4K (8MP) IP POE Camera, UltraHD Outdoor Bullet, 3840x2160, 98ft NightVision, 125° FOV, IP67, MicroSD (256GB), Human & Vehicle Detection, Tripwire & Intrusion, (IP8M-2496EW-AI-V3)

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.

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.

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.

Camera had clear image but it lacked consistent functionality. First, motion detection didn't work properly despite adjusting sensitivity. It kept sending alert when there's no motion. For instance, I pointed the camera at my bookshelf 24/7 & it kept sending motion detection alerts on my iPhone. Second, recording on microSD card didn't work properly. I had a 32GB microSD card inserted into the camera & set the camera to have push notification using image & later video. Next, to trigger motion detection, I waved my hand repeatedly in front of the camera until it finally sent alerts to my iPhone. But when I opened up the alert, either image or video, it tells me there's no recording. Then finally after exhausting all possible setting changes on my iPhone, I decided to download their software on my laptop to give it one last try. I was able to get it to record after formatting the microSD card. App on iPhone didn't allow me to format microSD card. But even after formatting microSD card, the camera would record sporadically. Third, I didn't know their technical support didn't work on weekends. I tried calling them but got message saying please call during normal business hours. And the message didn't say what their "normal" business hours. Fourth, their apps, both on iPhone & on laptop, were very complicated to use. The help menu on iPhone didn't cover all settings. And speaking of app, their iPhone app bore a striking similarity to app for Q-See, which I had been using for my two 4MP Wi-Fi cameras. I supposed it was my experience with Q-See iPhone app that allowed me to navigate their app on my iPhone. On a positive note, my final comment is that the camera did produce a relatively clear image of what's in front of it. Namely, I was able to decipher ~75% of my car's license plate from a distance of ~30 feet from the camera.

This is my second Amcrest product. (The first was the AD110 doorbell cam). The rest of my cameras are Ubiquiti UVC G2 bullet cams which are getting pretty outdated at this point and I am in the market to replace them with something newer. Since I was happy with the doorbell camera, I jumped at the opportunity to test out this 4K Bullet Cam. I've had it and tested for a week so here's my results. Pros: 4K Image is stunningly crisp and detailed Wide viewing-angle covers a larger area than expected Popular protocols supported (H.264/H.265 and RTSP) Can use with any number of NVR systems or the Amcrest Apps SD slot card for out-of-the-box recording Cons: (There's only one) The cable extends out of the camera body for POE and optional barrel connector for power. This is not an issue if you can mount where the excess cable can be tucked in to a wall, but is the only thing I don't like better than my Ubiquiti cameras which allow the ethernet plug to connect in to the camera body with a weatherproof grommet. I unboxed the camera and it came with everything I needed. The sticker for the mounting pattern was especially useful. I ended up using slightly different anchors because I mounted in my garage on a wall which is drywall over 3/4" particle board. The quickstart guide covers using the apps (there are a few different apps Amcrest provides and they also cover briefly how to connect to third party apps such as BlueIris). To get the physical mounting instructions, the quickstart guide refers to a link with a video and some instructions. Even though the instructions were for a slightly different camera model, they are sufficient. Your exact setup is going to vary anyway so use your judgment along with the instructions for the guide. It's recommended to use a bare cable and crimp ends on to the cable to get the ethernet connection made to make it easy to get the connection in to the weather resistant housing. We had a bunch of snow and I couldn't get to the box of cable I had in the shed, so I used a 10' pre-made cable. As you can see in one of the photos, I had to trim the anti-snag part of the boot to make it fit. If you use a bare cable and crimp the connector on yourself as recommended, you won't have this issue. It is also why I ended up with a slight surplus of cable. I plan to redo the cable at some point in the future. Once the camera was installed, I turned the port on, on my switch and it powered up. The Amcrest app in search mode found my camera (and my doorbell camera too) easily and I was able to adjust the mounting slightly to get the exact viewing angle I wanted. I also added the doorbell camera to the Amcrest view pro app. If you just want basic viewing, you can stop here and you are good to go. I had some other things I wanted to test out including a live feed on my camera monitor in the office so I had a few more steps. If you go to the camera's IP in your web browser (I just used my iPad and it worked great) you can login with default credentials of admin/admin and it will prompt you to change the password. You can then see the live view and customize network settings, picture settings, motion/recording settings and stream settings. I ended up setting a static IP on the device itself as well as adjusting the settings on the sub stream to test them both out. I made sure RTSP was setup on the default port and I was able to add it to my camera display by just configuring the URL rtsp://<user>:<password>@<ipaddress>/ and it loaded up the main stream. You can really see (bottom left) how much better the Amcrest camera picture is than my other cameras. The night vision is really good too. A huge improvement over my UVC G2s. One thing I really like is you can move the overlays around the image to customize. For a final test, I spun up an instance of Shinobi (open source NVR) and was able to quickly add in my new camera and setup recording and notifications. This worked completely as-expected and I had zero compatibility issues. Basically put in the URL and it just worked. Overall this is a great camera and definitely a good candidate for me to use to replace my aging 720p cameras. The product supports all of the industry-standard specs you would expect and plays very nicely with both the Amcrest apps and the third-party apps that I tested.

Wow. What a great camera. Crystal clear, very sharp. I can take a picture and zoom in for every little detail. Night vision is awesome. Far much better then my current LAView system. So one of my cameras was flaking out on me…a dome camera. I picked this one because 1) dome cameras suck if you are near a wall and 2) I needed a wide angle lens. So here are the pro’s and con’s. Pros: • Quality of image is outstanding! • Night vision is also very very good. Even when there is a streetlight in the street, the camera compensates for that specific spot and doesn’t kill the entire picture. My street is about 60 feet away from the camera and I can see past the street and to the neighbors house very clear precision. I wasn’t expecting that so it was a pleasant surprise. • Required me to change the password upon entering the camera setup…requires 8 character min. • The 2.8mm wide angle lens is awesome. Works better then my existing dome camera. • Is IP67 weather resistant. But you have to check the temperature because some IP67 cameras can’t withstand cold Michigan weather. This one can rated at -40 degrees! • The camera is able to be seen through Chrome, or phone app on and off home wireless connection. Definite bonus. I currently have an LA View camera system which requires “internet explorer”. Yes! Can’t upgrade the plugin. This camera can be seen anywhere. • Able to integrate into my existing system using ONVIF protocol. It took a bit of work trying to find the configuration. It comes standard with TCP 37777 but I was able to change the management port to 8000. • Easy to create HTTPS certificates for SSL rated privacy. Cedrts are only good for one year though. • Using SMTP protocol, port 25 tcp – there are buttons for easy setup of google, outlook, comcast, yahoo, etc. • Has the new high efficiency video coding standard / data compression … of H.265! So nice….especially when you only have a 2GB HDD. You can also downgrade to H.264, H.264B, MJEPG. • I even tried standalone…yes it has an SD Card that you could use even if you don’t have a NVR. • Software/app is very easy to set up. If you connect to the camera, there is a bar code you can scan. Done. Works via home wireless and also on cellular connectivity (not connected to your internal network). • The physical look/feel of the camera is solid! There are two red lights when the IR is turned on…very much more subtle then the old versions with a ton of IR lights. CONs: • They do have a cloud backup that you can use if you don’t have a NVR system of your own and SD Card is just not enough….but it is $6 per camera per month. Kinda pricy if you need coverage of 4-6 cameras.

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.