PTZ Outdoor Security Home IP Camera Rsrteng 4MP HD PoE H.265 Security IR Night Vision 10X Optical Zoom Video Surveillance 2-Way Audio IP66 Waterproof CCTV Mini Camera with TF Card Slot & Bracket

Camera was ok when I finely got it to work. Spent many hours trouble shooting. Wrong manual was with camera. You are on your own when you buy from them

Use CaseI have a fairly extensive IP camera setup with Blue Iris. In looking for a PTZ replacement for some of my grey market variofocal Hikvisions, I came across the 1080p version of this item. Since I've had such good experiences with those, I was excited to see that they released a 4MP PTZ camera for about 10% more money. I figured that the worst case scenario was that the camera was basically the same unit, but with a higher resolution CCD and a different SoC encoder. The camera was purchased for outdoor use, with camera-based IR for night recording, and high contrast daytime lighting (pretty challenging conditions). The observation point is about 90 feet from where the camera is mounted (images attached).Packaging/Build Quality/InstallationThe packaging is pretty minimal, with chambered air inner packing I expect the contents to remain in pretty good condition during transit. The camera arrives arrives in two pieces, with the main camera unit and the mounting bracket disassembled. Everything seems fairly sturdy. The mounting bracket is indexed and attaches to the camera with two small screws. The most striking thing that I noticed is how SMALL the camera is. Lengthwise it's significantly shorter than many fixed-focus cameras that are sold today.You really only have the option of wall-mounting this camera, as the bracket needs to be installed to a vertical surface. It would be nice if there was an eve mount, too. The main reason why it matters is the cable management. The camera comes with the normal array of cable tails: ethernet, input terminal block, output terminal block, and power. They route through the bracket, and ideally through a 3/4" inch hole in the wall. If you do need to run the wires up to an eave, you'll have to use the cheesy rubber boot at the base of the mounting bracket. This boot is present on the 2MP Shenter camera, too - and I'm not a fan of it there, either. I would recommend using some silicone to seal up the boot, wether you route something through it or not.SetupWhile a few vendors have moved on from ActiveX plugins running in Internet Explorer for camera setup, Shenter has not. Since most browsers support RTSP, it seems like something that should have been fixed YEARS ago.Rant over.The camera comes with a static IP on the 192.168.0.x subnet. If your DHCP range isn't on that subnet, you can always add an IP address for your PC on that subnet. I do that with an old Vista VM that I use for configuring obstinate IP cameras. The camera was picked up on the supplied utility. I connected to the camera, and promptly changed the admin password, set a different static IP, changed the overlay text (I prefer my NVR to add it), set the codec parameters, changed the image and video settings, and turned on authentication for the streaming.Ok, so I've got to admit that I'm a little paranoid about adding devices of questionable provenance to my network. For this reason, I put the cameras on their own VLAN, with no specified DNS server or gateway. This keeps the cameras from communicating with virtually anything else. It's a precaution I think most people should take, if I'm being honest.If you've configured an IP camera before, there's not anything in the Shenter's web configuration interface that will surprise you. It's garbage, but so is the same thing on ALL cameras.PerformanceMy sincere hope was that this camera was just a 4MP version of Shenter's excellent 2MP 10x PTZ camera. Realistically, I wasn't sure how much difference there would be considering the price point of the camera. After all, the resolution of the CCD doesn't really matter if the optics aren't up to the task.Here's what I found:The image quality of the camera is better than the 2MP version. In order to see it, you have to turn down the in-camera sharpening via the web interface. You also have to set the bitrate and codec settings high enough to not lose the extra resolution in compression artifacting.As for the rest, the PTZ functions work fine. The contrast-based autofocus is fine, though it would be nice to be able to pick the AF strategy. I didn't use any of the camera-based email/FTP/line-crossing/motion/notification features, because I'm sure that the Blue Iris solution I use is: 1.) better, and 2.) more secure.Like the older Shenter 2MP, this camera uses large IR LED ICs, rather than an array of the old T-type individual LEDs. I can't say with complete certainty, but I do think there are fixed lenses over the IR LEDs, with two at wide, and two at telephoto. I suspect that the illumination changes based on the set focal length of the lens. Regardless, the night vision performance is outstanding, even out to ~90 feet; it could very well be useful well beyond that, but I just haven't tried it).SPECIAL NOTE: Generally speaking, I mostly use the PTZ function of my cameras to allow for adjustments, post-setup. I don't have patrolling or tracking turned on (yet). You may ask why you'd take on the extra cost and complexity if you aren't going to be using the signature feature of the camera... my answer would be the AUTOFOCUS! With my variofocal cameras I could dial in tack sharp images during the day, but the night vision would be soft. I thought it was just a noise reduction or low light issue, but it was actually due to the differing wavelength of IR light. Focus doesn't work the same at all wavelengths, so you need autofocus for the day/night switch. Oops.ConclusionThis is a great camera, assuming the longevity is good. Even if it's not going to last as long as say, a Hikvision, it costs about a third. It also has comparable image quality. I can't say enough good things about this camera. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I just installed one of these on the front of my house, up high on the wall.First problem I ran into is that when the camera is powered on, it does a position reset and the camera ends up pointing at the wall. Then when I try to pan to the front I reach the end of range only half way across the yard. To overcome that, I have to pan all the way back to the wall and hold the pan button down for about 5 more seconds. Now when I pan to the front I can get all the way to the other side of the yard. And I had to use the same technique on the tilt as well. Problem is, I seem to have to do this each time the camera is powered off and on, so this is going to be an ongoing nuisance.Second problem is that the camera is calling home to China for no reason that is apparent in the camera configuration settings. I was able to block this but it keeps on trying anyway.After using the camera for a few days I changed my rating from 3 to 4 stars based on the excellent performance of the camera and its compatibility with Blue Iris. Hopefully, I can get the camera to initialize properly at some point.

This camera works well with IP Cam Viewer Lite (or Pro). It also works with Onvifer (Android app only). There is a trick to be able to view this camera in Internet Explorer remotely. Port 554 (RTSP) has to be forwarded to port 554 at the internal IP address for the camera in your router settings. (HTTP port also has to be forwarded to the camera's internal IP address.) If you only forward the HTTP port, you will not be able to see the camera picture remotely in Internet Explorer.