Amcrest 4MP Outdoor PTZ Review (IP4M-1063EW-AI)

This is a review of the Amcrest 4MP Outdoor PTZ PoE+ camera.

The camera model is IP4M-1063EW-AI. It's available on the Amazon store.

Amcrest sent me a camera sample. I've been testing it for some time to share the results and my opinion about this product. So, please keep reading... 

Amcrest IP4M-1063EW-AI Overview

The Amcrest IP4M-1063EW-AI is a digital PTZ (Pan, Tilt Zoom) camera with 4MP resolution, 25X Optical Zoom, and AI features such as People and Vehicle detection. It's weatherproof and has night vision to see objects up to 328ft away.

The camera is powered via a PoE+ switch or a power adapter and can record to a Micro SD card, an NVR (Network Video Recorder), or the Amcrest Cloud.

Here's a list of the camera's main specifications.

My first impression of the Amcrest 4MP PTZ

My first impression of the Amcrest camera was good.

It's well-packed in a box with accessories, an installation manual, and a setup guide. The camera looks sturdy and well-designed, and the setup is straightforward.

Just keep reading to see more details and my conclusion.

What is on the box

The camera comes ready for installation.

The box brings the camera, a wall mount, power supply, UTP (network) cable, weather protection rubber, locking and installation screws, safety chain, Allen wrench, UTP cable weather protection, and installation and setup manuals.

The PTZ camera

And here's the camera. It's pretty nice, huh?

The camera is well-designed. There's a motorized lens in the front part and the IR LEDs for night vision up to 328 feet away (according to the manufacturer).

The camera back

There's a QR code on the back of the camera for setup with a mobile.

Under the cover, there's a micro SD card slot, a reset button, and some silica gel packages to reduce the humidity that eventually may get into the camera.

As you can see in the picture, there's also a rubber band to seal the camera.

The camera features

Let's take a look at some of the Amcrest PTZ camera features.

Camera resolution

The camera resolution is 4MP, so you can zoom into the recorded footage to see details without too much pixelation.

Here's an example of the image from the camera.

The quality is good. The video footage is recorded with 2560 x 1440 pixels.

Weatherproof

The IP4M-1063EW-AI is IP66 rated. This means the camera is weatherproof, so you can install it outdoor, and it should not have any problem with rain.

Audio Input

The camera has audio input/output wires, so you can install an external microphone that allows you to hear and record the audio. 

The picture below shows the wires for audio connection.

Be aware that there's no internal microphone, you need to use an external one.

Alert notification

The camera can send notifications via email.

You just need to choose the event and check the "Send Email" box.

The email alerts include a picture of the event (motion detection).

SD Card Recording

You can use a micro SD card to record the videos.

 I recommend you buy a class 10 micro SD card to avoid problems.

Just stick the card into the camera and turn on the recording.

You can set the Pre ad Post-Motion Recording which gives you extra footage  before and after the event that triggered the recording. 

Multiple video stream

The camera allows the configuration of two different video streams.

You can have a high-resolution video stream and a second one with lower quality. 

As you can see in the picture, there's a "Main Stream" and a "Sub Stream".

It's possible to choose the CODEC, resolution, frame rate, and bitrate for each one of the video streams. You can use one for recording and the other for mobile view.

That's how most professional cameras work, so I think Amcrest is good here.

Back Light compensation

The Amcrest PTZ camera works with different types of light compensation.

In a nutshell, BLC and WDR work with light contrast and shadows during the daytime, which means the camera can compensate for dark and bright areas. 

HLC is often used to mask car headlights at nighttime.

The pictures below show an example of my test with BLC and WDR.

Here's the camera with the Light compensation Off.

Note that it's impossible to read the text (Home), and the details are missing due to the excess of light. Other parts of the image are OK, even with the shadows.

Here's the camera with BLC ON.

Now it's possible to read the text (Home) and see the details because this was prioritized; however, there are some dark areas (under the chair).

Here's the camera with WDR ON.

Now the light is well balanced in the entire image, and it's possible to see the dark and bright areas without a problem. 

The camera has 120dB True WDR which is one of the best specs in the market.

Night Vision

A good security camera needs to handle light variation to deliver good video quality. Here I'm putting the Amcrest camera to the test.

The picture below shows a lit room with a dark object in the background (door) and a white and reflective object in the foreground (camera's box).

Let's see what happens when I turn the lights off...

The camera's night vision mode is excellent, as seen in the picture below.

Sure, this is an indoor test, and the result would be different from an outdoor scenario. Nevertheless, I believe the camera's night vision feature is good since it can adjust itself and prioritize the main object in the scene.

Zoom

The Amcrest 4MP PTZ camera works with 25X optical zoom.

That's enough to see object far away. Take a look at the following pictures.

Here's how we see the sign with the zoom out (no zoom).

Here's how we see the sign with the zoom in (maximum zoom).

Here's how we see the sign with the zoom in (maximum zoom).

Mobile Phone App

The Amcrest camera works with mobile apps, Web browsers, and software.

To get the camera up and running for the first time, I connected it to my router, opened the Amcrest View Pro, and scanned the QR code on the camera.

The mobile App it's the easy way to get the camera up and running as long as you have the camera connected to your router and an Amcrest account.

Recording

It's possible to record the footage to a micro SD card, FTP, NAS, or the cloud.

I tested microSD recording and it works very well.

The picture below shows the footage recorded on the microSD card.

I also tested footage recording on different software; let's take a look.

Recording test with Amcrest Surveillance Pro

I added the Amcrest PTZ camera to the Amcrest Surveillance Pro.

The software didn't find the camera using the Auto Search Feature, even after I specified the network IP range and disabled the firewall. Anyway, I used the Amcrest IP Config to find the camera in the network and manually added it to the software.

After testing the software, I realized that everything is being recorded as expected, so I believe the Amcrest Surveillance Pro can get the job done.

Recording test with third-party software

Here I'm testing if the camera is able to connect to a third-party software.

There are many recording software, such as Blue Iris, SecurOS, Ocularis, Milestone, Axis Camera Station, etc. I will test the last one.

Axis camera station is a professional sofware from Axis Communications.

It's used to connect directly to Axis Cameras and other cameras that work with the ONVIF protocol, and that's the case for the Amcrest camera.

The following picture shows the Amcrest camera added to the software.

Adding the camera to the Axis Camera Station was very easy and transparent. It took me less than 2 minutes to get it done.

Axis Camera Station is ONVIF compatible, so it uses this protocol to find the camera.

Amcrest 4MP PTZ camera AI

I tested the camera face detection and could see it working.

The web browser shows the face detection information and the thumbnails.

As you can see in the picture below, on the right side of the screen there's the information about the gender, age, expression, glass, mouth mask and beard.

[Click the image to enlarge]

The AI live only works with Internet Explorer; I tried to use Google chrome and Microsoft Edge, however it doesn't work.

The Pros and Cons of the Amcrest 4MP PTZ camera

OK, it's time to talk about the pros and cons of the camera.

Based on the tests I've done for this review, here are the results...

The Amcrest 4MP PTZ IP4M-1063EW-AI is an excellent camera.

I definitely think it's a good product for the price tag.

You install the camera indoor/outdoor and set it up in a few minutes to record to a local Micro SD card, local PC, or even the cloud.

I hope this review can help you make up your mind and make the right decision.

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