Decent cameras

[jkimbro01]

Hey all,, I'm looking for some camera recommendations. I use Blue Iris basically just to keep a record of activity that I can refer back to if needed. The cameras don't need to be real high quality, just decent. Currently, I use just regular consumer grade D-Link cameras which are decent enough and they have their own APP etc... I bought a KASA cam, (TP link KC-200), to try out and discovered that it was incompatible with Blue Iris. So I'm in search of something similar. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[MikeBwca]

BI Support website used to have a list of 'tested cameras' - it is not available any more. Probably because of the website redesign.

Contact BI support to see if you can get the 'Tested Cameras' list. This can save you a lot of time & money. Let us know. Maybe post it here!

[TimG]

Can the Blue Iris team confirm if this information is valid:

https://www.blueirisdownload.com/cameras.html

Doesn't appear to be the official website.

[MikeBwca]

Did a lookup on it. It's from France! They say they are an official reseller of BI. I'd stay away - just out of principle.

The most accurate information will be from the original BI website - providing they put the information back on the website!

[smiticans]

The most recommended cameras for BlueIris are Dahua Starlight and Hikvision cameras. There are plenty of discussions and reviews for both brands on the other form (ipcamtalk.com). I would never waste my money on any other brands like D-link, Foscam etc.

[spammenotinoz]

The most recommended cameras for BlueIris are Dahua Starlight and Hikvision cameras. There are plenty of discussions and reviews for both brands on the other form (ipcamtalk.com). I would never waste my money on any other brands like D-link, Foscam etc.

Agree, also consider a cam with micro SD card. I recommend PoE (easy to upgrade in the future) and go for night quality over high megapixel. Dahua Starlight are just an example of prioritising night quality over high megapixel. Be mindful that Dahua H.265 doesn't work with BI Hardware Encoding (ie: No GPU Support), but H.264+ works fine. Suspect this is the case for other cams.

[TimG]

I've sent another query to support to find out if there is a list for cameras and doorbells.

[TimG]

Ken responded:

This is such a moving target I really hate to limit the software to a list. There are probably a thousand more compatible cameras using standard methods like RTSP, ONVIF, MJPEG, etc we just haven't tested yet. Here's the list of what's listed in the software now

BlueIrisSoftware.com/cameras.ods

From that, I can only assume that as soon as BI have made a list, it is already out of date. The 'standard methods' mean that BI5 is the Swiss army knife of CCTV

FYI: The *.ods file is an "OpenDocument spreadsheet" that can be opened with many spreadsheet programs, including Excel.

[davidf]

I love my amcrest cameras. I installed them in April and they work great. Summer is in full swing here in the 90's. Tomorrows forecast for 101 degs. Absolutely no trouble w/amcrest in the heat they purr right along. Yet to see how they do in freezing temps. I populated each w/ a 64 Gb SD card for backup.

I love the BI thumb wheel interface to quickly zoom in on something.

My older cameras(antiques) are gadspot. Best they can do is 640x480 but work great w/ BI.

https://amcrest.com/amcrest-prohd-1920p ... 854ew.html
https://amcrest.com/amcrest-prohd-ptz-1 ... white.html