
- Online storage As long as it can be turned OFF its okay
- Other network activities, those camera's will be on a segregated vlan with no internet access, so they better not need to talk to anything but my server.
- Any proprietary controls, my server will run Linux, the camera's should not need anything Windows/Mac based for operation.

I would like something small and unobtrusive, as this is a home I don't want to feel the camera staring at me.

I have seen some comments here about dome camera's getting light reflections and causing image issues so would prefer to avoid those. Also don't really care for the dome look.

I would prefer something under $100 as I will need to do multiple rooms but if it costs more to get a good quality camera that's fine.

I found this camera in my searching
https://www.amazon.com/Amcrest-Ethernet-Optional-Recording-IP2M-841EB/dp/B01H2JFE5W

I have heard people here mention Amcrest is simply a re-branding of Dahua. I have not found a comparable camera by Dahua to that one though. I almost bought it then I noticed the wifi version did not do POE and I found some video recordings and was not too impressed.

I see people recommend the Duhua IPC-HDW5231R-Z but as its an outdoor camera I am hoping there is something smaller for indoor use? Plus it came out in 2016 so perhaps there is something better now?

It would be much easier to mount on the wall, not sure if any camera's have a way to rotate the sensor 90 degree's to give proper orientation from a wall mount? Ceiling is an option if that is required.

Oh and it would be super helpful if I could get the camera in the next week as I am taking a trip. But I am okay with getting a cheap camera or two and making due if I need to order something overseas (I am in Texas).

Thanks for reading and any advice you can give!
 
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If you order directly from Annke, it's $50 with shipping. I bought one and got it in four days. It's in an open shed, out of the weather, and works really well, especially at that price point.
 
I have seen the cube, not sure I really like the look of it though, seems rather large to have hanging in the corner of my room. Also not sure its meant to be wall/ceiling mounted, seems more like something you would set on a shelf.

That IPC-HDW4231EM-AS seems interesting. Its hard to get a grasp of all the differences in the Dahua lineup, that looks a lot like the IPC-HDW5231R-Z I had seen earlier as well but a bit different.
 
That cube is just a little bigger than a pack of Cigarillos. Not really very big and can be mounted from just about anything. PTZ is nice, but unless you're constantly watching. not a whole lot of use in a residential environment. In reality digital zoom of 1.5 is plenty with the FOV and general room dimensions in a house.
 
How does mounting work? Do the camera's normally come with a bracket or such for mounting or do I need to purchase something like the DH-PFB203W for Dahua and perhaps something else for the cube?
 
Depends on the camera, here's the mount for the SD12200T-GN. I'd agree that a PTZ is a bit of a novelty and it can only look at one thing at a time.
mount_i.gif
 
Yeah, I am likely to end up without PTZ. I am going back and forth between the IPC-HDW4231EM-AS and IPC-HDW5231R-Z might pickup one of both to try. The cube is growing on me as well, could pickup a couple of those just to have around.

Thanks!
 
Thanks tangent! Nice to see options. I am most interested in the cube though cause its super cheap. Looks like I am gonna pickup both the IPC-HDW4231EM-AS and IPC-HDW5231R-Z from EMPIRETECANDY. Found him on a bunch of posts around here and he responded super quick to my inquiry. I plan to get a cube to try out alongside, should be fun. I will almost certainly need some more camera's going forward but this will give me a nice sample to see what I like.
 
Orders placed, now I just have to wait for everything to arrive.

Thanks for the help everyone!
 
weigle2 said:
I presume you know about Chinese New Year. If not, FYI - Don't expect anything to come for at least 2 1/2 to 3 weeks out. No one works in China from Feb. 12th thru the 25th.
Click to expand...

Yeah! Andy's offer was "If you can pay now we can ship out today, or else wait to 25th". He said I made the last shipment to the US :D
 
Dahua order arrived today.

I started playing with the 5231. The plugin thing webplugin.tar.bz2 gives me a 404. Not sure what that would actually contain but without it I can't view anything from the web interface. I was able to find an rtsp stream and that seems to be working nicely, even getting audio. (Thanks to this guys info: Dahua IPC-HFW4300S | Sergei's Stuff and Things ). The zoom works nice from the web interface and I can see the IR kick on nicely when I turn the light off. Now I just need to setup a vlan for it and mount it on the wall.

Model says IPC-HDW5231RP-Z instead of IPC-HDW5231R-Z, not sure if the "P" signifies anything important. If anyone happens to know would love to hear, but it seems to be the correct camera from what I have played with it so far.

The other one says IPC-HDW4231EMP-ASE vs IPC-HDW4231EM-AS. Its got that "P" again and also an ending "E". Not played with it at all yet.
 
P = PAL, analog European video format

Dahua has made a mess of their website lately and most browsers have been dropping plugin support. I suggest using pale moon x86 (must be 32 bit version)
 
Ah, so the plugin should be a FF like plugin? Do you happen to know where I can get a copy as the onboard camera webserver gives a 404?
 
2018 said:
Ah, so the plugin should be a FF like plugin? Do you happen to know where I can get a copy as the onboard camera webserver gives a 404?
Click to expand...
The Mac version is on Dahua's international website. Looks like the PC version isn't, so I'll post it here.
 

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Thanks tangent, I will give that a try on a windows VM at some point to see what it does.

In other news the Annke arrived today. Have not plugged it in yet but it looks like a neat little camera. So much more compact then I imagined from the pictures. I have to give them props on packaging as well, such well a designed box form fitted just right with handholds to pull everything apart. In any case hopefully I will get some time this weekend to play with it.
 
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Looks like I am going to return the Annke. Can't get it setup as it requires an internet connection and a cloud account. There is no way I am going to put my security camera directly on the internet. Its crazy they would make it so hard to give it an IP and configure it!
 
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