5.0 out of 5 stars If you are not technical read this - If it's not working, stop taking shortcuts

2026-02-02    -Antonio

I'm not an engineer, but I have a soon-to-arrive pair of twins and baby monitors didn't really cut it for me. I got a sound based one to use at home or visiting friends, but what I really wanted was to check on them and keep an eye on the nanny when not at home. This does the business brilliantly if you set it up right, so I'll first tell you how I did things wrongly (and it resulted in most of the issues I see reported on here) and how I then tried a different approach with the second camera and suddenly everything worked.THE WRONG WAYI first set it up like any normal person would: I avoided the Desktop IP config software like the plague. Setting up the app was a breeze, and at the end you are asked to change your password. Then you move on to register for web access and get an entirely different login and password, but once inside need to use the one for the device itself to pick it up. Suffice to say it soon gets a bit confusing which login and password should be used where and you start getting fails, so keep a note of the logins/passwords you create and where.Once I had both of those set up I still had teething problems: the date is set to 2000, the volume was way too high (would be great to scare someone entering your garden, but not for talking to your baby boys), the recording options were limited, playback of stored video was a bit slow at times... And the more I researched the more it became clear that: THE FIRMWARE UPDATES AND ALL THE SETUP AND CONFIGURATION FINE TUNING IS DONE THROUGH THE DESKTOP ACCESS. So I bit the bullet and installed the IP Config only to start getting constant fails on my login details. I understand the frustrated ones on here, but as a soon-to-be new dad I wasn't going to give up easily.THE RIGHT WAYI took the other camera fresh out of the box and initialised it through IP Config. The interface looks horrible but it isn't really rocket science so long as you have a router with friendly software (Netgear Genie) that makes it easy to find the IP. If you didn't understand that last bit get help, you won't make it fully work by yourself.No login issues here as you use the default and that always works. Once inside I went straight to setup and started looking through the menu and just kept finding everything I had been looking for! Skip all the various alert and motion detection setups, that will all make more sense once you are happy everything is functioning properly and not getting in the way of trusting your trial and error outcomes.First thing you do is update the firmware. In fact, I later found all the problems (invalid login, failed to connect, etc.) with the first camera were gone and suspect they were entirely down to this. You can also create more users here, with their own access rights, login and password. And they work!Once I was done with all that I moved on to the app and web access and it all worked straight away. Also, I should point out the Desktop access is best for reviewing recordings as you aren't uploading everything and downloading again but instead connecting directly to the camera through your router. Some engineer somewhere is laughing at this needing clarification, which is what the entire confusion in the different reviews boils down to.OVERALLIt took me a full day to set it all up, but it's working great. The camera definition is superb, the nightview is far better than I expected, the pan and tilt covers a very wide range, wider than I need actually. I get just under a week's worth of video on my 32GB SD Card (apparently can get 64GB to work if you format it in the camera, through Desktop Access again).The easy setup claim is partially true. The average Joe will find it quicker and easier to go with Option 1 (App setup and configuration + amcrestview) but that will go as far as giving you remote access via mobile/web with occasional malfunctions. Amcrest should really STRESS the importance of doing the Desktop Access and firmware update first if those purchasing the product want to make full use of all its functionality.

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are not technical read this - If it's not working, stop taking shortcuts

