Amcrest UltraHD 5MP Outdoor POE Camera 2592 x 1944p Bullet IP Security Camera, Outdoor IP67 Waterproof, 103° Viewing Angle, 2.8mm Lens, 98.4ft Night Vision, 5-Megapixel, IP5M-B1186EW-28MM (White)

Received the camera in less than 24 hours. As a long time Amcrest customer, I am always a little dismayed when it arrives in just plain packaging and not the original blue/white boxes as they always used to. I can understand the cost saving and environmental impact, but for a quality product, I have felt a bit upset about this with each delivery in plain packaging.On opening the box, we are welcomed by what has become standard for a PoE camera. Manuals and leaflets, promotions for cloud services, the camera, mounting screws, weather proofing parts and your guarantee. This bullet camera also has a small visor for which can be extended to help keep rain or bright sun out the lens. The manual seems to be a lot more detailed that previous issues, with lots of screenshots for assisting with setup.For the first time, I found that my camera had an issue. One of the screws on the SD card panel was threaded and the case paint was scratched. I have never had this before, so I contacted the support team, who quickly sent out a replacement and provided free of charge return information. The replacement camera was perfect.Hooking the camera up took no time at all. I have a closed CCTV network which uses static IP addresses, so I first hooked it up to a PoE port, then I set the IP address in my network management software and I was then able to connect to it via a browser to reconfigure the administrator password. I then use the Amcrest view pro app on my smartphone to make sure the camera is setup correctly. I decided to set this one up close to a dome camera on the front of my property to compare the image quality etc and to test recording to SD card.I actually found that the colours appeared more true in the bullet camera.Where I live we have a street light directly outside the house, so I don’t need to rely on night vision for the camera, but I did find in low light (in the night) the images from playback were a little grainy, for example of a car going past, you would not get the number plate or even the driver, but could make out the colour and make/model of the car. Long term this won't matter as the camera will be used on my property onlyDuring the daytime, the image was much clearer, and we are able to note down numberplates of cars who block off our drive on double yellow lines.On testing clarity of the image from across the road though, you can no longer make out the number plate clearly. This is not really an issue for me though as long term, this camera will be used just to monitor my driveway,This is a great little camera which would be ideal for monitoring a drive (where I plan to use mine) or a back garden, or an entrance to a property. The image quality is more than adequate and the frame rate can be 25/30 fps depending on resolution selected. The manual makes it simple to setup even for a novice whether using cloud services or mobile apps, which then means connecting it upto a third party recording system like I will a doddle.As usual, very impressed with Amcrest UK customer service, you never feel alone when you buy a product from this company, they are always willing to help out if you have issues and great at supporting any issues with a product they sell. As usual, my go to company when recommending CCTV products to friends or family.

In my area, there is a bit of a problem recently with dog theft. I have a wonderful Labrador who recently joined the family and of course I am a little nervous about this, and decided to invest in some better security so I could sleep better at night.One of the investments I made was this camera. I liked this camera because it is PoE (I.e. it is powered via Ethernet), and it was waterproof. My idea was to mount it outside facing into my garden, so that whenever there was motion, I could see what was going on from my smartphone. The PoE was a win because it means you only need to run one cable to the camera, and that cable carries everything the camera needs to work. It also guarantees a good connection to the camera, rather than unreliable WiFi you might find elsewhere.The camera was remarkably simple to install, and worked almost immediately. The hardest part was finding a day to install the damn thing, seeing as the weather here in the UK has been terrible for weeks. The instructions were very clear and simple to follow and the provided Amcrest app seemed to work perfectly. I was particularly impressed by how good the build quality of this camera was. The video output has quite a wide field of view meaning I didn’t have to mount it as high on the house as I thought I would have to, even fairly low down I was able to see everything I wanted to.The night vision of the camera is fairly effective, but what is even more effective is to also purchase a motion activated flood light, and install that at the same time as the camera. That way, if there is motion, the floodlight will switch on and the camera will have a far better chance of capturing useful footage for your use.The resolution of the camera is fantastic, and I’ve even reduced the resolution of mine a bit since of course you are somewhat limited by the internet connection that you have. Your upload speed here is important, so if you’re struggling to stream from your camera smoothly remotely, consider reducing the resolution or the framerate a bit to a level you find acceptable.If you’re planning on getting this camera, make sure you understand the nature of PoE devices. Unless you already have some Power over Ethernet switch, you’re also going to have to invest in a PoE Injector that is compliant with 802.3af - as well as wiring that can support PoE. In terms of which ethernet cable to get, unless your run between your camera and your router is longer than about 30m, Cat5e will work fine. Cat6 is better though. Make sure you get cable rated to be outdoors in the sun however, otherwise after about 6 months your cable will be a brittle mess.The camera itself once it is set up is a web server. If you know its IP address, you can access it from your local network like this. I wouldn’t recommend port forwarding this camera to the internet unless you first front it with something like NGINX and set up some form of extra authentication. I’m just paranoid like that!It also can and does connect up to the Amcrest cloud, where for a fairly reasonable sum you can pay Amcrest to store your recordings for you. For 6 USD a month, every time motion is detected, Amcrest will store the recording for 7 days for you. You can of course export the recording and store it yourself for as long as you like, if the recording is interesting. I do wish that the time limit for recording was somewhat more generous for the price however. About the only negative I can say about this camera is the cloud subscription seems a tiny bit overpriced for what you get. It's not completely out of the question, but I'd love if there were discounts for committing to longer terms.While a camera is never going to stop a determined criminal, it does provide an excellent deterrent, and in the event the worst does happen, hopefully will aid in the capture of the criminal.