Dericam Outdoor Wireless Security Camera, PTZ Camera, 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus, 1.3 Megapixel, Pre-Installed 32GB Memory Card, S1-32G2, White.

I was searching for a good outdoor security camera and finally decided to try out this Dericam S1 because it offers pan-tilt-zoom plus HD quality with a good price. So far, I have been using it for about a month, and I am very happy with this purchase. A few things I would like to share here:a. Very satisfied with the pan-tilt-zoom function and the picture/video quality. I installed it a few feet above my garage door. Now I can easily control the camera from anywhere to sweep through the whole yard and driveway, including the whole street as well, and zoom-in if needed. With pan-tilt-zoom, now I don’t need to spend money to install multiple cameras to cover different angles.b. The setup is quite easy. I just need to install an App on my iphone and connect the camera to my router using an Ethernet cable, then the app can just find the camera immediately. This is much easier than the setup experience of my other IP cameras, which either asked me to figure out the DHCP IP address of the camera first (to use a browser at PC) or to connect to a WiFi direct link started by the camera.c. It took me a while but eventually I was able to setup the email alerts (to my gmail account) upon motion detection. The emails include three snapshots. Now even if a burglar finds the camera, cuts its power cable, or even takes away the camera, the images will have been up into the gmail cloud already. Also, when I am not home, if I get a motion-detection alert from the phone app, it is actually more convenient for me to check the email content to find out what triggers the motion alert instead of doing a SD video playback through the phone app.Anyway, so far, I am really happy with the product and there is not much to complain about. A couple of tips that I hope you may find useful:a. While installing the camera, the big camera head is actually blocking the three screwing holes. Any normal-sized screwdrivers won’t work well there. So I used a screwdriver bit with a wrench to get the work done.b. You may find Dericam’s online FAQ page quite useful. I figure out the gmail alert setup from the FAQ. Another time, the SD video playback from camera stopped working. From FAQ, it turned out to be the incorrect settings of Daylight Savings Time.

I have had this camera for probably 2 weeks now. It was very easy to get the camera set up using the Dericam phone app and the picture is clear and sharp; even the black and white images at night. It took me a little time to get the FTP service working, but once I figured what the root directory of my server was, it works like a charm. I only wish that I could stream continuously to the FTP server and not to the SD card.Installation was OK with one downside. There is a third screw hole that is right behind the camera dome and it will take a right angled screwdriver to get to it. I have it directly mounted into brick on the remaining two holes and it is pretty secure at the moment, but I think I will have to invest in the right angle screwdriver to affix the third screw. It would have been a better design to use two holes to the side like the top two holes. Also the cable entry points to the camera are at the sides or top. I thought the plate must be upside down because of the cable entry at the top. I have filled this with silicone sealant as I fear water will get in there.The motion detection is extremely sensitive even on low setting. During the day I had to point it away from foliage that was blowing in the wind. Even cars and people walking past in the distance were enough to set it off. I had to position it just right to avoid the background traffic and moving foliage. At night however, insects are attracted to the red glow of the IR LEDs and so it alarms all night. So I have resorted to scrolling through the snapshots on my FTP server to see if anything showed on the camera instead of reviewing the video; with the intention of reviewing the video if I see something. So far just insects.Now the real downsides. There are no instructions on how to load the software on the CD. But I found four executables, the Dericam Search tool, a video converter, a video player and the HiP2P Client software. After digging around on the internet I figured that I needed to run the Search tool. I could not for the life of me get that tool to detect my camera. I tried the HiP2P software and it keeps telling me that I have the wrong password. I have tried the default of the camera and also what I set the camera password to. Even when I try to log out of the software it asks for a password and gives the wrong password error.I resorted to just pointing a web browser at the IP of the camera and I could get to the interface but had no video. So again after digging around on the Internet I figured I needed Firefox or IE. Again no video and again after searching on the Dericam site I found a download for a Firefox/IE plugin. I installed that and still had no video. Rebooted my machine, no video. Uninstalled and reinstalled and rebooted. This time I got video in IE, but the Playback tab is only half displayed such that all that is visible in the word "Playback" is "Play". There is still no video in Firefox.I tried to remote access and had the exact same results in that I can get to the interface but have no video. I also would like to replace the SD card with a larger capacity card but could find no instructions on how to do this. It appears that the camera will have to be taken apart to do thisUpdate....After only 1 year of use, one camera has completely stopped working. It powers up and moves on initial power up but I cannot get any video from it. The second camera is now intermittent. The video keeps dropping out

Works pretty well, does have a bit of a fisheye effect, which I did not expect and do not prefer. Gets the job done, though.

This is my second Dericam unit, the other being the PTZ also. Both units have a good picture and movement(when they feel like working), but I have a hard time believing all the positive reviews on these cameras. I have had to remove the garage camera no less than ten times to "setup" the wifi again. The other camera is placed in a corner facing the entryway and it also dropped wifi so much the only way I could get it to work was run an ethernet cable and now that fails regularly as well. The garage camera is 25 feet away, the other 10, so distance is not an issue, nor is my router. I have a Ring doorbell, and Arlo cameras on the side and back of the house that function perfectly. I went with these for the front because of the hardwire ability. Most activity happens in the front and I was tired of changing batteries. Big mistake with this brand, changing batteries was nothing compared to climbing up there, unmounting the unit, pulling the cables through, and having to set it up again through ethernet. I've done it so many times the screw holes are stripped and have to use new anchors everytime. Save yourself the headaches and look elsewhere.