I did a lot of reasearch before making a final purchase and decided on this camera. My primary use is monitoring my back door and my car. Also, living in Wisconsin, I needed something that would stand up to the elements (snow, ice, cold etc..) and after a month+ in below 0 temps, freezing rain/ice and heavy snow, its still going strong, so that is a big plus for me!The image quality is also very good, honestly, I am surprised at how good it really is. During the day you can clearly make out faces, plates, and any other detail. At night, the tiny LEDs around the lense offer enough light for adequate picture quality. If you need a dedicated IR/night camera, I suggest looking elsewhere. You will have compromises when you go for an "All-In-One".
One of the drawbacks is its extremely sensitive when trying to adjust the focus, its very touchy! Also, the focus and zoom controls are ON the camera body, so it can be tricky when trying to get accurate focus, either do it before mounting, or youll need another person to be watching the monitor while you adjust, but again, its very touchy, so by the time they say "stop", you probably went too far! The button control to adjust in camera settings is very nice BUT, its at the end of the too short cable coming from the camera, so making adjustments while looking at the monitor can be tricky as well. You really need to have everything set up within close proximity.
Aside from these few set backs, this camera is very good, picture quality, build quality, both exceeded my expectations. I do plan to add a couple more cameras to my system, and I will definitely buy this again. I should mention, for recording and viewing, you will need a special DVR, which I also bought from GW and works very well. I purchased the 4 channel DVR(will work with 4 cameras).
Lastly, I want to mention they forgot to send my free BNC cable with the camera. I contacted GW, and Kevin replied to me. Kevin was very professional and sent out the BNC cable the same day I contacted. So if you ever do need to contact GW, rest assured, Kevin will take care of you!
In my opinion, for an "All-In-One" surveillance camera, you really cant do better than this when you factor in price/performance. If you're hesitant about this camera or would just like some input from someone who was once where you are, feel free to contact me!
The only issue I had with this unit was that I was seeing a lot of squiggly lines on the screen when i first powered it up. I thought that the camera was defective. I tried it a second time with a different power supply and that worked perfectly. Apparently the power supply provided by the vendor, GW12V1A, has frequency stability problems on a 60Hz line.I ordered two of these cameras (from GW Security) based on the brand and HAD imaging element; I was particularly interested in seeing the Effio night vision capability. The price was reasonable. The vendor supplied the product in record breaking time; however, the product was a big disappointment. Outdoor at night with good white light, the colors were way off and no way to correct despite white balancing and changes to hue/saturation, etc. With suboptimal lighting and depending upon the IR LEDs (visible 840nm variety), subjects could not be identified at all close up or far away. The far away objects (50 feet) naturally were unrecognizable due to insufficient pixels/foot; all I could do is distinguishing a moving human. At closer ranges (< 20 feet), the image was totally washed out by IR hot spots. I could not find a range at which I could recognize known people at night using the IR. At the vendor's recommendation, I tried both cameras and had worse color results with the second one. I should have suspected from the "package deal", but the video/power cable was not suitable for outdoor use, being white zip cord. The power adapter was marginal as it became somewhat warm after about 15 minutes of use.
The vendor went above and beyond in accepting the cameras back for a full refund despite me having had them beyond the 7-day "return" period. Summary, GW Security 5-stars, cameras 2-stars. Caveat, I did not try these cameras during daylight so they may provide very excellent daytime video.
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