Axis vs Avigilon vs FLIR vs Hikvision vs Samsung Camera Pricing
Author: Ethan Ace, Published on Feb 03, 2016
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Comments (30)
Wayne Louw
Would like to see Bosch products in this comparison.
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Undisclosed Integrator #1
What did you base your pricing on? I ask because certain companies vary their pricing based upon the integrator's sales volume, and the size of the job. For example, you list a price for the Axis Q6115E that is far below the price I am able to get it, from my wholesale distributor. Knowing how and where you obtained your pricing is extremely important, particularly in a price comparison study such as this.
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Undisclosed #3
John very nice work on this. The only correction would be the low end 720p PTZ. SAMSUNG SNP-5300 is Nla. The correct model comparison to use should be the newer SNP-5321
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Undisclosed Distributor #5
Nice job! One remark on some of the compared products:
"Fixed lens: Fixed lens models were selected if available, and were used for FLIR, Hikvision, and Samsung. Avigilon and Axis models used motorized zoom lenses, as no fixed lens options are offered."
As a distributor of the majority (except Samsung) of the above mentioned products, I would say that this is not an entirely fair comparison. These products cannot be compared on camera pricing.
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Undisclosed Integrator #6
Where was the Avigilon pricing obtained from let alone the other MFG's as well? A better way to approach this would have been to post MSRP pricing for the cameras because as what was mentioned here a number of the integrators can not purchase some of these models for these prices.
Listing dealer or high volume prices on here takes $$ off the table of integrators who could be given push back by potential customers. If a dealer can not purchase for the price you list here then there is no way he could price compete with the one who can if a customer can see what a specific model could be purchased for.
It's an unfair posting to all integrators IMHO as it could create potential contention. Just saying....
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Paul Boucherle CPP CSC
Great format for a comparison report and well done. Rinse, wash and repeat with the next 5 brands...;)
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #7
From an objective point of view, I think it might be more fair to the integrators point if the entry level pricing were provided - if I started carrying any of these brands, there is a standard discount level for new partners that I would get - that might make it apples to apples without making anyone look bad from having to quote a camera at a higher price than IPVM is telling them it should be costing them.
On another note, I would be much more interested in knowing the TCO with storage variable included. For example, 1080p 30fps for 30 days of storage is going to significantly bring down the overall cost of Axis with Zipstream and tremendously increase the cost of others that appear "cheap" on the front end. So there is a lot more to price than just the cost off the shelf.
Working for a major VMS company, I see this time and time again, once a customer settles on a camera manufacturer, they never go back to see what the storage calcs are on the other cameras that they didn't select - and I stand back in amazement. The bottom line figure is the number to look at in most cases to determine the real cost of a camera.
When I buy a car, I look at the 5 -7 year ownership cost. That's why I chose the Tesla model S over the Infiniti Q60 - it's cheaper!
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Alberto Alonso
Hi Johan,
While you base your Best and Worst rankings on the results of a survey, the price ranking is based on your own research. You could do the same survey to find out the average purchasing price for a given camera model.
Anyway, working at Axis I do know that using MSRP would benefit the price positioning of Axis products but as already mentioned, the actual price for a dealer / integrator is very difficult to set. I would recommend to stick to MSRP as the only official price reference and quite homogeneous across the world (exchange rates and taxes apart). Any other price you may show here is simply especulative and subject to a selection of source not clearly justified.
Every integrator, professional purchaser knows well that he will not pay the MSRP and of course the applied discount will depend on many factors. In other words, MSRP is about price, actual dealer discount is about margin for the channel, and you already discussed about that in a previous report.
Prices are so much interesting for the one who has to pay them. Therefore MSRP is the interesting price for the end user while the price that concerns to the installer is the actual price he will pay when buying that product, that's really a much more difficult figure to set, not as simply as visiting an on-line shop.
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Alberto Alonso
John,
sorry for misspelling your name, my comment was obviously for you as IPVM responsible.
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Undisclosed #2
Why not just include the MSRP as a supplemental data point alongside the estimated dealer cost, while still using cost to rank?
It certainly has some informational value as well.
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