Amcrest5MP UltraHD Mini AI Outdoor WiFi Camera, Security IP Camera with Two-Way Audio, 98ft Full Color Nightvision, Remote Viewing, 5-Megapixel, Wide 106° FOV, IP5M-1190W (White)

The media could not be loaded.  Initial impression…shipping packaging was of the highest quality to ensure a safe trip from point-A to me. The device comes with everything needed to basically plug-in-play (camera, power, instructions, mounting hardware). This is an outdoor camera, as advertised. Comparing it to the other Amcrest cameras I have (indoor cameras), the material/build quality of this device feels and appears cheap. It’s not even weather sealed; I can literally see the wiring through the cracks of the dome. It would be a lot better if it had an actual transparent dome covering it (which can also serve as a security/tamper screen). The SD card access slot is a little tricky to find, at first, and requires one to manually rotate the camera head 90 degrees.The setup… The wall or ceiling mount bracket is simple to install but lacks the adjustment capability for angled mounting surfaces; in my case, I had to fabricate a flat/90-degree platform in order to get this mounted. Herein comes the next problem as I need power. The power cord, which came with the product, was only 4 feet long and required a common 2-pronged outlet plug. Mind you, this is an OUTDOOR camera where there isn’t an abundance of easily accessible exterior power outlets. Needless to say, I didn’t get to use this thing until days later. To remedy the power issue, I had to purchase two Amcrest 30 feet power cables to ensure I had enough length to route the power supply to an outlet. I also purchased a 256gb MicroSD card as onboard storage since I was anticipating issues with Amcrest Cloud and Amcrest NVR (this product does not come with any SD cards). Total expense of the additional parts added a little over $50 on top of the price of the camera. With my now combined 64 feet power cables, I was able to easily connect the camera with a power source.The next issue was the high-capacity MicroSD card. This camera can’t except non-FAT32 formatted MicroSD cards. High-cap MicroSD cards don’t typically format in FAT32. To solve this problem, I used a third-party software to force-format my card to the older system format. Afterward, I plugged the card in and recordings could be saved.Hoping the worst was behind me, I began the interface setup. I already had the Amcrest app on my Android phone so adding a new IP camera was quick, simple and familiar. My connection was via Wi-Fi on the 2.4ghz band (the only band this camera accepts) using my already setup tri-band home router. From here, it gets worse… as picture comes through (@ a lowly 20FPS), all I see is a still shot every few seconds and then minutes and then it just freezes. Panning the camera is even worse as each click of the approximate same duration travels different distances. Live view is choppy and almost like a flip book. Trying to connect to it is always a waiting game and the camera continually goes offline or fails to connect. Needless to say, I was frustrated. I hopped over to the recordings to see if it was just as choppy as live view…it was. The recordings were just as spotty, does not capture complete motion activities (it only records actions in the middle and cuts out before the end). Connecting to the web interface was a challenge because of the constant connection issues. When I was able to access it, I changed whatever settings I could to see if it would help with the connection, live view, and recording; I did the same on the network router. Nothing helped. This was not a commercial level product so it should not be difficult to setup or make adjustments to. In the end, to solve the connection issue, I had to source a separate service and gateway to connect this one camera to because it just wasn’t working with my original home network setup (the camera was only about 10 yards from my home router).One last issue of note, this camera has two LEDs it uses for night vision. These also function as a type of flood light. It cannot be turned off but it’s activation can be tweaked with on the web interface. This feature I did not like. It draws attention to the camera making it an easy target.There was more headache in getting this camera to work properly, which I don’t feel it currently is. I’ve had much more success with their indoor versions (they are not without their issues as well). I would say pass on this product. It certainly is a simple product however anyone wants to look at it; good or bad. From my experience with it, I would not say it is a reliable source of security. For an outdoor camera, it certainly isn’t secured enough from the elements or criminals who want to tamper with it.

The claim about color in the dark is really true. Not total darkness but very dim light is sufficient to get a decent color picture. The camera is better than my eyes for sensing color in very low light. You can tell there is a lot of image processing going on to make that picture work as well as a really nice sensor. In adequate, bright light the image quality is top shelf for these kinds of cameras.The software that runs the camera, while better than the previous generation, is buggy, primitive, and buries important features. The control program called Surveillance Pro should have the ability to operate all camera features as if they were actual controls, but this is not the case. Some controls such as whether the camera uses an IR sensor and IR light or a visible sensor and a white light are only accessible from setup and not from the viewing interface. Why not? Other controls are only available if you use a web browser and even others are presented differently between web browser and Surveillance Pro. Why?The camera is also prone to crashing which is no doubt firmware related. Some crashing I managed to reduce by cutting the frame rate, but it could not be eliminated. The "pro" software isn't really pro. It's marginally usable but really could be far better given the capabilities of the camera.All this considered, there is nothing in this price range that compares. So I am going to get another one and probably will settle on using them and try to work around the limitations.Picture 1 shows the moon, not the sun, pre-dawn. The sun is not yet illuminating even the sky. The blue is strictly from the moonlight.Picture 2 is in full daylight near midday.Picture 3 is IR with the dog about 30 feet away and the edge of the slab about 75 ft away.Picture 4 shows a truck about 50 feet away, a propane tank about 120 feet distant and the lights in the center background are about 4 miles.

I have purchased 9 Amcrest indoor wifi cameras over a number of years. I really like how easy it is to access them through the app, the clear picture quality, the simple set-up. I had an indoor camera set up in my sunroom, aimed through the window at my birdfeeder for around a year when I discovered that Amcrest now made an outdoor equivalent to the indoor wifi 1080p. I was so excited to try out the outdoor camera! I was so glad I could add it to the other cameras in the app, and have access to them all in one place! I purchased it, but wasn't able to install it outside for a number of months, but I set it up next to my indoor camera, aimed them both at the birdfeeder through the window, and compared them. The picture quality on my indoor camera was better than the outdoor one, but not by much, and I figured it was a trade-off for being weather proof. The most annoying thing about this camera is that it CANNOT retain its' connection to my wifi. It drops every 5-7 minutes, and doesn't reconnect for another 3-5 minutes. I thought perhaps it needed a stronger wifi signal than the indoor ones, so I purchased wifi satellite extender and set it up within feet of the camera. It made no difference. I finally installed the camera outside (in almost the same exact spot I had it inside, but on the other side of the single pane storm window.) I reset it, reconnected it to my wifi and crossed my fingers. It does not stay connected to my wifi. You can see in the photo how far away it is from my wifi satellite (roughly 4 feet) through a single pain of glass. I have tested the wifi strength there, and it is more than adequate for the camera to connect, as my indoor amcrest camera did sitting next to it. I do not have the ability to wire this camera using POE, I have no option other than a wifi set up, which has worked flawlessly for all my other amcrest wifi cameras. It is outside the window to return, and sadly I need to look at replacing it with another manufacturer. Too good to be true.