Amcrest UltraHD 4K (8MP) IP PoE AI Camera, FOV 129°, 49ft Color Nightvision, Security Outdoor Bullet Camera, Human & Vehicle Detection, Active Deterrent, 4K @15fps, IP8M-2796EB-AI (Black)

Functionality: I can make all of the necessary configurations with any browser. Currently using Chrome. Saving is very important as I make any changes. Overall experience: • I am not a fan of bullet cameras but decided to give this one a shot (am in love with the spotlight, more later) • Connected to my network quickly and joined my BlueIris server. • Very surprised at the size of this camera. It was actually a bit bigger than I expected and is very, very solid metal. • This camera is positioned in a spot on our farm overlooking our ducks because there was a couple of features of this camera I wanted to test out in this area. • It is very clear that it is waterproof as undoing the screws from the dome piece I could hear the air being released. It was also very simple to add the SD card. Image: • The 129-degree field of view makes for an excellent image and is much wider than you would expect as well as most other cameras. The image is crystal clear and the coverage is amazing. • While not a stated feature, for some reason I feel that this camera has a bit higher viewpoint if that makes sense. I can see more top to bottom. That may be due to placement or the wider angle but either way, it has been a perfect fit for this location. Night Vision: • The night vision kicks on and looks great when needed. • I will forever always try to purchase and recommend cameras that have the spotlight feature. Ever since it was updated to being able to be ‘always on’ during motion, I have just raved about it. Having that additional light powered by POE is incredible to me. While it’s not a floodlight, it is just enough during the night when I am walking out there to light up my path. • Really appreciate the night color Technology. Makes the night time images much easier to see Audio: • While I am not using audio to trigger recording, it is very nice to be able to listen in on the ducks as they go about their day. • It is crystal clear and cutting adjusting for the wind noise was easy to accomplish with the provided settings. Playback: • It’s great to be able to select by file type when looking at recordings. This makes it much quicker to go through the videos of the day. AI: • This is where I wanted to do some additional testing. This camera is pointed at our ducks on the farm and I wanted to test it’s motion, human detection as well as trip-line (IVS). • I was able to easily block out where the ducks are located in the detection area very quickly. Then using IVS, set trip lines coming from both directions to pick up any animals or humans. I also set the detection to humans. • Notifications and video seemed to be captured every time it was feeding time (human) and anytime the trip-line was tripped (dogs running by) which was fantastic to see. I have been able to see these events specifically as well as know if any racoons show up in the area again. There have defiantly been some false positives but I would much rather that then not capturing something. Overall, this is a great bullet camera with an incredibly wide-angle view. I have found a permeant spot with this camera overlooking my ducks and can view their entire pen as well as anything approaching with it. While I wish the hood was a bit more movable, it is not necessary due to the camera facing more north. The camera and image though are top quality from Amcrest as usual and with the included spotlight, this is easily in one of my top 3 cameras from Amcrest.

This review is for the Amcrest UltraHD 4K (8MP) IP PoE AI Camera, FOV 129°, 49ft Color Nightvision, Security Outdoor Bullet Camera, Human & Vehicle Detection, Active Deterrent, 4K @15fps, IP8M-2796EB-AI (referred to henceforth as Color HD4K). I was previously using the Amcrest UltraHD 4K without the color nightvision (IP8M-249EB-V2 referred to henceforth as HD4K). See the photos for size and package comparisons. If you are considering an upgrade from the HD4K (IP8M-249EB-V2) to the Color HD4K (IP8M-2796EB-AI), here are few things to keep in mind: 1. The color night vision on the Color HD4K is amazing and alone, well-worth the upgrade. 2. The Color HD4K has a wider field of view than the HD4K (105° vs. 129°) 3. The Color HD4K and the HD4K do NOT have the same screw patterns on their bases. This means that you will have to drill new holes to mount the camera new camera (See photo of bases). Installation: The installation using the AmcrestViewPro app was not the best experience, but is was fine. I did have one app crash when adding the camera, but that literally happens every time I add a camera with the app. After the crash, I just start over and it works the second time. The app isn't very polished but I've actually started using the web browser interface (just enter your camera IP address into the the web address bar in your browser) and it's pretty impressive. It's very intuitive and easy to use. You can adjust the video picture, add text to the video stream, and a lot more. Why I'm Excited About This Camera: APPLE HOMEKIT!! To be clear, there are currently no POE cameras with native Homekit support. BUT, those who know about Homebridge, Home Assistant (HASS), or Scypted understand that this camera can ABSOLUTELY be added to Apple Homekit (WITH APPLE SECURE VIDEO). In my home, I'm using Home Assistant with the Scrypted addon to bring this camera into Homekit. Amcrest cameras are ideal for this setup which is why they are recommended on the official Scrypted website. Here's why the Color HD4K is perfect HASS/Scrypted/Homekit: 1. Quality of this camera is amazing for the price (lots of people use Unifi cameras but they are SO EXPENSIVE). 2. Great video quality, so the image is clear in Homekit. 3. Like most other POE cameras, the video loads instantly. Even in Homekit. 4. This camera supports multiple streams. This lets me have a low res and high stream to use in Scrypted. I can have the low res video play in Homekit when I stream video from outside of my home and use the high res stream for a NVR. 5. This camera natively streams to correct video format for Homekit (h.264) Overall, I could not be happier with this camera. The quality is great, web interface is handy, and it works flawlessly in Apple Homekit w/ Homekit Secure Video. My next project will be to add an NVR to the setup for 24/7 recording. The NVR will likely be from Amcrest, along with any other cameras that I add in the future.

