Side by Side Comparison of: VIMTAG vs Zmodo

Update Feb 7, 2016
I now have 3 cameras!
There are so many different reviews about this product and many are not accurate or updated.
If you want tech support go to the Vimtag website and NOT fujikam. Vimtag is located in NY state and their support is really good. At least that has been my experience so far.

The quality of the camera/s for the price is beyond what you pay! We have one camera mounted on a wall up as high as possible so no one can touch it. The "reverse" image works perfectly. I can pan the camera in any direction which is a god send if I need to see if my father is on the floor somewhere.

The picture quality is really good for the price of the camera. Not perfect all the time but for my purposes I can tell who is there and what is going on. The color is true. The night vision is strange but it works!

The app might be the issue for me. I have an iPad and iPhone. I find the iPad is much more reliable most of the time. The iPhone is too small to clearly see but good enough. The iPad is so much better for details and it seems to load faster.

I use the motion detection all the time to see if and when aids, nurses and possible unwanted people come and go from my dad's apartment when he is asleep. There is usually, but now always, a still and a 15 sec (more or less) video clip. The issue for me is there are times that motion is missed or not recorded. the still is not always of the person but the video often shows who it was that came and went.

Often there are phantom stills of things from months ago. many of the stills are blank.
My feeling is that the app needs updating? I am going to bring this up with tech support.

I do recommend this camera. but it has had its challenges

(This review began with 2 stars. I changed it to 1 star and now give it 4 stars. It has been a long journey but please read or skip down to the November 26, 2015 update. The company is now Vimtag. They have great tech support and their tech people return phone calls and responded to my email via phone as well and on Thanksgiving day to boot! I am much happier. See below for information that they gave me to help with some issues with this camera.)

I have a very mixed review and experience. I purchased one camera (from Amazon) at first but now have 2 (both from amazon).

I have a 94 year old father that lives in assisted living. He has been there for 4 years now and the things that have happened will curl your toes and hair! He is a fall risk and has alzhimer's. He uses a walker in his apartment. Part of the reason that I wanted a camera was to see if he was safe at night when his private aids were off and to see if the facility staff were doing their checks that we pay a hefty fee for. In the 3 nights that I have used the camera I have learned that the staff is only checking him one time over night. Not good for someone that is on oxygen and is a fall risk! So the camera has been a great help.

My current experience with the cameras... I tested the first camera at my home and everything worked well. Setting up with my father's internet/wifi was not a good experience. It took 3 different days of attempting to get the wifi to work/connect. I am not using the facilities wifi. I am paying for a high quality private system. Finally that is working and working very well. Well at first it was. It is now very intermittent. I believe it is the software.

I set up the motion alert for both cameras. There is a still photo that shows up but... there is a delay evidently and half of the pix do not show who was there. In other words...there is motion but by the time the camera records the still the person is gone. Well what good is that? That does not help me at all! Also a large number of still photos are blank. I have been in the rooms with the cameras and one can clearly hear the camera clicking away taking the stills but when I look online or via cell Phone or tablet there is no human to be seen. Sometimes there is a blur of a hand. I am so disappointed as well as upset.

I have a question. Is there any way to turn off the clicking sound that happens whenever the camera detects motion and takes a still? I really don't want the people that are caring for dad to know this is happening and it is also very distracting. There must be some way to turn it off, the same way one can turn off the shutter sound in a cell phone. This is a digital devise so there should be no moving shutter parts right?

The good points...
The picture quality is really quite good. There are choices for quality in the setup area.
I have tried to get a hold of customer service or tech support but so far no success. Maybe someone else has had better success.
I'm sticking with this system for now, hoping I can find assistance. If not then for someone that needs reliable alerts and still photos this is not a good match.

I would use the record function if it went to the cloud but it does not. :-( The recording quality is good actually but to have to remove the card every time one wants to save a recording is not going to work for me. It would be fantastic if the camera/s are in your own home. Easy. But not for someone that lives away from the location with the cams as I do.

If this was in my own home I would give it all 5 stars I think.

For the money it is a good quality system/camera.

Bad news is...if someone unplugs the camera it resets and you loose anything stored that was not recorded on the internal card.
Oh and another thing... if you have lots of movement the still pix from motion detection only stays in the "record" section for about 2 hours or less. Then they are erased! I find myself checking the darn feed way to often so I can save to my phone or computer the photo/pix with the time stamp and date.

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I just changed my rating to 1 star. I can not begin to share how upset and frustrated I am.
Last night, when I need the camera the most so I can know if anyone is checking on my 95 year old father, the camera in the bedroom area went dead. I thought that someone might have unplugged it but NO. The app and website just was black. Nothing on my cell phone app. I went to the website via my computer and the camera was working! I had to shut down my phone can start it again. Then magically the live feed was back.

Before this all happened the camera was clicking and buzzing away every second. Then the camera died. It was crazy!

Now I can't even log into the website. I have also been logged out of the app and when I try to log back in it does not accept my user name and password!!!! This is horrible!!!
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November 25, 2015
FYI - the company is now VIMTAG. It is located in New York.
I will update after I talk to customer support. Fingers crossed!
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November 26, 2015 update
New experience and so much better. Now give it 4 stars but the jury is still out!

Evidently the app and web sites for the cameras were down last night for updating. I asked if there was a way for them to notify customers. There was a huge silent pause and then i was told they would try to have an announcement via the app in the future. What?

The right website to go to is VIMTAG.US that might be [...]
You can find customer support on the home page as well as a tab for products. Both the contact 800 number and the email will get you a real person. Today I talked to 2 of the 4 tech support people.

The first tech person that I talked to was able to answer most of my questions and issues. One that he did not know the answer to he referred to the senior tech person who called me back at a time we agreed to. Who knew??

In case you are having some of the same issues here is what I was told:

I was told to make sure the camera/s is on 50hz for america use.

To turn off the clicking that can be heard in the camera every time motion is detected you need to make sure I/O is turned off. I/O alarm. If you have it turned on there will be an audible sound similar to a shutter click. Trust me if you don't want anyone to notice the camera you need this turned off! You can get to it via your app or on the website where you view the camera/s feed.

I was told to change the night time sensitivity to "50" for the motion detection notification and to "37" for day time.

I did not get an explanation for why many or several of the stills show a gray icon with the word CAMERA in it. When I click on it the display is black. I have a time stamp and date to indicate there is/was motion but no was of knowing who/what it was.

I was also told to change the length of the alert still to 6 from the default of 3. I don't quite understand but will be testing this over night tonight.

Don't give up if you have this camera. DO call the Vimtag tech support.

Vimtag (Fujikam) 361 HD, IP/Network ,Wireless, Video Monitoring, Surveillance, security camera,plug/play, Pan/Tilt with Two-Way Audio and Night Visionexcellent camera, after purchase and test some cameras of security, I can say this and really the best of all and fulfills WHAT promises, simply the best, fast delivery and the product is everything as described. and the installation of reamente 5 minutes without complication and can still access the camera on your computer or cell phone and free and very efficient and easy comprehension REALLY am very happy and grateful and I will definitely recomVimtag (Fujikam) 361 HD, IP/Network ,Wireless, Video Monitoring, Surveillance, security camera,plug/play, Pan/Tilt with Two-Way Audio and Night Visionmend this product to friends and relatives,. thank you

I really love this camera and to look at a room anytime on my phone. Will get more sometime to cover other rooms.

The Fujikam model 361 is a great wireless security camera with reliable web software with a lot of features that you might want or expect in a security camera. Some of these include:
• Remote Live Video Streaming Via Smart Phone, Tablet, PC
• Remote Pan and Tilt, Motion Detection Alert
• Video Recording To SD Card, Digital Zoom
• Real Plug And play 5 Minute Setup, Night Vision,
• 2 Way Voice, HD 1280 X 720 Clear Image Quality
There are no extra fees for cloud service and everything resides on a mini 32 GB SD card which must be purchased separately. It works very well and it is remarkably easy to set up. The setup instructions are good and I had no problems during setup and installation. I had it working within 15 minutes after taking it out of the box. The picture is good, the remote rotation (side-to-side and up-and-down) works and the sound quality is good. The camera comes with a mounting kit so that you can put it up wherever you need it. It is a really nice camera for a very reasonable price and I am going to buy some more of them. Note: This camera is primarily for indoor use although it will work if placed outside. However, it will not be able to withstand bad weather. An outdoor version that is designed to withstand bad weather will be released sometime in the future.
The product customer service is great! I contacted them with a question about the infrared feature and the customer service agent answered without a long wait. He was very patient and helpful in explaining the camera features and software settings.
The Fujikam model 361 is an excellent camera, its customer service is great and I would highly recommend this camera.

I travel for a living and have always been concerned about leaving my house empty for days at a time without knowing what's going on while I'm away. So recently, I began comparing and reviewing about 10 different surveillance camera options, most of which required a DVR with wired cameras. I settled on this camera because it was both wireless and did not require a DVR, because of the reviews it received, and because its price point was hard to beat.

Setup was very easy, requiring only a brief direct LAN hookup to my DSL router to establish the connection to the camera. Then you simply download the app on your smartphone, create an account, scan the QR code at the base of the camera, and voila, you're connected! You can now remove the Ethernet cable and place the camera anywhere you like, as long as it's in wireless range of your router.

