4K UltraHD PoE Bullet Security Camera with Built-in IVS Features

The AMCREST IP8M-2496EB is a decent, mid-priced option for most surveillance systems. Full disclosure, I was reimbursed for this camera by AMCREST. My surveillance system uses exclusively AMCREST cameras as I have found them to be of reasonable performance and value. I have multiple resolution cameras in my system - 960H, 2MP, 3MP, 4MP, and 8MP - and a combination of wired (both coaxial cable and ethernet) and wireless connections. The IP8M-2496EB camera is the first PoE camera that I have added to the system. As with all previous additions of AMCREST cameras, connecting this camera to the surveillance system was very straightforward. Use of their mobile app to add equipment is simple and quick, and has worked this way with every one of the dozen cameras and recording devices I have added to my system. The PoE functionality of this camera worked perfectly directly out of the box - truly plug & play. The camera clearly states that it does not have the power supply included, so you must supply power either through an adapter or through a PoE switch. I use a PoE switch in my system, and it works very well - no signal dropouts and good speed (dependent upon your switch speed). The IP8M-2496EP camera has a significantly wider field of view than any of my other cameras, and the image is reasonably good over the entire field of view. In my evaluation of this camera, I compared it to a 2MP camera (IP2M-841), which has a 90° field of view. The full view resolution of the two cameras seem to be very similar, but if zoomed (using the scroll function of the mouse rather than the digital zoom function) the image of the 2MP camera does seem to be slightly better when the image is adjusted for the size difference. I've attached a photo illustrating this - the two pics were taken using the IR illumination from the cams which were mounted about 18" apart. The pics were adjusted to be approximately the same size using Photoshop, but no other changes were made. Since the 8MP camera has a significantly wider field of view, this means that the pic is zoomed to a higher degree to be the same size - and this may be a reasonable explanation of why the 2MP camera seems to have better zoomed resolution than the 8MP camera. I am working with the AMCREST product development team to determine whether my hypothesis makes sense. With this limitation in mind, I have set up my system to use narrower field of view cameras where it might be necessary to zoom in for something like facial recognition. This IP8M-2496EB camera has 112° field of view and offers a very good wide view where the zoomed in limitation is of lower significance. Ultimately, this camera will be mounted to provide a wide-angle overview of my property rather than to provide protection for specific entrances and buildings. All-in-all, I have been very pleased with the performance of the IP8M-2496EB camera. I will be adding at least one more of them to provide a very wide field view (~ 225°) of my property and out buildings. A significantly larger amount of money can be spent on setting up a security system, but I have found the AMCREST cameras and recorders to be a very good value proposition - a proper balance of price and performance.

The Amcrest UltraHD 4K (8MP) Outdoor Bullet POE IP Camera, 3840x2160, 131ft NightVision, 2.8mm Lens, IP67 Weatherproof, MicroSD Recording, White (IP8M-2496EW-28MM) is my 11th Amcrest camera I've purchased over the last 3 years (all are still in service). I added the IP8M-2496EW-28MM to my barn group to better monitor our miniature therapy horses in their turnout. This is a POE camera that I have connected to a WI-FI network that's P2P linked from the barn to my home WI-FI mesh. I use a TP-Link PoE injector and a TP-Link access point in the barn. The P2P from the barn to the house is with Ubiquiti Nanostation M2's. I installed the Orbi mesh and everything else to have a separate high performance network to handle the video load to my Amcrest NVR and I've been really happy with it so far. Installation: As with all the other Amcrest cameras, the actual setup of the camera was the easiest part, once the twisted pair wiring was run. This particular model gives a little more room to mount the camera with the mounting screws without mangling the bullet body, which has been a rub for me on previous versions, so that's a plus. I also give Amcrest a thumbs up for making the connection kit opening large enough to fit the cat5/6 tip through. It's the small things that make a difference. Overall setup time once the twisted pair was in place was about 5 minutes. For my network I always set the camera configuration to use static IP addresses otherwise it's chaos, and I ensure the camera is set to reboot once a week whether it needs it or not. Edit: this was my error. Got it working. I did notice that something changed in the last couple of months that won't run the Amcrest web view plugin in Chrome or Edge but I haven't taken the time to figure it out as I always use the mobile app to view my cameras. Viewing Angle: One of the feature I rely on is a wide viewing angle. This camera has a 112 degree view and not much distortion in this view. Sometimes with wide angle lenses you can get a good bit of a fish-eye effect, but there's very little of this with this camera. I'm able to see nearly all of the horse paddock with one camera, and I see the little bit that's not covered with this camera with an older camera in a different location. Video Quality: I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the video on this unit, both daylight and night vision. There's no chop even when zoomed in. Even the nigh vision is pretty crisp with the horses within 20-30 feet of the camera. In the photo i've uploaded you can even see the fencing at the far end of their paddock which is about 70 feet from the camera. Build Quality/Reliability: I've only had the camera installed 24 hours, but it's made of rugged materials (steel/aluminum I suppose), and is IP67 certified for weather resistance. I have several Amcrest cameras installed that are directly exposed to the harsh northern Illinois climate, and as long as you protect the power/network connectors, the cameras are durable. So far I like this one. The video quality is great, super easy setup, and a nice, wide viewing angle. Keep up the great work Amcrest.

