Amcrest 5MP POE Camera, Outdoor Vandal Dome Security POE IP Camera, 5-Megapixel, 98ft NightVision, 2.8mm Lens, IP67, IK10 Resistance, MicroSD 256GB (Sold Separately), Cloud, NVR (IP5M-D1188EW-AI-V3)

I upgraded my video security system and chose the Amcrest 5MP POE Camera (MODEL: IP5M-D1188EWAI) after a extensive research. The combination of high-resolution video and POE (Power Over Ethernet) capability caught my attention, and it has proven to be very good. A good friend suggested them years a go. But now they are getting better and more affordable. I also have a older DVR using the old style cable and power. They work up to 8 MP, so do this NVR with the IP cameras. These are easier to install. Set up plug and play. The setup was a little tricky. But a call to tech support TONY helped me out I found the POE feature made it effortless to run a single cable for both power and data. Just a heads-up: a separate POE injector or switch is necessary, but that’s a minor investment for the benefits you gain. The camera’s intuitive design and pretty good instructions made mounting it easy, But if you have never done this before I would look at many videos first. and check out a friend or store cams, See how they are placed make out a map and see where to place them for the best view that will give you ideal recordings. So if you need to go back you have the targets caught on film. Also make sure your view is over lapping. that way you can follow and always have the target in sight. Using the camera is a seamless experience. The Amcrest Surveillance Pro software is user-friendly, and it connected to my PC in no time. It's also compatible with Blue Iris Professional, which I plan to explore. I opted for local storage on a MicroSD card (not included), but let’s not forget the available cloud storage and NAS options. The video quality is exceptional. The 5-megapixel resolution delivers sharp images during the day, and the night vision, with a range of 98 feet, performs reliably. The 103° viewing angle effectively covers a large area of my backyard, leaving no blind spots. The 8MP 4K are better but for the price these are very good. Durability is another standout feature; its IP67 weatherproof rating has held strong through several rainy days. Plus, the IK10 vandal resistance ensures it can withstand rough treatment. They are built very well and made of good material. Not cheap like others out there. The Amcrest 5MP POE Camera (IP5M-D1188EW AI) is an excellent addition to any home security system. I also bought some Amcrest bullet 5MP Cams and a Amcrest NVR, using the same vendor is better as they install almost like Plug & Play. to make it easy and made the install go well. Some times not all mixed match items may not be compatible.

Amcrest Webcam (IP5M-D1188EW-28MM) Packaging ( 5 / 5 ) The packaging that came with the POE IP camera was excellent. The combination of foam and cardboard was a great idea, and provided adequate support on all sides. The packaging also has tamper evident tape, to ensure the product was not tampered with from the seller to the consumer. Physical Product Feel ( 5 / 5 ) The POE IP camera felt very sturdy, and will protect the internals from weather damage. The Cable provided was also quite long, which was a plus. Using the POE IP Cam ( 5 / 5 ) Video/ Picture Quality ( 5 / 5 ) The picture/video quality out-of-the-box did not need any software tweaking. Although it is available to be adjusted in the Amcrest web interface. The camera has a main stream which is in HD, and an optional sub stream. You can enable and disable this in the web interface. The sub stream provides decent quality video, if you want to have a quick glance. The video and picture quality of the camera is superb, it is pretty detailed even in night mode. Everything is still visible and clear during the day and night. The 103° viewing angle is very helpful, you can see more with just one camera. Software ( 4 / 5) The Web Interface provided with the camera is pretty straight forward, and most brands use the same interface. It allows you to adjust the quality, saturation, sharpness, brightness, gamma, and contrast. There is a live view, playback, and cloud storage options. If you want to use the playback option in the web interface, you need to install a sd card. You can mirror and flip the image/video if needed. You can adjust the day/night/general profiles for the camera, and setup day/night times. I would like to be able to input the time manually, instead of dragging a slider across. Camera Features Extra SD Card storage availability/ Amcrest Cloud Storage/ NVR Privacy mask, if you don’t want to see an area on camera. Auto Restart User management This camera has lots of additional features Overall ( 4.5 / 5 ) The Amcrest POE IP camera is an excellent budget camera that can capture a lot on a small device. Installation was easy, with the provided installation sticker, just put the sticker on the surface you would like to install the camera, drill a few holes, take the sticker off, and then mount the camera. The rest was a breeze, if you know what you are doing. I would recommend this camera to coworkers, friends, and people who want to protect their homes/workplace with surveillance cameras.

