ANNKE 5MP PoE CCTV Camera Compatible with Alexa, Color Night Vision, Waterproof Outdoor Security Camera, Audio Recording, Smart Alerts, Smart Human/Vehicle Detection, Built Micro SD Card Slot

A couple of months ago, to relieve the boredom of Lockdown, I replaced out aging, manual, up-and-over garage door with an automatic roller door. Like many modern garages, ours is full of 'stuff', rather than a car. One of my concerns since fitting it is that one of us could accidentally open it without knowing. Something that concerned me greatly, since security was a key requirement.Lo-and-behold, I left the house a little over a week ago to find said garage door wide open; the contents, invitingly accessible to the world. A quick check suggested that everything was where it should be and that nothing had been disturbed. I then check the CCTV recording that covers my car on the driveway to see, almost out of sight, that the door had opened at 11.30pm, the night before; precisely when we'd gone to bed. We'd had a very lucky escape.Something needed to be done immediately. Actually, I added two different mechanisms, but here, I'll focus on the use of this camera. I have a HikVision 8-channel Network Video Recorder, which had 3 spare channels, so the idea was to add another camera in the garage, looking out via the main door. Being an Amazon Prime member, the camera was here the very next day. I already have a POE switch in the garage, as I have a WiFi Access Point that connects to my car. So fitting the camera was trivial. After identifying a suitable spot, a couple of screws secured it to a rafter and an Ethernet cable connected it to the POE switch. I downloaded the Annke Vision app (which looks suspiciously identical to the HikVision Connect app) onto my iPhone and configured in the new camera. Image quality is very good, whether in colour when there's some light, and monochrome when it's dark. I configured by router to allocate a fixed DHCP IP address, so that I could easily reach the camera over the network, and added it as a 6th camera to my HikVision NVR, providing 24x7 recording.Next, I configured the motion detection feature of the camera to recognise when the door opens, having it send me an email. I could do more direct integration with other parts of the house, but I'd addressed that need a different way.The motion detection seems entirely reliable, notifying me quickly via email if there's any significant movement in the garage including, of course, the door opening. It also attaches images so that I can see exactly what's going on.The camera was relatively cheap for a POE camera with a relatively high resolution. Image quality is great and motion detection is spot-on. I have another couple of Annke cameras connected which have also performed very well, so I'm confident that this will do the job for a good while, yet.

Much better than other cheap(ish !) cameras I have. Excellent in good and poor light - not bad in the dark either with adequate infrared. I was a bit dubious about the plastic body at first but it seems fine. POE makes it easy to install with minimum wiring.

Why did you choose this product over others?:I recently installed it outside my salon in and overall I’m pleased with the performance. For this price the ANNKE C500 delivers excellent image quality, reliable PoE performance, and strong home/NVR compatibility. It’s not flawless, setup takes a bit of technical savvy, and it needs external storage—but as a budget-friendly outdoor camera, it ticks most boxes.

I think this is the most difficult camera to set up. When set up a phone App, it asked me to scan the QR code or barcode on the camera, there is no QR code, only a long barcode, my phone can't recognize the barcode, so I entered the code by manual, then it said can't find the device. So I have to return it back.

I really like the video quality this camera produces and how well the night vision performs. The body of this camera is made from plastic which I was initially worried about as it doesn't seem particularly strong but I live by the sea and have had metal cameras erode away quickly with the sand/salt air; hopefully this camera will last longer for not being metal.I can't comment on the app or smart features because I use this camera on a private LAN without internet, I use open source software to record from the RTSP stream; you'll have no issues with compatibility if this is also what you want to do.I've only had the camera installed for about 6 weeks and haven't found any issues yet but I'll update the review if anything changes.

This is too difficult set up to work remotely with Alexa. You need to configure third party software on windows or Mac only and make changes that most users will not be able to to do.In addition, once the camera is installed it does not work consistently. It's not fit for purpose in my opinion. I bought a couple of other cameras to replace some of these and the difference is unbelievable. I wasted time and money with these.It's just not worth the hassle.Find an easier camera to set up

Bought this as a possible add on when I upgraded my NVR. It didn't work on my older NVR, to be honest I didn't expect it too, but I'd already bought an Annke N48PAW to replace the older N44 model and when plugged into this it came straight on. I did have to cut my cables to allow fitting of the weatherproof shield, which have ever so slightly changed & had re-drill holes as the base has changed too.The camera gives excellent pictures in daylight and is very clear at night, I haven't tried the starlight function yet though. I can't get my Synology NAS to see the camera yet but it might be possible by changing the camera to ONVIF, again a test for the future.No issues with the seller, indeed I've bought a couple more as Amazon had a discount offer on. Seller also sent further info from Annke, which was helpful.

Bought these to secure the house a bit after some trouble locally, added into my BlueIris setup with ease, POE powered so works a dream. H.265 works with blueiris as does the IR controls and AI based motion detection in blueiris by using sentry. Fitted with 8mm Blue Fischer rawlplugs gives it a good fixture to brickwork. Cant fault the picture quality either, main and sub streams are cracking for the price.