Amcrest UltraHD 4K (8MP) Outdoor Security IP Turret PoE Camera, 3840x2160, 98ft NightVision, 125° FOV, IP67 Weatherproof, MicroSD Recording (256GB), IP8M-T2599EW-AI-V3 (White)

This is a 4K ethernet networked security camera. I have used wifi cameras from Google (Nest Doorbell), WyzeCam, Ring, and the Unifi networked Power over Ethernet (POE) cameras. This camera will be compared against the Unifi networked cameras as this is also a hardwired camera.Basic Facts:This is a 1/2.5inch 8mp CMOS sensor with a 2.8mm fixed lens. The camera has a 112 degree horizontal field of view. The housing allows the camera to pivot 360 degrees around or 78 degrees up/down (all manual).It has an ethernet port that is 10/100.The security camera has a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 128gb. The unit can be managed by any NVR software that supports ONVIR or through an Amcrest dedicated NVR, or through Amcrest Cloud. I would recommend using a dedicated NVR or NVR software on a dedicated computer. The MicroSD card should be used as a fail safe instead of a primary means of storing and playing back camera footage.This camera gives you the option of H.265 or H.264 compression. For the low price of $109.99 it’s nice to see that it comes with H.265. The Unifi G4 Pro (4k sensor) at $450 does not offer H.265.The camera also has a build in mic to record sounds with video. There is no speaker with this unit, but that is consistent among networked security cameras. They are intended to record and not serve as means of two way communication like many wifi cameras sold by Ring, Nest, Arlo, etc. They do one job, record video, and do it well.Build quality: This is a solidly built security camera using all metal housing. The camera housing is able to generously pivot providing me flexibility in mounting options. With Unifi cameras, the camera itself has an ethernet port to plug in your own cable. With this camera, there is a cable permanently attached for 12-18 inches, and at the end is the port. The box comes with a connection cover to help with waterproofing. Normally, I would be concerned that this hardwired ethernet cable would be a point of failure on something that sees more use and abuse, but given that this is a security camera which will be installed once and not moved, I feel reasonably comfortable saying that this approach to the ethernet connection will not create a device longevity issue.Other than that, I saw no issues from this early review. I will update this review in 3-6 months with any new observations. The Amcrest 4k camera was tested inside for 1 week, and was installed under an eave so I cannot comment on its waterproofing.Image Quality:I have used the Unifi G3 Bullet camera and the G3 flex. Both of these Unifi cameras offer good daytime quality at 30fps. This Amcrest camera with 4K resolution blows away the Unifi cameras during daylight hours, even though it is only at 15fps. In smoothness, I can’t tell a difference between 15fps vs 30fps or it is so small that it does not bother me. If your goal is automatic license plate recognition, I would do a bit more research to see whether you need a beefier 4K security camera with 30fps (more opportunities per second to read a license plate clearly). However, for my use, to look at our property and the street in front of it, this camera works perfectly.I read online that for security cameras, the most you should put them at is 20fps, and anything more than that is wasting hard drive storage space. I was skeptical of the claim and never bothered to test it because I have enough space on my storage drive. Using the Amcrest 4k turret security camera, I can confirm the 15fps limit at 4k resolution is not a hindrance to my uses and I imagine it will not be for you if you have a typical use case: monitoring your home or business.This Amcrest 4K POE camera was partnered with the Sighthound Video software which immediately recognized the camera and took only a few minutes to set up. I would recommend finding the camera’s IP address, logging in, and then changing the default password. The default username and password are admin and admin, respectively.Looking at daytime video quality, I am absolutely blown away by the 4k image quality for only $109.99. It is significantly better than my 1080p Unifi cameras. The Unifi G3 bullet is $150 and the G3 flex is $79 for cost comparison purposes. Ubiquiti also sells a 4k camera called the G4 Pro for $450. It has a 4k image sensor and records at 24fps.This camera includes a microphone. The microphone is adequate but I would say the unifi microphones or the one included on the Nest Hello doorbell are more sensitive. That may not be a bad thing — those microphones are so sensitive in the Nest and Unifi cameras that they pick up noises from 500+ feet away.The only real downside of this camera I see is that the night vision could use improvement. It is in general difficult to find a camera that can mate night vision and a 4k sensor and it holds true here. There is a lot of noise in the image, and night vision on my 1080p Unifi camera looks better. The IR led on this camera is fine for about 30ft. 164ft as claimed by the product manufacturer would be a stretch, but I doubt you would ever use 1 camera to look for objects 164ft away. The same is true for the Unifi cameras - they are good for up to 30ft away. For normal use, this camera’s IR led is more than adequate. Moreso, most 4k security cameras in the consumer/prosumer product area range from $200-500. Given this product’s low price, you could add an IR flood light for $20-70, or normal flood lights to improve the night time illumination of your area. If you add an IR flood light, it will aid in black and white illumination. If you add a normal flood light, it will make it easier for the camera algorithm to switch to color-mode, turn off the IR LEDs, and record a more vivid image at night.Overall: This is a great security camera priced extremely aggressively. For the price, $109.99, most consumers would expect a 1080p or 4mp camera. Instead, this is a 8mp/4k security camera recording at 15fps, IP67 weatherproof, microSD card slot for backup storage, and a wide temperature operating range of -22 F to 140 F.I have been looking for a 4k camera to monitor the intersection in front of my home as it sees a lot of traffic with people taking turns fast. There have been a few instances of drivers nearly hitting children, or they have hit our landscaping. The Unifi 4K camera at $450 is too much even though it gets good reviews. Many Hikvision and Dahua 4k cameras hover around $180-$220. This camera, for $109.99, hits 90% of the mark compared to the unifi camera for 25% of the price. It does not offer a motorized lens, and it could benefit from better night time video quality. However, I did not anticipate using the motorized zoom lens. So, for 1/4th the price of the Unifi camera, I can recommend this as a suitable alternative. I used the Sighthound Video app to record video but BlueIris is another popular alternative. The daytime video quality of the camera is superb and works well in a variety of lighting conditions from straight-on sunlight to cloudy days. License plates are easy to read and faces have more detail compared to my 1080p security camera.I would like to review this Amcrest turret 4k camera against Amcrest’s bullet camera, which is a bit cheaper at $89.99. However, if you are in need of a turret style camera, I would strongly recommend considering this.

