Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2607 Wifi Wireless 802.11 Security Network Camera with Infrared Night Vision
by Sharx Security
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Sharx SecurityModel: VIPcella-IR SCNC2607
Color: Black
Product features:
- Hi-Resolution Wifi b/g IP Network Camera with infrared night vision
- Full 30 fps MPEG4 video performance at 640 x 480 resolution with audio
- See streaming video on ATT, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile smartphones including iPhone and BlackBerry
- Motion detection or timed emails and FTP uploads
- Supports Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Linux, VLC, QuickTime, 3GPP
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2607 Wifi Wireless 802.11 Security Network Camera with Infrared Night Vision
Customer Review: Great Camera - Provides Peace of Mind for a Reasonable Price
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall review:
Excellent product. I have recommended to family and friends
I would give it five stars if one issue with short blanks in the video could be corrected (under Video section). I have not found a camera that isn't significantly more expensive than the SCNC2606 or SCNC2607 that would receive 5 stars.
If you are considering saving money by purchasing the SCNC2606, please keep in mind it does not have good low light capability and will not work at night or possibly evenings.
My setup:
SCNC2006 and SCNC2007 running firmware 3.39
The software was installed on a computer running Windows XP
I am using a Linksys by Cisco wireless router WRT320N
I viewed the cameras remotely on another computer running Windows XP and another running Windows 2000
I also view the cameras remotely using my Droid X phone
Hardware:
The camera hardware was fairly robust with a sturdy housing measuring about 3.25" by 3.25".
The infrared illuminators occupy an area about 2" diameter on the face of the housing, with the camera lens in the middle.
A detachable antenna protrudes from the top of the camera 4.5", although it does have a joint in it that allows it to be turned 90 degrees.
A metal base is included with a ball and socket joint that allows the camera to be rotated from side to side and pitched up (but not down from straight ahead).
The power cable is about 10 feet long, which allows the camera to be mounted quite a distance from an outlet. The power cable on other security cameras is not so long.
Also included is a short ethernet cable for setup, but if you have a wireless network it won't be needed after the setup.
Software:
MultiLive software is included for recording videos onto a computer on the same network. Installation is easy. The software is fairly straightforward and easy to use. You can record video from multiple cameras simultaneously using MultiLive. See more below under section titled "Computer Recording (MultiLive Software)"
Setup:
A printed, 56 page instruction manual is included with the camera. Don't let the length of the manual scare you. It is written in great detail so that anyone can install the camera. It was also clearly written in English first, not a foreign language poorly translated into English. The manual leads you through all the steps to get the camera fully functional, including wireless network setup, adjusting camera settings, allowing access to your camera from the internet with a password, setting up a free DDNS for remote viewing, night vision settings, emails, ftp uploads, recording to a micro-SD card, recording video on a computer, and viewing videos from a smart phone.
I consider myself moderately skilled with technology and the installation was not difficult. It took me about 4 hours one evening to do the complete setup, and maybe an hour or two over the course of a week to make final tweaks to settings.
The camera supports WPA2, as well as WPA and WEP for wireless security, with password lengths from 8 to 63 characters long.
In the camera setup you can create a schedule by day (Monday through Sunday) and time (12:00 am through 11:59 pm) for when to send email alerts. So if you plan to be out of the house between 8 and 5 Monday through Friday, you can set the schedule for that.
The tech support for Sharx is essentially only through email. They do not provide a phone number to call, only an email address. This certainly concerned me, with all the setup difficulties I had previously with cameras from other manufacturers. However, they are extremely prompt and very thorough in their responses. They usually responded within 15 minutes of my email, even after normal business hours (but don't assume this will be the case - I'm sure they want to go home as much as everyone). I only had to email them a few times, and never required a phone call to explain what I was having trouble with (mostly setup on my Droid X). In the event that you are truly stuck, they say they will call you when both parties are available.
Operation Overview:
Once you get the camera set up as you want, it basically needs no effort from the user.
The camera detects motion based on detecting a difference in video. It does not matter if that difference is just due to a pet, or the reflection of a car headlight through a window at night. The motion sensitivity settings, including threshold to register as a change and sectors within the viewing window to evaluate for changes, can also be adjusted during setup. You can adjust it so that a person walking in front of the camera will be considered "motion", but clouds breaking the sunlight and thus changing the lighting conditions of the room slightly will not be considered "motion".