I was hesitant of trying a new camera (I've been burned a couple times of buying cameras on Amazon, due to poor quality and worse customer service). I decided to give this one a try.. and I am glad I did.. Not only did this camera exceed my expectations, but the customer service also exceeded my expectations! First of all, I ran into a issue when I received the product, the camera would not power on, I tried different ports on my POE switch, I tried different cables, and came to the conclusion that the camera was dead. (This can happen with ANY product from any company)... but where this stands out from the rest... I contacted them via email and got a response quickly.. I was given some things to try for troubleshooting (such as swapping cables, reset button, remove any SD card, etc). After troubleshooting, the camera was pronounced dead. I was able to get a replacement camera shipped to me quickly and the second camera worked PERFECTLY out of the box. A few things that caught my attention, this camera is made of METAL plus it had a microsd slot. Durable and ability to save images to a onboard storage made this standout. I did add a micro-sd card to the camera (which you have to remove couple screws, VERY easy to acomplish.) I was able to get mine setup quickly wiht the app and have access to view the rear of the house. Please note, this is POE and will require a adapter to power the camera or a POE network switch to power the camera. I don't have a NVR yet, so I am just depending on the camera for live views on my backyard. (view the dogs).. I will note, the image was CLEAR and crisp, in addition, the night time view was just as good! I have researched and found that this camera will intergrate seemlessly with most generic surveillance systems that support IP cameras. I have not been able to test in depth on the extra featues with AI Human/Vechicle detection, but I have no doubt that it doesn't exceed ALL expectations you have. This camera is well worth the purchase, and once I decided on a physical NVR or NVR software, I bet I will be looking to purchase more Amcrest cameras, especially if they are anything like this one! Give a try, I bet your expectations will be exceeded! A+++

Installation: - The nice thing about PoE cameras is that they are essentially plug and play. If your PoE is setup correctly, then you can plug it in and be on your way. It took me a few days to get my PoE switch in the mail and so a few extra days before I could actually try the Amcrest camera. - When I first connected the camera, I downloaded the Amcrest Config Tool and searched for my camera. It found it immediately, and I tried to login with default credentials... and it didn't work! - I called customer service and spoke with Jasmine who led me through the process of doing a factory reset on the camera, which reset the credentials. Then I was able to login to the camera. - Unfortunately, the URLs in the user manual were no longer active (e.g. amcrest.com/blueiris) or I did not have permissions to access them (e.g. amcrest.com/aisetup) however, I was able to figure it out pretty easily Mounting: - I did not receive any mounting instructions or a drilling template with this camera, but the screws and anchors were present. I decided against using those and instead I cut out some metal sheeting that would fit over my soffits and I bolted the camera down to them. This was very effective. The placement of the holes gave me several different options for mounting the camera. Camera Access: - Being a PoE camera, I was interested in accessing it via the web browser, or accessing it via BlueIris. Both were so simple to do - The web interface is easy to use - it provides the Main Stream as well as two Sub Streams. Each stream is configurable. This allows me to be able to look at the 4k resolution video, record at a lower resolution, and then switch to recording at the higher resolution when an event occurs. If you set it up right, you get a good amount of data saved while saving a lot of storage space. - I really really appreciate being able to modify Network settings, configuration, etc. from the web browser. And it works great - Being able to set schedules from the web interface for recording is very useful. It even has a provision for Holidays - and it can send your data to SD Card, to FTP or to a NAS! And it works great Camera Rotation: - This is my biggest annoyance with the camera - it can only rotate in one direction after mounting - not 360 degrees. I actually mounted it wrong the first time not realizing this and had to unmount, rotate and mount again. It also severely limited where the camera could look after it was mounted. If I wanted it to look in a slightly different direction on one axis, I would need to unmount, drill new holes and remount. Get it right the first time! Camera Resolution/Visuals - The camera has two adjustable profiles for Day and Night which is awesome! - The camera is advertised as 4k, and the settings say 4k on them. I do not have any 4k monitors to test this on, but the picture is crystal clear on my 2k monitors. - I am impressed with the Night Vision... I can actually see color and it's as if I'm looking at the camera in the evening Audio - I have not had the need for Audio yet in the placement of this camera, however it is close by my HVAC Unit so I was able to see how sensitive the Audio is. - I hear a lot of wind sounds throughout the day when I have the camera open, so if possible to have some wind screening that might be a good improvement Motion Detection - The Motion detection works very well. It seems to be a little inconsistent with bugs though - sometimes when bugs fly in front of the camera it triggers motion detection and other times it doesn't. Blue Iris Integration - I could not figure out how to control the light from BlueIris software (to turn it on and off) but I was able to control it from the web interface of the camera to turn on with motion detection - Blue Iris integration was very easy - I simply gave it the IP of the camera and it was ready. Overall - All in all, I am very impressed with this product. I evaluated it for a couple of weeks now, and I am happy to include it as part of my home integration, smart home and security system. - I would give it an 8/10 with the following notes for improvement: -- Better rotation capabilities (even if it needs a screwdriver) after it is mounted -- Update microphones to include wind screening (minor) -- Include a drilling guide if not already included

Great product! Make sure you use a good PoE injector before connecting to router to configure.