Amcrest or Annke?, I finally found my camera

[Safari]

I am fully aware what the starlight and full color camera is and have such cameras....and know they are marketing terms as well....and that doesn't answer my question....

How does a $50 Amcrest 5MP camera look on motion...as @biggen gets to more pointed than I did - can you pause a playback and get clean images of people walking or cars in motion that you can IDENTIFY or is their motion blur?

Most people that have posted videos or stills of motion on a 5MP camera cannot be used for identification purposes at night because the motion is a blur.

People here care about getting clean motion videos and still images from someone in motion.

Now maybe yours is an unique case getting parking lot captures from a lot I would assume has lights in it.

Everyone has a different opinion on what "I see no difference with cars driving by after dark" means, so a sample video of a car in motion or a freeze frame picture of a car in motion is helpful for folks to determine how a particular camera performs at night at a particular price point.

Yes I understand what people want from home security cameras, but these cameras are used to watch over a specific area of a warehouse, in which every vehicle and person is already known. In fact there are two other sets of security cameras on the premises, but our agency does not have access to those cameras. For our purposes (mostly live video surveillance) the cameras work great. And recording at the highest pixelation gives the same quality as the live stream does

Edit: Yes we do have lights that turn on after dark, but right before that happens it still looks like its 4pm on the camera

 

[biggen]

Maybe you meant pause the recorded video, I can't pause live video on the amcrest app. I just tried pausing last nights recorded video and the still image of trucks driving by and people walking look flawless. Even with the digital zoom

I would think the framerates, bitrates or the megapixel of the camera might effect the quality of the paused image. I record at the highest pixelation

Yeah, I meant recorded video. I was just curious if there was blurring during a pause if you aren't restricting the upper limit on how long the shutter is allowed to stay open. It all depends upon the speed of the traveling vehicle. The slower the vehicle the longer the exposure.

 

[Safari]

Yeah, I meant recorded video. I was just curious if there was blurring during a pause if you aren't restricting the upper limit on how long the shutter is allowed to stay open. It all depends upon the speed of the traveling vehicle. The slower the vehicle the longer the exposure.

Yes, an important distinction is how fast are the objects moving. This is a parking lot and vehicles move at 10mph. So at 35mph there probably will be a blur. My home security cameras will definitely be 4k and record at 4 with high framerates , even if I need to use multiple routers for it to run smoothly

 

[Safari]

I have 3 in the laundry rooms at my Condo. I cannot attest to night motion, but it has decent lowlight ability to stay in color when the lights turn off with ambient light from the hallway. And of course with the lights on, I can recognize which resident is using the machines. But I can put names to faces becuase i know all 100 of them. I like the built in audio. I might buy a couple to try at home.

The bottom line is cost vs effectiveness and what you need it for. Amcrest and Dahua both have $250 cameras that have much better video quality, but if you don't need a $250 4k camera to watch your front yard, then it's a waste of money better spent on another $50 camera for your back yard. The $250 camera is needed for identification at a distance

 

[Flintstone61]

this is an email from BI. About 75% resolution. on the Amcrest 1179ew ....For some strange reason it gets sent along with parking lot motion. As a triggered camera.

 

[Safari]

View attachment 89756View attachment 89755
this is an email from BI. About 75% resolution. on the Amcrest 1179ew ....For some strange reason it gets sent along with parking lot motion. As a triggered camera.

Even though I like the Amcrest view pro app, it is a bit buggy, the fast forward of recorded video does not work. The given names of the cameras (parking lot, main floor, back wall etc) keep changing to different names. When I choose a date of recorded video I want to watch, the video always switches to the current date and I must switch the date I want to watch twice. My favorite app for android is tinycam pro.

 

[dison4linux]

I have one more point to add about Amcrest 5MP versus Annke.
For me, upgrading the Amcrest 5MP to Dahua firmware was painless.
I see others have mentioned getting the Annke C500 to HikVision firmware, but so far I've not had any luck.
I know many people ask why one would want to replace the firmware, and there seems to a couple main reasons.
For me it is ongoing support. When the rebranders like Amcrest and Annke sell a camera it rarely if ever receives any future firmware updates.
If some critical bug or security issue gets discovered, I want to know that I can get the camera updated to patch that.

 

[wittaj]

But if your cameras are isolated from the internet and cannot talk to the outside world and the camera is working to meet your needs, there is no reason to update it and many times it brings on other problems...

Flashing to Dahua or HIK may bring additional features and if that is the case, then yes may be worth the risk, but other than that, don't fix what ain't broke!

 

[looney2ns]

How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk

 

[dison4linux]

Thank you for the replies. I didn't mean to go down a rabbit hole here, totally off topic from what the original poster's subject was, but here we go.
A) I know how to secure my network and keep cameras from reaching the internet, but sometimes as an installer I have to work within the confines of the customers' wishes and budget.
B) In my opinion some are "broke" an example being the Annke cameras that come with firmware requiring a windows/exe to be installed to be able to view the feed in the web interface. Going to HikVision firmware solves that. Similarly we all remember when Flash was discontinued and browser support removed. Who wants to own a camera with a non-functional web interface. If whiz_bang_streaming_protocol_ABC gets discontinued in a few years, I like knowing that I have a chance of the upstream OEM/ODMs pushing out an update that supports the newer whiz_bang_streaming_protocol_XYZ, or at least I feel like there's a greater chance that the OEM/ODM will update it than Amcrest or Annke will.

 

[Safari]

I have one more point to add about Amcrest 5MP versus Annke.
For me, upgrading the Amcrest 5MP to Dahua firmware was painless.
I see others have mentioned getting the Annke C500 to HikVision firmware, but so far I've not had any luck.
I know many people ask why one would want to replace the firmware, and there seems to a couple main reasons.
For me it is ongoing support. When the rebranders like Amcrest and Annke sell a camera it rarely if ever receives any future firmware updates.
If some critical bug or security issue gets discovered, I want to know that I can get the camera updated to patch that.

I might have to do that, this firmware seems to be outdated. The amcrest website shows different options than exists in my firmware.

I have been hesitant because it seems impossible to get my old amcrest firmware back again if something goes wrong. I can't even get to the amcrest download page.

 

[Safari]

But if your cameras are isolated from the internet and cannot talk to the outside world and the camera is working to meet your needs, there is no reason to update it and many times it brings on other problems...

Flashing to Dahua or HIK may bring additional features and if that is the case, then yes may be worth the risk, but other than that, don't fix what ain't broke!

I agree, that's why I have not tried to upgrade to dahua. Updating the amcrest firmware is impossible. You need to sign up with email, and when I try that I get error messages. If i could backup the software I would do dahua now

 

[Safari]

Thank you for the replies. I didn't mean to go down a rabbit hole here, totally off topic from what the original poster's subject was, but here we go.
A) I know how to secure my network and keep cameras from reaching the internet, but sometimes as an installer I have to work within the confines of the customers' wishes and budget.
B) In my opinion some are "broke" an example being the Annke cameras that come with firmware requiring a windows/exe to be installed to be able to view the feed in the web interface. Going to HikVision firmware solves that. Similarly we all remember when Flash was discontinued and browser support removed. Who wants to own a camera with a non-functional web interface. If whiz_bang_streaming_protocol_ABC gets discontinued in a few years, I like knowing that I have a chance of the upstream OEM/ODMs pushing out an update that supports the newer whiz_bang_streaming_protocol_XYZ, or at least I feel like there's a greater chance that the OEM/ODM will update it than Amcrest or Annke will.

If you know of any way to upgrade amcrest firmware let me know. I cant do it, you need to sign up and register which is imposible. Amcrest makes upgrading very difficult