EmpireTech Ultra Smart 4MP 1/1.8" CMOS Starlight+ Low Light IR Bullet IP Camera WDR,Built-in MIC,8mm–32mm Motorized Lens, Smart H.265+/ Smart H.264+,POE and ePOE Support, IP67,IPC-B54IR-Z4E S3

It's a great camera for license plate reading. If you simply want to monitor video, then the apps and setup isn't too user friendly--I would recommend Reolink for that.For license plate reading (LPR), you need to have the camera parallel to the street with cars coming directly towards the camera or moving directly away from the camera with a good straightaway 20 ft+.You need a powered over ethernet (PoE) switch with minimum 2 ports. One for the camera and another for the PC. I can confirm you can have a closed system and set up all of the passwords etc. without needing an internet connection. I could create my own admin password without needing to connect to the internet for an initial password. I am not sure what the other reviewer was experiencing.After you change the IP address to match your network configuration, you can connect the PoE switch to the internet router and then you can access your camera from a browser or using the iphone/android app. The iphone app is called "DMSS". The manual or web wiki has the wrong name of the iphone app.Andy is a great service rep! He quickly answers questions and helps you find all the information you need to help you set up the cameras.I had some issues connecting to and storing motion video to my mini-SD card, but now I have the system running and can access all of the events on my SD card via the DMSS app or the web browser (I use Bing--it may not work very well with chrome/Firefox). (I am not using a network hard disk or cloud--only camera and mini-SD card storage.)All the config tools are on PC, so I'm not sure if you can set up the camera using a mac unless you use bootcamp or something like that.I've attached a night time license plate photo with 1/1000 exposure in the settings.

Normally I don't write reviews, but I wanted to address other reviews mentioning security issues and requiring apps that send data etc. This is not true. I was able to configure this camera on an existing fully offline IP cam system, with no connection to the internet at any point. I admit it was inconvenient that the camera arrives from the factory with a static IP of 192.168.1.108 rather than with DHCP enabled. This may require some work on your router if you aren't using a subnet of .1.X. Regardless, with a spare router configured for the proper subnet, I was able to use a browser access the camera initialization webui page at the .108 IP. From there, I was able to configure DHCP, admin password, etc. It is now working great with my RTSP cam server along with several other POE cams I bought from Andy at Empiretech.So to be clear, no app is required to configure this camera to your network. No internet connection is even required, so it is impossible for any sensitive data to be sent to some server overseas or whatever those other reviewers mentioned. This review didn't go in to the actual camera performance, but I will mention that this is a very popular "go to model" at the ipcamtalk forums, where there is a lot of experienced user reviews being posted. I've used an older similar Dahua turret cam for years and love it. This is basically a newer better version of that. Well worth the money... build yourself a cloud free Arlo killer system with these things!

Great camera. Has excellent nighttime qualities. I use it for license plate reading and it is the best camera I have ever had to read license plates. I am getting 99% of the plates.

I mounted this next to my 2.8 fixed lens Amcrest floodlight and am showing both images for comparison. This fixed lens is on the top and this zoom lens is on the bottom at about 75% zoom.

Should be known I have owned over 200 cameras, and setup well over 500 cameras. This camera has serious security issues. It sends data to an unknown offshore website which includes your network information, user id, and password.In addition, it is not possible to change the password with the Configtool, unless you provide your email, then it connects to the offshore server with all of your information, and returns with a password for you.It also comes with a subnet of 1 and cannot be changed in the configtool to 0 because it requires the password. If you are on subnet 0, then you have to change your router and a PC to subnet 1 to get the Config tool to work. There is NO default password, you must use their app to verify in order to receive a password, then go into to change it to yours. I have never had to do this prior with any camera, except this one, because it requires sending data elsewhere. So, if you network is on another subnet, which it should for security sakes, than this will connect to the internet to get that password their server. Horrible.In every other camera, you use a Config tool to change the subnet to the matching network, and takes 30 seconds tops. Not this camera. I ended up returning it. I cannot comment on the video/audio as I never made it that far.