My head is spinning

[alarum_78]

Greetings. I have been reading over the forums for the last few days attempting to educate myself on the world of IP cameras. I am looking to start with a basic two camera setup for my home and expand from there(One front door, one on my garage looking down my 2 lane/4 car driveway). I have set out a budget of $600(CDN$) to get started, and I will be running all my cabling myself. I like the idea of running a camera with a Microsd card, but I also have a Cheap NAS box with 2x4TB drives I can use for storage. I dont think I want to run a PC NVR (Blue Iris) as I would want a dedicated PC to do this which will sit and use power all day which dont really like the idea of.

It seems the Huisun PTZ cameras are getting some of the best reviews for low light (for there price range) vs the Hikvision cameras. I like the flexibility the PTZ cams offer. It appears there is no option to record directly to NAS drive with the Huisun cameras??. As for light, I have the option to leave my "porch" light on which might make the low-light IR point moot.

I have impression the Huisun cameras are lacking a bit in the firmware department, but I also dont like the idea of me stuck with a HIKVISION firmware from China that I can't flash. (I am sourcing from EBAY/Aliexpress as the moment.

Sorry if I am babbling..
Cheers

 

[Q™]

How much is CND$600 in real money?




Sorry...I simply could not resist!

 

[klasipca]

Unfortunately, you can't have it all when the budget is tight... My experience so far for ~$150 cams:

Hikvision 2142 4MP dome - very stable firmware with tons of features, Daylight IQ is ok but not great, night time is even worse, especially for large coverage, needs lots of light to make it usable. These do fine in small area coverage, but mounting in front of garage or in the backyard not so great.

Huisun Mini PTZ 2MP - Hikvision-like firmware, but limited and buggy, great night vision with powerful IR spotlight, PTZ function is great. Great for spot monitoring, but resolution and quality is not that great for distant detail. I have it mounted in 3 spots to monitor entrances and backyard, they work well for this purpose.

Longse S500 turret 5MP - Recent camera I am testing. Firmware lacking, beautiful IQ day and night than any other cams in this price range. Ideal camera if you want overall view camera for distant objects. Not so great at night due to some minor motion blur at default settings. (hoping to find a sweet spot)

 

[lgRich]

$429.63 only...

Me to I am very sorry:sick:

 

[Q™]

$429.63 only...

Me to I am very sorry:sick:

Do you shop at Costco up there in the Great White North?

 

[alarum_78]

So I decided to order my first camera that will be used for the front door :

HIKVISION DS-2CD2345-I 4MP in 2.8mm. Should be $96US/$135CDN shipped. My intent is to have this record directly to my D-LINK Dns-323 NAS.. Wish me luck

 

[alastairstevenson]

Just a heads-up that you may need to do some study on the NAS share sizes that you offer the camera, depending on the way the specific version of camera firmware operates.
Good luck!
It will be interesting to hear how you get on.

 

[Interpon]

Good luck...here is my 4mp dome hik..2.8 lens bought us ..great cam imo..and great Christmas presents for family yesterday.
Here is night and day shot..got it from nelleys
these are screen shots from ipad 4500 app hik..

 

[obqo]

that looks great - what camera is that?

 

[Interpon]

This one
http://www.nellyssecurity.com/cameras/hi-def-cameras/ip-cameras/4-mp/2142fwd-i-4mp-wdr-fixed-dome-ip-security-camera-2-8mm.html

 

[f13dfx]

This one
http://www.nellyssecurity.com/cameras/hi-def-cameras/ip-cameras/4-mp/2142fwd-i-4mp-wdr-fixed-dome-ip-security-camera-2-8mm.html

Could you kindly post a daytime pic using 1920x1080 resolution. Your pic leads me to believe that you have it set at 2048x1536. Just wanted to see how much wider an area the former rez would achieve.

Thanks in advance!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Interpon]

Its just a screen capture from ipad hik app...even so the settings are 1080..

 

[f13dfx]

Oh! Ok then.....thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[klasipca]

Could you kindly post a daytime pic using 1920x1080 resolution. Your pic leads me to believe that you have it set at 2048x1536. Just wanted to see how much wider an area the former rez would achieve.

Thanks in advance!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have the same exact camera 2142 which I am getting rid of. (Do you want to buy it?) Do not believe you'll be getting a good night time quality without some additional IR source or plenty of street lights. The example above is not even in a complete darkness.

 

[Interpon]

When home i will try darker...yes i will take your camera..how much?

 

[Interpon]

Night shot as promised..note the backyard cam with one floodlight seems to not go to ir all the time, seems the low light day is pretty good on this cam..the front is no garage lights only yard light.
im happy..

 

[klasipca]

Night shot as promised..note the backyard cam with one floodlight seems to not go to ir all the time, seems the low light day is pretty good on this cam..the front is no garage lights only yard light.
im happy..

Pretty good... you say?

I would say this is pretty good

 

[Interpon]

Low light comment was it does not use ir with one floodlight..stays in color..yes yours looks nice too.

 

[vinny2010b]

Hello

I would like to use my DNS-323 to record my Hikvision cameras like alarum_78 did. I was wondering if alarum_78 got it to work and if so can you please share how? I would appreciate any assistance. I can get the Camera to see the NAS but the cameras want to format the NAS drives . But when I click format I get device Error. DNS-323 SET TO RAID 0 - 2 640GB Hard Drives

 

[alastairstevenson]

I would like to use my DNS-323 to record my Hikvision cameras

Depending on the model and firmware version of the cameras, there is a maximum volume size above which the 'format' operation (it's actually pre-preparing a framework of folders and files and indexes) will fail.
For R0 cameras (DS-2CD20x2) on firmware 5.2.5 that maximum volume size is just over 200GB.
This I believe is much higher in newer firmware, but I don't have any examples.

If your NAS has the ability to create share volumes of arbitrary size, or you can apply user-based quotas via CIFS/SMB you can experiment with what maximum size your specific cameras will support.
Also - the cameras require separate folder structures, and object to 'foreign' files in the initiallised area.