When the camera detects motion, it will send an email with a picture of what it sees and it will start recording video.
Videos can be recorded to either a MicroSD card installed in the camera (sold separately) or to a computer on the same network using the provided MultiLive software. The camera can also transmit videos stored on the MicroSD to an FTP site. See more details under "Computer Recording (MultiLive Software)", "MicroSD Recording" and "FTP Recording".
If you get an email from the camera, you can log onto the free DDNS website you created to see the live video from the camera. When viewing live video you also have streaming audio, so you can hear if someone is in your house. However, there is some random "noise" with this - you might hear a knock or bang that isn't actually there.
If you are trying to view the live video from your cell phone, but don't have a strong network connection, another option is to view the continuously updated photos. These are uploaded every few seconds and are nice if you don't have a strong network connection on your phone and can't view the video.
If you don't see or hear anything going on, but want to see what triggered the camera, you can also log onto the camera's settings and download the recorded video (assuming you're recording onto a MicroSD card).
Video:
The recorded video quality is pretty good. The quality is probably good enough to identify someone if they are within 10 to 15 feet of the camera. However, if they move very fast or if they never face the camera, this may be more difficult. I recommend placing the camera so that it points towards where an intruder will slow down to pick stuff up and possibly face the camera.
The transmitted video quality is decent on a phone, although probably not good enough to identify someone. The transmitted video is usually a lower frame-rate than the recorded video so you can watch over a cell phone service's wireless network, but this can be adjusted in the setup.
There is a slight delay between a change in the scene (motion detection) and when the recording begins, but this is less than a second.
The cameras have auto-exposure and adjust to changing light conditions during the day and early evening.
The video recorded when in night vision mode is obviously not in full color with somewhat reduced quality. It is still good enough to see if someone is in your house and all your stuff is still there (or not).
The video frame-rate and resolution are both adjustable in the camera setup, as is the length of the video clips recorded. Each clip will be stored as a separate file.
I have found that some slight blanks in video (sometimes up to 2 or 3 seconds long) do occur and sometimes frequently. This is both on transmitted and recorded videos. I have not found a solution to this issue and was told by Sharx that the cameras may not be capable of recording at the resolution and frame-rate that I chose without causing this issue. Unfortunately, I want the resolution and frame-rate in case I need to identify someone using the video evidence. I can live with this, but this is definitely an area for improvement.
Motion Detection Notifications (emails):
The cameras are very good at detecting motion without being disturbed by slight changes in lighting. You can easily adjust these settings so that it will trigger when you want it to. I've only had a few false alarms (a couple times heavy clouds blocking the sun did trigger it, a fly flew in front of the camera once, and a piece of plastic film fell off my TV).
When the camera detects motion, it will send an email with a picture of what it sees. Overall this works very well. There have been several times that I have come home early and forgot to disable the email option on the cameras and received a picture message on my phone shortly after walking in the front door.
You don't need an email client on your home computer, and you don't even need a computer at all. The camera contacts your mail server, for example a free Gmail account, and instructs it to send an email on your behalf. You can program the camera to send emails to 3 different email addresses. These email addresses can also be those assigned by your mobile phone provider so that you can receive picture messages on your cell phone, even non-smart phones.
While a change in the video scene will trigger an email alert, sounds will not. So even if you can hear people talking on the live video, unless something changes in the visual scene in front of the camera, you won't get an email.
Remote Viewing (via PC):
Remote viewing from a PC works very well. The video and sound come through pretty good, although the video will likely not be at the same quality and frame-rate as the recorded video.
You can log onto your camera using the camera's external IP address or you can use DDNS to help you remember a name instead of a numeric IP address to see live video or still images continuously updated (every few seconds). The free DDNS service I used for remote viewing, no-ip.com, works very well. Sharx recommends no-ip.com along with [...]. Both provide free accounts, but they do require you to log in at least once a month to let them know you're still using the free account.
DDNS should only be installed on one camera for an entire network. If you install it on more than one camera, there will be too many updates and the DDNS provider will block the free account. With one hostname (updated by one camera) you can access up to 252 devices on your network, just by using the different port numbers.
When logging on remotely you can also adjust the settings of the camera. This is helpful for a few reasons. If you come home from work early and need to disable the email alerts, you can adjust the schedule before you leave work. Also, if you receive an email alert, but watch the live video and don't see anything, you can access the MicroSD card and watch the video of what motion the camera detected. You also have the capability to adjust the motion detection sensitivity, but I would not recommend this without being there to test in person.
