Recommend a portable indoor-rated general use wifi camera with IR and ONVIF?

[horseflesh]

I'm finding many occasions where I would like to place a camera temporarily, so I'd like to find a generic wifi camera that I can use with my existing LTS (Hikvision OEM) NVR.

• 1080p wide-angle would be fine, it doesn't need tons of megapixels.
• It should have good IR illumination built in.
• It should support ONVIF or otherwise work with a Hikvision style NVR.
• It should have some kind of stand that makes it easy move around and aim at whatever I need to monitor.
• It does not need to support any kind of smart motion sensing.
• It does not need PTZ though if it has it, great.

I don't have a specific budget, just looking for something that is a good value and will interoperate well with my NVR. I thought I might as well ask here before I bought the first $50 ONVIF junker I saw on Amazon.

Edit to add notes on candidates:

• Reolink 3MP PTZ with IR. $36 at Amazon. Seems to support ONVIF and the manufacturer even has help files for integrating with Blue Iris, Tiny Cam.
• Amcrest 2MP PTZ with IR and autotrack. $44 at Amazon. Mentions Sony sensor and low-light quality. This is the winner, good camera.
• Amcrest 2MP with IR and autotrack. $43 at Amazon. Does not make special mention of low light quality but has "AI" features.

 

[wittaj]

This one is well liked by members here. It is a great camera for the money. Autotrack as well. Not bad for $45

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0145OQXCK/ref=twister_B07GXDLJP9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[horseflesh]

Thanks @wittaj! Looks like that one doesn't actually have auto track but this is the kind of suggestion I am looking for!

This one does list autotrack for about the same price. The manual does mention RTSP so there's probably a way to hook it up to my NVR. However, the one you linked made a bigger deal of the Sony sensor so I wonder if there is a sensor difference between the two. As they are the same price it seems like you must lose something for auto track.

 

[wittaj]

The one I linked has autotrack. Look at the 4th picture to the left and it shows autotrack, it just isn't in the written description.

Plus I just bought one last week and know that it does autotrack!

 

[horseflesh]

Awesome, thanks for clarifying!

Edit to add @wittaj since you have that Amcrest... Can you tell me what the approximate minimum focus distance is?

 

[wittaj]

When I was testing it and it was on the floor LOL, it could read the box clearly a couple feet away.

 

[horseflesh]

Thanks. I can use a very close minimum for some things I want to do but I realize I may not be able to get one cheap camera that does it all. I'm ordering this one for the new kitten room though, thanks again for the pointer.

 

[horseflesh]

Got this camera yesterday and I'm very happy with it, thanks again for the recommendation. Seems to have perfectly civil ONVIF compatibility so it was no trouble to hook up to my LTS NVR. I haven't tried RTSP yet but I am sure it will be no trouble.

The various Amcrest apps and the software in the camera, including the native web view, is thoroughly decent. In fact, compared to my Hikvision heritage, it was all surprisingly good. I know Dahua OEMs this stuff and so this was my first Dahua experience... I liked what I saw.

(What surprised me was my NVR seemed to allow me to configure smart motion detection events... line crossing and area intrusion. I had thought the smarts for that stuff was in the camera and so did not expect it to be available with a non-LTS/Hik camera.)

Unfortunately I do need to replace this camera, there's a black spot in the image, like dust on the sensor. But it's a winner.

 

[looney2ns]

The one I linked has autotrack. Look at the 4th picture to the left and it shows autotrack, it just isn't in the written description.

Plus I just bought one last week and know that it does autotrack!

How well does the autotrack work?

 

[wittaj]

Obviously not as good as the expensive PTZs, but surprisingly very well for a $45 camera.

In playing around with it, it is having trouble tracking me if I have it 6.5 feet high (it points to the lower body as I get closer to it), but if I put it 4 feet or 10 feet, it does really well. It might also be some setting I have to adjust as well.

 

[horseflesh]

I have only tried autotrack with kittens and it didn't work at all. But I think it's looking for human shapes, not just any movement.