Lets talk “Security”………..

[Chanceywd]

Interesting discussion as to timing. A couple years ago I put in some Yiiot wifi cameras and although a pain sometimes they did what I needed, to be able to check on pups in house and kennel when I was away for a few hours. Recently they put the push on for you to go cloud , I was using sim cards. Now I can't get in without the sales pitch then ads for other stuff and then only get to see 60 sec of live feed.
I gave up and found Zosi a cctv style system on ebay.
Using its own DVR w/ hard drive and a monitor I can record and set each camera to suit my needs. I have some movable ones like the wifi style coming but still wired

ZOSI H.265+ 8CH 5MP Lite DVR HD-TVI HD Outdoor CCTV 1080P Security Camera System | eBay

Better Quality and Reduced Bandwidth. You could playback the recording video on the Monitor or your smartphone with the ZOSI Smart APP. Upgraded 5MP Lite DVR System. It supports up to 5MP HD video input, allowing clearer and sharper viewing experience.

www.ebay.com

So it came this week and it is a wired system stand alone and doesn't need internet but you can connect to your ethernet and then access with phones. I did a set up to try it and got the phone access to work, no ads no push for cloud. Also supposed to be able to see on my laptop if I set that up.
Hope it continues to function as advertised.
Working out my installation ideas including pulling 2 cable to the garage about 110 ft away. I have a couple 3/4 pvc conduits buried and I checked the BNC cable ends will go thru, should be able to pull 2 in one conduit carefully so I can have one inside and one out.
One other advantage with a stand alone system is when my internet goes down and it does this will still work at least from the house. With the wifi ones I had nothing until it came back up.

Just another idea,

Bill

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Sounds like wifi is the issue. As security cameras are dime a dozen.

I agree.

The original intent of this whole “endevour” was simply to be able to monitor the temp in the house. My thermostat will (supposedly) send me email alerts if the temp drops to pre-specified temp.

I have schedule the internet install for later this week.




From there, the wife complicated things by wanting cameras, but I feel like her interest is waning, and she has not done any ‘research’, so we will see.

I am not a “tech'y” guy, and am easily frustrated when “technology” does not work the way I want it too.

My best bet is to find a “reasonably priced” 2 camera, simple system, install it, and “see how it goes”.

This will give me a “base line” for what I like and don’t like.

 

[Speed25]

I agree.

The original intent of this whole “endevour” was simply to be able to monitor the temp in the house. My thermostat will (supposedly) send me email alerts if the temp drops to pre-specified temp.

I have schedule the internet install for later this week.




From there, the wife complicated things by wanting cameras, but I feel like her interest is waning, and she has not done any ‘research’, so we will see.

I am not a “tech'y” guy, and am easily frustrated when “technology” does not work the way I want it too.

My best bet is to find a “reasonably priced” 2 camera, simple system, install it, and “see how it goes”.

This will give me a “base line” for what I like and don’t like.

I'd recommend looking for 4k cameras at a minimum as the higher resolution is very helpful when you need to pull up footage to identify someone or a vehicle. A UPS (battery backup) is also nice if you lose power often, but that's a separate battery you can buy at a later date. I've been running cameras of various makes/models for the past 20+ years and have stopped using wifi cameras as they just didn't last that long before crapping out. In the end, I spent the time to run wires (I have attic access, very helpful) and hardwired cameras to a central hard drive. DVR and NVR systems both store your information locally and not on a cloud. At that point, you have the choice to access your hard drive remotely if you want via an app on your phone or computer.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Looking into this further, ReoLink seems to be quite good quality at very reasonable prices, independent of the Internet, and not found to spy on users. Two years from now budget camera images in 2028 will rival today's industrial-grade camera image quality in 2025 due to advancements in technology and manufacturing, so for the price the quality budget camera is a better investment in my opinion. If one dies two years from now you replace it with another quality budget camera with 2 years advanced image quality and still save $100 per camera, though chances are a ReoLink will last 7-10 years.

And I agree with wired vs wireless, radios in budget wireless devices don't last more than a few years before heat cycling affects the heatsink compound and they tend to burn out. Industrial cameras tend to have bigger heat sinks and expensive heatsink compound so heat dissipation is far better and the WiFi radio lasts far longer.

 

[Old Machinist]

If you want outdoor cameras I would choose a battery powered camera with a solar panel option to keep it charged.

IMO wifi cameras are so much easier to deal with. No wires or hard drives. Just connect via an app and put it wherever you want.

 

[xrocketengineer]

My general suggestion would be to buy one stand alone camera with SD card recording (your choice of brand) and at least 1080p resolution with no subscription required. Try out how it works in different locations. Checkout operation with a computer or phone. Find out its strengths and weaknesses and figure out if that makes you happy. You don't like it, not much is lost. That is what I did. If it works for you, keep adding cameras as you need them.
A friend of mine bought a set of wireless cameras with its own monitoring base from BJ's and it was a disaster. The cameras had a hard time connecting with the base with constant dropouts and to make things worse, the camera system wireless frequency interfered with his internet Wifi. Fortunately, he managed to return them but he spent a lot of time frustrated trying to make them work and figuring out why his Internet sucked.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Looking into this further, ReoLink seems to be quite good quality at very reasonable prices, independent of the Internet, and not found to spy on users. In two years the budget camera images will rival today's industrial-grade camera, so for the price the quality budget camera is a better investment in my opinion.

And I agree with wired vs wireless, the radios in budget wireless don't last more than a few years before heat affects the heatsink compound and they tend to burn out. Industrial cameras tend to have bigger heat sinks and last far longer.

Thanks for posting that.

It helps answer some of the “basics" for me, and gave a good general overview of some of the available budget minded cameras “Strengths Vs. Weakness’s” .

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Thanks for posting that. It helps answer some of the “basics" for me, and gave a good general overview of some of the available budget minded cameras “Strengths Vs. Weakness’s” .

For me too! Discussions here led me to find that, I'm in much the same boat!

Here's how to save money on ReoLink:

I've found the same situation as in the video on other cameras where higher resolution doesn't produce a better picture. In the cameras I looked at for a different application, mid-tier camera manufacturers are using the same lens as on their less expensive models and the lens isn't high enough quality for use with higher-quality sensors resulting in no real image improvement. The solution for me was buy the highest quality lenses for the application, but in security cameras everything is integrated, so until manufacturers improve their lenses, last year's camera is generally a better option, especially at the discounted price.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

ReoLink's major shortcoming: small image sensors making for low-quality night images, possibly requiring adding a different camera brand for night imaging. One solution for in the woods might be an infra-red floodlight, which should also keep spiders off the front of the camera (without buying a $1000 Axis or $1500 Sony camera):

 

[Old Machinist]

I don't see the Reolink night quality as all that bad. Here is a night shot from one of their lesser 1080P cameras. Their infrared reaches out 90 feet or so.