This review is for the most part a copy of the write up I did for the Sharx 3605 because I own both. I will add a few details that are relevant to the 3606 but overall it is a similar experience.A few months ago our house was broken into from a very brazen group of three robbers (punks) that backed their car into our driveway, jumped over the fence and smashed the back sliding door in order to gain entry. Luckily our home has an alarm so they quickly made their way through the house and out the front door without taking much. Our neighbor did witness the event but sadly only got to a brief description of the car and suspects. I decided it was time to take home security up a level and cover some key areas of the house with security cameras. After a lot of reading and studying, the Sharx line seemed to be a great way to start a system so I ordered one to try.
When the camera arrived I followed the instructions for set up and everything went smoothly. The manual is very easy to follow and written in clear English. I had the camera configured and running on my LAN system in about 20 minutes. After initial configuration I dialed in the picture quality and basic configuration, then next step was being able to see the camera when I am away from home. I have AT&T Uverse for Internet service and the Sharx manual includes absolutely perfect instructions to configure the 2wire router so you can view the camera remotely via the Internet. Without the manual I probably would have been lost on this step but the manual made the process so simple! After this step my next test was viewing the camera on my iPhone Safari browser using the 3G network to confirm I had a WAN connection, and yes it worked perfectly. After the test I installed an app that a friend who has a handful of Axis cameras recommended called Live Cams and again everything worked perfectly. This is a great app for viewing IP cameras and worth the money ($1.99) if you have an iPhone or iPad.
It was time to have my camera record events (alarms as they are called). Setting your camera to record when there is motion is again very easy and the settings can be adjusted for more or less sensitive motion recording activation. Make sure on this step you expand your open browser window to see the settings. The default window size will not show the settings options unless you do this. Windows IE has a more graphical window to adjust these but it can still be done in any browser by typing numbers (I use Safari). Just remember that the lower the "Threshold" numbers the more sensitive and the higher the "Sensitivity" numbers the more sensitive. You can also block off areas that you do not want to cause the alarm to start recording in this same settings window. For example if you have a busy street in front of your house you can configure the camera to ignore motion in that section of the overall picture.
Another great option is email. I set the camera to send me an email if it detects motion and that works just as intended, sending an email with a photo anytime it detects movement. Note that you can configure the settings to limit how often it sends an email so you don't fill your inbox when some bird, bug or dog for example is creating motion alarms on the camera. I have mine set to send an email no more then every 5 minutes.
I ran the 3605 for over two months without any issue before adding the 3606 and a 2607 (for the interior). I plan to add two more 3606 cameras so I will have almost the entire exterior of our home in view at anytime. I would really like to see Sharx come out with a Megapixel camera in the future but this current line up still has good quality.
If you plan on running several cameras or if you don't have electrical power close, I think it is much easier to use the 3606 with the PoE option so you only have to run a Cat 5 cable to each place you are going to use a camera. There is no dealing with any other power or data wires. I ran Cat 5 for PoE to 3 areas on the front of the house (preplanning for more cameras) including the driveway and sides of the house then homeran the wires into the garage and use a D-Link PoE switch: D-Link DES-1008PA 8-PORT 10/100 Poe Switch, along with a Netgear Powerline over Ethernet to get the camera data to my switch in the house.
My wife also has an iPhone and loves the fact she can check on the house and the dog from her phone at any time. She tells me she keeps an eye on the driveway from her work computer all the time and it makes her feel safer knowing what is going on at our house. The break-in really shook her up for a while, so her peace of mind is worth the cost alone.
Some of the key benefits of the Sharx camera for me:
-Because each camera can record to a MicroSD card built into the camera, it acts like its own DVR. Even if your home is broken into and everything taken, as long as they don't remove the cameras you will still have a record of the dirtbags.
-The camera uses very little wattage so it is easy on your electric bill.
-The picture is clear and sharp both day and night.
-The camera will work with a variety of browsers for configuring, monitoring and playing back recordings. I have tested it with Safari, IE and Firefox. Firefox with the Quicktime plug-in is my favorite and if you watch with the primary stream option you also can monitor live sound (creepy but good for eavesdropping).
