Anyone have a favorite ip camera surveillance system?

How about this Lorex 4 camera analog 1080p system (only $299):

A friend has the 8 camera system in his business and it works great.

Remember that these pre-packaged systems do NOT include a monitor so be sure to pick up a cheap computer monitor or a monitor with HDMI input for the sharpest picture.

Thank you!

Axis Communications IP/POE cameras, Genetec Omnicast Surveillance Software and 128TB fully redundant RAID array with 128TB failover.

That one is my favorite.

Might be overkill for you.

Do you really want IP cameras? Or, would you settle for RS170 cameras wired to a "camera card" in a generic PC?

IP cameras are easier to run the cabling, especially since the customer runs cat6 cable himself

A bit! :-)

Simple, good quality (IMO) and cheaper are Foscams.

Hikvision are good cameras also

POE systems generally offer a DVR within but if you use a software such as Blue Iris, your computer is your DVR. Blue Iris is a complete security software. It controls the functions and allows remote access.

I have 7 ip cameras in my house and use Blue Iris. All cameras are triggered and recorded by motion and the recording is on a separate PC used mainly for the system. Been using them for several years now with minimal problems.

I suggest a minimum resolution of 1080 for cameras.

Per T:

HikVision "Eyeball" cameras and Blue Iris camera server running on my

"Favorite" might be too strong a word for Blue Iris since I have next to zero experience with any other cam server... but BI does the job for me both at home and here:

The HikVision eyeball cams, OTOH, I can say really are better than any of the other el-cheapo cams I have used. Less than a hundred bucks each from AliExpress, significantly less prone to spider webs (the IR attracts spiders for some reason) across the lens, much more durable form factor:

FWIW, I find that POE is a big deal. Power Over Ethernet... you pay a few bucks extra for a router that supplies POE or you buy a sub-$20 add-on and all your power wiring problems go away - just run the Ethernet to the camera and it's done.

Only negative I can think of is that maybe a turnkey DVR system would require less care and feeding... but I don't *know* that.... just seems reasonable given the contract between TIVO and SageTV or Microsoft Media Center.... OTOH, the flexibility and the geek factor attract me....

Per T:

One more point: read up on cameras lens focal length and field of view vs resolution. Cams are usually available with different focal length lenses.

You may want cameras with longer or shorter focal lengths depending on what you want to monitor. ... For a given camera resolution, of course, the available detail goes down as the field of view increases... so you want to optimize the tradeoffs. e.g.

Per (PeteCresswell):

Oops... shb "...contrast between..."

Per (PeteCresswell):

Just checked... I lied... most of mine are 4mm.

I'll never buy another foscam. Junk.

Bought two FI9821W V2's. Within a month (literally), the first one failed. Color would go all mosaic. Had to argue back and forth with Foscam that it was THEIR responsibility. They kept claiming I need to take it back to the seller. Took almost a month.

About 13 months after purchase, BOTH failed. The one that failed with the mosaic failed AGAIN with the same issue. Foscam said too bad, out of warranty.

Never again.

Per Evan Platt:

Fer what?

If you want a really clear picture, don't even buy the analog system.

nb

If you could do remote viewing, why pay for a camera?

Per T:

Also: be aware that many (most?) cameras have their own built-in recording and motion-sensing functionality.

i.e. You can set up just a camera, tell it where to sense motion, where to store the recordings, tell your router about it and which port to forward.... and connect to it from anywhere via any browser, or freebie apps like IpCam Viewer.

I can't blame you, I'd do the same. Fortunately, I've had great success with their cameras and as I stated, still using them after several years.

The problem with POE is that you do have to run cable. It's great if one is willing to do so and much better in the long run, otherwise, wireless/IP are the way to go.

depending on your needs of course, who wants to run Wires? [too much trouble; similar to house alarm systems]

wireless is my preferince

Foscam[s] are worth looking at 1st; again, depending on your needs

marc