Most of the setup was straightforward, though the online documentation could provide better descriptions of the features and menu options. For instance, if you just want the camera to record only when it detects motion (which is what I bought it for), you have to disable the "schedule recording" option altogether (I had it set on the "24/7" option thinking it would always be ready to record but not actually record until it detected movement--I was wrong).

Also, the camera requires an SD card (not included) to save the videos it records. It mentions using an SD card in the documentation, and there is a menu option for it as well, but for the first two days I was under the impression that it was referring to the SD drive on my laptop and that the videos would be saved to the SD card I inserted into the laptop. As it turns out, the camera itself has a Micro SD slot to store its own videos, and that's what the instructions are referencing. NOTE: Be sure to get a "micro" SD card (smart phone size), not the standard size SD card that you might use on your laptop. You can pick these up at Best Buy (about $15 for a 32GB Samsung card).

You can control the camera via your smartphone or your desktop/laptop. One great feature is the ability to control the camera's direction remotely. You can set the camera to a live shot, and pan it up, down, and side to side for a nearly 360 degree viewing radius.

I actually purchased two of these cameras and set them up in different locations of my house, and I can control both of them through the same GUI and account. Although you can only actually see one camera view at a time, you can switch between cameras very easily and very quickly (all cameras are in a list and you just click the one you want to view). I will very likely add a few more to my collection very soon (I believe you can have up to eight on the same account, but you'll want to check that).

All in all, this is a great little surveillance system for a great price.

Great security camera for my little apartment! Just a couple of things to note: The camera must be connected to your router ONLY for the duration of the setup. The little light below the "router" symbol on the camera should flash green three times if it is connected properly. The little light below the "wifi" symbol will flash red, because you haven't set up the wifi yet. Follow the instruction card in order to set up your camera account and hook it up to your wifi. After everything is set up, the light under the "wifi" symbol should be flashing green. It is now ok to unplug your camera from the router and set it up wherever in your home! Unplugging the power supply to move my camera from one spot to another did not ruin anything. To set up the camera's options, open the MIPC app and press and hold the screenshot image from the "Camera List" screen. A menu with Settings, Records, and Delete will pop up. Click Settings to tinker with the options. My favorite way to use the camera is to go to Settings>Alarm Action and toggle the Turn Alarm On button whenever I leave the apartment. That way, the alarm is activated whenever I am gone. When I come back home, I toggle the alert off. Simple. I have set off the alarm a couple of times by accident. It doesn't call the police or anything, but you get a snapshot and a recording of whatever the camera is looking at. If somebody broke in a stole the camera, you'd still have these things available on the app. I had to adjust the motion sensitivity a few times, but everything works great!

This system has good value for its low cost. I opened the box, plugged everything together in my study to test it, all the parts worked and the display looked cool. It took me four hours to run 400' of cable (hidden in walls and out to my home's exterior), mount the cameras and hook up everything, like the NVR box, mouse, my display monitor, etc. I misplaced a camera mount and called Zmodo who sent me another, free.After everything was connected the system continued to work as described in the product info description on Amazon. Great videos of the newspapers being delivered at 4am or a sparrow flying too close to the camera. I had some challenges setting up my iPhone 6 to communicate w the system and called Zmodo customer service. In less than five minutes it was up on my iPhone and my portable PC. Now if we could only get the people approaching our front door to stop wearing hoodies or dipping their face down as they approach the cameras' security would be perfect.Look, if a retired CPA can get this Zmodo system to work with only one service call for iPhone connectivity it must be good. YMMV

Can't beat this system for the price. Installation was a pain in the a$$ for me, just because I had to run the Ethernet cables through my attic. Everything else about the setup was simple. I ended up upgrading to an 8 channel NVR so I could add additional cameras. So far I have the 4 spoe Ethernet cams and 3 Wireless Zmodo 720p cams (which also work well). After setting up the wireless cams with my wifi network they automatically synced up with the NVR. With the 7 total cameras, my 1TB hard drive stores about 3 1/2 weeks of video.NOTE: I did have to upgrade my modem & router to get this system to work consistently. I had an old router/modem gateway that couldn't handle the constant connection required and it would drop offline quite often (3-4x day). I've read other reviews that complain about the NVR system having issues with dropping off and I would say it's probably due to their internet, not the NVR itself. Also, if installing camera's outdoors you must weatherproof the Ethernet connection! I purchased an ethernet cable crimp kit so that I could customize the length of the cables and reduce the size of the holes I had to drill to run the cables. The kits are very cheap and easy to use (youtube can show you how).This system isn't as user friendly as some others, but once you get used to how it functions it's just as good as the systems 2x the price.

Surprisingly simple to set up. Power over ethernet is the way to go; no extra power cables required so i am glad i went that direction, and for the money spent i couldnt be happier. images and video to my phone also easy to set up and everything seems to work just as advertised.i am even transmitting from the dvr system wirelessly to my router in another room .. needed to plug the system into a repeater because i couldnt get cat 5 into my office anymore ... works fine and doesnt bog down my wifi .. seems to lockup my system about once a week so far .. but if that gets to be a pain i will spend the $30 to buy a better repeater and solve that problem.still playing with motion detection sensitivity .. and night vision is not anything to brag about .. but my goal with this set up was as a deterent first and as a way to monitor the new pool when i am at work .. so i am happy.i guess for money you could get better cameras that would zoom in and identify a persons face from 100 yards ... but i didnt need that here .. i can tell if my son is out by the pool .. or if the water guy is reading my meter out front ...everyone else sees the cameras and the red leds and at least know they are being watched ...

(Review after 2 weeks of use)I was researching for months for a diy - no monthly fee - monitoring for my home. Read some scary reviews but tried it anyway. Unit arrived 6 days after order. Packaging was no problem and item was intact.The system was indeed plug and play except for the port-forwarding. After system (auto) detects camera, the images are there and 5/5 for me (considering I am new in home surveillance). I used 2 flat Fosmon cat6 flat ethernet for 2 cameras to crawl on my window (I can still close my window) and used the 2 50 ft wires that came with the system.Monitoring: used a tv screen at home and Zsight for tablet/ipad/iphone/adnroid units for local and remote monitoring. You cannot view the 4 cameras in one screen using zsight but had to scroll one each (no problem for me). The alerts were fine. I had to play with the alerts settings.Good camera system considering the price and its utility for me. (BTW my background is in health and was able to set-up the system w/o calling support).

For the price I was not expecting a top of the line system. This was the only system in this price range I could find that was wide screen, power over ethernet, color, and high definition. To get all of those features in another system was much more expensive.At first I was horrified with the picture quality. I thought I was going to have to return the system. After playing around with the cameras for a while I realized that there is a major setting that affects the video quality. That setting is indoor versus outdoor. Each camera can be programmed differently, and if you have a camera outside set to indoor then everything is really blurry and extremely bright. You can barely see anything.The cameras are very buggy and require a lot of patience to function correctly. I have only had them set up for a few days, but I've found some odd issues. They are really easy to correct once you know how, but it can be very frustrating to figure out the first time. Here are the ones I can remember:*Indoor/Outdoor Camera Mode* - If set incorrectly the picture is way too bright or dark. The Zviewer PC application does not correctly show the option to switch back and forth. Sometimes the outdoor option will be available and sometimes it won't. If the option is unavailable then reset the camera to defaults and restart the camera and NVR until it comes up in the correct mode.*Indoor mode when restarted at night* - If the camera is turned on or restarted at night it will default to indoor mode. You should be able to get it to adjust correctly by shining a flashlight directly into the lens a few times.That is all I can think of right now. One other thing of note is when installing the hard drive. I do almost all of my monitoring of the system from my computer using PC Zviewer. You MUST connect a monitor to the NVR to format the hard drive. There are a few things that can only be done directly through the NVR, so if you get frustrated that you can't do something then connect directly and check if the option is in the NVR.I'll post a picture of my setup. I only have 3 cameras up at the moment. I haven't installed the garage camera yet.Thanks

The Pros:1. Very high image quality for cameras in this price range.2. Excellent Night IR and cut to good Daylight Color rendering (more about this later)3. Solid USA Based support and phone staff. They will even walk you through router config if you need help, including remote log in support directly on your PC if you need that.4. Almost unbelievable price / performance ratio. The cameras are solid and well machined, appear to be weatherproof, you get the whole kit: cables, 1TB recorder, and software for mobile and PC based, 4 high image quality cameras, all for less than you can pay for 1 Sony camera. This kit is being sold very cheaply ! It is a bargain !5. A good “plug and play” package with everything you need for the homeowner that wants to “give it a go” and install his/her first security system.The Cons:1. The software is a project in development and has issues. It is usable for and will suit most all home users. It is possibly not suitable for a commercial business environment, although it could be made to work in that application with patience and if you have some basic abilities working with these systems. It is being written by programmers in China, and although Zmodo does have a USA based R+D staff, there is a long way to go for them to get up to the standards of companies like Digital Watchdog and Honeywell that have years jump on them. You will be OK with this system and very happy as long as you are not expecting the very latest and greatest security system software.At first I was going to give this 3 or 4 stars but after working with both the system and with Zmodo support staff for the last month I think I can give it 5 stars. The system is very very inexpensive for what you are getting, and must be considered a real bargain, with a few caveats.After talking with Zmodos support staff, and getting a feel for what they are up to there at what amounts to a start up venture (They first organized the Zmodo camera business in 2008) I feel that it is reasonable to assume that they will continue to upgrade and update their software.I set the system up, and it was painless to get running, as the internal software in the NVR does a good job of configuring the IP addresses and getting everything “plug and playing” for you. After 48hrs one of the cameras failed. This is not unusual in inexpensive equipment as you, the customer, are responsible for the burn in and QA that would be done for you at the factory, if you paid 4x the price. I called Zmodo support and was surprised to get a real person here in the USA. They have a very well organized RMA system, and I was sent a replacement camera in a reasonable time frame.Overall I am very satisfied with this system for use as a basic security tool at my home. I have experience working with high end commercial security cameras, and can say that, surprisingly enough, the Zmodo cameras actually out perform some commercial cameras in two regards: many cameras have a devil of a time dealing with “IR cut” or “transition” in and out of light and dark phases at sun up and sunset, but these cameras perform excellent in this regard. Also the whlole system is smooth and not choppy, in real-time full motion recording and transmission over the internet. Not something that you can say about even some high end commercial gear! They do use software compression techniques to allow for transmission over slower internet connections, so the image quality you get on your Andriod or iPhone is no where near what is being recorded “on tape”, so that is not a defect, it is an engineering reality. When you pull the images off the disk you will have access to the full image quality, which brings me to my next important point:And that point is: the image quality passes the “Police Test”. What I mean by this, is that if you record an image of a bad guy in the eye of the cameras within 20 feet, and the lighting is reasonable, you will get a portrait of the character that can actually be used in the real world of police work. Most security cameras and systems simply fail to pass this important test.So, I rate this system as a “buy” if it fits your home use, and if you can deal with a software platform that is, admittedly, not the very best in the industry, but is certainly useable by most out there that probably don't need every bell and whistle anyway.