Remote Viewing (via smart phone):
Remote viewing from my Droid X works very well. The video and sound come through pretty clearly, but again the video quality isn't the best.
Basically, everything that I wrote for the PC Remote Viewing applies to the smart phone remote viewing.
I created bookmarks on my phone's browser to access each camera's video as well as the main setup menu for each camera. When selecting a camera's video bookmark, I have to then click on the live video button "3GPP Live", the continuously updated photos button "Picture Live" or "Setting" button. The main setup menu bookmark takes me to all the setting I can adjust, such as schedule and motion detection sensitivity.
I've only experienced a few issues with watching the videos over my Droid X.
1) When I added the second camera it seems to have some issues processing logins for multiple cameras. My phone kept giving me an error that the video could not be displayed. This may have to do with password processing on the Droid X. I finally figured out how to overcome this pretty easily and quickly. I go to the video bookmark and select "setting", then click on the "back" button. This takes me back to where I can select the video button "3GPP Live". This then takes me to the live video and only takes another couple seconds to complete.
2) When trying to access the MicroSD card from your phone, it is very slow. The phone is trying to evaluate a lot of information, so it makes sense this might take a while.
3) The last issue is just bandwidth on the phone's network connection. If you're in a poor service area, you're not going to be able to view live video.
Computer Recording (MultiLive Software):
I found that recording to a computer was unstable. I never could determine if the network connection was lost, if the router was overwhelmed, or a problem with the software or computer, but I frequently came home from work to find the computer had stopped recording. When this happened, the only way to restore the connection between the camera and the recording computer was to power off the camera then turn it back on. Recording onto a computer also required the computer to be on 24-7. An additional concern with this is that if someone breaks into your house, it's very possible they will steal a computer, taking all your video evidence of the break-in with them.
MicroSD Recording:
Recording onto the MicroSD card works well.
The card has to be 1 GB or larger, and from one of these 4 brands: SanDisk, Lexar, PNY, Kingston. Both MicroSD and MicroSDHC work fine.
If the card is ever filled, the camera will automatically over-write the oldest files first.
You can adjust the recording rate over a very wide range (over 100:1). With typical settings, you can record 24 hours at medium resolution (320x240) with a 2 GB MicroSD card, or 60 minutes of high resolution motion detection recording per GB.
If you want to adjust the frames per second, it is adjustable from about 2500 kbits/sec to 20 kbits /sec. For kilobytes instead of kilobits, divide by 8.
If the camera is powered off while it is recording a video, the video file may be corrupted. Consider this when selecting the video clip lengths in the setup.
FTP Recording:
I haven't actually used FTP recording, so I can't comment on how well it works.
Here's what I do know about it:
With the addition of a MicroSD card (1 GB or larger) the camera can automatically transfer the video or snapshots from the card to a standalone hard drive that has the FTP server feature. No software is involved, no computer involved, just directly from the camera through your router to your hard drive, such as the MyBook World Edition. If your drive does not have the FTP server feature it wouldn't work, so it's important to check. NetGear ReadyNAS will work too, Apple Time Capsule won't because it doesn't have FTP and is always dependent on a Mac to be connected.
Night vision
The night vision capability of the camera is pretty good. The video is not the best quality and is in black and white, but is sufficient for determining if someone is in the area in front of the camera. Sharx claims the SCNC2607 can use its infrared night vision to see in total darkness up to 35 ft, which I believe is probably true. The infrared illuminators light up the room nicely.
I highly recommend buying the SCNC2607 over the SCNC2606, unless you don't care about the camera working in the evening or night, or if you have good lighting in the room 24x7. The low-light capability of the SCNC2606 is poor.
The night vision does have three minor issues:
1) The camera lacks an optical filter to remove colors not seen by the human eye, sometimes changing the colors in the video when in daytime mode. This only happens in some lighting conditions and with some materials. In the daylight the colors on my camera look pretty good. Even when the colors are somewhat modified, it shouldn't prevent you from identifying an intruder.
2) The infrared illuminators do transmit some visible light (red). It's not very bright, but in a totally dark room you can definitely see them. This could be an issue if an intruder saw this and found the camera.
