I will never buy another Amcrest webcam again!

In 2016 I bought an Amcrest bullet cam that was a pretty good price from Amazon (.ca), had it all set up and working fine, didn’t have any problems with the wifi connection or mounting it outside, then one day the picture quality started degrading and I was getting extremely low 4-colour cgi flickering resolution images, so I read the instructions on the website that said to touch the two exposed wires on the outside of the camera together for about 15 seconds to “reset” it, so I did that. The image was clear and sharp and I had no problems for quite some time. Keep in mind this cam is mounted outside, and is under an awning so not in direct contact with the weather. So up until about 6 months ago it was working fine and each time I had an issue with it, I always used the wire reset which always seemed to work. So at that time, the camera started randomly changing IP addresses on me. It would go from 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.102 and back and forth over a period of a few days and my camera image would be stuck on the last image it took before the camera changed IP addresses. Naturally, when the camera switches IP addresses, Web Cam Capture would go offline and I couldn’t connect to it again. I pulled up the Amcrest app on my desktop and tried to connect to it, but the camera appeared to be offline and I could not get it to come back online. The only way you can set up this camera is to go on to the smartphone app and set it up either using the Wifi-enabled setup or the wired LAN/ethernet setup. When one doesn’t work, I try the other.

Long story short, I’ve addressed Amcrest, who told me to contact the supplier on Amazon directly, which I did, and they were kind enough to acknowledge my issue and offered to replace the camera outside of the 1 year warranty because I contacted them before it ran out, but they didn’t have any in stock. They asked me to send in a return authorization, but when I clicked on the link they sent me on Amazon, there was no option to click on the return authorization or shipping label. So now I’m stuck with a non-functioning camera that cost me $120 and only lasted me a little over a year, and now I’m in the market for something new.

My requirements are pretty simple. All I need is an affordable bullet cam in the range of $75-120 that simply works, 24/7.

  1. Must be wireless
  2. Must have 5G support and not just 2.4G
  3. Must be a wall-mountable camera with ability to adjust angle
  4. Must have a web-enabled set up application (either smartphone or Windows app)
  5. May have night-vision (this is not a requirement, but it helps, the Amcrest has it)
  6. Does not require sound

Would anyone reading this reply with their camera types, and your comments about it, e.g. good, bad, image quality, functions, etc…?

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Dan

was there no way to set a fixed IP address?

There’s IP reservation on the router, if that’s what you mean. But it’s already set to the camera’s IP address, and it’s still not working.

I have 2 Amcrest IP3M-943 bullet cams and find they are slightly better than Foscam/Agasio branded cams. Good luck in your search…

Is there anyone who has a camera that can stream directly from their own webpage? I’ve seen a few that can do this, but don’t know the camera type.

I use a Ubiquiti UVC-G3 and it can do this via RTSP protocol. To be honest, I just use the UniFi app on my phone or login to the web page on my tablet as it’s an easier way to view the stream and it’s for my eyes only. If you wanted to make it publicly available I guess the RTSP method would be best.

I’ve been doing a little research today, and I’m leaning toward the Foscam series cameras, either the FI9800P (720P, $116 CAD) or the FI9900P (1080P, $180 CAD). Anyone have anything on these cameras? Foscam Canada (foscam.ca) says they’re now part of Amcrest. Go figure. :frowning:

Would someone kindly check to see if they can see my TV in the background of this streaming cam page?

http://portcoquitlamweather.ca/livecam.php

This is not my Foscam camera, I’m picking that up tomorrow. This is my Logitech C920 indoor cam.

Thanks,
Dan

Yes.


Thanks Niko, that helps a lot.

As I mentioned, I’m getting my Foscam tomorrow, so I should be able to do the same thing, only outside.

I’m glad to see this works though, I might use it for some other purpose later on! :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Dan

It’s working well, good image and it loads/starts quickly on the page.