2026-02-23    -Antonio

I'm not an engineer, but I have a soon-to-arrive pair of twins and baby monitors didn't really cut it for me. I got a sound based one to use at home or visiting friends, but what I really wanted was to check on them and keep an eye on the nanny when not at home. This does the business brilliantly if you set it up right, so I'll first tell you how I did things wrongly (and it resulted in most of the issues I see reported on here) and how I then tried a different approach with the second camera and suddenly everything worked.THE WRONG WAYI first set it up like any normal person would: I avoided the Desktop IP config software like the plague. Setting up the app was a breeze, and at the end you are asked to change your password. Then you move on to register for web access and get an entirely different login and password, but once inside need to use the one for the device itself to pick it up. Suffice to say it soon gets a bit confusing which login and password should be used where and you start getting fails, so keep a note of the logins/passwords you create and where.Once I had both of those set up I still had teething problems: the date is set to 2000, the volume was way too high (would be great to scare someone entering your garden, but not for talking to your baby boys), the recording options were limited, playback of stored video was a bit slow at times... And the more I researched the more it became clear that: THE FIRMWARE UPDATES AND ALL THE SETUP AND CONFIGURATION FINE TUNING IS DONE THROUGH THE DESKTOP ACCESS. So I bit the bullet and installed the IP Config only to start getting constant fails on my login details. I understand the frustrated ones on here, but as a soon-to-be new dad I wasn't going to give up easily.THE RIGHT WAYI took the other camera fresh out of the box and initialised it through IP Config. The interface looks horrible but it isn't really rocket science so long as you have a router with friendly software (Netgear Genie) that makes it easy to find the IP. If you didn't understand that last bit get help, you won't make it fully work by yourself.No login issues here as you use the default and that always works. Once inside I went straight to setup and started looking through the menu and just kept finding everything I had been looking for! Skip all the various alert and motion detection setups, that will all make more sense once you are happy everything is functioning properly and not getting in the way of trusting your trial and error outcomes.First thing you do is update the firmware. In fact, I later found all the problems (invalid login, failed to connect, etc.) with the first camera were gone and suspect they were entirely down to this. You can also create more users here, with their own access rights, login and password. And they work!Once I was done with all that I moved on to the app and web access and it all worked straight away. Also, I should point out the Desktop access is best for reviewing recordings as you aren't uploading everything and downloading again but instead connecting directly to the camera through your router. Some engineer somewhere is laughing at this needing clarification, which is what the entire confusion in the different reviews boils down to.OVERALLIt took me a full day to set it all up, but it's working great. The camera definition is superb, the nightview is far better than I expected, the pan and tilt covers a very wide range, wider than I need actually. I get just under a week's worth of video on my 32GB SD Card (apparently can get 64GB to work if you format it in the camera, through Desktop Access again).The easy setup claim is partially true. The average Joe will find it quicker and easier to go with Option 1 (App setup and configuration + amcrestview) but that will go as far as giving you remote access via mobile/web with occasional malfunctions. Amcrest should really STRESS the importance of doing the Desktop Access and firmware update first if those purchasing the product want to make full use of all its functionality.

Calidad excelente

2026-01-13    -René González

Excelente cámara, funciona con Alexa a través del Cloud de Amcrest por lo que está limitada a una cámara sin costo.

Good Indoor IP Camera

2026-01-10    -Whomiask

I have been using Amcrest quite sometimes and price + quality is good, compare to those in the market. I used to order Foscam but the price is high and its DDNS service will stop. For my case, it stopped after 3 years. For the installation wise, I would not say it's easy especially if you want to set it to your own IP address. Need a bit of know how. This model is good enough for my indoor use to monitor my home's activities while I was outside.

Calidad excelente

2026-02-18    -René González

Excelente cámara, funciona con Alexa a través del Cloud de Amcrest por lo que está limitada a una cámara sin costo.

4.0 out of 5 stars Amcrest PTZ works well for me.

