Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi 2MP (1920TVL) Indoor Pan/Tilt Security Wireless IP Camera IP2M-841B (Black)
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Specification: Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi 2MP (1920TVL) Indoor Pan/Tilt Security Wireless IP Camera IP2M-841B (Black)
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Photos: Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi 2MP (1920TVL) Indoor Pan/Tilt Security Wireless IP Camera IP2M-841B (Black)
10 reviews for Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi 2MP (1920TVL) Indoor Pan/Tilt Security Wireless IP Camera IP2M-841B (Black)
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$49.94
Brian King –
I’ve had about a week to try this camera out, and so far this camera has been a huge step up from the last cameras I bought 3 years ago. The video quality can not be understated on these; it’s simply wonderful day or night. It also handles motion much better than other cameras I’ve had, where this can capture a person walking around and if I pause the video there is a clear still of the person. Other cameras may have a nice picture, but without this capability its usefulness as a security camera is severely limited.As for configuring the video quality, I was pleased to see that the web portal allows for a lot of customizability in the camera’s video settings. You can set day/night profiles and have them set on a schedule, manually set exposure and the cutoff sensitivity for switching between infrared and normal. I had issues previously where my camera would switch over to infrared mode when there was plenty of light in the room, and this camera handles it far better.Beyond the regular video adjustments for saturation/sharpness etc., there is also three specific settings for handling the lighting in the room that helps a lot for areas with uneven lighting. These are BLC (backlight compensation), HLC (highlight compensation), and WDR (wide dynamic range).One of my cameras has a view of pendant lights in the kitchen which blows out certain portions when they’re on, so HLC does a great job of limiting that effect by reducing the max brightness in the area. BLC helps in situations where you have windows bringing in a ton of light and causing the front of objects facing the camera to appear dark; it helps compensate the exposure for those things facing it versus the items further back. WDR (digital for this camera) is similar to BLC but does it a pixel level to adjust exposure instead of regions.In my experience the WDR on this camera washes out the image on this device a bit too much for me, but tweaking the image settings may get a good image. I just didn’t find it necessary since this camera does a great job of capturing normal lighting well.The recording options are pretty capable, allowing for direct SD card access at I believe a maximum of 32gb for now, email, FTP writing and NAS (NFS) shares. The only one that gave me pause was NAS, as it does not necessarily log any data on why it failed to connect if you give it the wrong folder path, or even tell you that it only does NFS (this device does not accept SMB shares like some other IP cameras do).I had to get an NFS client to see what my root path to my shares were before it would connect successfully after that. Beyond that everything works wonderfully, except that I’ve run into an issue where if my IP cameras lose access multiple times they might not reconnect to the NAS until I reboot it. This is something that hopefully gets resolved in a future firmware.Recording schedules are just great; you can just draw which time on any day of the week to record or not record, and whether to do motion record or fulltime record. There’s even holiday options for times where you’re on vacation or doing something else. I have no idea how to get more customizability out of this area, so I think that’s a great addition.As for connectivity, I feel like its’s decent enough but stands for some key improvements. The web access works fine, but you are lmited to IE/Firefox due to their viewer needing to use NPAPI which is unsupported in chrome and edge (soon firefox). For some reason, this view doesn’t let you review playback on anything but the SD card for now.The desktop app is fine too, and you can view playback here. I really, really wish they saved their files to a standard format; all video files are .dav and can’t be viewed in anything but the app or the amcrest viewer. You’ll need to export them to make them sharable.In all, the mobile app is likely the least favorable part of this package. P2P is wonderful for easing the amount of work needed to get a secure connection to your cameras setup for remote viewing, and worked fine for me in use. If you want to use an NVR or standard IP camera setup with ddns or direct Ip access that’s available as well. Sometimes the app would falter on initial setup and fail to start live view after adding the p2p config, but returning to the main screen and adding the camera would still work.The playback feature is nice, and gives me a timeline of all the motion events I recorded to my NAS. The only niggling issue on this part is that navigating across events seems to jump around a bit, and there’s no way to zoom the timeline in/out; you have to scroll across an hour or so at a time through the timeline.The only other concern I have with the app is the battery usage and the ability to view In HD mode. The app is just eating my battery more than any other app, despite it only being active for maybe 15 minutes a day when i’m using it. The app also isn’t quite optimized in Android for performance, with some choppiness in navigating on a relatively recent phone (nexus 5). SD mode works great and pan/tilt is almost immediate, but HD mode will send any phone to a stuttering mess. It appears that the app has no ability to handle hardware decode of the h.264 video stream, as I tested direct access to the same stream on tinyCam Monitor and it worked without issue at full 1080p/30. I would suggest anyone not using P2P to use tinycam instead, as it’s a better experience even though you lose the playback functionality.Considering the alternatives out there I still believe this is one of the best options available today, but some refinement of their software would really push this device into something that puts other devices in a lower rung permanently.I paid full price for these suckers, and it’s totally worth it.