-The camera works with both my Mac and Windows computers.
-The build quality seems decent and should last for many years.
-I have been in contact via email with customer support and there was a response within 4 hours.
I will be happy to respond if anyone has questions or comments.
While the camera does support POE, the wiring harness that comes out the back of the camera contains several other connectors, for power, audio and alarm. Unfortunately these cannot be removed, so any connections you don't use will need to be secured in a weatherproof location. I suppose it was expected that all of those wires be pushed through a wall to terminate indoors, but in my case that was not possible. An outdoor electrical box was recommended by Sharx in the manual. I picked one up at the local hardware store for a few dollars and hid it as best I could.
I using i-Catcher software and as this camera was not on its list of supported cameras I needed to contact Sharx support to answer a few questions about it. They emailed me back within the hour, were very knowledgeable about the product and quite helpful. Over the next several emails I asked them a lot of questions. They were always quick to respond and with complete and useful answers.
Pros:
Supports standard POE
Clear and vivid daytime image
IR lighting and cut filter makes for good night images
Well built, solid, appears to be well sealed
Outstanding email support
Very thorough printed manual
A good amount of adjustments in the menus
Cons:
No user installable firmware, requires Sharx support if you need to upgrade.
No downloadable documentation. Don't lose the manual!
Several hardwired connections on the wiring harness that have to be weatherproofed if not installed through a wall.
Overall I am very satisfied with this purchase. It is an excellent camera when considering the low cost, good quality day and night images and the superb support behind it.I have been wanting to get security cameras for my house for years now. Whether to catch the people who were throwing their dog's excrement on my porch, the guy stealing my UPS packages, to monitor my dog, or just to quickly check who's ringing my doorbell when I'm in another part of my house and may not want to talk to a solicitor. There are so many times I have wished I had a camera and didn't. As such, I have done a lot of research over the last 6 months into different inexpensive home monitoring options, research that was thrown into overdrive when I had someone break into my bedroom window and help themselves to my TV and Kindle Fire. Ultimately, I settled on several cameras from Sharx. The SCN3606 is an outdoor weatherproof camera with night vision that I use for monitoring my front porch.
CAMERA SELECTION
Initially I had a lot of confusion about which camera to get so I'll briefly list the different cameras and the main differences between them below:
SCNC2606 Wifi Wireless Indoor Camera This is an indoor wireless camera and probably the best option for most indoor applications.
SCNC2607 Wifi Wireless Camera with Infrared Night Vision Indoor wireless camera. This camera comes with infrared night vision, and is mainly designed to be used in low to dark environments. It does not have as good daytime colors as the 2606. It is not designed to be used outdoors, as it is not sealed, but if you use it in a covered environment like under a porch, and you do not have extremes in temperature and humidity, it might be acceptable as an outdoor camera. Be prepared for the possibility that using it outdoors will lead to rust and it may stop working though.
SCNC2700 Wifi Wireless Camera with MicroSD DVR and True Day/Night vision Indoor wireless camera with day and night vision. If you need to be able to record in day and night, get this camera over the previous two. The infrared filter cuts off during the day, so that it doesn't mute the colors, and then cuts on at night to allow video in total darkness.
SCNC3606 Cat5 PoE Wired Weatherproof Outdoor Camera with Infrared Night Vision and built in DVR This is an outdoor camera that requires a wired ethernet connection. It is completely sealed so it will last directly in the elements. It comes with PoE (power over ethernet) so it is useful in applications where you don't have close access to an outlet. As of March 2012, it contains an updated lens that is sharper than the SCNC2606, SCNC2607 and SCNC2607W
Additionally, as of Fall 2011, the SCNC2700 and SCNC2700W contain an updated lens that is sharper. The 3605 and 3606 received the updated lens in March 2012. The SCNC2606, SCNC2607 and SCNC2607W will not receive the updated lens.