Good image quality. I added the camera to my existing system but had a problem getting the image visible with my NVR. I called Amcrest support who answered immediately, and Tony in support resolved the issue in under a minute.

Purchased 11/11/2020 PROS: Very good daylight image quality Supports H.265 and H.264 codecs Supports two substreams Works well with Blue IRIS ( not signal glitches or drops, Amcrest settings work) Works with Alexa ( via Monocle in my case) Solid build quality Competitively priced CONS: Out of the Box firmware is a non starter crippling the usefulness of Night vision settings Super Wide Angle Lens has some distortion towards the edges of the image Night vision seems perhaps not as good as other cameras such as Hikvision - Verdict is still out still adjusting settings. More difficult to aim this camera than some. Must hold the camera in position while tightening a screw. FIRMWARE ISSUES: ( Make sure to reset camera to default settings after update to avoid more issues) The outdated firmware that came with this camera left a poor first impression. Once the firmware was updated the following issues were resolved: (Thank You Amcrest) 1. Web interface works with Chrome. (internet explorer extension to Chrome ceases to function after upgrade ) 2. Night vision settings now automatically toggle with smart IR ( the old firmware would not toggle Night settings when the IR activated yielding a dark image) 3. Substreams now how multiple resolution settings and not just VGA (640x480) This is important to me because I use Blue Iris software and set the main stream to H265 codec . I also like to view the cameras using ALEXA which does not support H265. I use substream 2 set to 1080P for ALEXA SHOW. I use Monoclecam.com to feed Alexa the stream signon for the camera. 4. On Screen Display location of time and camera name difficult to place. Bottom line: For the price this is a solid camera that provides a very good to excellent image once the firmware is upgraded. My verdict on night vision is still out but I remain hopeful that the settings can be dialed in with the new firmware.

Bought 5 of these for my home security system. Terrific camera. POE operation is very straightforward. I am recording them on my Amcrest 8 channel NVR and have an 8 port Amcrest POE switch in my attic. You can use these cameras without the NVR but need to set them up that way if you want to. The 4K (8MP) resolution is incredible. Daytime color is amazing and the night vision works great as well. Glad I made this investment in high end cameras. I can see where it is easy to go cheap and then find out you have a blurry image once you zoom in. Not so with these. Can't recommend them enough. Only downside I have found is the documentation/manuals/software apps are a little different from one to the other. So expect to spend a little time with them. Update 10/11/18: I have had these 4 cameras in operation for several months now. 4 cameras, an Amcrest POE switch in my attic and an 8 channel NVR in my "IT closet". The cameras provide e-mail alerts as well as Amcrest App notifications on my iPhone. So I typically look at the picture in the e-mail alert and check to see who it is. If it isn't who I was expecting I use the Amcrest App for remote playback of the video that triggered the event. It has worked extremely well. I caught Amazon contractors dumping packages on the bench in my driveway instead of at the front porch. I hammered Amazon and now all is well. No more packages on the bench. I found out also that the cameras have settings for motion and can e-mail alerts directly from the camera. So if the NVR goes down for whatever reason each camera will send it's own alerts. It's a great feature since these cameras can operate stand alone or with an NVR. I did not install the memory card in the camera, but you can have even more redundancy if you choose to by doing so. I have had to tweak the settings in the NVR to get the sensitivity to motion setup as well as adjust the sensing area. I've had spiders create webs over the front of the camera and birds fly into the lens. This will be the case regardless of whose cameras you buy. So expect to do some work to tweak the operation and you will be very satisfied. I record continuously to a 6 TB drive in the NVR at full 8 MP resolution at 15 frames per second. I have 12 days of storage on tap and that is plenty for me. Be sure to backup your NVR config file to a USB drive on the NVR. Also you can backup each camera config by connecting directly to the camera. It's a 10 second job that will pay dividends in case you have issues.