AHa –
This is one of the best video cameras for the money. I was up and running in just a few minutes. The camera has a whole host of awesome features that make it work really well for parents like me to keep an eye on my family at home. With that said, here are my thoughts on this camera.PROS>> Beautiful FHD 1080p video @ 30fps with latest Ambarella S2LM chipset and Sony IMX322 sensor>> Amazing video quality in both the day light hours and in poor light conditions as well.>> IR Night vision up to 32 ft.>> Remarkable field of view with super-wide 90° viewing angle, remote pan/tilt & intelligent digital zoom. .>> Very easy setup – took less than 2 min. using Wi-Fi setup on my iPhone. No port forwarding on your router required!>> Two way talk – but don’t leave it on continuously since it creates a noisy sound loop due to proximity of the speaker and microphone.>> Intelligent motion alerts as well as mobile and web apps, secure SSL connectivity with HTTPS and AES encryption.>> Cloud recording & playback with free live viewing, record & playback directly on internal SD card or optional Amcrest NVR.>> E-Mail/Motion Alerts – You can choose to receive e-mail alerts with snapshots on your smart phone.CONS>> I experienced some connection issue using the Amcrest View Lite app but once I used the View Pro app, everything was fine.>> Uses only the 2.5 GHz signal which is often very busy so there may be some connection issues.>> Leaving the mic & speaker on continuously creates an annoying noise due to the proximity of the two in such a small package.>> Recording to a DVR and or remote hard drive other than Amcrest NVR can be challenging.>> User manual isn’t very useful for novices but the excellent quick user guide & many youtube videos are excellent substitutes.>> Not weather proof – This is a in-house camera with many moving part so humidity can ruin the camera.>> Need to disable the IR if leaving the camera behind windows to record outside.>> To use a 64 GB microSD card you have to format the card with a 3rd party tool to FAT32 on your PC which is a nuisance.UNPACKING & SETUPThe camera weighs only 8 ounces and measures 5 x 4 x 4 inches and as soon as you take it out of the box you’ll see that it is a premium feeling and looking, good quality camera with a round design. In the box you’ll find the mounting bracket for hanging it up, ethernet cable, a long power cable and adapter and the User Manual. Once you unpack everything, the quick user guide directs you to power up the camera, download the free Amcrest View Lite or Pro app & scan the QR code at the bottom of the cam with your Android or iPhone using the Amcrest app. The setup took less than a few minutes and it would’ve been even sooner if I didn’t use the 5 GHz connection. The camera only works with the 2.4 GHz so make sure your iPhone/Android phone is connected wireless only on the 2.4 GHz channel.Once your phone is linked with the camera, you can control it & the video feeds that it has captured, just by a touch of your finger. Digital zooming and tilting is all controlled with your phone, tablet or laptop whichever you wish. Just a FYI, if you’re using Google Chrome browser you may need to install a plugin on the browser which is really not an issue.CAMERAYou wouldn’t believe how clean and detailed images and videos are when you’re using it. Video picture quality is quite crisp and detailed with vibrant colors (almost like professional) with the FHD 1080p (1920×1080) resolution at 30 frames per second with its Sony IMX322 2.1 MP Sensor. With 12 IR LEDs and a massive 32 ft night time vision, I had no problems watching my baby sleeping and or picking up any motion within the cameras range.THE LENS is a Sony CMOS sensor that uses high image quality pixel technology that enlarges the light receiving part of the photo-diode by as much as 50% over the older (comparable) CCD sensors. It also has lower noise & improved sensitivity over other similar CMOS sensors. This along with phase detection and low light sensors makes for a reasonable video capture in low lights situations.PAN & TILT allows for a wide viewing angle but a 360 degree remote pan & tilt is really unheard for a camera at this price point. Theoretically this means you should be able to follow your toddler/babysitter or pet around the room but realistically there is a lag of a second or two so this works mostly for stationary or slow moving objects only.MULTIPLE CAMERA CONNECTIVITYYou can hook-up up to 16 cameras but watching that many on a small phone screen is impractical but its doable using view lite or pro app. That said, more than one person can view the cameras. I can attest to this as I tried this with our two iPhone but I don’t see any limit as to how many people simultaneously can watch it. However only the first connection has the control over the pan & tilt.CONNECTION & BANDWIDTHThe camera uses only the 2.4 GHz band so make sure your devices are connected only to this band. Most (if not all) wireless routers are single band (2.4 GHz) type but the newer types have dual band (5 GHz in addition to 2.4 GHz). For your laptop, Smart Phone, tablet, NVR, etc. to work seamlessly with this camera, you need to make sure you’re connecting only to the 2.4 GHz band. You can change the resolution on the camera & reduce your bandwidth usage if you’re using multiple cameras and have only one modem but your video quality is compromised. On default, the camera uses about 600 Kbs. (3.6 MB/Min) of data so if you have up several of this camera at home using WiFi connection, you should dedicate a wireless router just for camera recording otherwise you may end up with less bandwidth for all other usage such as movie and/or music streaming.STORAGEI use mainly the MicroSD (Does’t come but very cheap) slot on the camera for my recording (vidoes & snaps) but the device also comes with optional cloud recording with FREE live viewing and 4 hours of FREE video storage via the Amcrest Cloud Video Recording Service but in all honesty this can serve you for only a few hours