Amcrest ProHD Outdoor 3-Megapixel Wi-Fi Vandal Dome IP Security Camera - IP3M-956W

Amcrest ProHD Fixed Outdoor 3-Megapixel (2304 x 1296P) Wi-Fi Vandal Dome IP Security Camera - IP67 Weatherproof, IK10 Vandal-Proof, 3MP (1080P/1296P), IP3M-956W (White)

At $99 dollars it is $20 cheaper than its bullet counterpart. Electronically they are about the same so you can pretty much just look at my Review: Amcrest IP3M-943W for details.

Under the come it looks like this

Under the LED array the camera looks like this

 

If you look close you can see the lens is glued in so there is not swapping of lenses possible.

Here is a sample shot from the bird feeder to compare view angles.

And a matching shot from a QD900 1080p cam

Review: Hikvision DS-2CD2035-I

Those QD900s are getting hard to come by. Often $60 or more now IF you can get them. Plus I've learned of a security flaw in them recently and they do not offer firmware fixes. On a suggestion in an IT forum I looked at the Hikvision cams. The Hikvision DS-2CD2035-I  is a damn nice 2K 70 deg view cam I got for $80 but you do not get WiFi in this model and it is not upgradable. There is sticker on the box warning you not to try in fact which is bit of a red flag for people that are aware of IoT security issues that have been making regular news of late. Fortunately look for the US or upgradable version in the descriptions on Amazon.com for one you can get firmware update to. They seem to be running about $20 more for the same features though. If not worried about your network security, it still compared well with a Escam Qd900 that is running only about $20 less. For that $20 you get a lot more detail and probably are still more secure but you do loose wi-fi. You also get config and monitoring features you do not normally find in low cost cameras like SNMP v3.

I also like the mount better on the Hikvision. Another nice thing about the Hikvision cams is most of them are available with 2.8, 4 or 6 mm lenses so you can probably get one that matches the viewing angle you need without needing to swap out the lens.

All the pics here were grabbed from the video recorded on Blue Iris using this config

In a posted pic you will not see a lot of diff in a day time shot between the 2K Hikvision w/ 4 mm lens

and the 1080p QD900

If you zoom in though you see a huge difference between the Hikvision

and the QD900

Night vision is not bad. Note the plane in the upper right corner.

though the you are not going to get much detail at 50 feet without extra illumination on a moonless night.

Here is a quick IR sensitivity compare contrast left to right the Hikvision, the $40 (referb) Foscam FI9804 and  the $40 SV3C I had next to each other for evaluation. Note the Foscam is picking up some IR bounce back from the fence in front and below it even though the fence is not in the picture.

Inside it looks like this

It is hard to make out but this lens is glued in place making it impossible to swap out.

Started a Spec Compare sheet

I'll keep adding stuff as I test cameras and find new info but it already has pretty complete on the cams listing the "IP Cams I've tried" section. I've added the link (Camera spec compare) in the links section in the header.

Review: SV3C 960P Wifi Outdoor Camera

SV3C 960P HD Wifi Wireless Outdoor Home Surveillance IP Security Camera,Bullet Camera,20M Night Vision,Support Remote View by Phone,Pad,Windows PC, Support Max 64G TF Card for Record

With 2 Foscams stolen and a third dying as I tried to put into service I started looking around for another cheap cam for locations outside the fence. What I found was the SV3C 960P Wifi Outdoor Camera, for just $40. Though as I'm writing this I see it is $43 today.

Between the 1280 x 960 resolution and the price you are not going to expect much. I'd say the daytime view is about as good as the 720p Escams and Foscams. Though one oddity was the picture seems distorted almost like they took something a bit taller than 1280x720 and stretched it to be 1280x960. For instance here is my video target.

You can see it seems just a bit taller than it is wide. Enough I noticed it though again probably not enough to matter but it is just odd.

Since I still have a dog food box of parts still sitting on my coffee table here is the compare shot between the HikVision DS-2CD2035-I (left) and the QD900 (right) in evening light

to compare to the SV3C

You might notice the distorted aspect ratio again along with the lack of detail.

Next I stuck it next to a HikVision DS-2CD2035-I with 4mm Lens that comes in at $80 ($81 at the moment).

Here are evening shots of the (collapsed) pool area and deer feeder.
The Hikvision looks like this

and the SV3C like this


Looks zoomed in a bit but not bad till you zoom in. Zoomed in on the feeder the Hikvision looks like

While the SV3C looks like


Things get worse at night. Note both cams are on here so the illumination from both are in use. The Hikvision

vs the SV3C


So the IR distance / sensitivity is not great.

