GW Security 5MP 2592 x 1920 Pixel Super HD 1920P High Resolution Network PoE 1080P Security Bullet IP Camera with 2.8-12mm Varifocal Zoom Len and 72Pcs IR LED up to 196FT IR Distance

Wonderful product, great customer support, which seems consistent with other reviews. Works perfectly out of the box with QSee 16-channel POE recorder. That wasn't the case with other POE/IP cameras which required trial and error to connect. I've now converted and only use GW Security IP cameras, albeit with different resolutions and focal lengths. Visit their website, shoppingcctv com for more information and software.Additionally, their camera configuration and management software is fully featured and works across different models in a product line.My only ding is that use different size hex screws from camera to camera, even with the same model number. Means I have to carry a couple different hex wrenches with adjusting or aiming the cameras. GW provides a hex wrench with each camera.

I've had several weeks experience with this camera. It works exactly as I would like. Great high resolution at a great price. ONVIF compatibility with my NVR has been flawless. That was very important to me, and no issues. I'm giving it 5-stars in spite of the crappy documentation and funky supplied software. However, the company is readily accessible by phone and will provide any tech support you need. Some people report sending the camera back - ultimately due to bad documentation - but that would be a big mistake since it works so well. The supplier says they are working on improving the documentation. Any experienced tech person will have no trouble with the poor documentation, but others may. Just call the company with any questions.

Highly recommended, I will buy again, professional customer service

This camera looks pretty good by day, but at night, it has no hope without the IR LEDs. And you might think that would be okay, since the specs would lead you to believe that the IR range is 196 feet. Sounds good, but in actual practice, it is not. I wound up setting the IRCUT Mode to manual, and that let me manually select "Day Mode", but obviously that is less than ideal because it leaves the IR filter in place, making the already marginal sensitivity just that much worse. Still, it looks better than the totally washed out IR-lit mode, so that was the best I could do with it. I called up GW and was told that I could disconnect the IR LEDs by opening up the camera. I tried that, but it seemed to cause new problems with the already buggy software, so I gave up on that idea pretty fast. Obviously it would be better to be able to control monochrome/color, IR filter and the LED lights all individually. But even then, it would still have serious problems at night.An added irritation is that the light metering and the auto white balance are not center-weighted, so both of those things always seem to be inaccurate in mixed lighting situations.The included software is arcane, at best, so it took me a while to get anywhere at all. When I finally did get it going, I was then disappointed that the software was so very bad. For example, the included "UC" software for Windows immediately filled my second monitor with a camera grid - and there was no way to get rid of it, making it all but useless on my dual monitor setup.The SearchTools software can be used to monitor video, but it’s pretty rude because there is no way to close or minimize the SearchTools window without also losing the video window. And it will go full screen only on the primary monitor.A browser interface is advertised, but it only works in Internet Explorer, and even then, there is very little control of the window size. The options are a small window in the middle of the browser window, or full screen. Nothing in between.. And again, it can only be maximized onto the primary monitor. Practically speaking, there is no way to casually monitor the camera while working on other tasks on a Windows machine.All of the software interfaces have zoom controls, but none of them actually works with this camera. The camera is capable of 2592x1920 resolution, but since there is no way to do a digital zoom using ANY of the included software, the extra pixels are pretty much useless, unless one has a 4k computer monitor. I don’t have one, so I don’t know if that would help or not. My guess is that it would not, because all of the software was designed long before 4K was a thing.Many of the settings in the included "SearchTools" Windows software either don't work or have no effect on the camera. For example, WDR doesn't work at all. Changing the frame rate does not affect the shutter speed of the camera, only the video encoding. I discovered this as I was trying to figure out how to squeeze a little better low light performance out of the camera by reducing the framerate. Again, It looks pretty good in daylight, as long as there aren't any harsh shadows or challenging backlight situations, but as night falls, it switches to IR mode. And when that happens, all quality is lost. It gets wicked reflections and washout when mounted under an eve, and even when it's not under anything, it still gets all kinds of artifacts from the lens and/or glass front. It is all but unusable. It's pretty hard to see anything, but from what I can tell, the useful IR range is more like 100 feet. That might not be too bad if the lens angle was set wide, but then the lighting pattern is not as wide as the lens, so you just see a spotlight in the center. If you could actually see anything, that is.I downloaded a trial of Blue Iris and found that software to be considerable more intuitive and useful than the bundled "UC" software, but it’s not “included”, making a camera that might otherwise seem like a "deal", no deal at all.Most people are going to be interested in mobile apps, and the one included with this camera is called “Danale”. It is more modern that the PC software, but it also seems quite Chinese. Both in terms of assuming that everything (including your friends) have QR codes, and also in the terminology, syntax and wording. I actually had to call Danale in order to get it working. Once working, it seems okay, except that it cannot access the full resolution of the camera. It can only access the “Sub Stream”, and the maximum resolution option for that stream is 720x480 – that would be like 480p, or “standard-def.” in TV speak. You can pinch to zoom in, but the resolution remains low, so mostly it just makes for bigger blurry video. Viewed casually on a small phone, it’s okay as long as you don’t look too hard. There is also an iPad app, but that one is almost a beta. And in any case, the iPad app can’t access the main stream either, so given the bigger screen, the low resolution is even more limiting.[EDIT: I upgraded the camera firmware, hoping that might help, but all I can tell that it did was to make it so that the Danale app doesn't work right anymore, including the zoom feature.]Just to touch on network security, this camera comes per-configured for a DNS server in China. Even after changing that, the camera still opened 41 outbound ports. Most of the remaining IP addresses show as being in the US, but none of this is explained in the documentation. The documentation seems pretty much useless to me.I have called GW Security multiple times, and I’ve talked to some good people, but apparently these problems are inherent, both in the hardware and the software. I am told that there are some newer models that have better software, but it’s not clear how many problems that would solve. And in any case, they were not willing to allow me to upgrade, because the chipset in the camera that I bought is now considered to be obsolete. No kidding. So is the software. If they had offered me an upgrade path to a better camera, I might have considered it, but since they did not, I might as well try my luck with a different brand. My experience with GW Security has not been good, so I certainly don’t want to make the same mistake twice.

This product initiates network connection back to china using tcp, udp , and even icmp if you firewall off the first two protocols. This occurs even with the "cloud" feature turned off...which should be turned off by default but it is not. The hardware is ok, the software is, well, suspect. If you intend to use this product I would recommend you isolate it from you home network and do not let see anything you would not want, well, anybody else to see (such as credit card statements laying on a table, personal identification information on a wall, etc. etc.)

This is a mixed review. I will say that the seller, GW security, was very easy to work with for seeking RMA. they answer the phone, they seem to know the product well, they take messages if busy and call back quickly. Very pleased with their support.the product - solid hardware assembly - though it is BIG - the camera housing/body alone without the bracket is 9-10 inches or so and 4" diameter. There is no hardware reset button, so if you happen to botch a setting and for some reason need a factory reboot, you may be in trouble.I could never get web-based administration to work. it offers to send you a plugin. the plugin is missing a dll, and wont work with linux/mac-based browsers.Setup is performed through a windows application that seems to find it by netbios and allows you to push configs to it. I was able to push an IP to it and see it working that way and it delivers a crisp picture.However, my router also showed it establishing a connection with alibaba.com. I know other makes and models do this sort of thing too. I'm not sure why - was it legitimate? Being that I couldn't investigate through any sort of html configuration interface, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle when other competitors have comparable products with better firmware. for my $, it went back, and as mentioned above GW security was easy to work with.