and mainly serves to try out their paid cloud storage. The 4 hours is only for straight recording and can’t be set for motion-detection recording or at least I couldn’t get it to work that way. You can also upload your video or images to an FTP server, as well as record to any ONVIF compliant network video recorder such as network video recorder or your own PC.To record on your PC or NVR, you will need a dedicated computer or server which you will then need to assign it with a static IP address. For Windows 7/8, download Filezilla FTP (or XLite FTP) server & install and run it as service. In the software create a user name & password & designate a directory on the system and point the FTP user to the folder and give it full privileges. In Amcrest Web browser configure, you’ll need to configure FTP to match the User ID & Password. Try this if you know something about FTP and servers. Not suited for novices.ALERTSThe camera can be set to push e-mail if set on motion alert. To set up email alerts, check out the amcrest zendesk link & type article email configuration or “amcrest.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/214633717–IP2M-841-Email-configuration-“NOTEWORTHY EXTRAS>> Blue Iris Software is fully compatible with this video camera.>> Lifetime of support from Amcrest as opposed to others who charge customers for support after 12 months.SUMMARY/CONCLUSIONThe Amcrest ProHD 1080P is a great camera for the money. Its not just convenient and easy to install, it has a huge number of added benefits also. The camera can be used in almost complete darkness & still gives you the clearest picture of what is going on around you. You can also get feeds from it on your smart phone or any other Android/iOs device just with a swish of a finger. You also get motion alerts & opt for email alerts or snapshots when you need to. In conclusion, I highly recommend this camera .. this is by far the best camera for the money.
Kris Omar Ryan –
I received my Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi Wireless IP Security Camera on October 20th, and set it up for the 1st time on October 22nd. Been using the Foscam FI8910W since February 2014 and that has not missed a beat. Works everyday like a true soldier.But needed an upgrade as the Foscam FI8910W was 1st released in November 2011 (way back when) so it’s not that user friendly unless you are a mid level techy and I wanted more recent features.So when Foscam sent me an email on the new Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi Wireless IP Security Camera, I jumped on it.I bought it because it had all the festures of the FI8910W but more friendlier (the biggest difference, setting up Port Forwarding so you can stream your camera live anywhere in the world from your Amcrest App).So here goes:Pros:- it truly is a 30 second set up (including port forwarding). The App does everything for you. Currently I am at work and I can tap into my Amcrest App and view my Live feed.- HD Quality is great- The camera is very responsive when you change the Pan & Tilt from your phone app…even if you are miles away- It looks great. Does not stand out like the Foscam FI8910WCons- Wi-Fi Connectivity (as someone else mentioned): I am still testing this one but the range doesn’t seem to be that wide. I moved the camera from being 5 ft away from the router to 20 ft away inside my TV stand on the bottom shelf and it had problems. Would not connect. Which is very disappointing because that is the spot my Foscam FI8910W has been in for the past year and a half. But the FI8910W does come with an antenna on the back which will help with range. The Amcrest does not have an antenna.- Going Deep in the Set Up: Ok, it is 30 seconds to set up….if you stick to the basics (install app, scan QR code, and you have Live Feed with Port Forwarding). However, if you want to go deeper and set up email forward on motion alerts, etc, that does take sometime and you will probably have to email Armcrest for support as this will involve using their web interface which you can access by using the camera’s IP address in your browser. The instructions on using the web interface so far are non existent, but again, i’ve only opened the box last night so maybe the instructions are somewhere on their website. Will investigate this further.UPDATE: 03/11/2015After having the Amcrest ProHD Camera for roughly 2 weeks now, it is truly an amazing camera with surprising features for a DIY systemPros:- The online User Interface is very extensive. Unfortunately there is no instruction manual on how to navigate the Amcrest web browser UI, but once you have figured it out, you will be quickly impressed.- Motion Detection settings are very detailed. Within the cameras field of vision, you can set up detection zones for the camera to focus on and focus on only. It does this by dividing the field of view into little squares and you can activate/de-activate each square- Motion Detection Sensitivity & Motion Graph: Saw a review where a customer complained the camera was too sensitive. This is not the case in my situation. You can get very detailed again with the settings here. They are two settings: Sensitivity and Threshold. 