Where to buy??

[LV-426]

Good afternoon everyone,

I'm a newbie and I was wondering if someone could tell me where I can purchase genuine 2032 Hikvision cams? I've read some stories about cams that have been delivered in plain brown boxes. Others without the Hikvision wording on the cams themselves. I don't want to get stiffed.

I know about Nelly's but I've also been looking at Wrightwood because they claim to sell the 2032 in 4mm and 6mm flavors. Has anyone purchased from them? Was it the real deal? Were you satisfied?

Thanks.

 

[fenderman]

Good afternoon everyone,

I'm a newbie and I was wondering if someone could tell me where I can purchase genuine 2032 Hikvision cams? I've read some stories about cams that have been delivered in plain brown boxes. Others without the Hikvision wording on the cams themselves. I don't want to get stiffed.

I know about Nelly's but I've also been looking at Wrightwood because they claim to sell the 2032 in 4mm and 6mm flavors. Has anyone purchased from them? Was it the real deal? Were you satisfied?

Thanks.

Welcome to the forum. Wrightwood is legitimate and they will provide good customer service ..Note however that their I believe most of their hikvision cameras are china cams (like most everyone else) the do provide their own warranty....You can contact them directly to confirm.

 

[LV-426]

Thanks for the welcome and quick reply. Will I have any problem applying the English firmware updates to the China cams?

 

[fenderman]

Thanks for the welcome and quick reply. Will I have any problem applying the English firmware updates to the China cams?

You may...I am not certain...I would check with them...maybe @networkcameracritic can shed some light...
I know there are lots of folks who like to update firmware every chance they get, but honestly ...aside from flashing a few swann 820's to hikvision firmware I have left my firmware stock...most are 5.1.0...The only time i would update it is if you are exposing the camera to the internet directly via port forwarding...but if you are using VMS software or an NVR and the cameras are only local..i would not update unless there is a specific feature you are looking for that has been added.

 

[LV-426]

Okay. Thank you for the advice.

 

[networkcameracritic]

The cameras Wrightwood Surveillance sells are English region cameras, meaning the menus are in English out of the box and if you apply firmware updates they will remain English. There are some cameras made for the China market only and in those cases it would say on their site, but all the common ones like the 2032 are English. As for Hikvision USA, they will not warranty any end user as they don't allow their cameras to resold in the U.S., weird I know, so anyone selling online, even cameras purchased directly from Hikvision USA are supported, warrantied by the reseller. It's just the way of the Chinese, they don't want to deal with American's I guess, don't know. If you buy just about any other camera not made in mainland China, you will get manufacturer support.

 

[LV-426]

The cameras Wrightwood Surveillance sells are English region cameras, meaning the menus are in English out of the box and if you apply firmware updates they will remain English. There are some cameras made for the China market only and in those cases it would say on their site, but all the common ones like the 2032 are English. As for Hikvision USA, they will not warranty any end user as they don't allow their cameras to resold in the U.S., weird I know, so anyone selling online, even cameras purchased directly from Hikvision USA are supported, warrantied by the reseller. It's just the way of the Chinese, they don't want to deal with American's I guess, don't know. If you buy just about any other camera not made in mainland China, you will get manufacturer support.

Thanks for the feed back. I really appreciate it.

 

[LV-426]

One more question. While reading some of the threads on this forum, I heard mention of a place called Aliexpress. I checked out the site and could not believe the low prices for the 2032 cams. Of course you know the old saying "If it's to good to be true....." It seems to be a site that has many different sellers. I'm loving the sub $100 prices but can you trust them and the product? Has anyone used them? Which seller on that site do you go with? Again, are these English versions and will they accept the English firmware versions?

Thanks.

 

[fenderman]

One more question. While reading some of the threads on this forum, I heard mention of a place called Aliexpress. I checked out the site and could not believe the low prices for the 2032 cams. Of course you know the old saying "If it's to good to be true....." It seems to be a site that has many different sellers. I'm loving the sub $100 prices but can you trust them and the product? Has anyone used them? Which seller on that site do you go with? Again, are these English versions and will they accept the English firmware versions?

Thanks.

The prices are legit. You will NOT be getting english region camreas, and they will revert to chinese after an upgrade...there are several ways to work around this including a permanent fix to US region by member @CBX (contact him for info)...there are also threads on changing it back to english until the next update...
You will not get ANY warranty or support...shipping back to china is cost prohibitive...you need to make the calculations for your self..if you are buying enough cameras you can self insure yourself...there are several well known sellers...cctv china, huaben, if you search the threads you will find links to their stores.

 

[LV-426]

Wow. Thanks Fenderman. I knew it was too good to be that easy. I will try to contact CBX and find out what's involved in coveting to English and decide if I should just stick to Nelly and Wrightwood. Have you ever purchased from the Aliexpress site? If so, in your opinion do you think it's a safe bet?

Thanks for taking the time to enlighten this newbie.

 

[fenderman]

Wow. Thanks Fenderman. I knew it was too good to be that easy. I will try to contact CBX and find out what's involved in coveting to English and decide if I should just stick to Nelly and Wrightwood. Have you ever purchased from the Aliexpress site? If so, in your opinion do you think it's a safe bet?

Thanks for taking the time to enlighten this newbie.

