Swann - Professional 8-Channel 8-Bullet Camera 12MP 6K HD, Indoor/Outdoor PoE Wired, 2TB HDD NVR Surveillance System - White

It has it where it counts and that’s image quality. However, sometimes it can be inconsistent on the monitor you have connected to the NVR and when using an app. It worked about 40% of the time with Alexa. Very slow to come up. Ring and Eufy are faster and consistently work with Alexa. I do not have any Google Hubs to test it with. Even with using an Asus gaming router and 500 mbs+ fiber internet. Not sure if that is a Swann problem or my ISP because they have been working on it and it had been down over a week delaying my review. Audio sounds good listening to outside sounds and ok for 2 way communication. The lights on the camera do a good job lighting up close subjects in color. They are not bright floodlights like some cameras have. The infrared LEDs do an excellent job in the dark lighting up subjects in the distance. And the cameras appear to increase the gain and slow the shutter speed to make it all work together for some impressive low light and night vision. As for the “Enforcer” red and blue LEDs (1 each) that flash like a cop car, well, that’s more of a novelty. Same for the siren. Not loud enough to scare anyone. But if someone is lurking around it’s more than enough to get their attention and make them run away. The system comes in a couple of boxes packed into one. In one box you get 4 cameras, 4 bundles of network wire, 60 feet each, mounting hardware, Allen wrench and couplers that seal the LAN connectors. I used coated deck screws to mount 2 of my cameras. I’ll be doing the same when I mount the other two later. I didn’t like the screws they included. Plan on drilling pilot holes if you use included screws. The other box contains the NVR, power brick, USB mouse, HDMI cable and short, 3 foot, network cable. Paperwork and Swann surveillance warning stickers. Build quality feels good for the entire system and the cameras have metal housings and mounts. Adjusting a camera’s aim is pretty easy but can be awkward depending on how and where you might mount the cameras. Use of an Allen wrench and small set screws can be a pain if you mount a camera in a tight spot. The cameras also have a separate power connector even though they get their power from the network cable. I’m assuming this means they are compatible with multiple Swann systems. However, there’s no rubber plug to seal them from the weather. I used some white heat shrink tubing and pinched it off to take care of that problem as mine will all be used outside. A blob of silicone rubber will probably work fine too. If you need to drill through a wall a ½” hole will just barely do. A ⅝” hole will do much better. Especially if you are going to run 2 or more wires through the hole. This will give you plenty or room to push the connectors through one at a time with room for extra wire. If you are not a DIYer, do consider a professional installation. See included card for help finding a pro. The system has so many options for customization. Detection zones, type of subjects, screen layouts, multi user options and permissions. More than I can go into in this review other than to say whether common default settings work and how well for typical use. Which it does quite well. One of the things I did test out was heat mapping. It doesn’t look like a thermal camera. Setup is pretty easy and straightforward. Just follow the instructions. Taking a photo of the QR code on top of the NVR will take you to get the phone app you need. Nice touch there. You will need to do the usual things like set up user names (email address) and password for the NVR and Swann account. Also Dropbox if you plan on using it. If you already have a Dropbox account you might want to set up a separate one for the system. That’s what I’m going to do. NOTES: The Password timeout is set to 1 minute by default. You will want to go into the settings menu and change this ASAP or you will be putting in your password every time you do anything if the last operation exceeds 1 minute. There are several timeout settings and you can turn it off. If you go several days without using the NVR it will ask you for the password regardless of timeout settings. The NVR has a 2TB Toshiba HD. Not a 4TB as some have incorrectly stated. The other 2TB is via Dropbox from what I understand. You can also save video to a USB thumb drive too. It can be used without internet access. I had to do just that until my internet was restored today. We live in a rural area and not a high priority when there’s a problem. Fiber or not. Using this with a smartphone internet hotspot wasn’t an option either in my area. I don’t think you can do that with the NVR anyways. Even if you could, I wouldn’t recommend it. When viewing the video feeds on a monitor that’s connected directly to the NVR the image looks excellent. Zooming it looks excellent too. Things stay sharp and clear until you start getting extreme. The quality on the apps looks good too. There are quality settings and this helps when zooming in. The app works perfectly on my iPad but playback of a recording flickers between the recording and live on the Android app. Notifications come through on both Android and iOS apps quickly. You can use a standard computer monitor that’s FHD or 4K or hook to a 4K TV for the best image quality. I’m using a FHD computer monitor connected to the NVR full time. I temporarily connected it to my 4K TV for testing. Looked great! My conclusion is this appears to be a high quality system build wise and image wise. The features I tested appear to work as they should. It’s expandable with a wide range of accessories.