1st, you can set how sensitive you want the camera to be for motion, which is then transposed onto a motion graph shown on the web browser UI, and then you can set the threshold. Continuous motion caused the graph to rise and once the graph as risen above your set threshold value on the vertical axis, the alarm is triggered (whether this alarm is email or audio if you have a siren hooked up to it)Ethernet Connection: Having some issue with WiFi connectivity, so set mines up via Ethernet. Works absolutely brilliant using the Amcrest Android App when connected by Ethernet….and this is regardless of whether you are at home and miles away. I can open my app anytime, anywhere and be guaranteed it will log into the camera.Remote Pan, Tilt & Zoom: Again, this review is based on connecting the camera via Ethernet. The remote pan, zoom & tilt from the app is very response. If you are miles away and want to pan,zoom or tilt the camera via the android app, there is little to no delay.Cons:Still, WiFi range is my only issue. I took the camera by a friend and it did not even pick up her router that was 5 ft away (that was odd)….but she is using the ISP basic router. As with any WiFi product, your router and all other wifi devices in your home will play a big role in each device performanceBottom Line:Brilliant Camera, but gets 4 stars from me as the WiFi range is not impressive, in my set up. Remember this can is dependent on your router & number of wifi devices in your home.UPDATE: 16/11/2015Purchased a 2nd one of these cameras lately. Showed a friend who was so in love with it that she took my original one and so I purchased this replacement.With this one, the Wi Fi on it works like a dream. It’s only been two days, but I have not experienced any WiFi issues with it like I did with the 1st Amcrest. And I have tested it both while at home connected to the same network and when away from connected to the local cell phone network.Ethernet Connection is still faster….but the wifi connection only has a very small delay….less than 1 second, which is pretty good. The Ethernet connection is instant….even if away from home.What I must say though is I need to go back and check the Firmware version on the 1st Amcrest. This time for sure I updated the firmware from the .5.R which the camera came with, to the 2.420.AC00.8.R which is available for download at http://amcrest.com/firmware .So maybe if the Firmware on the previous is out of date, perhaps that maybe what caused the poor WiFi performance issues. So, I am changing my review from a 4 star to a 5 star because thus far, with the 2.420.AC00.8.R Firmware, the WiFi performance on this 2nd Amcrest it outstanding.
Jeff –
These cameras are absolutely phenomenal. Crystal clear video and audio with an easy setup, make this the best wifi camera out there for the price. I bought one of these for initial testing and within a week, I bought seven more. They will be used in a business setting for my review.GOOD:Setup – Initial setup was a breeze. All I had to do was scan the QR code on the bottom of the camera and it automatically populated all the information needed. Then you have to select which network to connect to as well as the wifi password and you are all set. Now anytime I wish to see what’s going on at my workplace it takes 2 seconds to open the app and view the live feed.Use – Like I’ve stated before it takes 2 seconds to open the app and view the live feed. After you have configured your device(s), you can then add them into the main page in any order you want. By default, it is set to show four cameras at once. Each camera is shown as a box on the main screen and all you have to do is tap one of the boxes and add the camera of your choice. You can then double tap on a camera box to zoom in (works better if you rotate your smartphone horizontally). Once zoomed in you can access the pan/tilt/zoom features, audio, create favorites, take a snapshot, take a video and some others that I haven’t toyed with yet. The app itself is very responsive especially with the pan/tilt/zoom being almost instant. You swipe in the direction you wish to move the camera and bam its there. On a lot of other cameras I have tried the pan/tilt/zoom was very sluggish and unresponsive. By clicking the audio button in the zoomed in state you can get live audio to your phone. Same goes with the video. Overall a well designed and thought out app.Video – The video on this thing is STELLAR. Very clear and crisp I can pick up the humidity reading on a thermometer from 15 ft away. This also comes with night vision, and I’ve gotta say, I have not seen a better night vision camera for this kind of price. It has a sensor that automatically switches on the IR LEDS given the appropriate lighting in the room. There is a very small delay in the video feed but it is significantly less than what I have seen in other cameras.Audio/Microphone – Works quite well. Once the microphone button is pressed on the app you can send audio through your phone to the camera. Same goes for receiving audio.Web Access – Pretty straightforward just type the ip address of the camera into your web browser. Supported browsers: IE Explorer, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox. The login page will popup so enter user and pass. You will also be asked to install Amcrest’s plugin. From there, you can view live feed, pan/tilt/zoom, use playback (if you have a storage option) and change settings. The video on the web is outstanding compared to the app due to the increased screen size so definitely check it out. Another cool feature is the ability to get an email everytime the camera senses motion. You can set what time of the day you want this to happen as well.Cloud – I have not tried the amcrest cloud, but I did receive a free year of Amazon Cloud with this purchase as a bonus. Not sure at this point if Amazon Cloud can be used with this camera.Storage – Options include: Sd card, FTP, NAS and Amcrest Cloud. I do not know what the max storage of this camera is for a sd card, but sd cards these days can be up to 256GB.BAD:Audio/Microphone: I noticed when both audio and mic are on, there is a considerable amount of feedback. This is because the mic and speaker are too close together. There may be a workaround in the settings, but I have not found that yet.Web Access: Pan/tilt/zoom is not located in the same page as the live feed page. Therefore once you click on PTZ you lose all the other options such as audio/mic and others. Nothing major just something I thought to point out.All in all if you are looking for a security system to buy, look no further. These cameras will provide you with everything you are looking for and then some. There are countless features here to be used in any situation. You have a greater peace of mind with these around. If anyone tries to rob my business I know Amcrest has my back.UPDATE 12/1/15 If you head over to amcrest.com/firmware there is an update which puts PTZ on the same screen as the live view.UPDATE 6/11/16 Everything is still going very strong… I have installed 18 of these cameras now and use them in conjunction with Blue Iris. If anyone has questions about setup just ask.
