EmpireTech 4K Full-Color Ultra Low Light 8MP Smart AI Starlight Turret IP Camera 1/1.2" CMOS,Build-in Warm LED, Built-in Mic,SMD 3.0,PoE and ePoE,IPC-Color4K-T 2.8mm

While these are 4x the price of Amcrest, the jump in quality is worth it (yes i know they're all Dahua). Color picture at pitch-black night is great, the noise reduction seems to have been improved (wildlife isn't just a smear across the picture anymore), and the illuminator is as bright as a floodlight, if you use it. I use Frigate for NVR, POE from a central house rack, and a VLAN that disallows WAN - and greatly appreciate that this is fully closed-circuit setup without any kind of vendor/app lock-in. RTMP, onvif, and a great admin UI. While I can't justify having _all_ my cameras be this expensive, these are excellent for sides of the house or driveway that don't have exterior lights - because these act as exterior lights if you want, or can see perfectly well in total darkness.

Simply the best surveillance camera I’ve ever owned. The nighttime color footage is unmatched due to the large sensor. Everything plays well with Frigate and Scrypted NVR software, with tons of customization options for the video feeds, something I can’t say for my Tapo or Wyze cams. The tiew angle works for my location, but YMMV. Microphone quality is pretty good too. I can’t comment on two-way audio as I don’t use that, but it seems to be recognized by my software. Support from Empire Tech is notoriously good compared to competitors like Hik, Amcrest, Dahua, etc. Just get this one, it’s well worth the price premium if you need good night footage!

Wow, the family was blown away by the night time image quality with a streetlamp at the end of the driveway. This makes seeing what triggered an event so much nicer. There is a large range of adjustability. You won't be able to hide this camera as well if you use the onboard lighting which is surprisingly bright. Because it uses a white light auxiliary light source, find another outside light that can run like a motion sensor flood light to cut down on the false alerts of bugs. The mounting was easy and is very solid. I have it mounted under the eave of the house and there is plenty of adjustment to get the picture just right. It is quick to alert and because of the clarity, the AI tools are identifying objects more correctly. Integrated into blue iris quickly and also picked up in Synology Surveillance Station without any hassles.

Video and photo snapshot were taken after 9:00PM at night. These are also taken without the built-in spotlight since the 1/1.2" sensor is able to take in more than enough light to give a crisp color picture. I am in the process of upgrading my current system which had dome style cameras that suffered from Infared light spots leaking at night. After seeing great reviews for this brand from trusted third parties I decided to upgrade my old camera to this full time color. It is also fully functional with my BlueIris and Home Assistant integrations allowing for a true smart home and advanced alerts. Looking forward to getting the rest of my system upgraded and have already purchased 2 more from this line. Highly recommended.

We have install 7 of these so far. They provide good features at a reasonable price. I like the web UI. It is quick to move around in. There is a file that some anti virus software may flag as infected. It is a false positive. I have tested it in a sandbox to confirm I didn't install infected cameras. It's just bad design and implementation of the browser web plug in. The web plug in is not really needed. The color at night in low light is mind blowing. I hear "WOW it's so clear!" from people who's system I installed it on. Works great on Blue Iris. Configure it with 2 streams and it will have very little impact on the overhead of Blue Iris.