Excellent camera system, easy installation, without any technical hitches. I had one faulty camera on night vision and could not fault the Annke Technical Service and After Sales for their prompt assistance to solve the problem. Camera was exchanged quickly without any fuss and communication was excellent throughout. Thoroughly recommended.
I got 2 of these sets on for one of my buisness premises and one for another I’m opening. I originally got price 1200 quid to fit the same cameras but with a background in trade and having decent drill I’d though I’d give it a go and try myself as it’s always good to know. I planned to do it in one day on a Monday but got the cameras the Thursday before. Being inpatient I’d thought I’d fit one every so often and how easy they are to fit was definitely a surprise. I think I spent about 10 minutes a camera after planning where to run the wires and setting it all out before hand. I did find it difficult on the tech side at first but that’s just me not being patient enough to read a manual. Two things I have noticed is if the scanner doesn’t work the code on the app press the top right botton for the manual linking, the codes on the back of the box. The other thing is the camera quality did seem low at first but after playing around with the settings I don’t know how I did it but a flip switch kinda set up popped up on the screen, after maxing the power to each camera the quality improved dramatically. The streaming quality is a little lower but I think that’s my Internet over the product. Definitely value for money being able to view my buisness at any time of the day.
I purchased this item to install at my home address to provide peace of mind. Installation was relatively straight forward and easy, basically mount the camera route the single cable per camera back to the main unit then simply plug in and connect to your tv.
This system has performed above my expectations over the last month and has plenty of features, such as continuous or scheduled recording, fully adjustable motion detection sensitivity and detection area, up to 4 adjustable privacy screens per camera so as not to encroach on neighbours or public areas.
I am very pleased with this purchase and would definitely recommend paying the extra to get a system that is actually worth having.
Once set up this is a brilliant system for our home. I had some difficulties getting 4 of the cameras to work but made contact with their technical support ( Sandy) and it was sorted out very promptly. I would recommend this product.
I set this CCTV system up on my kitchen table before installing it around the house. As it is I decided to return it after experimenting with it and so can not comment on all of the features (eg night vision).
The system came well packaged and everything was present.
Somebody has commented that the cameras were plastic rather than aluminium and this is true, but they were still sturdy and seemed well made.
There were 4 * 18M cables (I think) and 4 * 30 m cables which should be sufficient for most houses. The connections at the camera end looked as though they would be waterproof had I needed them to be.
One of the features that I particularly liked was that when setting up the mask for motion detection, any movement that would have triggered recording was highlighted on the screen, so it was easy to decide which areas to mask out.
I also loaded the ANNKE Vision app on my Android phone and that worked fine.
I had also previously phoned up the US support team. At the time they were all busy but within 10 minutes someone phoned me back (even though I had not left any details) and asked what my problem was, so I assume from this that their support is reasonable.
There were two aspects that I didn’t like.
The first was that the camera housing was in two parts with the camera held between the two parts. To fix the housing onto the wall you need to split the two parts in order to get to the screw holes. I found this very difficult to do and was constantly worried that I would break it. As it happens I didn’t break either of the two that I managed to separate but I’m not sure that taking them down from a wall whilst up a ladder would have been very easy.
The second problem (which was the one that made me decide to send it back) was that the cameras had 105 degree wide angle lenses in, which are advertised as a way of covering a large are or view with a small number of cameras (which is true). However it meant that if I was going to be reviewing a recording and wanting to zoom in on faces or number plates, by the time that I had zoomed in far enough for the face or number plate to be sufficiently large to see it, the image had become so blurred that it made identification difficult if not impossible.
So in the end I sent it back because I felt that if I ever needed it to help solve a crime that I would not be able to rely on it because I would need to ‘over zoom’ to get close enough to the entity that I was trying to identify.
This was a great purchase for our business. Viewing camera on TV screen not so good but yet to download onto devices. Hoping the picture is as good as it shows on the packaging.
I was expecting great things from this 5mp camera kit. However, I’m somewhat disappointed, the quality is no different from 1080p. It’s pixelated, slow and very dull colours.
Recording of a moving object is very blurry, for example my dog, when he’s running around, it’s very jumpy, it’s as if it’s missing frames, I’m guessing the cameras have very low frame rate.
Night vision is quite good but no where near 100ft. It’s also very slow to activate / deactivate, for example when my security lights activate, the camera picture goes bright white, then it switches to colour. Fine, but then the light goes off the camera picture goes black because it’s too slow to react.