DeltaHotel –
I’ve been using the Amcrest 720 for a few months, and recently added the 1080. Both cameras have performed well and do an excellent job. These cameras offer a very nice solution for DIY home surveillance or monitoring, and the feature set is very impressive (especially considering the price).Cameras are packaged very well, and come with a a mounting bracket (if you want to mount on a wall), a generously long power cord, an Ethernet cable (which I did not need since I did the wireless setup), the CD software, and instructions. Instructions are well written, very easy to follow.As for setup, some reviewers report problems or complain about confusion with the software (more on software below), but in my experience the initial setup was straightforward. You have several options, the most common including either wired setup (use supplied Ethernet cable to connect to your router) or wireless setup (using your WiFi). I used wireless setup for both cameras using the Android app. The process is to simply choose to add a device in the app, and scan the QR code (printed on the base of the camera) using the app (or manually enter the serial number), then name the device, provide your WiFi credentials for the device, and you’re done.As for the software, I did find it just a bit confusing to understand my options when first exploring the camera. Here’s what you have:* Android mobile app Lite and Pro versions – I have installed and used both the Lite and Pro versions, and both work fine, but the Pro version gives you some additional features (one of which is Push notifications, so you can get an alert on your cell for events like motion detection). The Pro version was not free in the past, thus the the two apps. But since it’s now free, the Pro version is the best choice.* Amcrest IP Config – this application allows you to configure many options for your camera, including the ports, basic video monitoring settings, video encoding options (quality) for your main stream and sub stream (the camera can record in two separate streams, giving you the flexibility of monitoring using one stream, and recording using another), and firmware upgrades. In addition, using the IP Config tool, you can launch a browser-based configuration tool for even more settings and features. While multiple browsers are supported, I use Chrome, and with Chrome you must install the Amcrest app (free from the Chrome App Store). With IE, simply install the ActiveX plugin the first time you browse to the IP address of the camera. The browser-based config tool (Chrome app or using IE) includes tons of configuration options and the interface is very good. This is my preferred method of monitoring, configuring, and playback/review.* Amcrest Surveillance Pro – this application includes much of the same functionality as provided by the IP Config and the browser-based applications (like the Chrome app). When setting up my first camera, I started with this application, and while it includes all the features you need, and allows you to configure events and other options, the interface is really not intuitive. You’ll have to spend some time exploring to get the most out of this tool. I understand that Amcrest is working on development of a new application, which will be welcomed.* PC-NVR – this is a software (PC) based Network Video Recorder application, allowing you to store you videos on your PC. I’m not using this feature.* You can use other applications too (most will support Amcrest (Foscam) cameras. Blue Iris is a popular choice. Even for the mobile app, other options are available (tinyCam Monitor, for example, which works fine).As for storage, for now I’m just storing on SD cards in each camera. Based on documentation I’ve seen, the largest capacity is 32Gb, so that’s what I have in each camera. By default, it’ll record on a loop, so oldest files are removed as space is exhausted. You can customize this if you’d prefer to get an alert when space is full (rather than overwrite). You also have the option of NAS or FTP. Amcrest offers free cloud-based storage for one camera, but this includes only 4 hours of retention (that’s 4 total hours, not 4 hours of recorded video, so this really has very limited value). So if you want cloud-based storage, and you don’t want to pay for a subscription to the Amcrest Cloud service, you’ll need to have an FTP server. Sadly, cloud-based storage from Dropbox, Google Drive, and others are not supported (you will need a cloud-based storage solution that includes FTP functionality).You have many configuration options for recording, including motion detection, audio detection, and various alerts (video tampering, SD card errors, network errors, camera masking, etc.). The motion detection works very well, and is highly configurable (so you can establish zones for the motion detection and configure sensitivity as needed to prevent false alarms). Cameras also include night vision, and this works quite well (even in a very dark room or space).A note on mobile app push notifications (a feature whereby you can receive an alert based on events, such as motion detection)… until recently there were issues with getting the push notifications to work reliably. I experienced problems, but the Android app was updated very recently to address this issue, and push notifications have been working great since the update. If you have an issue, just delete and re-add your camera to your mobile app, then re-enable/save the push notification option.Finally, regarding support. I’ve only needed to reach out to Amcrest once (for a simple issue I should have been able to resolve on my own), and I found them to be very responsive and helpful. Their tech support rep (Alex) resolved the issue quickly.
