ELP 720P Mini IR LED Day&Night HD Dome IP Camera, Dome Network Camera

Pros -Its cheapCons -1. It does not default to DHCP. Had to get a spare router and configure it for 192.168.1.x and connect to the camera 192.168.1.102. It requires windows and internet explorer to configure the camera. I run linux on all my machines so I had to fire up a windows VM just to configure the camera. On top of that it also requires activex plugin to be installed. For such a cheap camera why go the extra effort in making proprietary non universal web interface? Why don't programmers stick to HTML standards these days? Its much easier to implement and any browser or OS could access it. Also the interface for the camera is a bit on the slow side for loading and responding to user input.3. No external reset button so you have to be able to connect to it to reset the defaults if needed. Would have been nice if I could have reset it and have it grab a DHCP address.4. Image quality is OK for 720p but what do you expect for such a low price. IR image quality is also OK.5. Have to use rtsp in zoneminder to get it to work. No smearing when using zoneminder 1.28 and Libvlc as source type. Using Ffmpeg had smearing. URL source path as rtsp://( ip address ):554/user=admin&password=&channel=1&stream=0.sdp? [edit] After 24+ hours I get a blank image from libvlc as a source. Going into the camera setting in zoneminder and just hitting the save button brings back the image. May have to setup a script to run every 24hrs to refresh the settings to reconnect to the camera. Using Remote as a source type in zoneminder does produce an image but there are many rtsp errors and the image becomes unstable. Still trying to get a stable image from this camera.6. I don't like the mounting option. Just 4 holes which you have to rotate the cameras holder to get to. The camera pops out with a little force from behind. Would have been nice if it provided a standard tripod mount on the bottom like most IP cameras offer.7. Does not offer POE but I would not expect that for this price. Would be nice through.I would prefer to grab jpeg or mjpeg images instead of using an rtsp stream. If this can be done with this camera please let me know the URL format for this camera.Other than that this is an OK 720p IP camera with IR for the price. I would not use it for security applications in its current form. If you need something with better image quality just pay a little more. I personally like Axis cameras.

I have four of these, 3 outdoor and one in my basement. They seem to be fairly reliable once the setup is complete. The setup, as mentioned uses a questionable ActiveX plugin, which is a problem on many levels, not the least of which is that I don't use windows. I have a dedicated VM for managing these that gets fired up a few times a year. I've had mine installed for about 2.5 yearsIR is really strong, until it isn't. I have two that have failing IR but work fine otherwise. They're pretty much bulletproof physically. I have used BlueCherry, Zoneminder and most recently Shinobi to view these and since they seem to want to constantly talk off net I isolated them to an IoT network that can't talk to anything but the DVR machine. The "PoE" is also wonky, and not actually PoE, but does work fine. I had one arrive DoA and it was replaced promptly and without issue. I have struggled to find firmware updates, they show as having updated firmware but even when allowing them to speak off-net the auto firmware fails and I can no longer find a reliable firmware download source.Overall, I give these a 4 star rating, because they're essentially disposable at less than $40 for a very, very clear 720P indoor/outdoor camera. I'll likely buy a few more and replace the ones with IR issues as well as add one to cover my backyard.Take aways:Filter these from talking to the internet. Change their gateway to something other than the gatweway or isolate them in an IoT segment.Expect that you'll have issues every so often - they're inexpensive.Keep the management of these on a throw away system. I use virtualbox and a dedicated windows10 VMYou'll need to get the power injectors separatelyFirmware seems to be hard to find and autoupdate doesn't work, at least for meCrystal clear, quality videoIR is strongWorks with many different NVR platforms with minimal fuss