If you want an easy DIY option for a home camera security system, this is one option to look into. Right out of the box, it comes with everything you need to setup your home with 4 PoE cameras, PoE cables, 4TB NVR box, power cable, mouse, HDMI cable, mounting hardware, security stickers, and instructions. I looked into this system because it really was just one wire to route in your home from the NVR to the camera, thus making fishing wires in your walls easier. If you already have ethernet running in your home then you can even use those existing ports to route your cameras to the NVR. You can always opt for a professional installation if you would like as well. Details are included in the box to call their installation services for a fee depending on your type of installation. Camera resolution quality is TOP NOTCH. Viewing recordings on my 4k TV, no matter the time of day, things look really clear. From early morning sun rise to late night heat detection and night vision to view across your home perimeter, these cameras are great. I would recommend these more for outdoor use because of their 90 degree area of view. I mounted one in my 2 car garage and it just looks too narrow. I will hopefully switch out for a more wider view camera in the future. Cameras are also solid (some sort of metal, aluminum?) so they will withstand the weather year round here in Northern Illinois just fine. If you want the spotlights, red and blue flashing lights, and sirens - these are a great deterrent option. If you want to keep eyes on your property, whether it be your home or business, this is a great solution to be able to setup on your own. You can review footage on your own via the NVR or use the app to view recordings. Only downside of the app is that you cannot modify most of the camera or NVR settings. Consider this if you really want a "top of the line" system.

The Swann Pro Enforcer security system, the cameras with the police lights, but this time with a 12MP sensor. I owned the previous system which was also 4K, but the cameras were not 12MP. This is pretty much identical to its predecessor. The actual difference from what I noticed is the 12MP cameras. The NVR has 2TB of storage and you get an additional 2TB of cloud storage with dropbox for a total of 4TB. As always setting it up is very simple just like the rest. The instructions are easy to follow. The cameras connect very easily via the included RJ45 cables and they are long, 60ft. The cameras are equipped with night vision, siren, spotlight, 2 way speakers and their signature red and blue lights. The images captured by these 12MP cameras are very clear, just a slight image improvement over the older system. The night vision is pretty good too. The sirens are loud and annoying. As before the spotlights are bright but they could have been brighter. The NVR UI settings I am very familiar with, and they are easy to navigate. Swann Security app is easy to use as well. You can access your NVR remotely but you will be required to create an account unless you already have one. With the app you will add your device (NVR) by scanning the QR code that is on the device. Overall this is an excellent surveillance security system. It is easy to install and comes with all the necessary materials to do it yourself. It has plenty of features. The cameras are waterproof and the system can be used with voice assistants like Alexa or Google. It is a very reliable system and very well built.

Swann has always been a solid choice. I have had BnC type of units POE units as well. Setup of the NVR 8580. As always, NVRs need to be planned out. Running cat 5 in attic spaces is easier than Siamese BNC. The rolls provided roll out ok. It got bound up once or twice. Don't just keep pulling or else it will end up in a big knot. Between the 2 BNC and POE I prefer POE. Resolution seems to be better and installation is much easier. NVR needed firmware update and it took about 10 mins or so to do. Mobile app was easy. Scanned QR code and I was all set. Performance. Lag is noticeable. I have Gig service now and from mobile app to cameras it's roughly 5 seconds of lag during daytime more at night vision. Motion detect is nice. Light illumination is ok and it takes about 5 seconds to switch to color night mode. Night vision is decent. Infrared night vision is decent. Day vision is good. Field of vision is also good too. Options to switch between 16:9 and 4:3 and SD, MD, and HD are easy to use during live view. 2 way communication is ok. Remember there is lag so you need take that into account when using it. Recording and snap shot is easy to use. App via Android is better. User interface is much easier to navigate and use than previous versions. They spent more time behind the app. Good job Swann. Diving into the NVR via HDMI gives you a lot.more advanced features which Swann has always done well with. You can set triggers motions block out areas etc. The cameras themselves are good and simple to adjust with typical 3 hex screws. These cameras are made out of metal. Feels more solid than their older plastic versions. This is my I think now my 7th system. Swann has always been had good system. They made Alexa and Google assistant easier to use. I have had problems with all of the DVR/NVR systems to work with these platforms in the past. This time around both google home and Alexa recognized the system right away. Good job Swann in listening to your customers and working this out. I love me exterior cameras around my house they are a deterrent for would be thieves a d people that are shady. No monthly payments for storage and access. This is a must for security cameras. Based on the change in designs that they have made the user interface I would recommend this product.