Installing the camera is also made more complex than needed, because the Ethernet cable is moulded into the camera and cannot be removed. It’s also not just an Ethernet cable. The cable contains a large (20mm-ish) plug and an audio cable. So if installing it through a wall, just keep this in mind. I was under the impression I could just add my own cable, whilst you can add your own cable to the camera connector, you cannot by pass the connector. The kit also does not come with any cabling for the audio, so bit silly really.
The computer interface and app are also very sluggish, and not as easy to use as they should / could be. I can’t work out how to activate the motion detection, I’ve ticked it, but nothing seems to happen.
The app also consistently reverts the cameras back to ‘basic’ mode instead of keeping it at HD. On basic mode the video quality is just terrible. You can’t see detail at all. You also have to set the main settings from the NVR itself, mines installed in the loft, so this is annoying. You can setup DDNS settings but this is inherently insecure. Without it you can still view the cameras remotely.
Note: the cameras are marked with an ‘up’ sign. Unlike other systems you cannot rotate the image so be sure not to install the camera upside down, as otherwise you’ll be up the ladder again, it’s actually a nice little addition as makes it easier.
Great indoor/outdoor camera system with Poe so only one wire going to each camera, easy setup, up and running in a matter of minutes only gripe is the plastic camera housing doesn’t seem very strong it would be easy for someone to smash them off with a decent broom stick so make sure they are fitted high up.
Fantastic System, Way exceeds my expectations for the price, Great performance and the quality is just amazing.
Would have cost me 5 times more for the Lillin system I was looking at just for the integration to my smart home system but happy to forget this at the price and i’m sure the cameras are better,
I ordered to go with it an Anpviz PTZ 5MP 20x Optical zoom camera and it integrated just as easy, the zoom of this cam was just mind blowing…. GREAT WORK and very happy….
Great camera system for the price, a cut above other budget systems. Easy to set up, nvr with decent features for the price and the cameras are nice and clear.
Picked this system up to replace a number of Blink cameras that were struggling to cover the area I wanted and were unfortunately chewing through batteries as a result.
The Good:
Installation is really easy as the cameras are PoE (power over ethernet) so you only need to run a single Cat5 or Cat6 cable from the camera back to the NVR. All the camera connectors have weather-proof gasket covers and the cameras themselves come with a really handy template sticker that guides you where to drill mounting holes. If you’re buying an 8 camera system, you likely have a fair distance to cover so most of your time is going to be spent running the cables back to the NVR along walls with cable clips etc. as everything else is a piece of cake.
The picture quality on the cameras is really fantastic and I’m so glad I went for a 5mp system instead of a 1080p – having a security system that produces crystal-clear images means you can have confidence that if they’re ever really needed they’ll be fit for use. When you have the system set up, remember to go into the settings and tick the box to enable H.265+ (not really sure why that isn’t just turned on by default) as it will save you huge amounts of storage space without affecting quality.
This brings me onto the night-vision. WOW. Seriously, it’s mad. Firstly, it manages to stay in colour ‘daytime’ mode until it’s almost pitch-black – so when you’re looking at your cameras it appears to be early dusk but look out your window and it’s already really dark. Then when it does flick over to night vision mode it has awesome visibility and distance with no weird halo that you get on traditional night vision.
The Bad:
So far a glowing review right, so why the four stars and not five? This is a relatively pricey 8 camera 5mp system – this isn’t an entry-level kit. Chances are you’re covering a fair bit of area and they are advertised as being IP67-rated Weatherproof cameras, so they’re obviously built to be outside. The one area I have real concerns about as a result is the supplied Cat5.
The supplied Cat5 cables are about 30m long so I purchased a couple of additional 100m and 50m spools of outdoors-rated Cat5 to cover the awkward furthest areas that the supplied cables wouldn’t reach. When these extra spools of ethernet arrived it was apparent that they were printed on the cable as being suitable for outdoor use and inherently more sturdy and better protected than the Annke-supplied cables. So are the supplied cables actually suitable for outdoor use or are they just bog-standard Cat5 and will likely fail in a few years of being outside? Hmm. Watch this space I guess. To be honest this is likely exactly the same on every camera system you buy and I might be being a bit harsh but you pay the money for a premium product, you expect everything to be premium.