KPL –
Some other reviews and features seem to conflict with my experience. As of August 2022, this camera checks all the boxes of my needs. I’ll TLDR them in this list, then expand: Setup in browser only without proprietary app… manual on/off for IR light… PTZ (digital Z)… quiet and fairly smooth PT… can view high in browser without plugins… substream feed as well.DETAILS ON EACHSetup in browser only without proprietary app… I’m not sorry; companies making me download an app to configure a camera aren’t getting my business. I know that makes it “consumer simple,” but I own many types of cameras, light switches, and other smart-home devices. This IP2M-841B checks the boxes for me in that it also offers IT-savvy users configuration options without downloading and maintaining an app. When I change my WiFi password, I don’t want to have five different apps to reconfigure five different devices.manual on/off for IR light…When using an IP camera outdoors in a dry space, or even indoors in a garage or barn, spiders flock to the IR — to the point of making the camera unusable at night. Bugs like the warmth of the IR, spiders set up web across the camera light, bugs get caught and eaten. Meanwhile we can’t see much of anything. By turning off the IR, I can use an external illuminator or low light source to keep the camera spider-free. Trust me. If you’ve ever deployed home security cameras, disabling IR is a must for outdoor / barn / garage.PTZ (digital Z)… quiet and fairly smooth PT…Pan / tilt / zoom works great. I connected this to Blue Iris and it auto-discovered the correct settings / protocol. I haven’t used the zoom. Blue Iris didn’t configure it the way it configured my other cameras with 10x optical zoom… but “digital zoom” is just a fancy term for expanding the existing pixels. Blue Iris does that for any source already so I didn’t need a zoom button on my BI interface. The motion is just the right speed for pan and tilt. Some of my cameras suffer the 3-bears factors. Some move too fast and are tough to control remotely. Some are too slow and painful to use. This one is just right. Thanks, baby bear!can view high in browser without plugins…Many of the import cameras in this price point use an old HTTPD (on-board web interface) that requires crummy plugins or is stuck to MSIE (windows ick browser). This works on my Mac and Linux desktops in Chrome, Firefox, and yes, Mac Safari. Streaming video in high quality in browser, as well as the motorized controls for P/T.substream feed as well.For connecting Blue Iris to an obsessive amount of cameras… you know who you are if you smiled when you read that… if you’re hooking up 15+ cameras to a mediocre BI hardware box, you want to use the substream feature. This auto-detects the substream and is still fantastic quality for viewing. Substream on BI saves a ton of hardware (CPU) usage for Blue Iris. This is something you might not care about if you’re not using Blue Iris but it’s worth noting for those who do use it. Yes, there are a lot of people who do and you should check it out.Perspective on this camera is not fisheye — but it’s wider than a normal lens (I say that as a very good feature). It’s not distorted, but it shows a wider picture than most cameras I’ve seen.There is nothing about this camera that I don’t like. I wish they were waterproof so that I could replace some of my old PoE cameras outside, but this does everything I want it to, perfectly. I have had zero wifi disconnects in the couple of days I’ve been using it. I really can’t emphasize enough how great the picture quality is either.