One thing to me that sets electronics apart from the rest is quality.. Materials and and how the items look and feel.As soon as you get your hands on these you can feel the quality in the cameras themselves. They're not plastic or light or hollow feeling like there's nothing to them. The housings have a aluminum or metal feel like you know they're durable and withstand weather being outdoors. It comes with four cameras but has the capability of adding four more really optimizing coverage of your space. Out of the box everything is super simple and self explanatory to setup. All of the wires needed to power your cameras and all accessories as well are in one box. The cameras themselves only use one Ethernet wire to power and transfer images, which makes hooking these up very easy. Then the 4TB NVR hard drive, of course the power cord, a wired mouse, and HDMI cord for connection was also included. There used to be a commercial that said so "simple a caveman could do it". If they made a security system, this would be it haha. One of the most important things to me with this or any surveillance system I choose is image quality. So many times you see videos and you can't make out who it is or what they're wearing because of a crappy camera or a low grade processor. This setup produces crystal clear images and video, day or night. The ease and convenience of setting this up from box to up and running was one of the most appealing aspects of this set. I'd highly recommend it to others looking for a quality system!

We have a 4k “8mp” system already but support for it hasn’t been great, and when I saw Swann now has a system with 12mp cameras I decided to do an upgrade. Unboxing: The cameras came in just a plain brown box, and inside were two boxes, one for the DVR and the other for the 4 cameras. Everything was packaged and protected extremely well so nothing arrive damaged. The first box contains the DVR, power adapter, mouse, Ethernet cable, HDMI cable, and paperwork “along with the paperwork are some “Swann” decals announcing that you have a Swann system installed. The second box contains the four cameras, mounting hardware, and “4” 60’ Ethernet cables. Setting up: Now these cameras all have a single Ethernet cable running to them and they are POE “Power Over Ethernet” type so there’s no need to run multiple cables or have cables with multiple ends, just a simple Ethernet cable. Our house already had pulls done for our old cameras and I’m having the electrician come and re pull all those analog cables and replace them with these “yes the system is worth upgrading to”. I hooked up the DVR to a 4k monitor I have, along with attaching the Ethernet cable for internet connection, power adapter and included mouse, “you can use a wireless keyboard / mouse combo too”, I also plugged in the four cameras to their corresponding Ethernet ports, “this system support 8 channels so it’s easy to add more cameras if needed”. The setup process is very straight forward and simple, just follow the onscreen instructions and you are ready to roll in about 10 minutes. The system immediately notified me that there was an update available so I let it run through that before continuing. And once that was finished it was time to check out all the functions of the system and tweak what we wanted, “this part takes the longest”. We are completely amazed by all the settings this system has “way more than our old system”, it even has a full range of analytics for facial and vehicle recognition “haven’t tried that much”, but apparently in the settings you can have it flag vehicles or people and even “black list” them so it will alert you to them, “neat” and will be trying that out as we go. There’s so many settings that you can adjust with this system it’s almost overwhelming but if you take your time setting up some more of the advanced functions you are going to be really pleased.. Use: Now this system pretty much works like all other security camera systems I’ve owned, this one just happens to have a whole lot more advanced settings. The PIR motion sensing system work much better than the simple motion detection system our old one has “just watches for movement in the scene” and you can tweak sensitivity, range and area very easily. At night you can either go with straight IR B&W imaging, or have a dim light shining giving full color night vision. The B&W is extremely clear and the IR emitters have a very long range to them “yes you can see them up close very easily” but I see that as a good thing so that people will see that the cameras are working”. The color night vision is pretty good; it also depends on how bright you set the light to illuminate the area. If it’s set to low the image is somewhat grainy but if you set it to the maximum it is very clear. I’ll be keeping the B&W image for the sides and back of the house where the front cameras “where the garage lights are bright enough” I’ll use full color without the camera light turned off. Image quality is right up there “and better” than our old 4k cameras, the 15fps is a little better than our 12fps and more than plenty for capturing footage that’s meant for security and identification. The video is very fluid for 15fps you have to realize this isn’t 30fps like normal video you see but half of that so there’s going to be a little stutters, but not much. There’s plenty of control over the image quality too and you can fine tune each camera to your liking in the DVR camera settings. The lighting on the cameras is different, as there are also red / blue leds and you can set an “Enforcer” mode to where those lights will flash if triggered. They do look like emergency vehicle lights and I’m sure would startle any intruders, especially if you combine the spotlight with them. Along with all the lighting there’s full two way communication on each camera. The microphones are very sensitive and I could easily hear the birds in the tree in the front yard. The speaker itself was loud enough for someone to hear it easily if they were close enough “unfortunately it’s been very windy here the last few days and that does make hearing either way difficult” The Android app was very simple to set up, and you’ll need to create a SWANN account, but at the end of the DVR setup there’s a screen displayed with a barcode that you scan with the app and the system is found and setup up very quickly. The app does give alerts for everything it sees so you’ll definitely want to tweak exactly what you want the DVR to send you or you’ll end up with a ton of alerts “I had the sensitivity way too high and the wind blowing leaves across the drive would set off an alert, oops”. Playing back videos is very simple, the 2tb drive is plenty of storage for any household, “should be quite a few days’ worth”, you also have the option to use cloud storage or other attached type storage. The playback screen give you plenty of options and give you frame by frame stepping, slow and fast “multiple step” options. You can also clip video scenes and images very easily and I even had them exported to a thumb drive. Conclusion: This new 12mp Pro Enforcer system from Swann is well worth the money, you get way more features than either of us expected and the PIR system works so much better than our old system and it’s more customizable as to how sensitive it is. The cameras themselves do not feel cheap, they are surprising heavier “well a lot heavier than our old cameras”, and the body is made out of metal not plastic. The bases of the cameras are also metal and won’t crack if tightened too much “found that out from our old system”, and should hold up a lot longer over the years “especially in the AZ heat”. I do like too that you can add multiple users and give them different access levels that way if you want someone to have access to viewing only “and a specific camera” you can do that or you can give a user full admin rights, really yours to pick and very customizable. There’s so much to like on the system I could write pages about all the settings and image quality. We’re just going to say that this is flat out the nicest security camera system we’ve owned and more advanced than anything I’ve used in years. So if you are looking for a really good system then this new Pro Enforcer setup is the way to go.