I ordered this for use inside my home, but looking outside to my front porch as I don't have the greatest wifi signal. The picture is clear, the app is very handy and works better than the desktop program. I had no issues setting it up to my network. I like that I can change the camera direction from the app, talk to someone in the room, etc. What I really don't like about it is that the nightvision is useless if you're looking through a window. At first I had it on my windowsill (the base is quite large) but at night the image was only of the windowscreen. So I used a 3M Command Strip to secure it to the top of the window sash b/c the base is large as a temporary fix. But that did not help as the glare from the window creates a mirror effect so all you see is the camera. The "fix" seems to be to have a porch light on. While that does work, I'm not interested in changing out my vintage porch light to an automatic light or leaving the light on at all times. Other options would be to mount it outside, but it has to be plugged in to an outlet to work.

We have a new pup and she has a knack for getting into trouble. I wanted a surveillance camera I could use to help keep an eye on Maisie Grace. I also thought it would be cool to be able to check on the girls. Finally, I thought this would be something I could use when Maisie grows out of her puppy phase as an outdoor camera.

This was a good call.

The price is very reasonable, the process to synch to my network was simple, and installation was simple. You do need to connect the unit to your LAN for the initial setup but after that, it's a pretty straightforward process - I think I was watching from the camera in less than fifteen minutes.

The app is pretty robust and runs like a charm on my Pixel phone. You can also log on to vimtag's site and access your camera - or cameras (the app supports multiple cameras) from any browser. You can run it in a motion detector mode, an alarm mode, or set up schedules to record. A piece of advice - make sure you get a MICRO SD card - the camera needs this to save video. You can control tilt, pan, and zoom from the app and activate the microphone by touching the screen. All in all, it is a pretty reliable and simple app. The Auto mode works pretty well, but you can adjust the color and contrast settings as well as HD or standard definition. The camera boasts a night vision mode as well.

Vimtag's paper and online documentation are not the best, but there are several reviewers who have done a great job of walking you through the procedures if you have any problems.

At some seventy bucks are you getting top quality? Nope. But to be absolutely candid, I worked in Loss Prevention for some years and have worked with cameras not a lot better than these - that likely cost the company more. You definitely get a good deal for the dollar.

I purchased this cloud box because we already have 2 Fujikam cameras in our home, and not only did we want to save more video footage per camera (they are limited to the SD card that is stored in each camera otherwise), but we also wanted to save that footage to something other than the cameras themselves, in case of a burglary, etc. Before this cloud box came out, if your Fujikam camera is stolen, you lose all your videos and photos--which defeats the purpose of a video camera in the first place, in my opinion (unless you're wanting it for live view only). Since we purchased the Fujikam cameras about 9 months ago or so, the name of the company has changed from Fujikam to Vimtag (I guess Vimtag must have purchased the company?). I would never have known this if I hadn't called the 800 number with a question about the cameras when I was setting them up. That being said--their customer service is wonderful. They are extremely helpful and patient. The only drawback is that they're open from 8:30-4:30 EST Monday-Thursday, half a day on Friday, and a partial day on Sunday, so if you need to talk to them for technical assistance, make sure you plan accordingly for not only the day of the week, but also your time zone. This must mean the MIPC (Fujikam) app that I had previously downloaded for the cameras must be obsolete, although it appears it's still working. There's also a Vimtag app, though, which seems both easier to use and user friendly-it tells you this in the installation pamphlet), so at this point--I still have both apps on my iPhone and iPad and go back and forth between them to look at the cameras and cloud box videos. You can also view the cameras for live view and the footage from the cloud box over the Internet on a computer, which is a bonus.

The reason I called their customer service/technical assistance department in the first place regarding this cloud box was because I thought it had wifi capability (looking back over the Amazon description now, I see wifi is not mentioned, so that was my mistake). When I talked to them several months ago about my camera question, I also mentioned that I would really like to have cloud capability in case the cameras were stolen, as I would have no video footage of the thief. That person told me they were coming out with this cloud box and to keep an eye out for it; however, I could never find it for sale on the Vimtag website, and I looked weekly for a long time. I finally did a Google search for it, which led me to this Amazon seller. I was under the impression from the rep I spoke with that the cloud box would have wifi so you could hide it somewhere in your house, away from the cameras, router, etc, which really appealed to me. When I set it up, though, I could only get it to work via Ethernet. That brings me to another point: one of the main sellling features of this cloud box on the product description says you can "hide it in a closet." Well, you can't do that unless your router is next to a closet and you have a power outlet next to it as well. This box has to be connected to your router and electrical power--so a person robbing your house is probably going to notice that it's next to your router, since most are left out in plain view. I don't see how it would be feasible to hide this box in a closet in its current configuration. I finally called Vimtag tech support after much frustration and gnashing of teeth, and a very nice man told me that they are working on making this device wifi capable and to give it a few weeks, because a software update would be available that will allow wifi connection. That was approximately May 19, 2016, so I'm (im)patiently waiting. My intention is to hide this box somewhere in my house where it won't be found easily once that occurs.

This cloud storage device was fairly easy to set up, but I'm also a techie person and know computers and gadgets pretty well for the most part (I still think most people would have no issues with it, though). You can either activate it from the Vimtag app or go to Vimtag.com and add it from there (you have to set up an account with a username and password first). If you already have their cameras, then you will need to "add" a new device first, though, before you can do anything else, which I don't think was the very clear in the instructions. To make things even easier, as it steps you through the process--there's a scan tag on the device that you can scan with your iPhone (not sure about android) to easily add it to your list of devices on your Vimtag account (or you can input the device code on the bottom of the unit manually) and give it a name (I used "cloud box").

Once you've added the cloud box to your account, then you click on each camera that you want to hook up to the box, choose each camera separately--one at a time--and select the storage device for that camera to be the cloud box (if you were previously using an SD card). Playback of the videos is pretty smooth and easy to figure out. I'm not sure I'm getting 60 days worth of video storage yet. It looks like the 2 cameras I have store up to about 3-4 days worth of videos, but I have my cameras set to record 30 minutes of video footage at a time once motion is detected, and they're both set up in busy areas, so there's a lot of footage for a 24 hour period. I'm not complaining about that, though, because that's a lot more than I had with the SD card, I just don't know if that equates to the 1 TB of storage this device is supposed to have, although I know videos can be notorious space hoggers.

As I mentioned, the installation guide that came with the box is pretty straightforward. I didn't have too many issues setting it up, other than the frustration of not having wifi when I thought it did, but I was able to get that figured out after a call to tech support. So far I'm really happy with its performance. The video and/or photo footage for each camera is easy to locate and plays back nicely on a phone or tablet, or a computer after you install their video plugin. One aspect I really like about the whole setup process is that you don't have to do it all via a computer like you do several other different brands of video cameras I've used in the past. Everything you need to set up this box is available using the Vimtag app. If you check the system settings on your cameras and cloud box occasionally, you will see a red tick mark next to the software update selection, which lets you know that a new update is available for that device, which is really convenient. You can update it right from the app and then it will restart that device with the new software features. I've had a number of software updates on my cameras already, adding new features and such, and it's been a breeze so far. No problems (knock on wood).

My biggest complaint I have about this box is the SMELL. It comes right out of the box with a strong chemical odor, and once you plug it in and get it running--it circulates throughout the whole room via the fan inside the cloud box. It literally made me nauseous. I had to try not to breathe in too much while I was messing around with it, trying to get the wifi to work. I've had it about 3 weeks so far and the smell has dissapated a little bit, but the whole room still smells like it. If you're sensitive to that kind of thing, you might want to watch out for that. Other than that and the wifi capability, which I hope will be resolved soon, this is really has been an excellent investment for our home, safety and security (the cameras are also excellent if you get a chance to try them). I don't think you can beat the entire package as far as price, camera clarity, storage capacity and ease of use compared to some others on the market that I've tried. I don't work for this company or have any relationship with them--this is an unbiased opinion and I paid full price for it!

