Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've gone through more of these cameras than I like to admit. I'd been using a Foscam FI9821P for a while, and not been happy with it. Focus is poor, and the color at night under house lighting is a dingy orange. I'd already exchanged one, but the replacement was no better, so I just gave up. Given the above, the chance to review the Amcrest ProHD couldn't have come at a better time. However, the setup procedure wasn't quite as smooth as I'd have liked it to be. If it had been just a LITTLE clearer, I'd have been happier. But let's start at the beginning.. First, the box it comes in is excellent. Well-packaged, feels high-end, and overall is a positive unboxing experience. Unlike some other dome-camera systems, the wifi antenna is built in. There's no external antenna to connect, and in my experience checking signals in the desktop browser app, it hasn't needed it. I plugged the power cord in to the camera/wall, and then the included ethernet cable from the camera to my Apple Airport Time Capsule ac model. I'm an iPhone user, and setting up with my iPhone 6s Plus in iOS 9 was a little more confusing than I'd like. The setup card included in the box directed me to download the Amcrest Viewer (the free one is all you need if you're not needing push notifications etc). No issue, - downloaded in seconds.. Adding the camera was very simple by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the camera itself. At this point, it asked me to input my WiFi SSID and password to connect to the network. But... but... I don't want to use WiFi, because I connected the camera via an ethernet cable! Turns out, you don't need to worry. I entered in a network SSID the camera couldn't see (my 5Ghz network, for example, or you could use an entirely made-up network. Either way, the camera is not 5Ghz compatible). Type in a fake password, and hit connect. Voila, it will say "Done," but really it's just using wired ethernet at this time because it didn't connect to WiFi. It's a bit odd you can't just pick wired and skip WiFi setup, but there you go.., you're done! For reference, more fine-tuning of things (like adding day/date stamps to your video or adjusting hue/contrast/night vision) can be done in the desktop browser, so log in to the camera and make changes there. This is pretty simple, following the setup card instructions. You can also completely disable the WiFi chip from the browser app on your computer, which I did. No need to even have it on if you're using a wired connection. This worked on my iMac running El Capitan, in the Safari browser, - no issues. At this point, on my iPhone and via the desktop browser, - I was very impressed with the image quality. It absolutely DESTROYS the Foscam FI9821P (see comparison picture on the black model review). For one, the orange cast to the image under regular house lights is now gone. Second, the image is much wider, fitting more of the room into the image. Unfortunately, there is some barrel distortion on the edges, but this is to be expected at such a wide angle. The center of the image looks great, with very little distortion. To "solve" this, you can always zoom in just a hair in the app. Yes, it's digitally zoomed, but it makes very little image-quality difference, and does remove the barrel distortion on the edges. Moving the camera left/right/up/down is also very simple, and VERY smooth in the iPhone app, over both WiFi and LTE. One unfortunate thing, though, is that there's no native iPhone 6/6s support (including Plus models). I'm hoping Amcrest updates their app to properly support these devices. The app works fine in iOS 9 on those iPhones, but you can tell it's not optimized for their resolutions. The app is definitely a bit of a letdown, but it's not too far off the mark. It does the job, though, and is free. I'm very impressed with the camera quality. It's the best I've used. The colors, especially under house lighting at night, are surprisingly accurate. The room the camera is located in actually looks like this in real life in comparison to the video feed. Automatic switching to night vision works great, and the resultant image is also excellent. While out this evening, I was able to do a test run over LTE, enabling the speaker/microphone in the Amcrest Viewer app and having a conversation with my wife. It worked just great. Overall, this is a superb camera. With a few tweaks, the app could be great, which is my only minor complaint. 4.75 out of 5. A gold-standard dome camera.