So, having had three different Swann systems over the past couple years I can say they are definitely improving the quality, but they still have issues that make me prefer a different system over theirs. First, the positives, the new cameras compared to the older model record at 4096x3072 instead of 3840x2160. This gives a sharper picture, vibrant colors and helps with those details you need. The installation is simple with power over Ethernet as you have one connection and one wire per camera as opposed to the DVR systems and the large power blocks needed. The issues I have with this system are similar to the previous models though. The fact they increased the resolution and left the NVR hardware the same, it is even more limiting as you can only view 1 camera at full resolution at a time without getting the “not enough resources” for the other screens. You can keep it in SD and view all 4 though. The increase in camera resolution did not increase the field of view. The camera only does 90 degrees while some other systems get up to 110. It really makes a difference when you are trying to cover a house with only 4 cameras. The PIR option that is enabled by default is not reliable. It will catch anything from wind blowing the tree, bugs flying or a person, but it will miss the moment the person stands still for a second and not record again till a few seconds later or if they are too far away. This is why I always prefer 24/7 recording, which you can enable as “normal”, but then the app shows it as an event between events so you may have hour long recordings when all you want is a few seconds in the middle that you didn’t get a motion detection. At least you can check the playback on the NVR directly, but only 1 camera at time unless you drop the resolution. Of course the downside to having the normal recording on is that it will fill the harddrive and leave you with about 5.5 days worth of reviewable audio/video. While talking of playback, I really find their method of zooming in on the timeline annoying. Why not enable the scroll wheel like so many other applications do. As it is now, you have to select the area within the 24 hour timeline, say a purple section from PIR, then select the shortened time frame from where that marker is and hope you were close enough for that timeframe. The limitations of the hardware hold the system back as they have several options for detection, but you can only have one AI mode enabled at a time. Overall I’m not saying this is a bad system, I am saying it could be better and over the past couple years it does look like they are improving. It does provide 24/7 coverage with decently clear, vibrant cameras and two-way audio. But, you can’t take full advantage of the system due to the NVR hardware limitations and the PIR is not as good as they try to make it out to be.

One camera stopped working the first day. It took several phone calls to Swann's Technical support to convince them the camera was not working correctly. Then it just stopped working all together. Once they forwarded my case to the higher level, The higher level gave me an email where I can state my case and they told me how to get a replacement camera. Now I am just waiting to receive the new camera.