Hi folks! I thought I remembered seeing a thread about this, but it looks like it was almost five years ago, unless I didn't search correctly (entirely possible).

Does anyone here have experience with IP security cameras? I'm tasked with setting up a system for my family's church. They need three doors and a couple other areas monitored.

I'd prefer to find a solution that records to software on a PC instead of a separate DVR solution. Most of the DVRs I've seen require that the cameras be plugged directly into them, and I need to have them on the LAN due to how the buildings are wired. Plus, I'd just prefer it because there's already a computer on the premises that can act as the DVR.

I've been looking at different cameras until my eyes fell out. There's some really terrible cams out there, and some others that are quite nice. In general, we're looking for cams that are sub $300, preferably much less than that.

The two lines I'm looking at are the Foscams and some cameras from a company called Hikvision (which is one of the worst company names I've ever heard - though they're called Swann in US stores like Costco).

The primary advantage of the Foscam cameras is their flexibility. They have outdoor and indoor models. Wireless, wired, and POE models. And most of all they're the least expensive I can find for something that can record to a PC.

The Hikvision/Swann cameras, on the other hand, are far superior in overall quality (hardware and results). The video quality is fantastic, the bullet cameras are half the size of the Foscams, and the mounting brackets are supposedly much sturdier and better designed. These cameras are roughly half again (or double) the price of the Foscams.

The other big difference appears to be in how I record the data from these cameras. The Foscams have a pretty easy solution: an application called Blue Iris that installs on any old PC and talks to the cameras. I can set it up to record when motion is detected or just record around the clock. The Hikvision cameras, on the other hand, are harder to figure out. I can't tell what (if anything) I can use to record the video feeds from these cameras. I've found great instructions on how to record directly to a NAS, which is fantastic but apparently it will only work on something like a Synology NAS or one that can do NFS. I'm not sure if the church is going to be able to lay out that much for this setup, as much as I'd like them to do it.

The only other software I've found is something called XProtect from a company called Milestone. I like the look of it, but it looks like their software is sold through distributors, which I really don't understand. I can't buy it directly through them, I have to go with some local one-off security company. It's bizarre. They have a free version that seems like it'll work pretty well, but then I can't tell if I have to pay extra for mobile device functionality. Overall I'm turned off by this software.

Does anyone have other cams they like, and software DVRs?

The end goal is this: three to six IP cameras recording to a computer in the building, with the ability to monitor remotely (from a web browser or smartphone). I'm not wedded to any particular company at the moment.


*edit*
I just stumbled across some comments that seem to indicate the Hikvision cameras can work with Blue Iris, so that's a strong possibility at the moment, if I can't convince these folks to get a NAS. I'd still like to hear if anyone here has experience with IP security cameras (specifically IP cams).

I should mention that I looked at DropCam, but it's prohibitively expensive when you get up to multiple cameras. You get the benefit of off-site storage, but that storage is extremely expensive, and you can't keep it for more than either a week or a month, depending on how much you pay them. I'd prefer to store the content locally and back up to a cloud backup service or something.

Our catcam here is currently an older Foscam, still going strong. It has wireless-G built-in, but we use a wired connection with it. Easily scriptable through HTML on the built-in webserver, so we're not reliant on any proprietary apps for video/still captures. Good built-in web interface, too.

Hardware definitely on the cheap/plastic side of things.

Is your Foscam an indoor or outdoor model?

Indoor model, pan/tilt with I/R illumination for night. We have it mounted outdoors under the eaves.

Thanks, Mark. How does the video quality look?

At the moment, the Hikvision cameras are looking extremely attractive. They're hard to find, and seem like they'll be a little more work, but check out the video quality here. It's pretty incredible.

That's a nice looking vid. I think the resolution must be about double that of my older Foscam.

I'm travelling, and don't have any saved samples I could make available.

Cheers

I'm also interested. I'm looking for an outdoor POE cam. I have no real info to offer, but would love to know how to keep corrosion at bay!

-jk

I've got a couple of logitech 750e's. PoE, weatherproof, sound, good IR lighting, attractive. If you don't have a PC on, they record to an internal micro SD, which seems a bit of a bad idea (steal the camera, lose the recordings) but if you have the PC on then you have that copy too.