Edit: July 2020 – So a year has passed since my original review – so far so good! No issues with the system at all, it just quietly gets on with it without ever needing resetting or any input at all. Nice to be able to forget about it with confidence. My reservations about the supplied Cat5 seem to be unfounded thus far, lets see what another 12 months of British weather makes of it 🙂
Excellent video quality and incredible night visio
Excellent camera system, easy installation, without any technical hitches. I had one faulty camera on night vision and could not fault the Annke Technical Service and After Sales for their prompt assistance to solve the problem. Camera was exchanged quickly without any fuss and communication was excellent throughout. Thoroughly recommended.
Very easy installation, great app, great picture quality. As others have commented, a bit too wide angled
I got 2 of these sets on for one of my buisness premises and one for another I’m opening. I originally got price 1200 quid to fit the same cameras but with a background in trade and having decent drill I’d though I’d give it a go and try myself as it’s always good to know. I planned to do it in one day on a Monday but got the cameras the Thursday before. Being inpatient I’d thought I’d fit one every so often and how easy they are to fit was definitely a surprise. I think I spent about 10 minutes a camera after planning where to run the wires and setting it all out before hand. I did find it difficult on the tech side at first but that’s just me not being patient enough to read a manual. Two things I have noticed is if the scanner doesn’t work the code on the app press the top right botton for the manual linking, the codes on the back of the box. The other thing is the camera quality did seem low at first but after playing around with the settings I don’t know how I did it but a flip switch kinda set up popped up on the screen, after maxing the power to each camera the quality improved dramatically. The streaming quality is a little lower but I think that’s my Internet over the product. Definitely value for money being able to view my buisness at any time of the day.
I purchased this item to install at my home address to provide peace of mind. Installation was relatively straight forward and easy, basically mount the camera route the single cable per camera back to the main unit then simply plug in and connect to your tv.
This system has performed above my expectations over the last month and has plenty of features, such as continuous or scheduled recording, fully adjustable motion detection sensitivity and detection area, up to 4 adjustable privacy screens per camera so as not to encroach on neighbours or public areas.
I am very pleased with this purchase and would definitely recommend paying the extra to get a system that is actually worth having.
Once set up this is a brilliant system for our home. I had some difficulties getting 4 of the cameras to work but made contact with their technical support ( Sandy) and it was sorted out very promptly. I would recommend this product.
A very good CCTV system for the home, very easy to install and setup!
Couple of our cameras went down due to network issue. They logged in remotely and sorted the issue very efficiently.
The system came well packaged and everything was present.
Somebody has commented that the cameras were plastic rather than aluminium and this is true, but they were still sturdy and seemed well made.
There were 4 * 18M cables (I think) and 4 * 30 m cables which should be sufficient for most houses. The connections at the camera end looked as though they would be waterproof had I needed them to be.
One of the features that I particularly liked was that when setting up the mask for motion detection, any movement that would have triggered recording was highlighted on the screen, so it was easy to decide which areas to mask out.
I also loaded the ANNKE Vision app on my Android phone and that worked fine.
I had also previously phoned up the US support team. At the time they were all busy but within 10 minutes someone phoned me back (even though I had not left any details) and asked what my problem was, so I assume from this that their support is reasonable.
There were two aspects that I didn’t like.
The first was that the camera housing was in two parts with the camera held between the two parts. To fix the housing onto the wall you need to split the two parts in order to get to the screw holes. I found this very difficult to do and was constantly worried that I would break it. As it happens I didn’t break either of the two that I managed to separate but I’m not sure that taking them down from a wall whilst up a ladder would have been very easy.
The second problem (which was the one that made me decide to send it back) was that the cameras had 105 degree wide angle lenses in, which are advertised as a way of covering a large are or view with a small number of cameras (which is true). However it meant that if I was going to be reviewing a recording and wanting to zoom in on faces or number plates, by the time that I had zoomed in far enough for the face or number plate to be sufficiently large to see it, the image had become so blurred that it made identification difficult if not impossible.
So in the end I sent it back because I felt that if I ever needed it to help solve a crime that I would not be able to rely on it because I would need to ‘over zoom’ to get close enough to the entity that I was trying to identify.
This was a great purchase for our business. Viewing camera on TV screen not so good but yet to download onto devices. Hoping the picture is as good as it shows on the packaging.
Recording of a moving object is very blurry, for example my dog, when he’s running around, it’s very jumpy, it’s as if it’s missing frames, I’m guessing the cameras have very low frame rate.
Night vision is quite good but no where near 100ft. It’s also very slow to activate / deactivate, for example when my security lights activate, the camera picture goes bright white, then it switches to colour. Fine, but then the light goes off the camera picture goes black because it’s too slow to react.