On the plus side it does work with Blue Iris though it is not obvious how to get it working. You want a config similar to this

Some gotchas:

If you do get one of these you might be thrown by the interface coming up in Chinese. Look for this screen to change it.


Unfortunately it does not seem to save this and you need to select English here or the login screen each time.

The password field does not seem to support symbols so if you type a password like Ab3d! it stores it as Ab3d.

Can not turn off UPnP and it says succeeded though UPnP is disabled at my site and I have the cam blocked form accessing the internet.

Lastly it comes with the IP set to a static 192.168.1.136 which might cause problems getting it setup.

Review: Univivi U06R WideAngle Long Range 130 Feet 6pcs LED Array Lights IR Illuminator

Update 1/22/2017: below is my original posting on Facebook. Since then I've had 2 of the four appear to have gone out. It looks like the power supplies I had them on just could not give them enough power. The specs say a 2 amp supply but the 5 amp supplies I bought seems iffy to power a cam and the light though the 2 together ought to only draw about 3.5 amps max.

I bought a Univivi U06R WideAngle Long Range 130 Feet 6pcs LED Array Lights IR
for eval. Here is the Amcrest 2k deck cam
with some other cams in the distance helping light the yard.

Now with one of the old analog LBC6050  cams on the deck as an IR illuminator.

Now I replace that with the Univivi U06R. Not as wide angle as I'd like here but awesome for longer shots.

Here I have same analog cam stuck in the rocks.

I pointed the Univivi U06R still from the deck toward the driveway and the analog back toward the lower deck. It might more sense to line it up with the camera. I'll have do more tests but I like the way it lights up the south west gate.

Now this is what the Univivi U06R is made for. This is an Escam QD900 looking through the fence so there is a bit of glare back.

Now the same shot with a Univivi U06R setting below it. The old pool pump is about 40 feet away. The deer feeder and water trough about 70.

Update: Jan 6th 2019

Thought it might be time for an update with some more examples

These cameras are about 110 feet from the creek. 

I had a Univivi U06R about 25 feet down the path as added light You can see how it makes the trees glow but the water is almost lost in the black about 110 feet from the cams. If you look close you can see far bank sometime as in this shot from the Amcrest IP4M-1026.

In this shot from the max zoomed (22mm) Microseven, next to the Amcrest, is worse because of the glow from the trees from the all the IR.

Adding second Univivi U06R (see daylight pic above) aimed at the far bank improves things a lot.

For the Amcrest IP4M-1026

And the Microseven as well.

Even up the path you can see the diff in this Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I (12MM)  mounted 72 feet behind the above cams. With one Univivi U06R

And with the second installed.

Decided to adjust the second illuminator to shine more on the water and it made a big improvement.

It might seem all that diff in the stills so I posted a video to show how you can easily make out the waves in the water now.

Review: Amcrest IP3M-943W

Amcrest ProHD Outdoor 3-Megapixel (2304 x 1296P) WiFi Wireless IP Security Bullet Camera - IP67 Weatherproof, 3MP (1080P/1296P), IP3M-943W 

I mounted the 2K Amcrest IP3M-943W cam mounted next to the Escam QD900 driveway cam.
The Escam with the stock lens (titled down to avoid the sun) looks like this.

The Amcrest looks like

The main advantage is you get a wider angle at the same base resolution as the Escam. This is a lot easier to see in these bird feeder shots.

This shot is with the standard lens Escam QD900 (1080p)

Notice the bird feeder itself uses about the same number of pixels in this larger picture but the field of view is much wider. Which might one use for these cams, a wide angle view that is still some what useful. However you will also notice if you zoom in on the 2K cam picture so that the bird feeder is the same size in both (basically cropping to a 1080p image), the bird feeder will be clearer in QD900 picture. So do not expect to be able to zoom in much for details.

Here is the view from the Amcrest 2K cam in night mode.

And the one form the QD900 for comparison.

So a good wide angle cam and decent night vision but for the $130 price tag you might be better off with 2 QD900s side by side.

Review: QD900 with a 16 mm lens

Swapping the stock lens in a Escam QD900 with a 16 mm lens can add an almost 4 X optical zoom to your camera. A view from a stock Escam QD900 looks like this

You can zoom in about 4x before things start to get too blurry

with 16 mm lens the unzoomed view becomes

Again you can zoom in about 4x before things start to get too blurry but now that means you can read a license plate up to about 200 feet away.

If you have a bit of dexterity you can probably swap out the lenses easily. I did it and my fingers are on the stiff side. It does mean disassembling the camera though and focusing the lens while the camera is still apart and turned on so you will have to decide if you are comfortable with that. I suggest sliding business cards between the case and the boards to minimize the risk of shorting out the boards on the case. Also be careful to not disconnect any of the wires while you are in there.