This is my second Amcrest camera, this purchase was based on the positive experience with my first. Outside installation was completed and while I had difficulty due to my home, the design of the case and mounting is well conceived. Updated the firmware. No problem. One issue with the camera hardware. The SD card holder uses a small flimsy metal tab to hold the SD card in place. During install, the SD card dropped out while screwing in the base to my garage overhang. Was able to find and re-install the SD card. I would think this could be done better for a few cents. With Sensitivity at 90 and Threshold at 10, I am finally getting successful motion detection for just walking in the designated area in cameras view. Took a bit of fiddling with the set up. I've set the detection area to just the walkway and steps near my front door. May still fiddle with that. Was not able to get the app based email setup notification setup to accept email sign in data, but do have email notification working from my NAS with the package "Surveillance Station". With these I am getting emails on detections with a still shot and my NAS saves only the video from detections. I use the web interface to the camera and both the iPad and iPhone apps. I think these apps need some work, but they are functional and handy. The web interface works well for setup. I would welcome some cleanup to the apps. Example on the iPad app. It does not remember my last accessed camera, but the iPhone app usually does. The iPad app opens in the lower resolution mode, I can select HD view. but it will not save the setting, gives a useless action failed message. Problem with the whole setup process is lack of clarity on how the different settings work, interact, and effect the operation of the camera, motion detection, and how files are saved. But, I am happy with the result. But I fear changing anything and having to reset and start over, again.

I was looking for a camera to go alongside our Nest video doorbell 1st gen and was looking for a high quality camera with ONVIF support and a wide viewing angle, and since it would be low to the ground in an urban environment a tamper proof dome camera was generally the only option. This came up and I saw others’ photos and got two, both 20% off with a coupon (for a total of just under $100). If you get more than one, check around because I saw a “2-pack” for about $110 (at the time the coupon and buying two individual ones would be cheaper). After getting it installed I noticed just how awesome the camera really was. I did wish it was higher than 20 fps but it’s not gonna capture many action shots. I wound up using the other camera to mount it to a junction box with conduit on my roof 3 stories high, to replace a 2MP 1080p bullet camera and once again HUGE improvement and excellent quality. My only gripe, is the seemingly weird IR blowout. I’m not sure if it’s because of the way I angled the cameras within the dome, but the IR in both seems to reflect off the dome or something and back into the lens causing a slow fogging effect until the image is completely washed out and unusable. However the camera’s low light/ambient light performance is phenomenal and with some adjustments to its exposure and gamma you can change in the camera’s settings, it looks amazing still. It also has a substream at D1 resolution which I use for a live feed in our living room. The pricing doesn’t scream “I got some cheap cameras”, there is true value in these. Overall, I’d buy again if we are looking to upgrade some of our other cameras.

