I'm new to the list; but have been reading it regularly for a few weeks now. I recently purchased
a wifi ip camera and returned it because the comms just weren't up to par. It kept dropping
connections and my security server complains that it sporadically would not provide images.
I have pretty decent wifi infrastructure (Cisco 2702 APs) so just decided to move to POE and
a better camera vendor. I am focusing on what appears (from what I see on this site)
to be the tier-one vendors, Hikvision and Dahua. I don't want to worry about image quality
and I think zoom will let me adjust the image field after I get it installed - so I'm looking at
a Dahua HFW4431R-Z.
So, here's my question...any thoughts would be appreciated. I know, roughly, what constitutes
a grey market product. But, in the case of ip cameras, just how big a deal is it really? I called
the Dahua US office looking for "official" retail outlets. Although they said there were a number of
them, they did not have a list. So, I checked the web and came up with a few vendors and
made some calls. One asked which model I was looking at. When I told them I was interested
in the HFW4431R-Z, they responded "that's a grey-market part number running the international
firmware package". They then translated that number into an "official US" part number and
quoted me a price of $300 (vs. Amazon $90). Ok, everyone needs to make a living and,
believe me, I know how much software support for a product can cost. But, I was envisioning
a grey-market camera as made-for-China market unit that had its firmware hacked
in someone's garage - not a camera with a well known part number (across all the ip
camera resellers I could find on the wed) and an "official" firmware load.
At least for these top two vendors, it appears to me that many of these cameras are
actual vendor products with, except for a minor modification, their firmware. Since
original market did not require English menus, something in the firmware was modified;
but it was not a major rewrite that puts camera functions at risk. But, with that
exception, its pretty much the same as the "official" product. As far as I can tell,
the actual risk comes from little or no access to firmware upgrades if a major software bug
is discovered - which might not be much of a risk if the unit has been sold and in use for
a year or so.
Am I missing something here?
Cheers,
Chuck
a wifi ip camera and returned it because the comms just weren't up to par. It kept dropping
connections and my security server complains that it sporadically would not provide images.
I have pretty decent wifi infrastructure (Cisco 2702 APs) so just decided to move to POE and
a better camera vendor. I am focusing on what appears (from what I see on this site)
to be the tier-one vendors, Hikvision and Dahua. I don't want to worry about image quality
and I think zoom will let me adjust the image field after I get it installed - so I'm looking at
a Dahua HFW4431R-Z.
So, here's my question...any thoughts would be appreciated. I know, roughly, what constitutes
a grey market product. But, in the case of ip cameras, just how big a deal is it really? I called
the Dahua US office looking for "official" retail outlets. Although they said there were a number of
them, they did not have a list. So, I checked the web and came up with a few vendors and
made some calls. One asked which model I was looking at. When I told them I was interested
in the HFW4431R-Z, they responded "that's a grey-market part number running the international
firmware package". They then translated that number into an "official US" part number and
quoted me a price of $300 (vs. Amazon $90). Ok, everyone needs to make a living and,
believe me, I know how much software support for a product can cost. But, I was envisioning
a grey-market camera as made-for-China market unit that had its firmware hacked
in someone's garage - not a camera with a well known part number (across all the ip
camera resellers I could find on the wed) and an "official" firmware load.
At least for these top two vendors, it appears to me that many of these cameras are
actual vendor products with, except for a minor modification, their firmware. Since
original market did not require English menus, something in the firmware was modified;
but it was not a major rewrite that puts camera functions at risk. But, with that
exception, its pretty much the same as the "official" product. As far as I can tell,
the actual risk comes from little or no access to firmware upgrades if a major software bug
is discovered - which might not be much of a risk if the unit has been sold and in use for
a year or so.
Am I missing something here?
Cheers,
Chuck