WilliamWilliam –
I’ve gone through more of these cameras than I like to admit. I’d been using a Foscam FI9821P for a while, and not been happy with it. Focus is poor, and the color at night under house lighting is a dingy orange (see picture!). I’d already exchanged one, but the replacement was no better, so I just gave up.Given the above, the chance to review the Amcrest ProHD couldn’t have come at a better time. However, the setup procedure wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d have liked it to be. If it had been just a LITTLE clearer, I’d have been happier. But let’s start at the beginning..First, the box it comes in is excellent. Well-packaged, feels high-end, and overall is a positive unboxing experience. Unlike some other dome-camera systems, the wifi antenna is built in. There’s no external antenna to connect, and in my experience checking signals in the desktop browser app, it hasn’t needed it.I plugged the power cord in to the camera/wall, and then the included ethernet cable from the camera to my Apple Airport Time Capsule ac model.I’m an iPhone user, and setting up with my iPhone 6s Plus in iOS 9 was a little more confusing than I’d like. The setup card included in the box directed me to download the Amcrest Viewer (the free one is all you need if you’re not needing push notifications etc). No issue, – downloaded in seconds.. Adding the camera was very simple by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the camera itself. At this point, it asked me to input my WiFi SSID and password to connect to the network. But… but… I don’t want to use WiFi, because I connected the camera via an ethernet cable!Turns out, you don’t need to worry. I entered in a network SSID the camera couldn’t see (my 5Ghz network, for example, or you could use an entirely made-up network. Either way, the camera is not 5Ghz compatible). Type in a fake password, and hit connect. Voila, it will say “Done,” but really it’s just using wired ethernet at this time because it didn’t connect to WiFi. It’s a bit odd you can’t just pick wired and skip WiFi setup, but there you go.., you’re done!For reference, more fine-tuning of things (like adding day/date stamps to your video or adjusting hue/contrast/night vision) can be done in the desktop browser, so log in to the camera and make changes there. This is pretty simple, following the setup card instructions. You can also completely disable the WiFi chip from the browser app on your computer, which I did. No need to even have it on if you’re using a wired connection. This worked on my iMac running El Capitan, in the Safari browser, – no issues.At this point, on my iPhone and via the desktop browser, – I was very impressed with the image quality. It absolutely DESTROYS the Foscam FI9821P (see comparison picture). For one, the orange cast to the image under regular house lights is now gone. Second, the image is much wider, fitting more of the room into the image. Unfortunately, there is some barrel distortion on the edges, but this is to be expected at such a wide angle. The center of the image looks great, with very little distortion. To “solve” this, you can always zoom in just a hair in the app. Yes, it’s digitally zoomed, but it makes very little image-quality difference, and does remove the barrel distortion on the edges.Moving the camera left/right/up/down is also very simple, and VERY smooth in the iPhone app, over both WiFi and LTE.One unfortunate thing, though, is that there’s no native iPhone 6/6s support (including Plus models). I’m hoping Amcrest updates their app to properly support these devices. The app works fine in iOS 9 on those iPhones, but you can tell it’s not optimized for their resolutions. The app is definitely a bit of a letdown, but it’s not too far off the mark. It does the job, though, and is free.I’m very impressed with the camera quality. It’s the best I’ve used. The colors, especially under house lighting at night, are surprisingly accurate. The room the camera is located in actually looks like this in real life in comparison to the video feed. Automatic switching to night vision works great, and the resultant image is also excellent. While out this evening, I was able to do a test run over LTE, enabling the speaker/microphone in the Amcrest Viewer app and having a conversation with my wife. It worked just great.Overall, this is a superb camera. With a few tweaks, the app could be great, which is my only minor complaint.4.75 out of 5. A gold-standard dome camera.*Sample received for objective review*
Kevin & Liz –
The media could not be loaded. I absolutely love this camera. I have a wired 720p QSEE brand 8 camera system installed in my house. All of the cameras are installed outside of the house. I wanted a wireless PTZ camera that I could put in my garage or leave in the house. I wanted the ability to look into my living room when not home and check in on my teenagers. But also have the added security of knowing that I can record anything I point the camera at. So here is my opinion on this camera:First impressions: The packaging is super nice. You just get a sense right away that this is very good product if they care to include such nice packaging for the camera. The camera feels heavy and not flimsy. Very impressed that they provide you with a really long power cord for hard to reach areas. They include a mounting bracket for installation if you don’t have something you can just set it on. Gives you some installation options.Set Up: Instructions are very easy. I work in the IT field and thought I could just configure this thing without reading the instructions. Wrong! I made some dumb installations errors. I had to uninstall the viewing software and reinstall it a couple of times to start over. But I eventually got it to work via WIFI only. I also got it to work plugged in via the supplied Ethernet cable to my ASUS