Installing the camera is also made more complex than needed, because the Ethernet cable is moulded into the camera and cannot be removed. It’s also not just an Ethernet cable. The cable contains a large (20mm-ish) plug and an audio cable. So if installing it through a wall, just keep this in mind. I was under the impression I could just add my own cable, whilst you can add your own cable to the camera connector, you cannot by pass the connector. The kit also does not come with any cabling for the audio, so bit silly really.
The computer interface and app are also very sluggish, and not as easy to use as they should / could be. I can’t work out how to activate the motion detection, I’ve ticked it, but nothing seems to happen.
The app also consistently reverts the cameras back to ‘basic’ mode instead of keeping it at HD. On basic mode the video quality is just terrible. You can’t see detail at all. You also have to set the main settings from the NVR itself, mines installed in the loft, so this is annoying. You can setup DDNS settings but this is inherently insecure. Without it you can still view the cameras remotely.
Note: the cameras are marked with an ‘up’ sign. Unlike other systems you cannot rotate the image so be sure not to install the camera upside down, as otherwise you’ll be up the ladder again, it’s actually a nice little addition as makes it easier.
Great indoor/outdoor camera system with Poe so only one wire going to each camera, easy setup, up and running in a matter of minutes only gripe is the plastic camera housing doesn’t seem very strong it would be easy for someone to smash them off with a decent broom stick so make sure they are fitted high up.
Would have cost me 5 times more for the Lillin system I was looking at just for the integration to my smart home system but happy to forget this at the price and i’m sure the cameras are better,
I ordered to go with it an Anpviz PTZ 5MP 20x Optical zoom camera and it integrated just as easy, the zoom of this cam was just mind blowing…. GREAT WORK and very happy….
Great system. Easy to configure and install. Good in daylight and low light.
Great kit. Easy to install and to set up.
Great images and excellent user interface.
Motion detection is really good and night vision is excellent. I think it captures the picture around 180 degrees. It is really great.
Arrived on time – Not fully fitted yet, but good results so far – Good online suppo
The Good:
Installation is really easy as the cameras are PoE (power over ethernet) so you only need to run a single Cat5 or Cat6 cable from the camera back to the NVR. All the camera connectors have weather-proof gasket covers and the cameras themselves come with a really handy template sticker that guides you where to drill mounting holes. If you’re buying an 8 camera system, you likely have a fair distance to cover so most of your time is going to be spent running the cables back to the NVR along walls with cable clips etc. as everything else is a piece of cake.
The picture quality on the cameras is really fantastic and I’m so glad I went for a 5mp system instead of a 1080p – having a security system that produces crystal-clear images means you can have confidence that if they’re ever really needed they’ll be fit for use. When you have the system set up, remember to go into the settings and tick the box to enable H.265+ (not really sure why that isn’t just turned on by default) as it will save you huge amounts of storage space without affecting quality.
This brings me onto the night-vision. WOW. Seriously, it’s mad. Firstly, it manages to stay in colour ‘daytime’ mode until it’s almost pitch-black – so when you’re looking at your cameras it appears to be early dusk but look out your window and it’s already really dark. Then when it does flick over to night vision mode it has awesome visibility and distance with no weird halo that you get on traditional night vision.
The Bad:
So far a glowing review right, so why the four stars and not five? This is a relatively pricey 8 camera 5mp system – this isn’t an entry-level kit. Chances are you’re covering a fair bit of area and they are advertised as being IP67-rated Weatherproof cameras, so they’re obviously built to be outside. The one area I have real concerns about as a result is the supplied Cat5.
The supplied Cat5 cables are about 30m long so I purchased a couple of additional 100m and 50m spools of outdoors-rated Cat5 to cover the awkward furthest areas that the supplied cables wouldn’t reach. When these extra spools of ethernet arrived it was apparent that they were printed on the cable as being suitable for outdoor use and inherently more sturdy and better protected than the Annke-supplied cables. So are the supplied cables actually suitable for outdoor use or are they just bog-standard Cat5 and will likely fail in a few years of being outside? Hmm. Watch this space I guess. To be honest this is likely exactly the same on every camera system you buy and I might be being a bit harsh but you pay the money for a premium product, you expect everything to be premium.
Edit: July 2020 – So a year has passed since my original review – so far so good! No issues with the system at all, it just quietly gets on with it without ever needing resetting or any input at all. Nice to be able to forget about it with confidence. My reservations about the supplied Cat5 seem to be unfounded thus far, lets see what another 12 months of British weather makes of it 🙂