Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been using the Amcrest 720 for a few months, and recently added the 1080. Both cameras have performed well and do an excellent job. These cameras offer a very nice solution for DIY home surveillance or monitoring, and the feature set is very impressive (especially considering the price). Cameras are packaged very well, and come with a a mounting bracket (if you want to mount on a wall), a generously long power cord, an Ethernet cable (which I did not need since I did the wireless setup), the CD software, and instructions. Instructions are well written, very easy to follow. As for setup, some reviewers report problems or complain about confusion with the software (more on software below), but in my experience the initial setup was straightforward. You have several options, the most common including either wired setup (use supplied Ethernet cable to connect to your router) or wireless setup (using your WiFi). I used wireless setup for both cameras using the Android app. The process is to simply choose to add a device in the app, and scan the QR code (printed on the base of the camera) using the app (or manually enter the serial number), then name the device, provide your WiFi credentials for the device, and you're done. As for the software, I did find it just a bit confusing to understand my options when first exploring the camera. Here's what you have: * Android mobile app Lite and Pro versions - I have installed and used both the Lite and Pro versions, and both work fine, but the Pro version gives you some additional features (one of which is Push notifications, so you can get an alert on your cell for events like motion detection). The Pro version was not free in the past, thus the the two apps. But since it's now free, the Pro version is the best choice. * Amcrest IP Config - this application allows you to configure many options for your camera, including the ports, basic video monitoring settings, video encoding options (quality) for your main stream and sub stream (the camera can record in two separate streams, giving you the flexibility of monitoring using one stream, and recording using another), and firmware upgrades. In addition, using the IP Config tool, you can launch a browser-based configuration tool for even more settings and features. While multiple browsers are supported, I use Chrome, and with Chrome you must install the Amcrest app (free from the Chrome App Store). With IE, simply install the ActiveX plugin the first time you browse to the IP address of the camera. The browser-based config tool (Chrome app or using IE) includes tons of configuration options and the interface is very good. This is my preferred method of monitoring, configuring, and playback/review. * Amcrest Surveillance Pro - this application includes much of the same functionality as provided by the IP Config and the browser-based applications (like the Chrome app). When setting up my first camera, I started with this application, and while it includes all the features you need, and allows you to configure events and other options, the interface is really not intuitive. You'll have to spend some time exploring to get the most out of this tool. I understand that Amcrest is working on development of a new application, which will be welcomed. * PC-NVR - this is a software (PC) based Network Video Recorder application, allowing you to store you videos on your PC. I'm not using this feature. * You can use other applications too (most will support Amcrest (Foscam) cameras. Blue Iris is a popular choice. Even for the mobile app, other options are available (tinyCam Monitor, for example, which works fine). As for storage, for now I'm just storing on SD cards in each camera. Based on documentation I've seen, the largest capacity is 32Gb, so that's what I have in each camera. By default, it'll record on a loop, so oldest files are removed as space is exhausted. You can customize this if you'd prefer to get an alert when space is full (rather than overwrite). You also have the option of NAS or FTP. Amcrest offers free cloud-based storage for one camera, but this includes only 4 hours of retention (that's 4 total hours, not 4 hours of recorded video, so this really has very limited value). So if you want cloud-based storage, and you don't want to pay for a subscription to the Amcrest Cloud service, you'll need to have an FTP server. Sadly, cloud-based storage from Dropbox, Google Drive, and others are not supported (you will need a cloud-based storage solution that includes FTP functionality). You have many configuration options for recording, including motion detection, audio detection, and various alerts (video tampering, SD card errors, network errors, camera masking, etc.). The motion detection works very well, and is highly configurable (so you can establish zones for the motion detection and configure sensitivity as needed to prevent false alarms). Cameras also include night vision, and this works quite well (even in a very dark room or space). A note on mobile app push notifications (a feature whereby you can receive an alert based on events, such as motion detection)... until recently there were issues with getting the push notifications to work reliably. I experienced problems, but the Android app was updated very recently to address this issue, and push notifications have been working great since the update. If you have an issue, just delete and re-add your camera to your mobile app, then re-enable/save the push notification option. Finally, regarding support. I've only needed to reach out to Amcrest once (for a simple issue I should have been able to resolve on my own), and I found them to be very responsive and helpful. Their tech support rep (Alex) resolved the issue quickly.