I have now had this Fujikam 361 HD security camera for 5 months. Here is my experience with it. It is solid and well made. It is bigger than you might think. It is easy to set up. The live feed image quality and audio is excellent. Remote pan and tilt works extremely well with a swipe of the live image on a smart phone. Price is excellent. I do have a few gripes. Motion sensitivity is extremely difficult to set and I'm still trying to get day and night settings that do not over-capture or under-capture. Sometimes I get no recording at all with motion and other times I get a recording every 2-5 minutes for hours for no apparent reason. The clicking sound when the motion sensor is activated is kind of annoying and makes visitors inquire if you are snapping their picture. It rarely and unreliably sends a motion alert to my Samsung S5 phone. My biggest gripe is the software. You must use the manufacturers software to view any recorded imaged. It is difficult to sort through captured images and video with the manufacturers online software especially if there are dozens of "false alarm" motion recordings. As I said above, it is very difficult to get the motion sensitivity setting just right so I tend to over capture rather than risk not recording. It is not possible to download any recorded video or pics to your computer without removing the SD card and inserting it into the computer. You can then save the recordings by copying the files over to your computer from the SD card but still so tedious to sort through them there. I wish this camera would allow me to email images to myself. The camera hardware and software does not allow email of motion triggered pics or video to yourself. (More basic Linksys security cameras have this email function built in.) You have to use the manufacturers software to view any pics or video. Tedious and takes forever. If it emailed the recorded images you would not have to upload them to the manufacturers website and would also have more privacy. I'm still looking for something better but not able to find it at this price point.

I was very excited to receive this product. As soon as I got it I set it up right away (which took about 5 mins) and I was very impressed with the quality of this camera. I am very happy with my purchase though I wish there were a way to mount it without having to keep it directly plugged in to a power source. It works fabulously & I will definitely be purchasing more from fujikam!

**UPDATE**
After using the camera system for about 2-3 weeks I have to admit that the MIPC app is not very good at all. I'm constantly having to reset the app because the picture keeps freezing on my phone & the touch to pan and tilt doesn't respond on time , if at all. Also the app crashes on my Acer All in one tablet. Basically I HAVE to use my laptop... Which it still freezes. Disappointed with the app you have to use with camera.

I got the item when it was deal of the day, everything integrated and worked out of the box and all the reviews that underscore "value" are accurate. I see this as a starter system where you can get the wiring in and setup a system that you just might want to replace/upgrade later. Couple items: though these cameras can integrate with other software the NVR and cameras themselves are proprietary in POE wiring layout, volts, and amps. So to sum that up, the wiring itself is Ethernet layout but the POE isn't standard from the camera to the NVR, so if you wanted to replace a camera you have to buy from vendor. On wiring, not all Cat5e is equal, I saw that this was bundled with Cat5e wire that was copper coated aluminum, at 19v and the combined impedance of 5 cameras on cold/hot long runs, you want solid copper wiring. The wiring provided would require close to a 1/2 inch cutout where plenum Cat5e requires much less if you crimp your own. If you perform a quality wiring job that would include using some 1-Gang Round Weatherproof Electrical Box, a service loop or extra wire in that box, and an extra cover for said box when you eventually replace with modern/better cameras. The software, uhmm if you have a router that allows you to reserve an IP address by Mac address, if you understand that, then the software is fine and you can turnoff DSN, UPN, etc. Each camera is itself is a Woot linux instance and if port forwarded would need to have a password changed managed. I would call the software adequate, the cameras adequate, everything "adequate" and this still a starter system for POE system. Your wiring will determine the quality of the power which ergo determines the ability of IR to work, etc.. Your switch/hub choices important, VLAN, Mac address and IP management etc.. if you know what you are doing and understand these terms and you have an old router/firewall WTG54 etc you are gold.. I got what I paid for and think that the wiring and site survey, learning curve is facilitated with this unit. I could add more units with networking and POE/wireless, But I'll probably just go higher end cameras if I do replace with a higher rating for weather. Again for what I paid I'm kumbaya and won't bother chasing an RMA with good wiring which I'm running myself. Best advice: run good wiring and use a good 1-Gang Round Weatherproof Electrical Box.

I had this system setup fairly quick thanks to my son for helping pull wires while I was in the attic. My system has a 2 TB hard drive installed and so far I can go back 13 days to review recordings...I'm impressed. The picture quality is good and the infrared night vision works well. I can view my live camera feeds remotely from anywhere using my iPhone. In fact, the attached picture displaying all four cameras was a screenshot taken on my iPhone. I have this system connected to my 720p TV using a VGA cable. The 2nd picture attached displays the infrared quality and recording screen though my TV.The system mouse is a little choppy when navigating through the camera system and going through the recordings. Other than that it's a decent system and fairly easy to setup.I didn't buy this system from Amazon, but purchased it from Woot for only $100 during a one day sale. There are better systems on the market, but couldn't pass on this system for the price.

I am very pleased with this system. The price paid vs. the quality and features is a good value. The picture quality is a big improvement when compared to the old 560 TVL analog system that it replaces. It came with pre-fab cables but I purchased some bulk Ethernet cable and connectors and made my own custom lengths. This also allowed me to drill smaller holes, then make up the connectors.The system booted up and worked on the first try. I purchased an inexpensive 40 inch TV with a RGB connector and I am getting a very good picture. The DVR has ample storage capacity for my needs. It also has ample basic programming features. The motion detection is maybea little too sensitive at the lowest setting. Bright sunlight and clouds moving overhead will set it off. Also bright sunlight with the shadowof tree leaves moving in the wind will activate the motion detection. The mounting bracket for the cameras is disappointing. Even when tightened the camera can be easily moved if it is bumped. With any outdoor camera you can get a spider web that needs to be removed. With this weak mount, you need to be very careful not to bump the camera with a broom or brush when removing the web.

Crime has gotten increasingly bad in my area. Wanting to make sure I am creating as many lines of defense for myself as possible I purchased this unit.The box it ships in is surprisingly small. The NVR is about the size of a small dvd player. The cameras are fairly small as well. Since this system is PoE the video and power are contained in the Cat5 cables. Only having to run 1 Cat5 cable for each camera makes installation a snap.You can use longer cables if you need the length. Zmodo recommends you upgrade to CAT6 cables for cable runs between 150 to 300 feet.I was able to get an acceptable level or surveillance for my property off of the included cable lengths. (2 X 50 Ft & 2 X 80 Ft)Setup is very easy although you have to hook up the NVR to a VGA cable to get started. Afterwards you can simply use the Zsight app to monitor the cameras with your smartphone.Many people insist on using this as an alert system which it is not really designed for. The NVR can be setup to send you alerts when the cameras detect movement. I would highly recommend against these settings. The software is very sensitive. With the sensitivity settings all the way down you will still be bombarded with perpetual notifications. Simply change the settings to Overwrite and record constantly. The included 1Tb hard drive will store about 30 days worth of video and start erasing the oldest recordings for the newest recordings. Allowing you plenty of time to go back and look for evidence if you notice your property has been tampered with.If you do seek a quality alert system, many people have claimed success with third party software such as ispy or blueiris. You can simply use your PC to monitor the video feeds and store pictures and video clips. Using this method will provide you the best of both worlds. You will have a perpetual 30 day loop of video and alert service with your PC.The cameras I have installed are all outside. It has been over a year since I have purchased this unit and all the cameras are working great. I have them all placed under the eves so they are naturally protected from moisture. The IR lights provide some assistance at night but if you live on a large property you may want to consider purchasing a separate IR light.The IR lights around the cameras emit a red light when the IR is active which will draw attention to the camera. I don't consider this to a be a problem as it acts as a deterrent.Now I am looking at integrating some indoor wifi cameras from Zmodo into my current system. I am very satisfied with my purchase.

I am no expert, but did a lot of research before ordering the Smodo system and think it was the best option for me and most other people wanting a security camera system. It is the easiest to install and the quality of the camera's, day and night, is very good. The downside on hardwired and wireless systems in they need a electrical power outlet close by and in most cases that is not available and must be installed. The PoE IP Ethernet solves that problem and doesn't impact quality.There were two problems, one with careful handling worked OK and one that will require the DVR/Unit to be replaced, but they were very willing to replace it (the VGA output doesn't work but the cameras and system can still be accessed by a computer or cellphone). The other problem is the adjusting screws in the base mounting. One was actually cross threaded when received and the others could have been. The screw hole is too large and has a minimum of thread surface. With careful attention to replacing the screws it was possible to mount the cameras - don't over tighten!. Many people will not realize this is a problem area and have problems mounting the cameras.In summary, would I recommend it to a friend or buy it again, YES! This is the right product at the right price. With better screw holes and better quality control of sending the DVD/unit out with a defective VGA output it would definitely be a 5 STAR product!