Hey everyone, I wanted to give a review of this camera as it may help others that are in a similar situation of picking a new cam or just adding one to their existing environment. The camera that I decided on for my front walkway was this Amcrest turret cam and I have to say that right out of the box I am highly impressed. I have recently (maybe 4 months ago) got into setting up an NVR (Blue Iris) and PoE Cameras. My first purchase I made was multiple Reolink 510 turret cams which ended up being a pretty decent cam for my use, but I wanted more pixels (4K). Now there is a price point difference of course but you are getting not only higher quality image but seems to be better quality materials.The first thought I had as I opened the camera was impressed due to the fact that the entire chassis is metal and had a much higher quality feel than the Reolinks I started out with. The camera has a memory card location that is inside the camera meaning you will have to take it apart to get to it. While this is inconvenient to access, from a security aspect this is quite nice and much more secure as most people aren't going to walk off with your camera. Especially this one if it is mounted properly and out of reach. Some of the other cams I have and even considered before this have a door/cover that provides access to insert a card, which is ok but also could be compromised some what easier.The physical install of the cam was quite easy, there is a sticker template included that you can stick on the surface where you are planning to mount it and then just drill through it, put in your (included) anchors and then mount the base. The outer piece that holds the camera is also full metal which made me feel better about mounting it as it did require some force to hold the cam in place and secure the Torx bolt in place. Once the bolt was tight the cam was solid and would not move even with a lot of force, this is most likely due to the rubber used to cradle the camera to the base.I installed the camera above front door off to the side so it watches my main walk way. There is a overhead door light that comes on at night to help with lighting at night. The quality of video in the day time has been phenomenal everything has been sharp and looks great and no issues capturing or frame stutter etc. It's not going to read license plates by the street, but it is more for the closer coverage at the door. At night performance does take a little bit of a hit but its much better than anything I had leading up to it. The image is still very sharp, however with light sources coming at the camera does tend to make things hard to see clearly. Close up the quality is more than acceptable with a camera of this price point.My install of adding the camera to my NVR setup was extremely painless, I logged into the webgui, set a new password and static IP and pointed Blue Iris at it and that was it. I of course checked for updates and did make some other changes but as far as adding the camera that is all that was needed to get it going. My current setup may be a little different than most as I run a full reporting server that I use to watch most of my network and hardware allowing me to also watch network bandwidth and have it report into a dashboard. This allows me to Compare file sizes with regards to quality, resolution and bandwidth used.I am using Blue Iris to do my captures and am using motion triggers vs doing a 24/7 record. With my Reolink cams I am running 2556x1920 @ 15FPS and 6144 kbps using H264 codec. Typical file sizes were between 20-30 MB per clip (varing 20-30 seconds). The Amcrest I am running 3840x2160 at 15 FPS using the highest quality setting and the same 6144 kbps with H265 codec and my file sizes are coming out around the same size. SO because Amcrest has supported the use of H265 I am getting a much bigger frame size and everything else being the same, I am getting a better quality image at the same storage cost. Furthermore when looking at my network usage my Amcrest is running a pretty constant 10 Mbps where all my other cams (Reolnks) are running similar bandwidth. So better over all performance at the same bandwidth and file size.Overall since installing about 3 weeks since writing this, I am still highly impressed with cam, I find it has become my favorite one to watch as the wider angle has allowed me to see much more than just walk way, I can actually see most of the drive way and even into the street. I played with the audio feature a little bit and it seem to pick up quite a bit and can be even used as a record trigger. The web GUI while I haven't used it much since my initial setup, I found has a LOT of different settings that were available. In fact, there were much more than I expected. You can control everything from quality, encoding, audio & video settings like brightness, hue, profiles, alarm, cloud settings all of it available right inside the gui, so even without a NVR system you could check in on this cam or even the app, and see events. Amcrest has a done a phenomenal job of having all kinds of ways to utilize the camera in a way that works for you. There really seems to be no wrong way to use this camera as it can be used as a single stand alone camera all by itself or you can add it to a system like I did. This would make a great addition to anyone's existing setup or even as a first purchase camera that they just want a little added security.One last thing to keep in mind will be you will need power adapter (if not using PoE) and a wired network connection. If you are possibly adding this camera to an existing setup like I did, this camera has a 10/100 Mbps requirement is great as you can use a PoE rated RJ-45 splitter (2 pairs of wires to each camera power/data) using your existing (4 Pair any Cat5/6 etc) cable run if installing near an existing camera saving you a lot of time to add the new camera. I am currently doing this and has worked out excellent.Hope that anyone reading this has found it helpful!