Aside from the issues mentioned its very safe...I buy there all the time...its just a matter of what you want to put up with vs savings..

 

[Git]

I think if you buy from CCTVONE on Amazon for $122 you would be safe. Check out this thread and if the camera you received wasn't Hikvision USA like they advertised - it would be very easy to return

http://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php?2292-Hikvision-Bullets-on-Amazon/page2

 

[LV-426]

Thank you Fenderman and Git for your help. I appreciate your time.

 

[LV-426]

Aside from the issues mentioned its very safe...I buy there all the time...its just a matter of what you want to put up with vs savings..

I think I'll give Aliexpress a shot. I'll start with one. If everything workout I'll buy more. If I'm using a Hikvision 7608 NVR (the one with 8 POE ports), how much will a non English cam affect me if everything is done through the NVR?

 

[fenderman]

Buy from a seller with good feedback...you still need the english because there are some settings that you can only change via the camera - unless your NVR firmware supports hikvisions virtual host option

 

[LV-426]

Personally I like Wrightwood, but their warranty tends to be shorter (I think only 1 year) than other resellers such as Nelly's (3 years) or brown box resellers that sells under their own name (those are usually 3 years as well, provided by the reseller).

Thanks Milkisbad. Have you ever tried Aliexpress? Know anyone who had a bad experience or cam?

 

[td99]

I bought mine from AliExpress. It was my first purchase there. Went with seller "CCTV Camera China" because of crazy low price, 1300+ sales and 3600+ reviews they have.

Ordered it on Jan 10, and received it Jan 22 (I'm in Southern California). Was very well-packed and was configured with firmware 5.2.3 and English right out of the box.

I'm using a TRENDnet Powerline 500 AV Nano Adapter Kit with Built-In Outlet (TPL-407E2K) which I own to get Ethernet out to the garage where the IP camera is located. The Powerline is averaging 107Mbps which is more than sufficient for the HIKVISION's 16Mbps max output.

I also bought a TP-LINK TL-PoE150S Gigabit PoE Injector Adapter to give the cam power. I already have a Synology DS211+ NAS running Surveillance Station 7.0 Beta.

Last night was my first night tinkering with it. Only had a few hours to work with, but all I had to do was install the included software, locate the cam, login and change the IP address to coincide with my existing network (192.168.10.XXX). The rest was smooth sailing from there. Probably because I am a pro network engineer by trade.

I am blown away by not only the picture quality, but how responsive the camera's UI is. It must have a halfway decent processor in it. Much better than the six D-Link DCS-930L cameras I'm used to working with.

I may end up not using Surveillance Station after all (because it seems CPU intensive on the NAS, and a network bandwidth hog) and just use the functions within the HIKVISION itself. Good thing I just updated my router last month to an Asus RT-AC68U Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router to handle all the traffic for my 18 network devices.

This morning I was wondering if there was an Android app to view the camera. Sure enough, I found a free HIKVISION app on the Google Play Store called "iVMS-4500 HD" that does just that.

I plan on buying 3 more cams from the same seller and a Rosewill RFS-108P POE Switch to power them all.

Here are some screenshots.

1 - Garage lights on.
2 - Garage lights off, night more off.
3 - Garage lights off, night mode on.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Personally I like Wrightwood, but their warranty tends to be shorter (I think only 1 year) than other resellers such as Nelly's (3 years) or brown box resellers that sells under their own name (those are usually 3 years as well, provided by the reseller).

Warranty is relative and I find going with unbranded versions like Q-See, LTS, Nellys HK, Lorex, Swann, Trendnet distances you away from the manufacturer. Wrightwood was offered the same deal as LTS, to sell OEM versions of Hikvision cameras but I talked them out of it because of my really bad experience with Q-See, a 3 year warranty they could not honor after less than 2 years because they felt it was not important to keep up with firmware updates making my cameras useless when Windows 8 came out and they flat out would not display. I could get the manufacturers version of the camera to work with new firmware, but that firmware would not load on OEM cameras. If you chose to go OEM, at least get it at a place that will take it back for 2 years like Costco.

Also, as much as Hikvision is the hot topic here, did you know for the same money you can get a 5MP Bosch outdoor mini dome, with a Bosch warranty.

 

[vidmo]

Do you really back your cars into the garage?

 

[fenderman]

Warranty is relative and I find going with unbranded versions like Q-See, LTS, Nellys HK, Lorex, Swann, Trendnet distances you away from the manufacturer. Wrightwood was offered the same deal as LTS, to sell OEM versions of Hikvision cameras but I talked them out of it because of my really bad experience with Q-See, a 3 year warranty they could not honor after less than 2 years because they felt it was not important to keep up with firmware updates making my cameras useless when Windows 8 came out and they flat out would not display. I could get the manufacturers version of the camera to work with new firmware, but that firmware would not load on OEM cameras. If you chose to go OEM, at least get it at a place that will take it back for 2 years like Costco.

Also, as much as Hikvision is the hot topic here, did you know for the same money you can get a 5MP Bosch outdoor mini dome, with a Bosch warranty.

What bosch mini dome are you talking about?
As far as firmware on qsee....it may have been specific to those cams...I was easily able to load hikvision firmware onto costco swanns....I believe you can load hikvision firmware onto LTS cams but i never tried...