UPGRADING THE RATING OF THIS PRODUCT To 4 Stars (August 12, 2014)Ok, quick update; the image quality and camera field of view of this system is very good, overall system performance is very good also. Per Zmodo product manual recommendation I installed a high performance 2TB Seagate ST2000VX000 harddrive with this system. At highest image quality settings and 25 frame/second each camera uses about 25 Gigabytes per day disk space. So, that's about 100 Gigabytes/day for 4 cameras or about 18 days of constant recording using BEST CBR quality at 25 frames/second. If image quality is reduced from BEST to Very Good, and change CBR to VBR, and reduce frame rate from 25 to 15, the recording time can be increased about 50% while sacrificing very little on image quality.As far as I know, among all ZMODO products 720p cameras offer the best image quality, even better images than the 960h analog cameras. All things being equal a digital camera seems to have better color detail than an analog camera such as 960h.Unfortunately, if you reboot the cameras in the dark, they will not focus properly and images look blurry until sunrise or a bright flash of light (such as car headlights) shines on the camera and allows the camera to refocus. So I avoid restarting the system at night and fortunately after a few days of tweaking/configuring the system once you adjust the configuration settings to your liking, you won't have to reboot frequently. I hope this problem will be addressed in the future firmware updates...The other downside with this system is that there are 3 different user interfaces that you need to use in order to access all the functions/configuration settings of the system (direct Console offers some functions, but not all, ZVIEWER software has some functions but not others, and finally using Internet Explorer ACTIVE X plugin gives you some other functions (firmware upgrade and browsing video files is easier using AcvtiveX mode). But unfortunately there's not a single user interface that provides all the functions and configuration settings in one place, so you have to switch back and forth using 3 different user interfaces to adjust all system configuration settings and functions.Hopefully in the coming weeks/months ZVIEWER software interface will be upgraded/refined so all system settings can be configured with it. Browsing and downloading previously recorded files through internet explorer interface is much easier than ZVIEWER software. You can see details such as file size, duration information using internet explorer. But, you must use ZVIEWER software to change default recording length or image quality or change frame rate of each channel.==================================================Original Review Below:Do not reboot or power cycle the cameras at night or when it's dark or the image will become blurry/out of focus.I just got this system couple days ago with 2TB Seagate hard disk, and just like another reviewer I found that my cameras become blurry if I reboot them at night! If a bright flash of light shines on the camera (like car headlights) the image restores to normal (or you have to wait till morning for the sun rise). Rebooting the camera or resetting image settings does not help at all once camera becomes blurry.ZMODO please test this problem in your lab/factory and hopefully issue a software fix. I believe during the reboot that takes about 30 seconds, the camera is initializing image settings (white balance, focus, etc...) and during this time the IR lights may not be turned on or it maybe too dim for camera to properly initialize the camera. Whatever the problem, this is very disappointing.Otherwise (as long as you don't reboot the cameras in dark) the images during the day and night are very detailed and clear. The wide viewing angle (2.8mm lens) allows me to see the entire street 180 degrees with just 2 cameras.There's some learning curve with the software, the IP cameras individually have too many configuration settings that are redundant (NTP, etc)Zviewer software can not remotely make all configuration as from the console and the console does not have some of the features as the ZVIEWER software, so you end up going back and forth using both of them.I'm thinking about returning this system and getting the analog 960h version.

I ended up retuning it.
I thought the features and function were great. The video quality was pretty good and the motion alerts with live video to my phone were very useful. I was able to be alerted when the dog sitter came and talk to her through the camera.
My two knocks, and why I returned it are: (1) the motion sensor was tooo sensitive. Even when turning it way down in the settings. To cover a room it had to be pointed in the direction of the window. Every time a branch or the power lines blew (a minimum 20 feet way) I'd get an alert to my phone. Let me tell you how that freaks you out at night in a new house you are still getting used to.
(2) No Zwave or Zigbee compatibility which meant that I couldn't connect it to a hub later for better and integrated functionality.
As a stand alone camera, I was still happy, especially at the price. But being unable to resolve the alert sensitivities sealed it for me.

We have this placed in our living room mostly to keep an eye on the 22-year-old when we are away. I bought this one because I didn't want my living room video stored in the cloud and the price was good. Also, I liked that I didn't have to have a separate hard drive and would just record to an SD card on motion. It mostly works well. Set up is pretty simple. The video is decent quality and the app is easy to use.

There are a few quibbles I have with it. 1. From time to time the thing needs to be rebooted or the video won't capture. 2. Getting the motion detection settings right is difficult. The challenge is getting it set so that it will capture video when someone walks across the room, but not too sensitive that it will start recording when a bird flies by the window. 3. It would be nice to have an on/off toggle in the app so that I can turn it off when I'm home without having to unplug it.

One thing I hate about this device is you have to download a PDF file to read instructions. Way too many pages to print.
Took me an hour before I gave up and called support to ask why the printed password wouldn't work.
I had to "reset" the device and nowhere on the PDF instructions even said this. I'm having a hard time finding a place to put it. While it looks small, it's not. I was planning to put in window but too big to sit on window sill. Dragged a table to window. Too low. So now it sits on top of the box it came in on table. I thought I could watch video by playback. You have to use one of those itty bitty SD cards, take it out and put in computer to watch video on what went on. If you can watch playback, I can't figure out how by instructions. This device will work for now. But as soon as I can afford it, I'm getting a security company to put in real camera's.

** Be aware that reviews for the Vimtag B-1 outdoor camera and the VT-361 indoor pan/zoom camera are mixed together in these reviews so be SURE you know which camera the reviewer is talking about. I review both cameras **

2/22/17 update - Today, FiOS updated my internet service with 150/150 service with a 2.4Hz and 5GHz dual band router. In order to update the Vimtag wifi on both the B-1 outdoor AND the VT-361 indoor cameras, you HAVE to run a CAT 5 cable directly from the modem to each camera and then drill down into the app and update the router name and password. What total a pain in the a$$ because I have 4 Vimtags, two B-1 outdoor and two VT-361 indoor cameras. Apparently you can also use a laptop with a CAT 5 cable as well but I was too far along in the first process to switch over and I was too aggravated at the clowns at Vimtag. To add insult to aggravation, the bozos at Vimtag DO NOT anwer their phone. It's "leave a message and we'll call back" or "email us". I chose the latter and got called back about 20 minutes later and informed about the CAT 5 cable from the modem to each camera. So if you order these from Amazon, put a 100 foot Amazon basics CAT cable in with the order because you're eventually going to need it.

12/26/16 update - I have two of these cameras front and back at my home. I just installed the Ring Pro doorbell camera and it blows the Vimtag B-1 cameras away. The Ring Pro is easier to install, a LOT smaller, requires one doorbell wire, can be mounted without using a doorbell at all with a 24vac transformer, has a 160 degree field of view compared to about 100 degrees for the Vimtag, The Ring Pro can pan and zoom and has audio communication which the Vimtag B-1 also lacks. I pointed my Vimtag front B-1 camera at my front door and the Ring Pro covers everything else. The Ring con is price - $199 versus $99 for the B-1 but I found the Ring Pro from a new seller for $99 but the jury is still out on that acquisition because the second Ring Pro has not arrived yet. But even at twice the price, the Ring Pro is 4 times the camera over the Vimtag. The final plus for the Ring pro is that rather than fooling around with a 32gb card and hoping you capture and event, for $30 a year, Ring will keep the data in their could for 6 months. I looked at the Nest doorbell cam but the monitoring for an outdoor camera is $200 a year!!!

In summary, give the Ring Pro a hard look before the Vimtag B-1 and certainly the Nest cam.

Original review -
This review is for the outdoor B-1 camera (NOT the VT 361 indoor camera!) that I have setup overlooking my driveway. It works really well but I have a requests for improvement

Pro -
Easy initial Set up but lots of "drill down" settings
Installation is not difficult, it you mount it upside down it has a "flip" control to invert the image
The app works well on my iPhone. It's better than the D Link app which cuts out frequently
Very Clear image
Highly weather resistant - I live north of Buffalo, NY and this camera can take weather beating
There are a LOT of settings and it takes a while to get familiar with all of them and figure out how to get it take snapshots and record.
On line upgrade is simple and only takes a few minutes

Con -
Wish it had a wider view.
Wish it would pan, zoom and tilt and voice/sound
Requires some skill to install outside due to the large RJ-45 coupler for set up. I used a Carlon 4" x 6" box custom configured for the camera.

Overall this camera is crisp and clear, has an on board 32GB card and the iPhone app works well. My one star deduction is for the limited viewing width, no pan and tilt and ingenuity required to install outdoors with the large plugs for the RJ-45 connector, power and reset button

VT-361 Indoor camera - This camera is a lot better than the B-1 outdoor camera because of tilt, pan, zoom and voice functions. Uses a 32GB storage card that works OK. I paid $99 for my VT-361 and for $69, it's a lot better deal. I have no issues with the VT-361 other than updating the wifi for a new modem/router or password change requires a CAT 5 hardwire hookup. If you have the VT-361 camera 20 feet in the air in a large entrance way, get the ladder out and practice your cussing right now.

I wanted a camera to check in on my dog and chose this one based on all the great reviews and it being an Amazon Best Seller. Perhaps all the hype raised my expectations too much. It's OK. It was easy to set up, sort of. The first day, I could only get a picture if I left it plugged into the router; it would go black when trying to use wifi, although I completed the set up process and it had said I could unplug the cable. Today I managed to get it to work without the cable allowing me to move it to a better location. A lot of reviewers talk about the HD video. Well, I have seen some moments of good picture, but most, especially movement, is pretty broken up, and the lag time for me is an issue. Sometimes the lag time is a few seconds, but sometimes the lag time is much longer, perhaps closer to a minute. So, if I see my dog doing something he shouldn't, I wouldn't dare to use the voice feature because it may be long over and he may be sleeping on his bed by the time I see it. The lag also applies to the pan and tilt. That feature may be useful if you decide you want to monitor a different part of the room, but if you are trying to follow something that is happening, realize it may have already happened and it can take a few minutes to have the camera actually turn to see the new area. At the low cost, I will keep it, but I don't see it being as useful as I had anticipated.