*** UPDATED and downgraded from 3 stars to 2 stars *** *** Updated again on 18-Feb-2019 to 1 star (see bottom for details) *** The setup was fairly straightforward, especially if you've installed other Amcrest cameras before. But the browser interface is a train wreck. It doesn't work at all with Firefox or Chrome. I could only get it to "sort of" work with IE, but the video overlays are completely messed up. For example, in the 1st and 2nd attached images, the live video overlay is offset (right and down) from where they should be, covering up some of the menu selections. Forum posts indicate that others have seen and reported this to Amcrest (months ago), but they have done nothing to fix it. The live video is not scaled to fit the browser window. I have a 4K monitor so you would expect the full image to be displayed properly, but only the top-left quarter of the image is visible and there is no way to scroll right or down to see the rest of the image (or get to the menu options that are usually at the bottom of this screen in Amcrest cameras). You can see this in the 3rd attached image in which the upper half shows a JPG snapshot of the full image and the lower half shows a screen capture from my 4K monitor of the live view with only part of the image displayed. In the Playback screen, Amcrest usually has a timeline at the bottom that allows you to select a specific recording to play back, but the timeline and controls are only partially displayed in the lower-left corner. So it's impossible to play back recorded videos (see 4th attached image). While the video fairly clear, the main reason I bought a 4K camera was to get high res photos capable of capturing license plates of front door package thieves. But that is beyond the capability of this camera. In the 5th attached photo, you will see a car in the driveway directly across the street with a blown up view of the license plate in an inset. In that image, the license plate is completely unintelligible. Just for comparison I took my 3-year old Galaxy S6 cell phone - which has a lower resolution sensor than the Amcrest camera - and took a photo from just beneath the camera so the distance was the same. That photo with a blown-up inset of the license plate (partially blocked out for privacy purposes) is shown in the 6th attached image. The plate is easily readable. I really expected much better for a 4K camera - it's hard to believe a 3 year old cell phone outperforms it. Another thing I don't like about this camera is the mounting assembly. The mount only allows the camera to be tilted 90 degrees from perpendicular using a fixed slot. Once the camera is mounted, that slot cannot be rotated - you're stuck with that one angle and any changes require the mount to be removed, rotated, and remounted. That's fine if you plan to point the camera straight out and only at a slightly downward angle, but if you want to mount it to look off the side and down, your adjustment options are severely limited. Amcrest could have at least designed the mount so the slot could be rotated. Finally, I noticed that video clips and JPG snapshots were getting deleted from my NAS server after about 24 hours. I gave the camera a 300GB allocation and it's using less than 2GB, so that's no the problem. I contacted Amcrest and they admitted to a bug in their software but have no ETA for when it will get fixed. I had to write a Linux script to run nightly on my NAS to move files into a different directory to preserve them from deletion by the rogue camera. I really hope that Amcrest does something about the browser compatibility issues and the NAS storage bug - SOON! [18-Feb-2019]: It's now been over 7 months and Amcrest has not fixed this bug. I've been exchanging e-mails with them several times a month and the responses are all the same: "So sorry, we're working on it, stay tuned." This is a major feature that is not working properly. It's shocking to me that this isn't a bigger issue for other users. Perhaps it's because many other people are using an NVR rather than a NAS to store the video clips.

Good outdoor POE bullet camera. Get it if you're in the market for it. IR illumination/backlight is (as usual) pretty good; 98' presumes that you're pointing the camera at the horizon, which you're probably not doing (you typically angle downward so that you capture more ground and less sky). I'd say plan for closer to 50' effective range without an external illuminator. You also can't expect to get "near-color" in pitch-black conditions (the way some cameras+illuminators can), but the black-and-white view will get you a good distance down a driveway or around a gate. Picture quality is fine, denoising is good as usual. Lensing distortion isn't bad, fov is around 120deg. If this is your first ip camera, or amcrest; You can just hit them with a browser and configure from there. They all support rtsp and have good options for removing watermarks, tuning backlights/IR/picture settings, and it just does what it needs to do. The built-in 'nvr' through the app is a good start if you've never had a camera before, but it's much better to use Frigate or Blue Iris as NVR.

This camera is a great addition to my network video system. Set-up is very simple and straight forward. You can use it as a stand alone recording camera or add it to a networked system, and you can record directly to an added micro sd card located inside the camera (you will have to provide your own), you can save video to a network video recorder or even to a FTP server or NAS. I gave the night vision 4 stars because although the night vision is very clear if you have any objects in front of the camera (close to the camera within its field of view) those objects seem to absorb a lot of the infra red light thus minimizing the effective night vision distance. Makes the objects close very bright and the distance gets darker the farther away you look. As far as the set-up process goes all I had to do was connect it to my network via an ethernet port, check what ip my router assigned to it, log in via IE (I tried other browsers and even the plug-in recommended by Amcrest but had issues so I used IE and it worked fine), change the user name and password, and I was off and running able to configure my ports, change the ip to static, and so on. I then removed the camera from my network (unplugged it) and wired it up in its final location via POE to my NVR. I then had my NVR do a search and viola, new camera added. I also have another configuration option I tested which as soon as I receive some additional networking materials I will implement. I have a 9 port Amcrest switch that I connected to my network and then I connected this camera to it to see how it would react and I was able to add it to my Amcrest Surveillance Pro program just like it was connected to my NVR. The advantage to this is I am able to access the web interface without disconnecting it from my NVR. A couple of small things I would like to make note of is 1) the mounting can be a bit tricky unless you are lucky to have a perfect mounting location. This is due to the way the swivel and surface mount are designed. For example, if you mount it horizontally with the open part of the base swivel in either the left or right direction you can only adjust from straight forward to 90 degrees either left or right. The same applies if you mount it vertically, you can only go up or down. I had to mount mine in a diamond configuration because I needed both left and down adjustments and 2) (this is really piddly) when you utilize the POE connection for you final set-up you are left with the power connector dangling free and open to the elements. Electrical tape works in a pinch but a type of end connector, end cap, something to protect it would be a nice addition. I have played with a couple options and have settled on heat shrink but I am going to try a vacuum hose end cap if I can find one that fits snug enough. All in all this is a very good camera and I plan to add more when time permits.