So many options...

[Ainsophaur]

Greetings. New guy to the forums. Been researching cameras and gear for a long time now. I've been working in film and television post-production for over 10 years now, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the tech.

Now it's just down to picking from the vast array of gear choices.

Setting up eyes on my property. All outdoor with the option to expand to indoor at a later date.

NEEDS:

• 6 IP cameras
• Day/Night
• IR with minimum of 30 meter visibility
• "Future proof" meaning I'm looking to buy more than what I need in terms of resolution/quality,
• NVR that's easy to configure
• Ability to connect to and view/control remotely from computers or phone

Current Contenders:

• HikVision seems to be very popular. I like their product lineup and NVRs.
• Dahua also seems to be very popular in this forum as well.

Questions:

• Would you suggest buying all one brand name so that everything plays nicely together?
• Which brand do you prefer and why?

Finally, thank you everyone, in advance, for your help and courtesy. I look forward to many exciting conversations.

Uli

 

[zero-degrees]

Would you suggest buying all one brand name so that everything plays nicely together?

Let's get the easy stuff outta the way first.... YES, match brands. This will assure plug and play, auto detect, any several other settings should work no problem. This will also assure more settings may be controlled seemlessly - for example, some camera adjustments able to be made via NVR vs camera directly. If you mix/match brands you will be limited to the ONVIF stream only and not get any advanced functions (line crossing, motion detection, etc).

• HikVision seems to be very popular. I like their product lineup and NVRs.

• 
  
  Popular brand, lot's of positives and some negatives because of region locking and imported hacked cameras via aliexpress, amazon, ebay. My advice - if you are going to go with HIK look for a private lable reseller. LTS for example, HIK hardware that is private labeled and carries a great warranty, support, and replacement guarantee. Also this sites sponsor is Nelly's Security and they also carry private label HIK with same warranty and support. Just know if you buy HIK from AE, Ebay, Amazon, you are buying gray market cameras that most likely can not ever be updated - as long as you know what your doing this isn't a big deal, but if a true novice I would advice against it.
  
  

• Dahua also seems to be very popular in this forum as well. The 2mp Starlight has been gaining a LOT of traction recently on this forum with great reviews.

• 6 IP cameras

• Day/Night

• IR with minimum of 30 meter visibility
  

• Look for matrix IR cameras - try to stay away from traditional IR Halo/Ring cameras. Matrix IR gives a more even IR coverage.
  
  

• "Future proof" meaning I'm looking to buy more than what I need in terms of resolution/quality,

• Majority will offer more than you need today (4k, quad core, 12mp, several HD's, etc). As long as you don't get an entry level 4 channel you'll be fine. As a side note though, don't get hung up or think more MP means "better". Camera megapixels: Why more isn't always better (Smartphones Unlocked)
  
  

• NVR that's easy to configure -

• Most will be plug and play if staying with matched hardware.
  
  

• Ability to connect to and view/control remotely from computers or phone - Any HIK or Dahua NVR will offer you this

Finally here are a few links to see HIK hardware in action.
HIKVision & LTS 3 & 4mp Camera review/example
LTS 2MP Dome & Turret install
IP Cameras, Multiple Locations

 

[looney2ns]

AGGGHHHH, that red font burnt my retina.

Welcome OP.

 

[Ainsophaur]

Let's get the easy stuff outta the way first.... YES, match brands. This will assure plug and play, auto detect, any several other settings should work no problem. This will also assure more settings may be controlled seemlessly - for example, some camera adjustments able to be made via NVR vs camera directly. If you mix/match brands you will be limited to the ONVIF stream only and not get any advanced functions (line crossing, motion detection, etc).

• 
  
  Popular brand, lot's of positives and some negatives because of region locking and imported hacked cameras via aliexpress, amazon, ebay. My advice - if you are going to go with HIK look for a private lable reseller. LTS for example, HIK hardware that is private labeled and carries a great warranty, support, and replacement guarantee. Also this sites sponsor is Nelly's Security and they also carry private label HIK with same warranty and support. Just know if you buy HIK from AE, Ebay, Amazon, you are buying gray market cameras that most likely can not ever be updated - as long as you know what your doing this isn't a big deal, but if a true novice I would advice against it.
  

• Look for matrix IR cameras - try to stay away from traditional IR Halo/Ring cameras. Matrix IR gives a more even IR coverage.
  

• Majority will offer more than you need today (4k, quad core, 12mp, several HD's, etc). As long as you don't get an entry level 4 channel you'll be fine. As a side note though, don't get hung up or think more MP means "better". Camera megapixels: Why more isn't always better (Smartphones Unlocked)
  

• Most will be plug and play if staying with matched hardware.
  

Finally here are a few links to see HIK hardware in action.
HIKVision & LTS 3 & 4mp Camera review/example
LTS 2MP Dome & Turret install
IP Cameras, Multiple Locations

Thank you @zero-degrees . This is great advice.

The other thing that I've been looking at is the CMS and mobile app software. I don't have the time or inclination to spend weeks on end messing with servers and connections trying to get everything to work and play nicely together. So, plug-and-play connectivity is very important to me along with a MOBILE APP that allows me to easily view and control my cameras remotely.

It looks like Dahua has great software for both. Some people like to use Blue Iris with other cameras.

In your experience, is there one brand that is more user-friendly than others?

 

[zero-degrees]

I can only speak to HIK International NVR models and LTS's NVR's. Both have solid apps for the phone/tablet as well as remote access via DYN or the like.

For HIK the app is ivms-4500
for LTS the app is NVMS7000

I can't speak for Dahua NVR's or the app. I have used Dahua cameras and their black face PTZ, but I have always used those lcoally or via their ONVIF stream into an HIK NVR.

I find both HIK and LTS NVR's very easy to use. From what I've seen of the Dahua's they appear to be more "icon" driven and easy to navigate as well.

 

[hmjgriffon]

Greetings. New guy to the forums. Been researching cameras and gear for a long time now. I've been working in film and television post-production for over 10 years now, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the tech.

Now it's just down to picking from the vast array of gear choices.

Setting up eyes on my property. All outdoor with the option to expand to indoor at a later date.

NEEDS:

• 6 IP cameras
• Day/Night
• IR with minimum of 30 meter visibility
• "Future proof" meaning I'm looking to buy more than what I need in terms of resolution/quality,
• NVR that's easy to configure
• Ability to connect to and view/control remotely from computers or phone

Current Contenders:

• HikVision seems to be very popular. I like their product lineup and NVRs.
• Dahua also seems to be very popular in this forum as well.

Questions:

• Would you suggest buying all one brand name so that everything plays nicely together?
• Which brand do you prefer and why?

Finally, thank you everyone, in advance, for your help and courtesy. I look forward to many exciting conversations.

Uli

there is no future proof, 6 months ago, maybe a year, a manual varifocal camera would cost you $300, now motorized varifocal costs you $170 give or take lol. The current "standard" is 2mp 1080p, the current best of that is the dahua starlight turrets, in 6 months to a year, there may be a new bad ass on the block, hikvision I believe is releasing their own low light cams with the same sensor.