The downside is the awful logitech software. The iPhone app is ok, but the mac app is awful and the windows one only marginally better.

Note - don't buy the starter pack unless you want powerline ethernet/poe combined things. They sell a PoE version without all the other boxes.

Hugo,

I've been a little confused looking at Logitech's equipment. All I seem to be seeing on Amazon is the starter packs. What's in those? And how expensive are the cameras? They seem rather pricey to me. The Hikvision I was mentioning runs about $180-190, which is at the high end of what I'm considering, but all the Logitech cams seem to be around $250 or more.

I'm back to Blue Iris for the NVR software. Milestone's XProtect is prohibitively expensive. I'm uncertain whether I'll use Hikvision or Foscam cameras. The Hikvision cams are really nice...

From what I've read, the Hikvision cameras have a great design for the wiring gasket.

Thanks, I'll look into it.

-jk

Update:

I've now tested out Milestone's XProtect and Blue Iris, using my Logitech C910 as a test camera.

Both were able to connect to the webcam with little difficulty, and both were able to record using it with no problems. It acted just like any security camera would. I think Blue Iris handled it a little better, as XProtect did a weird thing where it added four cameras, with only the third being my webcam and the others were blank. Strange.

Overall, it's clear that XProtect is a higher end application. You can do multi-camera reviewing (pick a time and when you scrub through it shows what's happening on multiple cameras), and in Blue Iris you can only review one camera at a time. I also don't like that BI (I'll call them XP and BI from now on, it's easier to type) doesn't give you a timeline with indicators on it that show when it saw movement. Instead, it creates a timeline of "Alerts" which are basically just shortcuts to the recorded video of the points where it detected motion. It's a little clunky IMO, but not the end of the world. It's just not as polished as XP.

But despite being clunkier and more challenging, I have to say I'm fine with BI. For $50 I can connect up to 64 cameras (I can't imagine that many would actually work), whereas XP would cost $100 to start with $50/camera after the first two, allowing up to 26 cams. That gets really expensive really fast.

The biggest drawback to BI is a technical one. Apparently BI isn't advanced enough to leave motion detection to the cameras that support on-board motion detection like XP can. This means the motion detection is done by BI its self, which of course means far greater system resources are needed. It's possible that the money I save my family's church by going with BI might be negated by the need for a new computer to actually run the software. I don't know really. I'm going to observe the CPU usage of my own computer, which is considerably more powerful than the one being tasked for this project (uh-oh), and see how much power the program needs. It'll be interesting.

Pretty sure I paid about $200 for the 700e when I got it, but when amazon starts listing $400+ for this then you know it's been discontinued... I've had them up for 2+ years now though, so absolutely not the latest and greatest.

The Hikvision ones look nice, but until these stop working I can't really justify a full HD upgrade

I've read good reviews of iSpy. (http://www.ispyconnect.com/)
No direct experience, though, so take my words with caution.

I am also looking for a camera system at home, but I have not decided yet.
I have experience with Bosh surveillance cameras and Omnicast video recording software, but that is an incredibly expensive corporate-class solution, unthinkable at home. So I am myself without any solution for home. I also have experience with Axis cameras, but the cheapest is 300 Euros. So, I am considering Logitech as well.

I had seen iSpy, but the church I'm installing this for probably isn't interested in the monthly or yearly payments they'd have to make for mobile/web access. I guess that's their business plan, which is fine, but it would be nice if they had an alternative of setting up your own remote connection. I have the trial version of Blue Iris installed, and it was pretty easy to use the mobile app to connect to either my local IP for the computer doing the capture, or remotely using an address set up on no-ip.com.

I looked at those Axis cameras too, but yeah they're pretty pricey. They look really good though.

Earlier this year I picked up a Panasonic CS950 pan/tilt/zoom camera. Analogue so not brilliant resolution, but the quality is good for what it is, and the zoom is very impressive. I built a housing out of sewer pipe pieces.

The PTZ is connected into a £15 ethernet/RS485 adapter. I picked up an expensive Pelco video encoder (NET5404-T) off ebay cheaply and they have a free recording system called Digital Sentry which seems pretty reliable, but I think you can hook the encoder into lots of things.

I have added a couple of CS854s into the system too but they are not quite as good quality, but they are much smaller.

I'll post some photos later.