Hikvision DS-2CD2642FWD-IZS 4MP Vari-focal Bullet Network Camera PoE IP67 Outdoor Lens 2.8~12mm Audio

HIKVision IP bullet cameras are pretty much my go to security camera as I have bought about 15 of the 4mm and 6mm fixed focus versions over the last few years. The cameras are excellent quality considering their price. They also work very well with Blue Iris NVR (my main choice for recording) and the hardware DVR and NVR systems I have.I needed to get another camera and wanted something with optical zoom capability so I would have clearer viewing of some of the areas I watch that can use a longer reach lens. I looked at the HIKVision 8mm fixed focus camera but it's cost was almost the same is this vari-focal camera, so I went with the Hikvision DS-2CD2642FWD-IZS 4MP Vari-focal Bullet Network Camera to be able to optically zoom from 2.8 to 12mm and also use the digital zoom of Blue Iris to get even closer and still be relatively clear.I got the camera today and hooked it up to my network. As usual with HIKVision IP cameras, they are a snap to connect to, give a static IP address to and then add to Blue Iris. It took all of about 10 minutes and I had it working. From the initial boot up in Blue Iris the image was crystal clear just like my other cameras. Up to this point I was very happy with the camera and anxious to try out the vari-focal feature. Unfortunately, this is where I'm not so happy.I was able to use the PTZ function in Blue Iris with no problems. I was able to zoom the lens out and in. The problem is the auto focus. First off, it's slow to realize it needs to focus and then when it does, it doesn't find the right focus. Almost every time it would just be a tad out of focus with it being hard to tell at what object in the view the lens finally settled on for it's focus point. I would then play with the focus in and out and it would change the focus, but only in discrete steps so that I could stop when the image was in focus. What I had to do was play with the zoom a bit to get it to auto focus several times and then it would sometimes find the correct focus. Other times I had to play with the focus out and in for it to finally find the correct focus. By the time I finally got it zoomed and focused, anything I wanted to look closer at would be long gone or over with.The other problem I found is that if I had zoom and focus set, if I went from minimized image to full screen image the focus would trigger and put it out of focus (I think it was focusing on a different part of the screen image) and I'd have to play with it again. Also, if I used Blue Iris's digital zoom to zoom in a bit closer, it triggered the focus again. I did get this problem minimized, but it still did it at times. All of this is very frustrating when I'm trying to zoom in or out in the direction I'm aimed at. It appears that this camera is good if you want to zoom to a certain distance, set the focus, and then not change it again or at least not very often. I've used other manual PTZ cameras (non-IP cameras) that were also slow to manually focus but were still a lot easier to quickly find the focus point I wanted.I'm going to play with it some more but I'm on the fence on weather I'll keep it or not. I can get another fixed focus 6mm camera for over $100 less or buy two of them for a little more, than this one and then just use digital zoom in the software. The camera seems to be same good quality as the others I have, but with frustrating focus it isn't worth the price. I'll play with it some more and see.

Had a Dahua turret camera that was nothing but problems, it thankfully, died. Purchased this one after a lot of reviews and I am extremely pleased. The Dahua supposedly had a good night vision, but this camera is just as good or maybe even better. I highly recommended it.

Clean Instalation, Great Quality