IP CCTV system recommendations

I have 7.

Thanks Bels.

Are they clear, can you distinguish number plates?

More importantly would you recommend them.

Do you think that the variable focus is good or is it better to buy cheaper fixed focus?

I have the NVR coming from China. My neighbor has it and says it's great.

The cameras I have coming are different no dome as it can create glare.

Will let you know how I find it and post screen shots when setup

Great MrBee look forward to that.
Yes we do tend to get a little bit of glare on our Domes at work but I might be ok at home.

Like this

http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/331712965507?_mwBanner=1

I do have a street light out front though so may only need one for the back yard.

Wasn't cheaper but wasn't much difference I just felt more comfortable buying via eBay as my neighbor used same sellers and his arrived etc

being able to capture number plates of cars in all light is a bit tricky and you wont get it done consistently with your average home security CCTV camera

Yes, it's a real PITA to focus especially if you're doing it by yourself as you really need to view the capture in as native resolution as you can get to do it properly. Once focused correctly it's just as clear and crisp as a fixed focus lens camera.

From my own experience and opinion, what I've found is during the day capturing plates is fine even during dawn/dusk when the camera is either just switched to night mode or just about to switch to day mode and displaying in black and white. At night time it's a bit trickier, stationery traffic is hit and miss, too much IR and the reflection of the plates wash out the details and too little you can't make out details clearly. Moving traffic with headlights on is not an option unless you want to dedicate a camera for license plate recognition and it'll be useless for anything else as motion just shows as blurring as you'll need to reduce the shutter speed.

If you're unsure of what focal range you're after then they're good as they adjust from about 2.8mm to 12mm. You can throw them anywhere and zoom and focus to suit.

See above comments about focusing correctly.

I also have 2 DS2CD2332-I in 2.8mm focal lens and a 4mm focal lens setup to monitor the front and side entry of my garage. The only hassle with them was picking the best location. It's the same with the DS2CD2532F-IWS mini dome in 4mm focal lens for my front door. Installation was much quicker once location determinted.

Another option which has come up in the last few months is the Huisin 10x mini bullet PTZ available on aliexpress which uses a cut down Hikvision interface and so is able to be connected to Hikvision NVRs and then use the NVR to control the PTZ. Others who have also bought this cam have reported successfully utilising it with Hikvision NVRs. I've got one mounted in the backyard an the center of the house but using it without the NVR. The image quality even at night is phenomenally good at the price and you have the bonus of shifting the field of view. Have a look at the number of sample footage people have posted to youtube for an idea of how it looks. For an idea of cost, it's less than getting a varifocal landed and about double the cost of getting a fixed focal lens turret landed. Compared to local prices, it's less than half the cost of the varifocals to buy locally and less than the fixed focal lens turret.

@Bels thanks for the much detail I think it covers off most of the technical issues I had.

How does one determine if say non Hikvision cameras are compatible with a Hikvision NVR?

Nice one. I'm considering something like that to light up the front yard a bit better of a night time, to pierce the darker ends of the yard with my camera along the side of my garage.

Great info here


Sent from an iPhone please excuse the ridiculous spell correcting software. My forum thread is at viewtopic.php?t=74944

If they are ONVIF compliant then theoretically they should work if manually added.

Here's a timelapse of a storm that passed through last week taken via my HikVision DS-2CD2232-I5 camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra9dh2f ... e=youtu.be

That's a pretty good video

Question.

Of those who have imported your items from Aliexpress of the other, have you had to pay any duty?

Duty is/was payable on the total >= $1000USD. I'm not sure what it is now. Most of the sellers are willing to mark it as gifts and low ball the value to get you under the threshold. Be careful though that if it's marked too cheap then it also comes under the scrutiny of Customs.

Bear in mind though that what you're purchasing from aliexpress would now be China region cameras that have been hacked to english so there will be no firmware updates available without messing around with various things first. They will only work on China region NVRs generally with newer firmware. So if you do what to go down that route, get your cams and NVRs together all from aliexpress and you'll be less likely to have compatibility issues.

Thanks for the heads up @Bels

No worries. Better for people to make an informed decision that commit to something they don't fully understand and regret.

Nope, no duty or GST (on purchases less that $AU1000).

However that GST limit is going to change courtesy of Gerry Harvey's lobbying.

I purchased the NVR and cameras from seperate sellers in seperate transactions. So was under $1,000 limit.

They arrived yesterday so won't be hooking them up until Xmas but glad they arrived hadn't bought anything that expensive from China before