Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my first purchase of any security cameras. My brother has Nest cams so I was looking into those. He loves them. As I was doing my research I came across these Amcrest ones for half the price. I read many good reviews so I figured I'd get one and give it a try. It was a great decision that I will never regret. The camera was well packaged and looking at the packaging, you would think that there is a VIP in there. This camera over exceeded all my expectations. Here's why: 1. Panning and tilting is great. Only negative is that it can't really tilt down, but a tripod or a slanted base of some sort can fix that. This product comes with a mount that can be attached to a tripod. 2. The power cord is long (10ft) so you're not bound to a small area. Not like those short phone charging cord or Ipad charging cords. 3. Easy Access with phone and Ipad. Just install the Amcrest app and login and you can check in on the camera anytime, anywhere. I have it installed on a OnePlus 2 phone and Ipad. Can even pan/tilt too and take snapshots and record on device storage. 4. Image quality is great. 5. Motion detection can be as sensitive as you'd like. I'm impressed with this camera's motion detection capabilities. 6. Camera has a micro SD card slot so you can record locally. This is where the scheduled recordings record to. YES IT DOES TAKE A 64GB MICRO SD CARD. When you insert the card into the camera, there will be a popup saying some sort of error. All you have to do is hit the format button. It'll say format successful and now you have 64GB of storage space! Camera supports FAT formatted cards and not exFAT. Anything 32GB or less is SDHC (FAT) and anything 64GB and higher is SDXC (exFAT). Hence probably why the error but the format button fixes it. Don't ask me how but it works. 7. Software is pretty amazing. This area exceeded my expectations also. Every recording is pretty much recorded in a .dav format which can be converted to .mp4 within the Amcrest software or .avi with smart play. .dav files can be viewed with the Smart Play software. You can take snapshot pictures and even clip certain time segments of the recording. 8. MANUAL RECORDING USING THE RECORD BUTTON. This records onto your local HDD. How cool is that??? After this is recorded, use Smart Play to essentially turn it into a time lapse video. You can fast forward in 64x speed and it's a fast forward. It's a very smooth fast forward and not a choppy one. Manual recordings go on local HDD and scheduled recordings go on micro SD card. Cons: Only a few minor ones but not any to take stars away. I would consider myself pretty tech savy and figure something out pretty easily. Setup actually took me awhile. I would recommend you not connect to your wireless device right away. If you have a wireless network, plug the camera into your router with the ethernet cable first (nice that it comes with a cable in the box). Setup on your desktop. Install the IPconfig software and open the IP Cam in internet explorer and install plugin (plugin doesn't work with google chrome (Someday hopefully). From there I had to adjust DNS server settings before my phone or Ipad can connect. All in all, it took time to figure out settings and functionalities but this camera is pretty awesome. I have ordered a 2nd one and probably more in the future. Seems like Amcrest is making a name for themselves. Check out my thunderstorm lightning pic. How can you not like this camera?