Outdoor PoE Camera Setup Suggestion

[subterminal]

Howdy, folks

I'm getting ready to purchase PoE cameras for our house and am looking for suggestions and feedback. My main priority is capturing mountain wildlife that roams around our house at night (bear, elk, mountain lion, etc), so night quality is near the top my list. Some of the wildlife is as far away as 40m. A distant second to that is the home security aspect, though it will be nice to have that nonetheless.

My budget is around $250 per camera. Currently, I am considering these Amcrest 8MP turret cams in combination with an IR illumanator off Amazon. However, I wanted to ask for opinions here because from what I've been reading, this community seems to favor Dahua. Are there any Dahua cameras that are substantially better with nighttime video than the Amcrest but not super expensive?

Thanks!

 

[tangent]

8MP cameras are pretty underwhelming at night

 

[timb999]

You might want to try a PTZ somewhere if you want better looks at your visitors, but would prolly be looking at more (maybe $350 ?) for a 2MP 25x Amcrest, or maybe bit more for a Dahua. I use Hikvision in the UK for the same thing....watching our visitors, but not quite as exciting as Mountain Lions or Bears...bah!