Tiny rant over IP Cameras

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Tiny rant over IP Cameras

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#1589399 11-Jul-2016 08:51

richms:

Oh, and one of the NVR's I got to just use to watch the cameras on, will keep setting the cameras timezone to china, despite itself being set to UTC+12, so the clock embedded in the image will flick between NZ time and china time occasionally.

I stopped mine doing that.. not really sure how lol. but all show NZ time now and dont flip-flop between timezones..

Mind you, my two outdoor ones acting up lately (temp related maybe?) with video loss fleeting alarms.

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As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

reven

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#1589413 11-Jul-2016 09:33

I bought some QD520 cameras, good cameras for the price but yeah IE6-8, didnt work in compatability mode on IE 10, had to setup a virtual box to get them configured. but once I had done that, never had to touch them again, connected fine through BlueIris and work a treat now.

yes its a PITA to set them up, but at $40-50NZD delivered, meh.

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#1589655 11-Jul-2016 13:27

frankv:

Also watch out for the "free shipping" scam, where stuff appears in the "Free shipping" search, but turns out to add on shipping. Or if you buy more than one item, suddenly you're charged for shipping.

They will have free shipping to some countries. Its a failure of the search thing that the sellers take advantage of.

frankv:

And never buy a USB stick or SD card... I've learnt the hard way that most of them are faulty.

Not faulty, they are made to be lying pieces of crap that misrepresent themselves and sellers rely on the hassle of sending things back putting people off getting a refund.

If you want them cheaper, than off ebay from hong kong sellers is the best bet. That seems to be the cheapest place to get them retail and so long as you are not sorting by price and aiming at the lowest ones you will in most cases get a genuine one sent to you, just no warranty etc.

Thing is, I have found the savings over local to be minimal at best when getting known good ones off there.

Richard rich.ms

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#1589667 11-Jul-2016 13:32

richms:

frankv:

And never buy a USB stick or SD card... I've learnt the hard way that most of them are faulty.

Not faulty, they are made to be lying pieces of crap that misrepresent themselves and sellers rely on the hassle of sending things back putting people off getting a refund.

If you want them cheaper, than off ebay from hong kong sellers is the best bet. That seems to be the cheapest place to get them retail and so long as you are not sorting by price and aiming at the lowest ones you will in most cases get a genuine one sent to you, just no warranty etc.

Thing is, I have found the savings over local to be minimal at best when getting known good ones off there.

I trust only cards bought from Amazon, when they are sold and shipped from Amazon. Anything else and you risk getting 1GB cards that misrepresent to be higher capacity.

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#1589905 11-Jul-2016 19:09

I just buy from normal shop.
Peace of mind and CGA have a value greater than pure cost savings...

A.

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#1589911 11-Jul-2016 19:23

afe66: I just buy from normal shop.
Peace of mind and CGA have a value greater than pure cost savings...

A.

Buying a good IP camera "retail" in NZ is can be pretty much impossible depending on the brand you're after. They're only sold by security distributors who often won't sell to anybody without a security licence.

The likes of Harvey Norman, Noel Leeming etc just sell overpriced rubbish.

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#1590007 11-Jul-2016 22:33

afe66: I just buy from normal shop.
Peace of mind and CGA have a value greater than pure cost savings...

A.

who honestly cares about CGA on a $50 device. buying locally they cost about $150, so for the price of 3 cameras. If one breaks, replace it, it only becomes an issue if you have to replace it 3 times which is highly unlikely.

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#1590058 12-Jul-2016 07:53

reven:

afe66: I just buy from normal shop.
Peace of mind and CGA have a value greater than pure cost savings...

A.

who honestly cares about CGA on a $50 device. buying locally they cost about $150, so for the price of 3 cameras. If one breaks, replace it, it only becomes an issue if you have to replace it 3 times which is highly unlikely.

Ummm, because the issue raised in the very first post is "SHEESH! These things barely work"!

So, yep, you've "saved" $100 in buying a product from China for $50 that would otherwise sell for $150 in NZ; only problem is the product doesn't work, or work fully, or work without significant investment in time and effort. The seller has no requirements to help you get it working, or often even replace it /refund you if you can't get it working. Where's the "saving" with that? A good example of false economy.

So, yep, it'll cost way more here - but you can be sure if it fails or doesn't deliver on what it promises you've got the legal backing to get this sorted; it's also far less likely for there to be the kind of dodgy problems with the product as detailed in the original post.

Yep, it's worth taking a punt on many products from sites like Ali Baba - but on more complex products like this the results speak for themselves...

reven

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#1590086 12-Jul-2016 08:06

jonathan18:

reven:

afe66: I just buy from normal shop.
Peace of mind and CGA have a value greater than pure cost savings...

