AXIS 233D Network Dome Camera (0266-001)

First of all, I assume the product is grate but I never received it. So this rating is about Warehouse Deals and not about the product itself.
I bought it refurbished to save another 400USD. Warehouse Deals sold me that 233d in a refurbished box with everything in it but WITHOUT THE CAMERA! There was no replacement possible and no other option available to me other the return. Right now I'm waiting for my refund with Amazon and if completed I will not get a refurbished product again.

This is one of those all-too-common technological products that developers/manufacturers seem content to cease developing once it's hit production. For such a hefty price, one would expect significantly better support in the way of bug fixes and product enhancements. The camera has a lot going for it, but there are some serious bugs that I find unacceptable in a $2,300 camera.

After setting a number of preset camera positions, I found that I couldn't go back and edit the order in which they appear. This is a real shortcoming in and of itself. If you are trying to conduct surveillance, then you obviously want to arrange your presets in a logical/sequential order to aid you in following a moving subject. If you want to go back and insert a new preset at any position in the list other than the last, then you will have delete and re-enter them all. Ah, but don't rush to do that just yet... there is a bug that will unexpectedly randomize the position of a few presets. For some bizarre reason, they also decided that they should prefix each of your preset names with "Camera - ", which only serves to slow you down as you're trying to locate a specific preset as quickly as you can.

Another serious bug occurs as you are manually moving between your presets. Occasionally, the camera will tilt and zoom but not pan to the correct position. What's worse is that when this happens, you can't readily select the same preset again without selecting a different one first. Again, a serious detriment to effect surveillance.

The 35X optical zoom is great - most of the time. Sometimes the auto-focus has difficulty when zooming in close. Frame rate is good on the local network, but only fair from off-site.

Axis has been less than eager to address the bugs and issues that I've brought to their attention. I sent one camera back - the replacement possesses the exact same problems as the first. The last official firmware release was 5 months ago as of this writing. An interim (SR) version was released a few weeks ago, but I have seen no improvements.

Here's the most serious problem of all... The camera's guard tour recently started to randomly halt for indefinite periods of time (from 20 seconds to hours or even days) on any given preset position. This is the exact same serious defect for which I returned my first camera (this one is an RMA replacement). Now after three months of flawless guard touring, the camera is exhibiting the exact same problem as the first camera. The first camera also started demonstrating this issue three months after the original installation. So far, Axis has acknowledged that other customers are reporting the same problem, yet they still have no fix and the manager is unwilling to RMA this camera.

I cannot tell you how disgusted I am to be a beta tester for Axis at my own great expense!