3) The infrared illuminators also may attract bugs when this is the only light source in a dark room. I keep a clean house, but there have been at least two occasions when I received a message from my camera that it detected motion in the middle of the night. Upon reviewing the recorded video, I see what appears to be a small bug flying across the camera, brightly illuminated by the infrared illuminators. Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind so you don't freak out if the camera alerts you to motion in the middle of the night.
Wireless:
The wireless range on the camera is pretty good. I have my wireless router located in one room with the cameras in other rooms. The signal from one camera has to penetrate two brick walls to reach the router, but still manages to do it.
Here's what Sharx told me on the wireless range:
Wireless range depends on what's between the router and the camera. In a typical US wood frame/sheet rock home with wood or vinyl siding you can go up 2 floors or 2 rooms over. If your router is centrally located in a 3 story home you can get good reception everywhere provided you don't have lots of metal furniture. If there was no obstruction, like outside line of sight or a very big hall, you can get over 150 ft.
General guideline - If you take your laptop to the location where you'd want to use the camera, and if your laptop can get 50% signal strength from your router, then you should be okay. However, if your laptop has trouble getting a signal from your router before you even buy one of our cameras, then buying a camera won't magically cure your existing wireless networking problems.
I would like to point out two potential issues relating to any wireless connections:
1) Interference - If there are a lot wireless devices in your area (apartment building) or you use a cordless home phone you can have interference in the wireless network.
2) Dropouts - Whether the cause is the camera or the router, wireless networks can lose connection. This has happened to me a few times (not many) in several months. I recommend verifying the connection every week by checking if you can still see live video remotely. If the camera loses connection to the network, it will still record any video, but it will not send you an email when it detects motion. When the network connection is lost, just pull the power plug, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in.
Pros (most of which are very important):
Pretty good video quality
Fairly good sound quality
Motion detection works very well
Motion detection emails with pictures is very reassuring when away
Night vision is effective for determining if an intruder is present or if your belongings have been disturbed
Remote viewing of live video from a computer or smart phone is great
Remote viewing of recorded videos is helpful
Recording options are good (MicroSD card or possibly FTP, not so much for the networked computer).
Wireless network connection allows you to place the camera anywhere within a reasonable distance of a router without running cables
Setup is easy compared to other wireless network cameras
Cons (most of which are minor issues):
Wireless connection can be lost (true for any wireless device)
If an intruder steals the camera and you only record onto the MicroSD Card they take the evidence with them
Video blanks for up to 2 or 3 seconds, sometimes frequently
Slight delay from motion detection to start of recording
Random noise in viewing live video
Infrared illuminators are visibly red and may attract insects
Power turned off during recording may corrupt that video file
More difficult to hide than 2606 model, due to infrared illuminators
More Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2607 Wifi Wireless 802.11 Security Network Camera with Infrared Night Vision reviews:
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Description of Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2607 Wifi Wireless 802.11 Security Network Camera with Infrared Night Vision
This Wifi b/g wireless IP camera has its own built in web server. You can view the video from your own home network or you can configure your router to view and control the camera from computers or cellphones on the internet, without dependence on any third party web sites or subscriptions. With the built-in microphone you can listen in. Excellent MPEG4 or MJPEG video quality at a full 640 x 480 resolution with up to 30 frames per second for fluid, natural motion color. For viewing or recording a single camera no software is required besides just your browser. For viewing or recording multiple Sharx IP cameras the included MultiView software for PCs supports up to 4 Sharx IP cameras simultaneously. Truly amazing to see the streaming video on your web enabled cell phone. For frequent use we recommend to upgrade your cellphone service to unlimited data, which costs just $15/mo extra on the ATT network. You can see motion even on non-3G phones like SonyEricsson w580i. If your phone does not support video you can see automatically refreshing JPEG images. At home, you can use this camera with your laptop or iPhone as a baby or pet monitor, and the very high light sensitivity in "moonlight mode" allows you to view out from a window to see what's happening in the street as long as there is some background light available. This camera has infrared night vision which can see in total, absolute darkness. Like any infrared sensitive camera, the daytime colors are subdued and can appear unnatural especially on plants and vegetation. For eye-popping, gorgeous daytime colors please select the less expensive Sharx SCNC2606 camera if you do not need night vision in total darkness. Wireless operation supports WEP, WPA, WPA2 encryption. On routers with UPnP feature the camera can set itself up automatically, and on routers without UPnP (such as Apple's Airport series) the camera can be set up with our step by step instructions.Cameras
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