Due to a move haven't had security cameras going in a few months, but about to get wiring done and set up again, with about 6-8 outdoor POE cameras recording full time (at low frame rate). Done this for years with Blue Iris, have good hardware for it, not worried about the BI side.

Over the years I've had Hikvision, Lorex and Reolink. Lorex was a pain, Reolink was awful (lags, lack of options, lack of any support). Hikvision just always worked.

I'm aware - CCP, sort of half banned in US, supporting china, etc. I keep them on an isolated vlan and it's not like in using amazon all the time I am not already supporting China.

But I haven't bought any in maybe 4 years -- has anything changed? Normally the ones for sale are English versions of international versions, where you might or might not ever get firmware updates. Is that still the same?

Are there better alternatives? Amcrest, Empire Tech (which I think is Dahua which is same situation) I'm looking at. Axis is about 4x the price point for similar features.

But my main question is -- are there any new reasons not to just buy the familiar Hikvision ones? I assume BI still works well with them. And I mostly let BI do the analysis and not depend on in-camera motion/image analysis.

Linwood

I haven't bought a camera for a few years either so I guess just buy from somewhere you can easily return them to if no good and bench test the first camera. Does the NDAA compliance issue affect you ?

I have had several Annke and several Dahua (mostly the 5442 versions, one 4kt). Though the Annke is not exactly Hikvision, I read they are close enough, but all in all the Dahua's have been more reliable and easier for me to manage. And I like the 5442 4MB on the 1.8 chip... my Annke's were less desirable 4mb on 2.8 chip. So I have been slowly replacing the Annke cams with the Dahua's, and I'm happy with that choice.
A few Annke's had frequent disconnects, and the triggering wasn't as good. (I am still retaining one Annke 180 cam (an NDC800).
My attempts at tech support with Annke were useless (they never, never answered the question I asked, like a BOT was answering different canned questions. Of course I never tried Dahua support, I get that here if needed. Maybe Hikvision would give you the same quality as Dahua, but I'm happy with Dahua (Empiretech) and recommend them.
I use BI with CPAI, and also a few cams add built in IVS using OnVif. ( I don't just rely on the in camera IVS since it doesn't alert for animals, just people and cars.)

I found a good looking empire tech on amazon ( IPC-T58IR-ZE S S3) which makes it returnable, going to give it a try. I like the varifocal, since I can then buy the same camera for different viewpoints and adjust, or more flexibility if I decide the viewpoint was a bad choice and move it.

NDAA compliance is not an issue for me. Supporting china ... well, bothers me a bit but since Amazon is delivering Chinese junk to me several times a week already (often with supposedly proud American brand names), I see no point in taking a stand on cameras.

Mostly sound reasoning, and Empiretech on sale this weekend. But many would actually recommend the 5442 version (4mb on a 1.8 sensor) (IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3)... rather than the 8mb ( IPC-T58IR-ZE S S3) on the same 1.8 sensor... as that 4mb performs better at night. You would want the 8mb to be on a 1.2 sensor to match performance.

Hmmm... I see that, it saves a few dollars and a lot of disk space (i.e. longer retention). I didn't see any 1/1.2" sensors that had the varifocal lens for 4k.

I do a lot of still photography so understand how big pixels and noise work in concept, but... are there any posted comparisons of those two cameras at night?

I can get the 4mp version overnight also, same time as the 4k. I might order that also, set up side by side and see how they compare.

I'm a bit torn on the resolution issue. 100% of my use so far (since no crime involved so far at prior two homes) has been issues like landscapers doing damage, helping neighbors track down mailbox strikes or similar, all in daylight where the 4k was very handy for detail. Somewhere I still have a still capture of a landscaper pruning around my bi-lingual sign "Please do not prune this bush".

Current home is probably a bit more likely to have crime in the area, and I'm aware how poor night quality can be. Not a lot more crime prone, but a bit (I find out now that I've moved).

Daytime will look great, both 4mb and the 8mb (4k) . It's the night that makes the difference... the 8mb on the 1.8 sensor will result in needing more light and therefore more blurring with movement due to slower shutter speed. There's a lot of discussion on this at "that other site"... take a look and do a search and you will see tons of info on this specific subject. Most of my cams are the 4mb 5442 versions. I'm very happy with them. One is an 8MB but it's on the 1.2 sensor (Dahua 4kt), but not varifocal, and no IR , so must be in a place with decent available light all night unless you want to use the built in LEDs (visible lights...I don't).

Thought I would put closure to this. I bought one of the 8mp and one 4mp Empire Tech (IPC-T58IR-ZE-S3 and IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3).

They worked quite well. I'm taking on faith that the 4mp version will do better in the dark for seeing faces, but I am also quite pleased with the 8mp seeing detail at distance in daylight.

I've bought a couple more and plan on finishing off the house (once I can get some more ethernet run) with these, using the 4mp where I think people will be close and more important at dark (e.g. entry doors), and 8mp for looking down the driveway in the distance and such.

They do not work with blue iris well by default at h.265, but switching to h.264 works well.

I have the thick manual and see that I can script against them, so that's next on my list, but so far these seem like a good choice, with support.

Good to hear. Another forum user has been asking about Dahua cameras that can see in colour at night. Are these cameras sensitive enough for that ?

TimG wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 3:22 pm Good to hear. Another forum user has been asking about Dahua cameras that can see in colour at night. Are these cameras sensitive enough for that ?

These two are not (though decently sensitive to low light). I think that's by design, they have fairly beefy IR emitters built in. They have starlight cameras though which I have not tried.