The Amcrest cameras look nice. There is a Dahua 25x that's been well reviewed here for around the same price.
Early on, my thought was to go with a turret PTZ and use it for more than just this feeder. At the height I would want to mount the camera, I don't feel I can get an adequate angle to view the feeder properly. So then progressed to a camera at the same height as the feeder and a different mounting location. Still plan on the PTZ. Just not for this feeder. I can mount a camera (somewhat concealed) about sixteen feet away from the feeder, but want to zoom in enough to have pretty much just the feeder in the video.
I have a DH-IPC-HFW2831T-ZAS mounted in this location now. It's a 3.7-11 varifocal and can zoom to maybe 12 feet wide at the feeder. I'd like to reduce this to maybe 2 to 3 feet. I've been using digital zoom and it's surprisingly good at times but I'm optimistic that with more optical zoom and a more narrow field of view, I'll get better results.
The IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E looks like it can get right what I need. I'm wondering if 4MP or above would produce noticeable results in this situation. Don't really know if I'll see increased video quality within the constraints of my laptop, phone or tablet device screens.