The product overall is of descent quality. The cameras produce a descent picture but do not expect it to be clear on anything past 35 feet or so. If you have that need get 1080 resolution unit/cameras.PROSRelatively easy to setup- the email notification isn't as easy as I expected it but it is not that complicated eitherThe scheduling of when / what to trigger those notifications isn't as easy to setup as I expected itCables to connect the camera come in two different lengths and they seem to be long enough for most applicationsCONSThe warranty process is very cumbersome - they seem to not believe the customer when the customer says you bought it in USA from store 'X'.My BIGGEST issue is they changed the software that you can no longer view 'Higher Definition' on your cellphone. Why pay for something you can't use remotely. I want to be able to recognize the person from 35 feet away but I NO LONGER can. They claim nothing has changed but it has so that is a second negative hit against them. Everyone else is improving the quality of their software, resolution and Zmodo is downgrading it.Would I buy another Zmodo; unless they fix their 'HD' streaming I would not buy their product.

The warranty was 1 year when I purchased this system. Between 16 and 20 months, 2 of the cameras failed. I understand that the warranty is now 2 years. These cameras are sealed, seem to be good quality and I had them out of the weather. I'm not sure why the failure rate is so high. Be prepared to replace cameras from time to time if you purchase this system.

Thought the product had wireless - after running 100 ft of wire from my router to the device thru walls and such, installation was fairly simple. But be prepared to run wires.If you go to their website for help - you'll find none. There is no 800 number to call, no customer support, just links to PFD's on installation.This product software does not work well,untill you install additional software. The app doesn't work at all on my android, unless I am on the same WI-Fi as the camera are - no good when I'm away from the house! . Every two to three weeks on PC, I have to uninstall and install the software because it says "device not active" when it is. Very frustrating. Had to download (an pay more money) for an app that works with this product. This information came from another review for the Blue Iris (PC software and Android App) - Seems to be working ok now.Wish I knew this before 3 months of frustration!

Read some of the other reviews on here. Most of the complaints are correct. The software for these is complete garbage. The cameras themselves seem very high quality. The night vision provides decent contrast yet shorter range and lower definition, and the IR LEDs glow faintly red in the dark. The FOV is fairly wide, but part of the trade-off is they can't make out detail at a long range.The software is garbage. The web interface and stream viewing is via ActiveX control only, so it will only run on Internet Explorer. Furthermore I had to run in compatability view and tweak my security settings to get it working at all, and installing the activex control itself ran into complications on at least one computer I tried it on. zmodo support is.... passable. Staff is friendly, but the product interface and documentation isn't great. I encounter a lot of errors when applying settings, changing menus, or switching between devices via the web portal. There's also lot of extraneous features which are not functional with this model of camera. However, on the whole, it's "adequately functional" to perform the most basic tasks required of it. You can view channels live, or sift through past footage of motion detection events. It has a DynDNS feature also, but I'm not using it--rather I'm using my router's dynamic DNS to direct traffic on specific external ports so I can view remotely.The software is garbage. Have I mentioned that yet? It's so bad, that even zmodo themselves somewhat acknowledge this and provide a page on their knowledge base site detailing how to make these cameras work with a third party recording software: http://kb.zmodo.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=1&id=306&artlang=en I also saw someone on here recommend Blue Iris, but at $60 for the software suite I'm not sure I'm ready to make the plunge, since I'd need to build an always-on Windows box to run it anyway. I've used various suites in the past for CCTV setups like this, so I'm fairly knowledgeable. Your free options will be limited compared to the paid software out there, unfortunately, but you do have options. To use third party software however you need to bypass the box altogether and record to a dedicated machine, since the box only works with its own embedded software. Each of the cameras themselves has the same software and interface as the box, however there are also raw video streams available you can tap into on them if you want to just stream it elsewhere.The Android app is ok, I'd give it 3/5 stars, while the iphone version is better, 4/5. I had issues with needing to log off and back on again whenever transitioning between the local wireless network and 4G on the go. Also, and this is important (I found out the hard way): The first person to register the device to their mobile app becomes the sole administrator of the device. My roommate registered it to hers for testing while we were setting it up, and now I need to contact zmodo support to reset my device ownership so I can register it on mine, otherwise I have no options to configure alerts, settings, etc... I have a feeling the phone app will consume a lot of 4g bandwidth if I leave it running a lot, however, so it's mostly just for peeking now and again or receiving push alerts of motion detection events. Unfortunately, the software doesn't seem to readily feed you the footage of the event that set it off, so you just get the alert and then have to go digging through the footage to find it.There's an alarm feature as well, which seems a little redundant, since to use it, you need to hook it up to an alarm system to trip it... seems like a good way to help any burglars track down and disconnect/walk off with your CCTV system and all of the footage on it.Overall I think this system was worth the price premium over the next system down due to the better quality and versatility of the IP cameras provided. Since the cameras are good, the only weak link is the software, and if that really matters to you, you can always upgrade by using third party software to run everything.

Cameras work well, not as sharp as i'd expect from an advertised 720p, but better than many security camera examples I've seen.The DVR interface is fine. I really wish the remote administration features were available with a web browser other than IE. Luckily I do have some Windows computers on my network. The Macs can't access the DVR at all.The android app to remote view over wifi-4g is terrible. It worked fine a few versions ago, but the last 3 or so versions crash every time I attempt to login. I've resorted to using ipcam viewer lite which works well, although setup is a bit more complicated than the zmodo app.The hard drive failed after less than 3 months. Viewing of the cameras continued to work, but no recordings were being saved. I replaced it with a new WD purple and it appears to be working correctly again. Hard to blame zmodo for a WD drive failure, but it broke nonetheless.

Update: I was able to purchase just the NVR which now has a 3 yr warranty, so I did not have to change cables, cams, etc.Update:I purchased in August of 2014. In April of 2015 my cameras began to have a problem with the IR cutout switch. The switch would "stick" on filtering IR at night giving a fogged image. I bypassed the IR switch which allowed decent night recording but with a washed out color during daylight. For surveillance this was adequate so I didn't RMA the cams. In December of 2015 the NVR lost power and won't power on. Zmodo has rejected my RMA request as out of warranty. Surveillance equipment should feature reliability. I now must replace the entire system including re-cabling and remounting cams because of the proprietary Poe system. I was just about to upgrade to the 1080P system after Zmodo support indicated I could still use my 720P cams with the new NVR. I guess the NVR failed just in time to save me from another mistake.pros:fairly good images. phone app works nicely on my samsung and htc smartphones.onvif compatiblecons:minimum 720p. my asante 720p cam is actually higher res and it is noticable.can't access ip cams with some other software, i.e. zoneminder, uses microsoft dll.conclusion:very good value and better than my analog cams by far.

Very hard to get it setup to record correctly. I have had 4 calls with the technical support. They are very nice but I can't get it to record at a specific time. The tech resets the paramaters each time and then reboots my camera. I lose whatever I have recorded but that doesn't really matter because I can't get it to record at the right times anyway. It seems to keep changing the time zones. I'm pretty technical but this camera is too buggy and I'm spending over 2 hours with the help desk. 30 minutes a clip. I haven't tried other cameras but this is very hard to schedule a recording.

Half of the time I can't get it working and I have to wait until I go to my mothers house to reset it. It's very buggy. I often can't move the camera

**Update**
Dropped one more star. I still only use this for live monitoring since the motion detection feature gets really frustrating. In addition to all other issues, one of my cameras periodically shows offline and can't be accessed. It comes back on its own after a while. Also trying to use these for live monitoring with audio on gets annoying after a while because of the constant device generated background noise. It must be a noise from the tilt/pan motor but it comes through constantly even when the camera is still. They should find a way to filter that out. I am definitely looking for a better security camera now.

The good:
- It was fairly easy to set up
- Tilt/pan feature is nice and has a good range
- It's nice to be able to listen in - I have not had a chance to use it for a two-way conversation to see how good the speaker is

The bad:
- The motion detection feature has been the most frustrating part. It just did not work for me. I ended up getting so many false notifications that I disabled the alarms and just use it for keeping an eye on things when I am away. I played around with the sensitivity settings and still could not get it to work. I put one in a dark attic with no movement and it would still send me motion detection alarms.
- The software is not that good. There are no controls on the video playback. You don't seem to be able to select videos/images you get with the notification on your device to delete the ones you don't want. Given the false notification issue, you end up with a bunch of useless images/videos.
- One of the units seems to have an issue with a flash of light that gets captured on the videos and snapshots. There is a sudden click that you hear along with the flash and a couple of seconds of the video or some of the pictures get completely blurred because of it.
- No cloud storage. You have to use the SD cards, but you can also save the images/videos on your device.

Also the "Super HD" title is misleading. The picture is just ok, but definitely not "Super HD". Overall it's an ok unit for the money, but I will be looking for one with better motion detection capability. If anyone has any suggestions for a better unit, please comment.

