See comments below: On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 3:03 PM Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > . > > Which pieces of crap, the RLC 820A or the used Axis 2MP cams? > The usual culprits in the big box stores. Arlo, Lorex, NiteOwl, etc. My brother in law bought Arlo, I looked at it and said nothing. > > A fixed cam is a fixed cam is a fixed cam, every one of them out there on > the market uses the same CCD made by the same maker in China and cheap > plastic optics, and that is the only thing that is really worth anything > inside the cam. > Yes, that is what I figured. Very little branching as far as product. > > If you buy an Axis Q6075-SE (which I have done so) then the manufacturer > does spend some money on the PTZ gears and you will get real ground glass > optics but otherwise most IP cams are the same. > I have had 2nd hand ones, great cameras, but never could afford one new. Have had some customers that could though. SV3C sells a 5MP Dome D05POE-5MP for $50, Reolink sells a 5MP Dome RLC-520A > for the same price, so I'm really not sure what you are terming pieces of > crap. Axis or Reolink? And "they" on a used cam are the Fleabay maggots, > not Axis. I did say the Axis stuff is "name brand" and anyone buying cams > should know "name brand = extra $$$" My feeling is once the laggards still > selling new 2MP cams (like SV3C is doing) quit doing it the Fleabay maggots > will unload their 2MP cams whether they say Axis on them or not for next to > nothing. Frankly I see no difference between a used 2MP Axis cam from a > Fleabay maggot who is just sitting on them like a hen on eggs and a new > SV3c 2MP cam - both are obsolete tech and nobody should be selling a 2MP > fixed cam for more than $10-$15 unless it's got a telephoto lens as long as > my pecker attached to it LOL. > The big box stuff that they sell for 3X the above mentioned price per camera. I have not used a Reolink yet, I almost did but I ended up getting another camera. Going to have to get one and give it a run. Telephoto.... Har! Har!! > > Today I wouldn't buy a 2MP cam from anyone, either SV3C or Reolink and I > won't buy a 5MP cam either, I don't see that SV3C has an 8MP dome offering > yet, although maybe they intend on releasing a 12MP offering for $120 since > that seems to be the sweet spot. The cost is in the time and energy > mounting the cam the cam cost is small in comparison so spend the extra $50 > and get the highest MP you can find. You can certainly elect to record at > a lower resolution if you want. > I am watching for one of those (12mp). I want to give one a try in a certain location. > > I have zero use for motion-detection in the cam, it's all proprietary and > only seems to work if the cam is set to record to flash or intended for > cloud use. Why pay more for that? > Never tried it, looked too "outtacontrol" to me I want to be able to define my zones and triggers not depend on some rice box that does not know what I need. > > And while PTZ is "kewel" I have better things to do than spend all day in > front of a monitor swiping around a PTZ security camera. And I did > explain the limitations of "follow me" tech in security work during the > presentation, the cams are easily distracted if the perp uses an accomplice > and cases the place out. Fixed dome or bullet with a lot of cams is the > way to go. > The only thing I am interested in PTZ for is WX cams. Here in OK we have a lot of that and a PTZ cam comes in handy to look at what is going on out in remote area. Here we have an amateur radio group that is installing DMR repeaters around the state with the idea that during severe weather there will be available facilities over and above what we presently have. Those repeaters that are at remote sites we plan to setup an WX station and a WX cam. I like to use ZM for the WX image capture. The PTZ part allows those doing the remote monitoring to check out WX activity in the area of the cam. Right now the sites are linked on the internet but we are building out a high speed amateur network to carry that traffic. > > >Somewhere back in ZM history is a piece by a guy in the UK, he had some > guy speeding through the subdivision (Estate >for them) he lived in, they > tried to get him caught but they never were, he already had ZM running so > he wrote some >code and setup a second camera was able to catch the plate > on the vehicle and provide the speed by doing speed calcs >between the two > cameras. According to him the cops used the video data to nab the guy. > > Yeah that probably works in the UK but here a good lawyer could hire an > expert witness who would demonstrate how easy it would have been for the ZM > guy to make the second cam say whatever time he wanted and produce whatever > speed he wanted so I kind of doubt the veracity of that story. Plus it > would have been just as good to just get video of the speeder, measure out > landmarks on the road, then calculate the speed using frame rate from a > single cam using the frame to frame time index in the video stream and > compare where the car was in each frame. > > Just as easy and accurate technologically and harder to discredit in a > court, but it sounds more sexy to say you used 2 cams. Sigh. That was I guess about 13'15 years ago. I was still living in Tampa, Fl when that one popped up. I will see if I can find it As I recall the guy put the code out there for folks to use. He used it to give the police a better idea of the times it was happening and video of the vehicle. They then were able to be there at the right time and catch him. But before the ZM video nothing was happening. > > > >Yes everyone I have set up on ZM does not want anything else, and it > allows them to buy different cams for different >applications, I know a > fellow that uses his ZM also to collect bird video in his yard. I have a WX > cam setup facing SW the >direction we get bad weather from, just to monitor > what is coming from that direction. > > Actually there's a number of "free" and commercial Windows programs from > manufacturers that do allow use of different cams. I just think the > stability of a Linux or FreeBSD server is superior to Windows. Especially > today when Microsoft seems to believe that Windows's purpose is to collect > telemetry for Microsoft and send it back to them for marketing analysis. > And while Windows Server 2022 is pretty stable I have no stomach for > dropping $1000 on a server software license that won't run on anything than > Nehalem or better CPUs just for a security cam... Windows is just not something I like to deal with. I had a bad experience at a glass plant in Villafranca de los Barros Spain, that kind of capped it off. I just cannot believe you can leave a windows box unattended for any length of time. I am sure that they have corrected things but something that calls home (MS) and feels like working on a car with the hood welded shut just does not sit right. Not to mention the monetizing of the desktop.
