Love it. I’ll be giving this a go after I return from a couple weeks of work travel!
Just noticed this thread about Hik integration, great to see others are using there stuff
Up til now i havent bothered integrating my Hiks as i dont use Pi stuff, but inspired by this thread i had a look to find an easier way for integration, or basic notifications at least and i am glad to be able to report Hik now allow full IFTTT support, a while back im pretty sure it was only NVR`s that would work with IFTTT but i have just discovered individual IP cams are supported
Basics are
Enable Platform access on your cam
Set up a Ezviz account for your cams
IFTTT and find the Ezviz app and sign in
set up your events from the cam to whatever ST option is available to you
You are reliant on the speed of a IFTTT event which no doubt can be slow at times but at least there is some resemblance of integration for the lazy users (me) and or dont use Pi
and lets face it… its just another option to mess with whilst your Mrs watches Emerdale
You happy with your Hik cameras ?
Could I ask which models you have.
It’s just I’ve been looking for a while now and did fancy Hikvision but then fancied some Dahua vari focal IP cameras I saw that have been getting great reviews, but they’re only available from China which I’m not too keen on.
Cheers
Hi Steve
My cams are the DS-2CD2335FWD-I/G, i run one front and one back of the house, they were from the darkfighter series which basicaly means they have great nightvision which they really do
I wont bore you with what and how i use mine for best performance but rest assured the Hiks are great cams
Dahua also make good to great cams but i stuck with Hik as there mobile apps are now very good, limited but solid performance
ALWAYS make sure if buying proper Hiks they are 100% Uk cameras, do not buy anything that is not as i promise you will get issues
And i dont use an NVR here although i do manage one somewhere else and tbh a cam with on board storage is more than enough for home use
Hi Mike.
Sorry I forgot all about posting this question 
Thanks for the model number they look ideal them.
I like being able to use a SD card,
How does the motion detection perform and the line detection thing.
So I’m guessing you just use the Web interface for viewing etc can that be veiwed when away from your WiFi ?
Do you know any decent UK sellers,
Sorry about all the questions
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SD cards are soo much easier to deal with tbh for home use, NVR`s are great but do add a level of complexity that is not always needed, like anything its horses for courses, plus the noise from some of the NVR fans is worse than an Xbox1
The cams can do everything the NVR`s can do because they have there own OS, they are not dependant on an NVR to function or for functions
Cams have there own web interface accessible from a local LAn or nowadays from a secure peice of software either on phone or tablet, line crossing, motion detection, Intrusion detection, scene change are all catered for and work perfectly fine but as with all cams no matter what make, it all depends on what they are looking at, light sources, shadows, colours all make a difference to how they perform, dont ever think about dome cams as they will give you many years of hasstle and cleaning, these stay very clean and clear
Low light sensativity is excellent and to some degree the cams can be run in daylight mode at night but again it depends on how dark the scene is they are covering, i have pitch dark, Infra red is freakin outstanding but with the addition of a 10w security light pointed at the wall near the cam, the reflected light from the wall is enough to allow me to run the cameras in daylight mode at night with brilliant quality, in summer with ambient light available the 10w goes off
Uk sellers are out there, i cant recomend any im afraid, i am in the electrical trade so have access to various trade only supliers
Things to note
you MUST get a 100% gaurantee the cams are UK official spec, if in doubt look to another seller
my cams are available in dark grey or white, most other models do not come in dark grey
you will need a POE switch to power each cam, the seller should be able to supply something to suit
you will need cat5e or 6 external UTP grade, i got black as i didnt want to see ugly white cabling
IF you get them DO NOT upgrade there FW without reading, reading and reading, the thing with IP cams is… if its working do not try and fix it unless you know what you are doing, you can brick an IPcam very easily, mostly they can be recovered but its a pain
Basicaly get the right bits, install, set up and forget they are ever there, they generally go on happily for a long time, i love mine, best things we ever installed
Thanks for all that some great info 
I would probably be like you with being able to leave it in day mode as there’s a good street light lighting the area.
There seems to be different variations to that model from what I can see.
Lens size and megapixels,
I have found a few scattered around in eBay and Amazon like this.
But that one doesn’t have the /G at the end of the model number like yours what difference is there.
I have noticed there’s hundreds of model variations aren’t there it’s confusing to say the least lol
There not really… actually not at all consumer products, Hikvision have actively been stopping 3rd parties selling there cams to the public because there were soo many grey imports or direct knock offs, people were expecting support for products never designed for there respective market, im not at a pc right now so unable to find a decent source for you
A brief look at my supplier shows my cams are now unavailable and have been superseded by 4meg cams, my issue with that is 4meg cams were total crap at night so i am going to have to dig around to get some info, tech moves quickly and Hik are always changing base model specs
Chasing mega pixels is never a good idea, 3 or 4 is plenty, dependant on what u need to cover a 2.8mm lens will probably suit unless you need a tighter view on a narrower area
/G indicates grey colour, it suited my installation better, some like to have visible cams some dont, im in the dont category
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Thanks yeah I’ve read similar things about the Dahua cameras saying the 2meg cameras are better.
It is quite tricky spotting a fake.
I’ve realised that amazon link above the seller is based in Spain which they don’t mention 
.
I have 3 Hikvision cameras. Not tried the line crossing yet, but working great with the generic handler and a snapshot being triggered by a door knock.
I have used these guys before - http://www.cctvwholesales.co.uk
Also good reports of these - https://www.ezcctv.com
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Thanks Simon
Them links look good but most of the cameras are trade only and I don’t have trade 
The first one should be OK. I am not a business and purchased from them.
Ah yeah sorry I read it wrong you get a different price if you register as trade.
Signed up looks good on there.
Thanks
Generic handler Simon?? What is a generic handler
This one.
I don’t have Hikvision NVR but a Dahua NVR. Would it be possible to modify it to a different NVR brand? Looked at the GitHub steps but still not totally sure how to install it on my rPi3.
I looked for a Dahua api library from pypi.org (python programming site) and did not find any. This would be the easiest method of modifying my code to work with it. I’m sure Dahua NVRs have a different API structure than Hikvision, and so it would not work as is.
Thanks for checking on it and I’ll continue to have my Dahua NVR email me the IVS detections until someone comes up with a dahua solution for ST.
I’ve just bought a couple of DS-2CD2345FWD and I’m planning on using standalone with only SD card if I can.
I’ve got a Windows server that I could run software if required.
What are my options (if any) to use the cameras as a trigger?
I only have experience with the Hikvision NVR, which I have 8 cameras attached to (all Hikvision). Not sure how the cameras work independently of an NVR.