It has been a year and I really can't stand this thing. It would seem easy enough to set the sensitivity to capture motion from a person and not from a leaf dropping from a tree or dust in the air, but I simply can't reliably. It either captures everything sending notifications every few minutes or seconds, to absolute ignorance of motion. It does not help that after each adjustment you need to turn it off and turn it on to make the setting changes take effect - really you do even though it says you don't. But there is no guarantee of this and after a year I have given up. It is not reliable. You ask it to record from one time to another and nothing happens. So you try resetting the setting to ask again and it works once. Then it doesn't. Why? I don't know. You get the sensitivity of motion close enough and ask it to stop notifying you then bam - it fails to notice any motion whatsoever. Why? I can't tell. You think - I will just record for a set amount of time to capture the entire babysitting time expecting to fast forward through the footage to save time - but no - no scanning. What I ended up doing was to use the screen capture while showing the video feed on the screen. Well this lets the entire household know you are filming and whatever is said by the computer is picked up on the screen capture. So you are looking at what is being filmed but experiencing ghost vocals during playback (who is talking?). Any way, maybe this would work in another household where motion and playback is not important so I gave a second star. But for me, it is a frustrating piece of red glowing purposeless plastic.

PROS:
1) Easy to setup.
2) Nice & simple design.
3) Showed a good image when it worked.

CONS:
1) Stopped working after day 3.
2) Could not get it to work again even after resetting it to manufacturer settings, re-downloading the app and trying to set up a new account.
3) I noticed it did not always record moving objects/persons as I programmed it to when I sat in the same room with it while doing my computer work. Neither could I get it to record me as I blatantly moved in front of it.
4) Camera head which rotates on the black base felt like the movement was not smooth.
5) The original made for packaging/box did not look like it came brand new from the factory due to the multiple etched impressions and smudges I saw on it, and I then suspected that it was previously owned or used by someone else.
6) Expected a brand new camera but believe I got a refurbished one.
7) Customer service had odd hours opening at 10:30am the earliest on the weekday that I called.
8) Customer service personnel said they had to have someone else call me back to help me reset my password, which lead me to believe the company was not entirely professional or well established.

CONCLUSION: I returned this item for a full refund.

The features and quality of this camera are decent, but there are 2 major drawbacks: both the Android and iOS apps only allow you to remotely view for some variable amount of time before the streaming just stops without warning, and the apps sometimes cannot connect to whatever "account" needs to be created. In the latter case, the app must be force closed and, in the case of our iPad, the device must be restarted in order for the connection to the service to complete successfully. Another drawback is the fact that the "MIPC" Android and iOS apps do not maintain their settings each time the app is opened - you have to unmute the sound every time you look into a camera feed, for instance.

I was really only looking for a simple solution here to replace a baby monitoring system - a camera in a room that I can view on a smartphone/tablet at all times for any duration of time. I need to be alerted to movement of a child - even in the middle of the night - and I can do this with this camera and app. Perhaps there is another app that can connect to this camera without the need for some account to be created, certainly seems like our video feeds are going through some offsite system somewhere - doesn't give you the warm and fuzzy, that's for sure.

1) Formats a 3TB hd to 500Gig with no warnings or complaints.2) Uses ext2 filesystem. Its ok, but there is no journal.3) Uses proprietary POE power. This means that you can't just point the IP of camera to the NVR even if its on a different floor. Example: I'd like one of my cameras to come from a different server room. I can't just configure the device to use a different IP because, I can't add a POE adapter on different floor.4) Goofy live streaming app. Can't even full screen one camera, but I can look at small images of four cameras. It has buttons for this, but they do not work.5) Must have an account with their other events app. Why should I need a 'cloud app' for direct streaming.6) They tried to oversimplify their cam events app, so you can't even specify an IP. I have like three different routers in my house. So I'm out of luck unless I want to put this thing on one network. The android app can't even find the NVR. I have to use a QR code to allow it to enter an IP. That's a good idea, but not allowing a power user to enter an IP is just a waste of everyone time.Update:7) If your network DHCP server is slow, it will polute your network with its own DHCP 192.168.1.xx. It doesn't filter it out for your LAN connection like it suppose to.8) I have Android TV. I cannot rotate the screen to see the play and stop button on the tv. With their android app, that keeps me from viewing it just like I do on my phone.Conclusion:IP cameras should give you a ton of flexibility, but not with this weird configuration. Beginners will find it straightforward if they have a simple network setup. I think this is the best value for the price but it still needs polish.Update May 22, 2017One camera has completely failed and will no longer turn on. Today a second one is half black because its failing. The NVR has to be rebooted often, it refuses to playback the history half the time. I had been using them a little over a year.

This is my first security camera system. I have had this system in place for over a year now. I have 4 cameras pointed toward the driveway and front of the house. I want to see if someone comes into my yard or tries to break into my car. I will start with how well this system works. In the middle of the day someone walked by and came down my driveway. They were looking like they wanted to steal my daughter's bicycle in front of the garage. My daughter happened to see this guy out the window and let us know there was someone in the driveway. We immediately ran to the window to see him walking away. Empty handed I assume. I yelled at him through the window as he took off running. I know all this because my daughter saw him and I was able to rewind the video to see that he heard us and was not able to grab anything. At no time did I receive an alert from this system. I went outside to look and starting receiving alerts from all 4 cameras on myself. No events were triggered by this potential thief. This system is sensitive enough that I receive false alerts all the time but not when it counts.The app that gives you remote status (Zsight) on your phone is even worse. It has login problems all the time. It stops sending alerts because login failed. The other problem is when you are actually able to stay logged in then it decides to disable notifications all on its own. The only benefit this system has is a live view of the front of my house. Do not count on this system to alert you when you need it. I am currently looking for another system. It will not be Zmodo.

Update:Obtaining tech support for this product has proven difficult. I was promised a user manual two weeks ago, which I never received, and I have not been able to get the videos to stream to the mobile application, which worked only for a few days.It the system were easier to disassemble and pack than it actually is, I would have sent it back by now.---These cameras work as advertised, and the basic setup is straightforward enough.The cameras provide high quality images, and the night vision is acceptable. The motion detection feature works, although it would be nice to be able to have a higher degree of tweaking.However I am having an extremely hard time locating instructions for this specific model,and the OS it comes loaded with. Therefore I have not been able to fully understand and configure all the features included with the system.The support site is a mess, and the method used for locating each model is not very helpful.Finally, the connection between the cameras and the cables is difficult to protect. The connector is large enough that in order to get it to through a wall would require a big hole.I ended up wrapping the connection in plastic wrap and then covering it with duct tape to make it less vulnerable.Overall, for the price it is a suitable system for home monitoring that's comparatively easy to install and get going.

I purchased and installed this camera system myself. Everything worked great for about a month. The set up was easy (other than having to crawl through my attic to install the wires). The cameras were clear, the app for iphone worked without any issues. Then I started to experience some issues. First - one camera stopped working. I contacted Zmodo and they sent me a replacement pretty quickly. The replacement worked just fine. Second - I started to experience issues with all my cameras. The colors during the day were not correct. It seems like the cameras are not reading greens properly, so my lawn would appear white. Zmodo recommends that I refresh the cameras but that doesn't work. The problem only occurs on certain days and I cannot determine whether there is a pattern or it just randomly occurs. Third - the app (zsight) is very buggy. At first the app was fine. One update from the app store caused the app to not allow me to view recorded content. That is no big deal as I could just access the recordings from the actual HDD. The latest update has rendered the app useless. One cannot view the cameras unless connected to the same wifi network that the system is connected to. This makes the whole system useless. I would not recommend this system. I would recommend a high definition system that has the software of a larger and more well known company.

I wanted to like this. Cool system, good price - too good to be true. Only two of the four included cameras worked out of the box. One camera continually resets over and over and the other works for about ten minutes then freezes until you unplug it and plug it back in. This is unacceptable. The two cameras that work are awesome and the system is easy to set up, but really? Half the product is dead out of the box. Maybe I have a lemon, I don't know. I'm currently on hold with customer support expecting to go through the usual "did you turn it off and back on again" routine until they've exhausted their options before I get to the part where I ship them the defunct cameras (at my own cost) and have them send back some potentially defunct or short lived replacements. Fingers crossed. I hope things go well - I STILL want to like this system.

The cameras and NVR (with WD Green drive 1TB) are quite small. The images are good (720p). The cameras have dual streaming: one at higher resolution (720p) for the NVR recording and another one at QVGA for the network viewing.In the bright sunny day, sometimes the cameras don't have enough WDR to clearly show the face of a person in the shadow (depending on the amount of the light reflecting to the person) when part of the image is very bright.If a person run in the front of a camera, the camera may have a hard time to clearly capture the face of the person in moving. I'd give them a better rating if the performance of the cameras meets my expectation.The cameras can sense the ambient light and they turn on the IR illuminators and switch the IR filter automatically in the night. The quality of the night vision isn't impressive. Additional lighting in the night would help the images.Warning: Zmodo sPoE is not complied to the standard IEEE 802.3af PoE and don't use the power injector from other vendors to provide power to the IP cameras. Please go to Zmodo Knowledge Base FAQ to find the wiring diagram.The setup procedure is relatively easy for me:I have a Netgear router and I made sure the DHCP server in the router was on and UPnP was enabled before the camera system was powered on.After power-on, use Zviewer on a PC on the same LAN to search the NVR and cameras in the LAN (LAN search). All devices should show up. Add all devices and double click the cameras to view the live images.After I set them up, I changed the default passwords of the NVR and each camera at once since someone in the internet could hack into your NVR and cameras with the default password. (Procedures to change passwords by Zviewer (PC version): Right-click the NVR or the cameras and select Remote Settings. Next select User Management and select Admin and click Modify User button. Enter new password.) (After the passwords are changed, Zviewer may not be able to connect to the devices. Procedures to login the NVR and each cameras in Zviewer: Right-click the NVR or the cameras and select Edit. Enter the new password and click OK.)To use Zviewer (PC version) to watch the live video streams outside your LAN without DDNS. You need to know 1. your internet or WAN ip address; 2. the external port numbers corresponding to the internal port 8000 of NVR and each camera (obtained from UPnP page in your router); 3. the username and the password for each devices. Run Zviewer and click Add devices. Use IP Search and manually enter the WAN IP address and the external port numbers and so on for the NVR and cameras.If the router is power-cycled, the WAN ip address or the port numbers may not be the same and you may need to re-enter the new ones in IP Search.Updated: 3/14/15After about one month operation, the NVR kept showing 'Disk is not formatted' even I formatted the hard disk or I power-cycled the NVR. I am in the process to contact zmodo.com for the RMA. Down-grading the stars to 2 stars.

