If money was no object what camera system would you choose

h901

Getting the hang of it
Apr 1, 2016
148
3
London
As the title suggests, if you could purchase any system what would it be and why

Hikvision, Avigilon, Axis, Bosch or others?
 
Dahua
 
Search for some of these other brands on the forum to see discussions about them, most reaching the conclusion that the premium brands aren't worth it (for a typical homeowner). Other notable brands include pelco and panasonic.

It depends on what you need to some degree. Do you need a high level of support from a company with a US presence? Could you care less about warranty, support, security, etc and only care about the absolute best image quality? You get the idea... there are places where these brands make more sense than the likes of hikvision and dahua. You pay a significant premium for brands like axis, bosch, panasonic, and pelco and spec wise you don't necessarily get a roi.

You should choose a camera that's appropriate for a particular location not the other way around.
 
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Without explaining what you are using it for no one can help you...simply mentioning brands wont help...
There is many advantages to an avigilon system for example vs dahua...but why waste everyone's time if you are not willing to spend that kind of money...it is for home or business, what are your requirements etc..
 
Fair enough makes sense.

I don't have any particular use for any specific system. I wanted to know what would be the best choice if one didn't have a budget per se

Also wanted to know what benefits the premium brands such as Avigilon and Axis offer over Hikvision and why they is such a big price difference. Clearly people/companies are buying the premium brands but for what reason exactly
 
As the title suggests, if you could purchase any system what would it be and why

Hikvision, Avigilon, Axis, Bosch or others?

None. I'd hire several former SAS guys to stand outside my house and exhibit The Look.

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Most of the advantage is in the server software not so much the camera itself...though the better cameras have better analytics...but they are not reasonably priced for most end users so there is not much discussion about them..you can look at their websites and learn about the functions/features available..
 
Id get one of those 4k long range laser IR / thermal cam combos just for fun!

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Avigilon or Bosch. Avigilon is probably my favourite software for simplicity and it just plain works and keeps on working. Their cams are very nice as well though Bosch makes excellent cameras. I've got some Axis cams and their firmware beats both Hik and Dahua in some important ways but I hate paying the price premium. I just wish I could tell the Chinese guys what I wanted changed and improved in their firmware.
 
Avigilon or Bosch. Avigilon is probably my favourite software for simplicity and it just plain works and keeps on working. Their cams are very nice as well though Bosch makes excellent cameras. I've got some Axis cams and their firmware beats both Hik and Dahua in some important ways but I hate paying the price premium. I just wish I could tell the Chinese guys what I wanted changed and improved in their firmware.

Thanks for your post. If you don't mind expanding on what axis firmware offer over Hikvision and dahua?
 
Idiot proof selection of a default faster manual exposure rate at night that is keyed to the camera's light sensor instead of scheduling or scripts for one. Auto always defaults to a much longer exposure than is needed to freeze moving objects at night or on cloudy days. There might be an easy way to do it with Dahuas that I haven't found yet though. I just got my first ones a little while ago.
 
You can get a nice capable Pan-Tilt-Zoom dome camera with laser illuminator. One example is Dahua DH-SD6AL230F-HNI which B&H Photo-Video sells for $3000. However, I had the impression the high-end models are a little bit large, so they might look out of place on a typical house, and some huge range isn't important if you're in the middle of a bunch of other houses and you don't even have a long line-of-sight anywhere.
 
Hikvision and Dahua are more mid-tier when it comes to surveillance, they have great products for the price vs quality and are suitable for both residential security as well as for small, medium and large business security / project requirements. But they cannot compete with premium, upper tier products such as Axis/Canon, Avigilon and Bosch both on image quality and firmware and software.

If you are looking for cameras just for home security, Hikvision and Dahua are great and will meet basic to more complex requirements. If you're on a tight budget though, there are tons of other low-tier / entry level and DIY brands and manufactures out there you can look into (most probably running Dahua or Hikvision firmware anyway), but I would rather consider Dahua or Hikvision's entry level products such as Dahua's "lite series".

Axis/Canon, Avigilon and Bosch would make more sense if you're looking to secure business premises or critical infrastructure based on their premium price. Keeping in mind the upper-tier brands cater for small to extremely large projects, simple to extremely complex requirements too.