A.

who honestly cares about CGA on a $50 device. buying locally they cost about $150, so for the price of 3 cameras. If one breaks, replace it, it only becomes an issue if you have to replace it 3 times which is highly unlikely.

Ummm, because the issue raised in the very first post is "SHEESH! These things barely work"!

So, yep, you've "saved" $100 in buying a product from China for $50 that would otherwise sell for $150 in NZ; only problem is the product doesn't work, or work fully, or work without significant investment in time and effort. The seller has no requirements to help you get it working, or often even replace it /refund you if you can't get it working. Where's the "saving" with that? A good example of false economy.

So, yep, it'll cost way more here - but you can be sure if it fails or doesn't deliver on what it promises you've got the legal backing to get this sorted; it's also far less likely for there to be the kind of dodgy problems with the product as detailed in the original post.

Yep, it's worth taking a punt on many products from sites like Ali Baba - but on more complex products like this the results speak for themselves...

of the two camera's I bought, both work great, 720p, good picture, good night mode, both cost $40-$50 NZD delivered. One, the QD520, was a PITA to setup requiring virtualbox and windows xp to configure. The other (forget the model number, moving house all the boxes are packed up) I configured in chrome within minutes. so yeah, buy a couple of brands, look at the reviews of the products (they usually all say the model numbers so just search for a review and so many sellers sell the exact same model so can get cheapest deal). I couldnt find a decent place to buy cameras in NZ, TM seem to buy them from china as well and then charge 3x the price for them for a quick buck. jaycar etc seemed to have expensive crappy cameras.

seriously, just look at reviews, youtube is a good source for this, if you're using blueiris or similar search the product against that software to see how easy it is to setup etc. when you're talking about 1 camera, sure spending $150 more might not be a huge deal. but when you're buying 4 cameras and you can get 4 for the price of 1 then yeah its a big deal IMO. and if one dies in 1 year and needs replacing, meh.

My impression from the first post wasn't about CGA but about configuring the cameras and ease of use. Which I agree can be very difficult at first for some models, thats why you research them before buying in bulk.

so, don't buy a QD520/500 due to IE6-8 requirement.

afe66

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#1590153 12-Jul-2016 10:20

Sorry

I was replying to freitasm , about buying cards from shops rather than cameras

Talkiet

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#1590157 12-Jul-2016 10:27

To close this off - I have managed to configure the cameras. They are NOT easy to configure and require 3rd party software to make work, plus don't adhere to ONVIF specs fully - however they work for my purposes and now I know how to get them working I'll probably buy some more for a new house build.

One small downside is that they don't have particularly powerful IR LEDs but I think for outside areas I will get a couple of discreet IR floodlights and address the situation that way.

I'd still love to find someone selling a particular style of camera I have one copy of, but it's about 18 months old (and great! Brilliant IR performance, easy to config, metal case) but can't find it anywhere.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

richms

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#1590268 12-Jul-2016 12:43

Most non branded cameras on there are just people sticking a board assembly into a case and whacking an IR board and a POE cable on it. The parts are all over the ground floor of the survalance camera mall there, and there are heaps of parts which never make it onto aliexpress like boards with a direct HDMI and VGA out and some other outputs that they use on industrial equipment, some of which do absurd framerates but low res and other cool things.

So unless you are buying from an actual manufacturer you will probably get varied things each time for the "same" camera from the same seller.

Richard rich.ms

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#1590308 12-Jul-2016 14:04

Purchased a couple of these Jienuo (plus NZ/AUS wall wart) for about NZ$45 each landed about 3 months ago:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/P2P-ONVIF-Megapixel-720P-HD-802-11b-g-n-Wireless-Wired-IP-Camera-WifI-IR-Outdoor/32313211840.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000023.1.8pNeVk

Setting up definitely needs IE (running on Win 7), and loads an OCX file.

The original on-board FTP services didn't work, so I connected up the camera to iSpy via ONVIF.

( I note that they have now fixed the FTP transfers and email alerts on the camera)

Have an IIS server, so the iSpy captured images are sent to the IIS server via FTP, and also triggers email alerts.

Happy enough, does what it is supposed to do. Except I get triggers when it rains, or moths get captured in the IR ... slight work in progress ... and the cat triggers it as well.

I did have it originally setup for Wifi, but the angles were too obtuse with the walls, etc, and wasn't getting a good frame rate, so used ethernet and an ethernet over power adapter.

I havent mounted it under any eaves, just screwed it to the side of the house.

Survived a few mornings of zero degrees temp, and a few days of torrential rain.