2026-01-11    -BMWRT

First I have two older DropCam Pro cameras and for some reason just found out they can go to 1080i. So I changed that setting. Wow what a difference that made. I love those cameras as they give a wide 130 deg. view and are really clear. They are easy to setup and control with alerts. Since DropCam was purchased by Nest (people have to ruin everything!) They don't offer the DropCam any more but have their own not so good cam. The cost of my used Pro cams are $245 and I only bought them for $198 each. A new Nest can't come close to the quality of the DropCam Pro. So since I can't get those anymore I had to look for something else. So I did a search on Amazon (love you guys) for security cameras and then by 4+ stars. Here was the Amcrest PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) webcam. There were many reviews and most if not all were very positive. OK so I can only go by what others have said so I bought two. They are ok in quality and by that I mean the construction. I say that because they are all plastic but then again if the camera is going to be moved all about why have it made with anything else? I get it. One drawback is they only work on 2.5 GHZ wireless so luckily I have both. It was easy to set up but a PITA to put them on my wife's tablet because you have twoff choices to add the device (unless I'm doing something wrong) and one is to type in the MAC address of the webcam which is obnoxious or to setup a new one. Oh well once entered it was fine. So the use of them you want to know. They have to resolutions SD or HD and the HD is nice and clear you can move the camera view up, down, left right but then there is the zoom. It's digital zoom so going any closers than 1.0 distorts the image quality quickly. I wish that to get way better (charge more for functionality) as its not able to zoom in to see your dogsite face from 20' away. All you see is a blob. Zoomed out is fine but if there is a burglar and you want to see their face up close (or closer) no go.. However I liked them a lot because the ability to move the webcam around and see more. I've since bought two more but haven't had time to set them up and then put them on my wife's tablet / phone too. The price was I think cheap at $96.00 each and for what you get its nice enough. The other really great thing about these are you can put a mini SD card in them and record on that without paying for a service or if you want you can port the video to your own DVR. There is also a cloud service so you really have a inexpensive, we'll rounded webcam that has PTZ and video quality is nice all for under $100. I would recommend them.

Good Indoor IP Camera

2026-02-05    -Whomiask

I have been using Amcrest quite sometimes and price + quality is good, compare to those in the market. I used to order Foscam but the price is high and its DDNS service will stop. For my case, it stopped after 3 years. For the installation wise, I would not say it's easy especially if you want to set it to your own IP address. Need a bit of know how. This model is good enough for my indoor use to monitor my home's activities while I was outside.

5.0 out of 5 stars The camera was ok

2026-02-05    -None

It was Ok

5.0 out of 5 stars The camera was ok

2025-12-22    -None

It was Ok

4.0 out of 5 stars Amcrest PTZ works well for me.

2026-02-23    -BMWRT

First I have two older DropCam Pro cameras and for some reason just found out they can go to 1080i. So I changed that setting. Wow what a difference that made. I love those cameras as they give a wide 130 deg. view and are really clear. They are easy to setup and control with alerts. Since DropCam was purchased by Nest (people have to ruin everything!) They don't offer the DropCam any more but have their own not so good cam. The cost of my used Pro cams are $245 and I only bought them for $198 each. A new Nest can't come close to the quality of the DropCam Pro. So since I can't get those anymore I had to look for something else. So I did a search on Amazon (love you guys) for security cameras and then by 4+ stars. Here was the Amcrest PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) webcam. There were many reviews and most if not all were very positive. OK so I can only go by what others have said so I bought two. They are ok in quality and by that I mean the construction. I say that because they are all plastic but then again if the camera is going to be moved all about why have it made with anything else? I get it. One drawback is they only work on 2.5 GHZ wireless so luckily I have both. It was easy to set up but a PITA to put them on my wife's tablet because you have twoff choices to add the device (unless I'm doing something wrong) and one is to type in the MAC address of the webcam which is obnoxious or to setup a new one. Oh well once entered it was fine. So the use of them you want to know. They have to resolutions SD or HD and the HD is nice and clear you can move the camera view up, down, left right but then there is the zoom. It's digital zoom so going any closers than 1.0 distorts the image quality quickly. I wish that to get way better (charge more for functionality) as its not able to zoom in to see your dogsite face from 20' away. All you see is a blob. Zoomed out is fine but if there is a burglar and you want to see their face up close (or closer) no go.. However I liked them a lot because the ability to move the webcam around and see more. I've since bought two more but haven't had time to set them up and then put them on my wife's tablet / phone too. The price was I think cheap at $96.00 each and for what you get its nice enough. The other really great thing about these are you can put a mini SD card in them and record on that without paying for a service or if you want you can port the video to your own DVR. There is also a cloud service so you really have a inexpensive, we'll rounded webcam that has PTZ and video quality is nice all for under $100. I would recommend them.