This has not been a reliable system. Cloud box seems to record ok, The data labeling has been erratic. Cameras purchased for this system are not reliable as well. First camera worked great for three months then stopped recording. Confirmed this by purchasing second camera. Second camera records but has software issues. Would definitely not recommend purchasing if you want to be sure it is going to work every time it is activated.

Impossible to completely deactivate the microphone on the camera. This is very important if you don't want the sound to be transmitted. You can go to setting and turn the volume to 0, but sound still can be heard. For example, if you connect to camera from your office pc with speakers attached, you WILL HEAR the conversation. I called their tech support twice and explained the problem and asked if anything else can be done. They couldn't help.

I ordered this quite awhile ago when it was called "Fujikam". I still have that camera, which works flawlessly, and wanted a second. I'm disappointed to say that the Vimtag seems to be unable to connect to Wifi. I tried a replacement and got the same issue. How do I know it's not a problem with my home Wifi setup? Because I have the previous model that was called "Fujikam" that IS able to connect to my Wifi. I had to troubleshoot this myself because the "product support" doesn't really have the capability to help troubleshoot issues like this beyond suggesting a return / refund and a few obvious fixes. I AM able to connect to wired Ethernet but that's not going to cut it for my situation. The setup process using the Android app doesn't even work, either. You're supposed to hold the phone near it as it plays a sound or show it a QR code, neither of which worked for me.

Avoid this. If you run into a problem during setup, you're going to have a hard time resolving it. Also, I heard that it's very easy for someone to hack in and view your camera.

I can't believe this camera gets good reviews. When it arrived (late) I thought it looked well made, and after reading all the positive reviews
I was it expecting it to work well, that was not the case.
I had to use the included cable to set it up, it would not connect via wifi. Once I got it working all it would do was display real-time video,
with no instructions and no customer support available I could not get it to do what it's described to do.
After two hours of trying to get it set-up I re-boxed it and sent it back. What a waste of time!

This was such a useless purchase. Overall the camera is fairly user-friendly however no matter how much you adjust the sensitivity of motion detection it constantly records from the slightest change in lighting, etc. I had hoped to use this as more of a security device while away on trips etc but when my home is empty, lights off the motion detection is constantly triggered by as far as I can tell by watching the videos, absolutely nothing at all. I could have gone much cheaper than this but should have looked at more expensive systems/cameras. Avoid this at all costs unless you feel like sifting through hours and hours of useless videos of absolutely nothing at all.

I cannot believe Amazon even sells this item... The worst possible thing that could happen with this product happened to me, 1 day after setting it up. Ironically, using this camera for peace of mind actually put me at more risk of criminal activity. Here's why...

I read other low ratings for this noting that people gave high ratings for discounts, and that this camera does not encrypt your wifi password when you set it up. I'm no expert so google it- lots of expert info online about how risky these are. So I see all these warnings and I'm like, tons of people rated high so it can't be THAT risky. I even called Vimtag and asked their tech guys about it. He claimed "bank level security", but could not offer my any documentation, encryption methods, nothing. I ignored my paranoia and installed it anyway. Then it got weird...

It worked for a day, I was liking the image, and alerts etc... I had it pointed out my front window sitting inside on the sil. I got a movement alert to my phone and later checked the live image. Somehow, the camera was now facing the opposite direction pointing up my stairs. The recorded video on the SD card was of me, walking down the stairs. It turned all the way around and recorded me in my house. I was the only person home and absolutely did not move the camera myself.

I then noticed that my 2015 Mac Pro which was closed/asleep, had gone from 100% to 75% battery within an hour or so - again, while closed/asleep. I had JUST taken it off the charger. My router records also showed thousands of access attempts from IP addresses all over the world had just happened.

I called tried to change my wifi password and someone had already done so. They also changed my device access code for the router. I factory reset and within minute it had been changed again. Now my net is disconnected, pending replacement of my router for security reasons.

Why Amazon sells a product with known security risks speaks volumes about their priorities to me. I thought people were being paranoid, but turns out exactly what they warned about happened to me within a day. DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT. So shady... I now have the pleasure of resetting all my passwords and info and not having access to the net for several days while I clean up this mess. I only hope there are no other precautions I'm missing that will pop up later... Ugh...

Update: 10-20-2016 So it looks like they [Zmodo] did not like my negative review and posted a response that seemed to imply they were stepping up to do the right thing after all the problems I had with their system. After a full 68 minutes of wait time to speak to them I spoke to Patty from their customer service department who indicated that they would NOT support the device so my initial review is right. WASTE of money and time with that inferior company. Buyer Beware! If it looks too inexpensive there is a reason.Installed this in December of 2014. Had my first RMA on 2/23/2015 with a replacement camera needed. Had my second RMA on 4/30/2015 with a replacement drive needed. Had my third RMA in October of that year for a complete replacement of the recording unit and drive and then another RMA for a camera again.Every time required hours on the phone. I'm in the IT business and despite my troubleshooting they had to do all of their tests to confirm what I told them each time. For example: No video on channel 1. So I go take camera from channel 1 and put it on feed from Channel 2. Now no video on Channel 2. Seems there is no other conclusion than bad camera but they still want you to put camera from 2 in postion 1 to see if that works. What a waste of time and money. Now I have camera that died again after they replaced it twice and they are using original invoice date to deny warranty.Even when it did work the color was horrible on all but the best lighting conditions. It would jump back to black @ white all the time.Bunk!

This would be a great product if it would last. Mine worked for a few months before it started going offline causing me to be unable to use remote access until I rebooted it. Then at about 18 months the infrared on one of the cameras quit working. While troubleshoot this I noticed that it was no longer recording because the hard drive was full and the overwrite feature was not working. I contacted customer service at 20 months and was told...."here is where you can purchase replacement parts." I purchased my unit 11-29-14 and they say the 3 year warranty didnt start until 2015. Way to stand behind your product Zmodo.

I had this system for a little over a year and it has died. So First off the controls are a pain to use and I never did get it to connect with the app or go online. I continually got an error that my network was configured wrong. I work IT for a living it isn't. The APP is a joke at best. There is ZERO tec support for this thing.Shortly after moving to a new place I set the system up again only to find out it no longer recognized the HD. Ok I get it HD fail over time when used 24/7. So I bought a new 1.TB HD and replaced it... nope the system does not see it. I tried 2 more HD and the system would not see any of them. After looking all over the net I found out that this system will fry its self so short or replacing the mother board (waste of time and money) there is nothing that can be done.Again zero customer support badly written app, poorly created hardware. Buy at your own risk.

Out of the box one camera didn't work but I only needed three. One of the three worked fine during the day but all blurry at night. Zmodo has a known problem with their IP cameras that when your Router renews its lease the cameras quit working until you shut them off and reboot the whole system, sometimes you have to do it multiple times for them to all get working. Their "Zmodo Forums" say they're working on a firmware upgrade but that was over 6 months ago and nothing. If you are trying to keep an eye on a place that is far away this doesn't work out very well. If this is the case never buy their products. By the way, their customer service is non-existent.

This is an okay product for about 1 year. It has stopped sending alert emails and I can NOT format the hard drive. Since I can't format the HDD it won't record any longer.I felt like it did a great job at the price point. The infrared night vision was perfect. I was recommending this system since it was cheap, easy to install, free app and power over ethernet. However at this point I need to change this to a 1 star since the system is virtually useless.Also, one of the camera's is starting to blur out. It was right at the 1 year mark and I was not able to change it out before the 1 year Limited warranty expired.I sent several emails to support, no response. Their live chat is offline even though it states it is during business hours. I just tried calling and waited for 15 minutes before trying to hold my place in line by pressing "1" as the recording stated. Once I did that, I hung up the phone and received a phone call right back. I thought it would be a live person, but it was the same recording, "Thank you for your patience." No idea what to do at this point.

We purchased this product in September 2014. It simply went dead almost exactly 3 weeks after the 1 year warranty expired. I contacted Zmodo and their first response was to buy a new one. They didn't want me through any troubleshooting or other options. They didn't display any form of surprise or remorse for the product dying after just one year of normal use. They indicated that any implied warranty under the UCC has been revoked by the consumer, even though this is not conspicuously inferred on the packaging or in the paperwork. While it worked, the product was just OK. It got the job done. There are a lot of network configurations needed and if you want to view your cameras from your smartphone, you will likely need to contact your Internet Service Provider in order to have port 9000 opened. This can be a pain and some ISPs don't allow it. I don't recommend this product. We'll be buying another product from a different manufacturer, preferably one based in the United States.