Anpviz 6MP PoE PTZ Camera Outdoor, 5X Optical Zoom 2.7~13.5mm Lens, Pan Tilt Zoom IP Security Camera with Human Vehicle Detection, Spotlight&Sound Alarm, SD Card Slot, IP66, NDAA Compliant (U Series)

UPDATED: ========= It has been about 3 months and still liking this camera. In fact I have bought several more. Nice thing is you can set them up in conjunction with other cameras and have them turn to look in a given direction if there is movement in a different spot from where this camera is generally parked (you need good DVR software to do that - I am using BlueIris). This camera has turned out to be better than I anticipated. The LED light is also very useful. I have one mounted at the back of my house zoomed in to an area, and if someone walks through that area, it fires the LED spot which is an added layer of deterrent to potential intruders. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I bought one of these turret PTZ cameras to try out. I install a lot of these cameras and having a turret camera with the option to spin around and cover more than one area can be beneficial in some applications. This camera uses the standard operating system used by Anpviz in most of their cameras (which is a robust Linux-based kernel - that is, very reliable). This is not the case is some of the other Anpviz PTZ cameras I have used, but this one does use the same basic OS which is good. PROS ==== Image quality on this camera is very good as it offers a pixel depth (6MP) beyond what the typical security camera application will need. Night vision image is also very good. It also features a nice bring LED light that augments the night vision. It has the ability to perform intelligent object detection for humans, cars, motorbikes etc. All the standard image turning features are available on this camera (again a function of the Anpviz camera OS) Audio input is supported and it works ok. As is the case with many of these cameras, do not expect great things from the small mic used in all these cameras however. Autofocus on the lens works well. The zoom is only a 5X zoom so it is fine for basic zoom features. If you want to get more close up detail this camera is not for you, but, that is not the price bracket this camera is in either. The camera has onboard storage but I did not test this since I use a PC-based video management system with my cameras so I do not use any of the onboard storage card features. CONS ==== Unlike more expensive PTZ cameras, this model does not support autotracking of a recognized object. The build quality on this camera is good from a software perspective, but the housing and gears are plastic. If you are going to use this camera "parked" at a particular preset location, with occasional panning to another preset (when triggered by another camera for example) then this unit would be fine. If this camera is going to be used to do constant panning, then I would choose a different unit since the gears in this unit will likely wear out over time. Again this camera is more intended to offer PTZ functions in a compact package for periodic panning and zooming around. SUMMARY ======== If you need a compact turret camera with PTZ options, this camera is not a bad choice. If you are in need of something with greater magnification, and you plan to do a lot of panning, I would choose one of Anpviz other more high end PTZ cameras (they have several).

The #Anpviz 6MP PTZ camera is my first camera with PTZ support. I have used several other Anpviz cameras, mostly their 5MP dome cameras and recently an 8MP model. This 6MP PTZ camera is very similar to the other cameras from Anpviz I have used. In short, I am happy with the camera: PTZ makes setup easier for me and the video quality is very good. Installation I install my cameras in the soffit of my house. I was concerned that the extra weight from a PTZ mechanism would cause an issue, however the camera does not feel much heavier than other models and is able to be installed like the others. Installation requires 4 screws and running cat5/6 cable to the camera, with power provided via PoE. I have never tested Anpviz DC power jacks on this or any of their cameras. The camera comes with a bracket to mount the camera on the side of a wall. I did not mount the camera that way, so I cannot say if it works well or not. Software The software included on the camera seems identical to other Anpviz cameras and is easy to use. They provide a lot of options, many of which I do not use. More advance users may find use for the advance options and could likely provide more information. For simple monitoring of your home, I am more than happy with the results. Picture Quality When I first installed the camera a large fog spot was on the lens, and I was unable to wipe it off. I contacted customer support, and they asked that I leave the camera on for a day. The fog went away by the next day and the picture quality is now as good as any of my other cameras. I have never had this happen with other Anpviz cameras, so it might have been the weather conditions on the day I installed. I do like that the camera comes with a motion light. It really helps the picture when viewing motion at night. It also helps when we walk outside in the night, so it is an added bonus. PTZ Support This is my first camera with PTZ support. While my planned use case does not need PTZ support, I find it very helpful for adjusting high cameras. For me, this make adjusting the camera much easier. I used the built-in software for the PTZ control and have even added a few presets. I have not tried to set the camera to use a PTZ tour, enabling me to view multiple angles from the same camera. In short, PTZ works as expected and made setup much easier for me.

This COULD have been a great camera but, it's junk. The image looks great but it had connection issues like crazy! PTZ works (mostly)... Zoom starts to work, quits and locks up the camera. If you don't touch the zoom, it works until it randomly loses network connection. When you change a configuration, it will reboot the camera and not tell you. The web UI just quits responding. Even the cheap cameras warn you of reboots. Upgrade the firmware (to fix things)? Good luck! There's ZERO information about where to find the upgrades UPDATE: I gave a 2nd one a try in hopes I just got a bad one... NOPE! 2nd one is just as broken. The zoom works on the 2nd one if you keep resetting it after it moves a little. Video freezes and network connection drops. STAY AWAY FROM THESE!

Excellent camera! Highly recommend!

Let me say from the start, that I am not an IT professional. I am just a retired lay person with a surveillance camera hobby. I think it all started several years back when our house was broken into. Not much cash was taken, but some items of sentimental and monetary value were. They were never recovered. This is a good camera. The overall performance is good. I like it a lot. It has tons of features and I have tried to take advantage of as many of them as possible. It was not an easy task, but it was worth it. The feature I liked the most was Intelligent Detect. It seemed to work flawlessly. You could set it to detect humans, cars, bicycles, motorcycles and that is what it would detect, nothing extraneous. It could email snap shots of what it detected as well as video. You could set it to send emails and you could set it to use an FTP server to send video to a user created folder. If I had had this camera when my house was broken into, they would have caught the guy. Now, it took me hours to figure out how to set all of this up. The star of this entire process was Anpviz Support team. I sent them at least fifteen emails with questions and every time there would be a response waiting in my email inbox the next morning with pictures and instructions on what to do. Anybody who says they are not getting good service through Anpviz Support must be approaching it wrong. My wife came home the other night after dark. She told me that when she walked by the camera the lights came on. She asked me if that was what was supposed to happen. I told her that it was. What she didn’t see is how it turned on color night vision and took a snap shot, a feature I wish was available on all of my cameras. The flip side of that is that some of these features have limited instructions, and it’s hard to intuitively figure out exactly what should go where in the set up. There could be improvements made in that area: Better instructions out of the box for all features. The elephant in the room though, is that the camera’s web version is not the best. The live view and playback can sometimes be pixelated and intermittent when using it as a standalone. The best way to use the camera is with an NVR, which is what I am doing. That way, you can use Intelligent Detect, FTP, PTZ and playback features of the camera and get good video by taking advantage of the NVR’s superior processing power. I haven’t covered everything, but for the price, I think this is a good buy. The picture is good (when using an NVR), the night vision is good, and email and FTP features are great. As far as PTZ is concerned, it seemed to work ok. I used it more for helping with directional positioning during installation. Overall, I give the camera a rating of four stars. Its performance when connected to an NVR is excellent.