I have 6 PEO cameras of various brands, plus some Eufy cameras. This camera looks great. The quality is noticeably better when compared to my other POE cameras, with the exception of the cameras that cost 2x the price- but it's right in line with them. Setup: At first I was very frustrated with the setup until I found out it was my LaView NVR that was causing the issues. It wasn't assigning IPs or identifying the Amcrest. However, after using the Amcrest app (and making sure my phone was connected to the same network as the wired camera, which took me far too long to realize I was on a different network) I was able to pair it almost instantly. I was also surprised at how easy it was to determine the IP address using their PC app. That made it much easier to manually assign an IP address to the camera along with a user name and password which I then manually set up in the LaView NVR. I tried BlueIris as well as iSpy- both were easy to setup but because I don't have a POE router (just the NVR) it made sense to just keep it on my current setup. A hint: double check the voltage to be sure as I'm sure many are different, but I found that several of my AC Adapters from external harddrives are the same voltage and physical size plug to power these cameras (as well as many LED light strips). This was the only way I could get it to connect in the first place because my NVR refused to work until I manually set it up- but again, this was certainly an issue with the NVR as it's happened on several of my other cameras. Image Quality: As I mentioned, the image is sharp and clear. The LaView NVR that I'm using has a pretty terrible interface for setting up the cameras and displaying the live view without distorting. Night vision is pretty good and casts a pretty broad floodlight. Build quality: Great. It's only been outside for a little while now so I'll update this if things change, but so far it's perfect. I don't see any reason there would be problems down the road- it's durable and heavy. Dome cameras are susceptible to light reflection and some scratch easily. I didn't put this through any scratch tests or beat it up, so I can't comment on that, but I looks like it could take the elements and then some without a problem. I have another dome camera (different brand) that eventually let water condense inside the dome. I hope this doesn't happen here but time will tell. I'll update this if that ever happens. I like the fact you can install a microSD card in the camera. That's an awesome feature! Overall you really can't go wrong with this camera, especially for the price point. There are other cameras that might give you a bit more bang or specific features, but at this price I honestly didn't feel like I was missing anything. I'm trying out their app a bit more on my android, which I'm finding also packs a lot when most apps are pretty sloppy- theirs in solid. Highly recommend.

Worked well for awhile--about 6 months, but then failed. I am guessing moisture got past the rube goldberg designed gasket, which you have to breach to mount the camera. A better design would not require this.

This camera was by far the easiest POE/IP camera I have setup to date. I would honestly say it was easier to setup and configure than it was to convince my wife to assist me with installing it on the back porch. That being said I did see 2 minor issues with the camera that could be a simple adjustment on my part or just a limitation of the camera itself. I test this camera out using a handful of different NVR and automation software's. Anything from Home Assistant & Zoneminder to the free to use excellent NVR software from Amcrest themselves. The motion tracking and zone configuration allowed for some pretty unique automations through Home Assistant, and the added ability to record locally on an SD card and the NVR software at the same time allows for redundancy. The image quality of this camera is leaps and bounds better than the Ring cameras I have setup that were triple the price of this one, even in low light the camera outperforms them. The only real issues that I ran into with the camera has to do with the IR LEDs on the camera. The LEDs are arranged in a circular pattern around the lens but when the camera is mounted to an eaves or a bracket that acts like an ceiling mount some of those LEDs are covered up by the housing of the camera. This doesn't affect the overall picture quality just makes the top part of the image a little darker than the rest due to those being covered. If the camera is wall mounted this isn't an issue since the lens would be pointing straight out from the body of the camera rather than out the edge of the camera. The other one is so minor it's funny, because this is a vandal proof camera the whole camera has a shell that slips over the lens to stop people from moving it, but it's a finger print magnet and makes the image a bit blurry until you find the spot. White gloves are definitely needed when placing this on after installation. Overall, I would definitely recommend this camera to anyone looking for excellent picture quality at a fraction of the cost of the competitors. Add in that it can be used with almost all NVR software (MotionEye has a bad delay) and this camera becomes the best bang for the buck that I have tested so far.

Nice enough camera, good resolution to see my yard from the second floor. My only issue is the IR LEDs cannot be disabled under the current firmware from 3/20/22. Reverting to the previous version available on the Amcrest website solves the issue. In hindsight, from a second story if I was looking to capture passing cars I would choose an 8MP/4K camera. UPDATE AS OF 8/20 After a month of troubleshooting with support the firmware issue still has not been resolved with multiple days between responses. I'm going to return and buy something else. UPDATE AS OF 9/22 Same nonsense support issues, they actually closed the ticket on me since I didn't respond to their request of "I apologize for the inconvenience caused. I will check with the team and from you shortly."