INSTALLATION / CUSTOMER SUPPORT
I would say I am an advanced computer user, and intermediate when it comes to working with routers. I thought setup was going to be difficult since I didn't really know what port forwarding, DHCP, or UPNP was, but it was incredibly easy. The instruction manual is extremely thorough and describes everything in detail. This is one of the best and most comprehensive manuals I have received for a product. They think of every question you could have. Even if you have fairly basic tech skills, if you read the entire manual, you should have most of your questions answered. I had the camera set up and recording in about 10 minutes, and had the complete installation done (including running the ethernet line) in about two hours. You can run it wirelessly, but I wanted faster transfer speeds through ethernet. I really thought it was going to be a pain to have to deal with customer support through email but I couldn't have been happier. They answered all my questions (which were numerous) within 24 hours and were willing to provide all the support I needed for my router. They even notified me that the camera had been upgraded that weekend to a new 2012 model with a sharper lens, and allowed me to exchange my camera for the 2012 model, which they shipped out to me immediately (they covered shipping) without requiring that they receive my exchange first. At a minimum, you are going to need to know the address to access your router's administration page (it will be a local numerical address, like 192.168.100.1), and the password to login to that page. You can do a search on the Internet and easily find this information. Contact me through the comments page and I can help you if needed. You will also need to know the login information for your wireless network. I was initially going to purchase a much cheaper camera that I was told uses the exact same hardware as the Sharx, but I think the support you receive from this company is definitely worth the extra cost. I do wish their web site had a forum where users could exchange information and get help from each other. The hardware included with the 3606 is excellent. It comes with plastic plugs to insert in unused screw holes, a junction box for housing the cables that is watertight, and all the screws and hardware you will need. It has 6 different screws for mounting it in several ways. For my application, I wanted to mount it from a ceiling, so I removed the existing brackets and put them on the top, which allowed me to mount it straight down. Other than the size of the camera, it is incredibly flexible for almost any way you want to mount it. If you don't use PoE and have to use the power adapter, but it's too short (the power adapter line is fairly long at about ten feet), the manual even tells you the exact type of wire to get at Home Depot and how to splice it so you can extend the cable to the length you need. Most manuals do not go this extra distance.
SOFTWARE
The interface is very thorough if you use the advanced setup options, and gives you a lot of flexibility with the camera. It comes with a CD, but the program on the CD is really just designed to determine the local IP address of the camera and isn't really needed if you can figure it out yourself (unless you are setting up more than one camera, in which case you'll want to use the Multi Camera software from the CD). Otherwise, everything is handled through your web browser with ActiveX. I had to use Internet Explorer to get the full functionality for the camera, as some of the tools would not show up in Chrome and Firefox. I've added an image showing all the configuration options through the control panel. There is a "system" page that displays all of the current information about your camera, including your local and wide area IP address, UPNP status, Internet connection status, MAC address, and many other variables. This screen is very useful for troubleshooting and setting up the camera. Once you have your camera set up, you should turn on the On Screen Display so it captures the date and time on the video feed. You can set up a Gmail account to have it email you images during alarms or just at specific intervals.You can even set up a dedicated Gmail account and have it send a picture to itself every 5 minutes indefinitely (or until you use up Gmail's storage space, at which point you can delete everything and start again). There is a motion detector on the camera that works very well. It allows you to set up to 4 different windows/areas for monitoring, all completely customizable with different settings. For instance, you can set up the entire viewable area to check for any motion, or you can set up a very time section of the screen to focus on your door handle, so it will only trigger an alarm when someone touches the handle. Since I have bugs flying around on my porch that will trigger motion, I set up very low sensitivity in the main window so the bugs won't set it off, and then I created another window that focuses just on my front door, so I will know if someone opens it. You can also schedule the alarms, so my motion detection alarms will only be active between certain hours. This ensures that my mailman won't set it off. I wish you could set up different alarm schedules for each independent window for even more customization, but for right now, the software is pretty good as it is.
DVR/MONITORING
The main thing you will want, is a way to save your video feed to an external source. If a criminal steals your camera (if you are saving to the SD card) or your desktop the video you saved to it of the crime won't do you much good when you don't have access to it. Initially, I saved my video feed to an external hard drive that I mounted under my locked crawl space, and ran the cables to it through a small hole in my floor. A knowledgeable thief could still delet the video file right from your desktop, but I think that's very unlikely. To be extra safe, you could just password-protect your windows account so it locks after 15 minutes of inactivity. Even better, I eventually just added a link to the camera on my office computer and set it to constantly record there. Even if my house burns down, I'll have a copy of the video saved at a safe location.
