Amcrest 4MP Outdoor PTZ POE + IP Camera Pan Tilt Zoom (Optical 32x Motorized) UltraHD POE+ Camera Security Speed Dome, People and Vehicle Detection AI, 492ft Night Vision POE+ (802.3at) IP4M-1083EW-AI

This camera is hands-down the best built camera I’ve ever personally used or tested. The quality of the materials is second to none. The camera is heavy as you would expect it to be due to the high end components. The starlight sensor in it is incredibly accurate and detailed in low light. The night vision reach that I’m able to get with it is quite incredible. It’s easily almost twice the distance that most other more consumer oriented cameras have. The PTZ motors and components are whisper quiet and fast. There are no weak, shaky or dead spots in the camera travel. I can set it to a position I need with incredible ease. The 32x optical zoom is also pretty fantastic and leaves nothing to be desired. It will go super far. I didn’t find myself feeling the need to turn on the additional 16x digital zoom. I also love that it has two sub streams in addition to the main stream. That is incredibly helpful in more complicated blue iris setups. The AI seems to be working well also. This camera is incredibly smart and fast. It isn’t held back by buggy firmware. It reacts quickly and smoothly. This camera is a great “eye in the sky” type of camera. I can get tag numbers and critical details reliably due to the excellent specifications of this camera. The included mounting hardware and cables are all excellent quality and instructions are concise and clear on how to get it all mounted and hooked up with ease. The multiple options for powering the camera are nice as well. Another welcome addition is the trip wire hookup. That isn’t something you typically see on the smaller, cheaper cameras. My only request would be that the camera have a small speaker and microphone built in for situations in which hooking up an external mic and speaker aren’t feasible. However, amcrest has many other options for these use-cases as well. I’m incredibly happy with amcrest as a company and this camera is nothing short of amazing.

I bought this with high hopes of having it professionally mounted on the upper level (outside) of our home to cover the greatest area, I soon realized ANY sort of troubleshooting becomes a nightmare based on the script they read from. After four (4) factory resets, two (2) hard resets, climbing up to replace the SD Card twice (just in case), the configuration won't last more than 12-14 hours then the camera goes offline and I have to power cycle the switch port it's connected to. YES, the Cisco 3850 has more than enough power dedicated to the port, and no there's no line errors, runts, timeouts, power issues in logs or retries. Tech support wasted 3 hours on the phone and said they needed to have LVL 2 call me back first thing on Monday. Guess what....they close at 5pm CST and I get an e-mail at 5:01pm CST asking if I still want called back and to explain what the problems I'm having are (again).For ~$820 with tax, this camera's probably going back and I'll stick with Reolink or Avigilon. If they won't take it back due to all the weather sealant used to weather proof it, there's going to be a YouTube video of it being smashed and mailed back to their "Corporate HQ" located in "Texas - not USA TX".Don't be fooled. Unless you're willing to spend MORE money on their NVR/DVR just to make this thing work (maybe), it's a COMPLETE waste of time and money. I've spent three full days reading through all there manuals, troubleshooting guides, setup guides and watching their help videos - which by the way are all computer generated voices - so you know they're not on the up and up.Amcrest - DO NOT patronize me with your canned "I'm so sorry, please visit our tech support and open a ticket" crap. YOU HAVE A TICKET and a recorded conversation on my end and yours if you'd like me to post it on Reddit.Also, whoever writes your "error messages" in the programs....they need to take some English classes, or hire someone with at LEAST a 3rd grade education. Words run together, spelled wrong, and aren't even relevant to the error. My favorite is "Error I camera is failed, shutted down. Patience" W.T.F. ?!?!