I’ve owned a bunch of Foscam cameras, a sub-brand owned by Amcrest.
Amcrest and its Foscam sub-brand seem very interested in getting access to your cameras, have less capable and less convenient software, and the cameras themselves seem less well built than Reolink.
I bought a half a dozen V1 Wyze cams, and at least two of them have failed. I won’t touch that brand again. I also would never have used Wyze at all except for the exploit that allowed custom firmware installation for real local access and control.
I thought the doorbell camera worked great with frigate, is that not the case? I don’t have a need for cameras yet but that was on my shopping list…all cameras will be on a locked down vlan so it’s fine if it TRIES to phone home if it still works “offline”
Are you running them with Frigate? I was thinking the lack of substream wouldn’t be a problem because the frigate server could downscale if needed (but I haven’t really looked into it yet)
Ahh gotcha, didn’t consider that! I’ll have to make sure my processor is up for the task. I think it will be…I’m doing 4 cameras + doorbell max and buying a NUC
Just make sure they have substreams and get a coral (or GPU) for detection. Then a pi could probably handle it.
I have enough processing to do it all on CPU (8 cams+doorbell) but it ramps up the power usage, so it was better to use the gpu I already had for transcoding, as detection.
Without you can still just record and overwrite. Not that it’s extremely useful without detection and notifications.
I was planning on an Intel CPU that was recommended when I was putting my list together which I was told could handle detection up on to 8 cameras without issue (so I could skip the Coral all together)
I use Amcrest, mostly because the guy who makes frigate recommended them, and has affiliate links on his site. As a software developer myself, I have to say frigate (and HA) are two jewels of open source software and so I’m happy to support them however I can.
That being said, the cameras work well and are easy to integrate with both frigate and HA. They all try to phone home at first, but stop if you tell them to (I’ve confirmed this by monitoring the traffic on my dns servers).
I couldn’t find a privacy friendly wifi camera with a big enough battery to run continuously, so I ended up building my own with a solar panel, an inverter, and a 9ah lithium battery that sits on a fence post at the end of my driveway. It was a fun project, but I wish I could buy it.
Another small gripe is that the PTZ cameras from Amcrest all seem to be crazy expensive or have mixed reviews, so I’ve just held off on those for now.
Thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep them on my list. I wasn’t considering the PTZ cameras just the inexpensive turrets and plan on running them PoE so it looks like those issues won’t affect me!
Amcrest gets recommended a lot but I have no personal experience with them
I’ve owned a bunch of Foscam cameras, a sub-brand owned by Amcrest.
Amcrest and its Foscam sub-brand seem very interested in getting access to your cameras, have less capable and less convenient software, and the cameras themselves seem less well built than Reolink.
I bought a half a dozen V1 Wyze cams, and at least two of them have failed. I won’t touch that brand again. I also would never have used Wyze at all except for the exploit that allowed custom firmware installation for real local access and control.
I thought Reolink cameras were just rebranded Amcrest…or is it just the chips and lenses?
I will be using them with Frigate so I’m not too worried about the janky software unless it affects how Frigate operates
Are you using an Amcrest IP4M-1041B, can you have a look at this? https://lemmy.world/post/16883143. Thank you.
I have a few. Some try and call home (mostly the doorbell, every 10s). The others are easy to setup and run with frigate.
I thought the doorbell camera worked great with frigate, is that not the case? I don’t have a need for cameras yet but that was on my shopping list…all cameras will be on a locked down vlan so it’s fine if it TRIES to phone home if it still works “offline”
The doorbell does, except for no sub stream. And the only way for mine to be setup is their bs app.
I should’ve looked better when buying, but alas. I have this one and I’m lazy.
Are you running them with Frigate? I was thinking the lack of substream wouldn’t be a problem because the frigate server could downscale if needed (but I haven’t really looked into it yet)
Yes, the issue I have with no sub stream (only on the doorbell) is that it uses more processing for detection on such a large resolution.
Ahh gotcha, didn’t consider that! I’ll have to make sure my processor is up for the task. I think it will be…I’m doing 4 cameras + doorbell max and buying a NUC
Just make sure they have substreams and get a coral (or GPU) for detection. Then a pi could probably handle it.
I have enough processing to do it all on CPU (8 cams+doorbell) but it ramps up the power usage, so it was better to use the gpu I already had for transcoding, as detection.
Without you can still just record and overwrite. Not that it’s extremely useful without detection and notifications.
I was planning on an Intel CPU that was recommended when I was putting my list together which I was told could handle detection up on to 8 cameras without issue (so I could skip the Coral all together)
I’ve got amcrest and I integrate them into HA via mqtt using blue iris.
But amcrest cameras need something like pihole to help block all their taking to the home base
Are you using an Amcrest IP4M-1041B, can you have a look at this? https://lemmy.world/post/16883143. Thank you.
I use Amcrest, mostly because the guy who makes frigate recommended them, and has affiliate links on his site. As a software developer myself, I have to say frigate (and HA) are two jewels of open source software and so I’m happy to support them however I can.
That being said, the cameras work well and are easy to integrate with both frigate and HA. They all try to phone home at first, but stop if you tell them to (I’ve confirmed this by monitoring the traffic on my dns servers).
I couldn’t find a privacy friendly wifi camera with a big enough battery to run continuously, so I ended up building my own with a solar panel, an inverter, and a 9ah lithium battery that sits on a fence post at the end of my driveway. It was a fun project, but I wish I could buy it.
Another small gripe is that the PTZ cameras from Amcrest all seem to be crazy expensive or have mixed reviews, so I’ve just held off on those for now.
Thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep them on my list. I wasn’t considering the PTZ cameras just the inexpensive turrets and plan on running them PoE so it looks like those issues won’t affect me!
Bon voyage!
Are you using an Amcrest IP4M-1041B, can you have a look at this? https://lemmy.world/post/16883143. Thank you.
Think you replied to the wrong person. I don’t like or recommend Amcrest.
Besides your take anything else against them?
Amcrest is all up in your business.
Yeah, but aren’t others as well? My ideia was to run them on an isolated VLAN without Internet access. What brand would you recommend instead.