The Sharx instructions give you complete details for setting up the camera through your phone's web browser, but I found it to be a huge pain to do. It is much easier to use a third party app. The best Android app is TinyCam Monitor. This program works beautifully. The paid version gives you a few more options and allows you to record directly from the phone, but it's not necessary at all.
HARDWARE
The SCNC3606 has a built in microphone that works very well. I can hear birds chirping in the distance, and it almost sounds as I would expect if it I was actually on my porch. There is also a microphone on the outside of the camera, so if you have a computer with a microphone, you can talk out of the camera. I actually have mine mounted on my porch, and can use it to talk to solicitors without having to see them in person, like an intercom. The camera also has a built-in microSD card, giving you the option of recording directly to the card instead of a hard drive. You can't easily remove the card like you can with their indoor cameras, but if you need to get to it, you can open up the camera and remove it. They even give you a Mini SD adapter for it. An alarm alerts me if someone is on the porch, and if it's a friend and I'm not home, I can just talk into my microphone and let them know I'm out. My main dislike with this camera is the size. This thing is fairly enormous. About the size of a can of biscuits. I wanted my camera concealed, which made it difficult to do due to the size. Even just 30% smaller would be nice.
UPDATES
One disadvantage with Sharx cameras is that you can only obtain firmware upgrades by contacting support, and having them install them remotely. My camera came with the latest firmware installed, but I don't see how anyone would know when new firmware updates are released since I couldn't find anything about it on their web site. Make sure you email them and get the latest firmware before you start setting everything up, because updating the firmware will reset everything.
CONS:
Camera is fairly large.
There is a bug when the camera is mounted upside down, and if the flip vertical option is chosen, then the image is grainy because the flip function is accidentally grabbing a lower resolution stream. You can resolve this by mounting the camera right side up, but removing the sun visor and using the included hex screw.
CONCLUSION
I have used many different outdoor cameras and the SCN3606 is the best camera under $1,000 I have seen. Excellent build quality combined with ease of use/setup and great software make for the perfect solution for home security and monitoring.I bought the Sharx Security SCNC3605 (similar to this one, but a wired/wireless version without PoE) this past winter & have had it up and running for several months now. I'm putting the review here as the 3605 isn't available now & these comments should be relevant to the 3606. Installation & set-up were quite simple. I have very little experience at computer networking, but managed to do the manual configuration required for setting it up from a Mac. In short order I had the camera streaming & saving video clips & pictures on a motion alarm onto the included SD card. Quicktime on the Mac streams the video beautifully. A little fiddling with my router and I was viewing the camera stream from my iPhone while traveling overseas. A little more fiddling and the camera was storing the files to a Networked Attached Storage hard drive. The fiddling part was mostly with the router & NAS as the camera setup is straightforward and described in the manual. I did contact Sharx customer service with a question on the NAS after I had it functioning & they responded quickly (via e-mail) and helped me figure out my problem, which was more me not knowing about networking than any issue with the camera.
Some things to note:
* Do the setup before you mount the camera!
* The wireless capability of the SCN3605 wasn't that great. It worked, but the wired is much better....maybe that's why they're updating it with 802.11N (out in June 2011 according to their website)
* As noted in other reviews, keep the manual as there is no electronic version available. While the manual has a lot of information, it could use some improvements (e.g., a table of contents, index & an electronic version to allow searching).
All in all, a whole lot of camera for the price. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.This camera is a great buy easy setup IR works great nice sound everything I would expect from a mid level camera. Lots of advanced features for the money. The thing that impressed me the most however is that after a few months of having this camera I had a lightning strike close to my house which took out several electronic devices. I could not get this camera to power on and I thought it was toast. I contacted Sharx customer service and they informed me that most of the time the A/C adapter is the only item damaged from a lightning strike. I tested it with a voltmeter and sure enough it was bad. They sent me a new adapter priority mail FREE OF CHARGE and everything works fine. Very unexpected and the excellent customer service is why I will buy one of their products in future!
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