wireless router. TIP: Make sure your router is set to 2.4 ghz and not 5.0 ghz which mine was set to. You can also initially leave the user name and password to the admin/admin and change it later in the device manager if your having a hard time with your set up. Just remember, you can delete the software and reinstall it to start over if it will not complete the set up the first time. I did this a couple of times.Video Quality: The video quality is impressive. When on the app, I changed the video resolution to 1080p and assumed that it would make the PTZ response slower. It was the exact opposite. The PTZ responded much better to my swipes and commands in 1080p than it did in standard definition. Zooming in and out was performed like you would perform to zoom in on a photo on your phone.Recording: You have some parameters that you can configure on the recording and alarms. By default it recorded as soon as I installed a micro SD card. I also performed some specific recording where I used the pan, tilt zoom while recording. It gets a little jerky if you zoom in and then pan anywhere. But that is to be expected. I copied the recoding off the micro SD card to my computer. It comes with software to do this as well. But I just pulled the card and plugged it into my computer to get the recordings.Audio: I was able to press the microphone button while viewing and talk to my teenaged kids in the room. You can listen as well. This could really come in handy if you have the alarm set and it goes off to alert you. You could actually speak to any intruder via the mic and speaker on the camera. Hope I never need this function.Conclusion: I included some recorded video from my installation. Keep in mind that I had to compress it to allow it to upload on Amazon. It is a not a good depiction of what the video quality was prior to the compression. This camera had tons of features and configuration options for the novice to more advanced users. But either way, regardless of your tech know how, I think that you will be like a kid that I was playing with this camera. It is just really cool. I highly recommend that you get one and discover for yourself. Hope my video helps you out. If you have nay questions, hit me in my comments.
london –
I was helped by Jason through technical support, he really made things easy an set my camera up within five minutes. I was even able to upgrade my account with him and set up Amcrest cloud.
HCHC –
This is my first purchase of any security cameras. My brother has Nest cams so I was looking into those. He loves them. As I was doing my research I came across these Amcrest ones for half the price. I read many good reviews so I figured I’d get one and give it a try. It was a great decision that I will never regret. The camera was well packaged and looking at the packaging, you would think that there is a VIP in there. This camera over exceeded all my expectations.Here’s why:1. Panning and tilting is great. Only negative is that it can’t really tilt down, but a tripod or a slanted base of some sort can fix that. This product comes with a mount that can be attached to a tripod.2. The power cord is long (10ft) so you’re not bound to a small area. Not like those short phone charging cord or Ipad charging cords.3. Easy Access with phone and Ipad. Just install the Amcrest app and login and you can check in on the camera anytime, anywhere. I have it installed on a OnePlus 2 phone and Ipad. Can even pan/tilt too and take snapshots and record on device storage.4. Image quality is great.5. Motion detection can be as sensitive as you’d like. I’m impressed with this camera’s motion detection capabilities.6. Camera has a micro SD card slot so you can record locally. This is where the scheduled recordings record to. YES IT DOES TAKE A 64GB MICRO SD CARD. When you insert the card into the camera, there will be a popup saying some sort of error. All you have to do is hit the format button. It’ll say format successful and now you have 64GB of storage space! Camera supports FAT formatted cards and not exFAT. Anything 32GB or less is SDHC (FAT) and anything 64GB and higher is SDXC (exFAT). Hence probably why the error but the format button fixes it. Don’t ask me how but it works.7. Software is pretty amazing. This area exceeded my expectations also. Every recording is pretty much recorded in a .dav format which can be converted to .mp4 within the Amcrest software or .avi with smart play. .dav files can be viewed with the Smart Play software. You can take snapshot pictures and even clip certain time segments of the recording.8. MANUAL RECORDING USING THE RECORD BUTTON. This records onto your local HDD. How cool is that??? After this is recorded, use Smart Play to essentially turn it into a time lapse video. You can fast forward in 64x speed and it’s a fast forward. It’s a very smooth fast forward and not a choppy one. Manual recordings go on local HDD and scheduled recordings go on micro SD card.Cons: Only a few minor ones but not any to take stars away.I would consider myself pretty tech savy and figure something out pretty easily.Setup actually took me awhile. I would recommend you not connect to your wireless device right away. If you have a wireless network, plug the camera into your router with the ethernet cable first (nice that it comes with a cable in the box). Setup on your desktop. Install the IPconfig software and open the IP Cam in internet explorer and install plugin (plugin doesn’t work with google chrome (Someday hopefully). From there I had to adjust DNS server settings before my phone or Ipad can connect.All in all, it took time to figure out settings and functionalities but this camera is pretty awesome. I have ordered a 2nd one and probably more in the future. Seems like Amcrest is making a name for themselves. Check out my thunderstorm lightning pic. How can you not like this camera?