Wireless home security cameras

[hoosierdoc]

How do you define a longer run? My longest should be 50’ maybe

 

[hoosierdoc]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015U3Q9NI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2MLIBVIM11JW8&psc=1

going to buy two of these. They look pretty awesome. I love that they come with their own mount. That saves some $$$

I bought a POE switch rather than the power injectors. Each camera uses less than 5 watts, should be able to run four off this no problem.

 

[cosermann]

I went PoE IP cams and an on site DVR. Easy to run one Ethernet cable. No interference issues. No privacy/security issues with a cloud provider. Works great.

Back in May 2016, Ring had an incident where customers were seeing video from OTHER customer's locations for a few weeks - https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/ring-doorbell-pro-video-glitch-lets-users-see-other-homes/ .

Not to mention, with Ring and other services your video is off in the cloud somewhere and all that entails.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I've noticed many of these have a dual video stream. Why?

 

[woowoo2]

I've noticed many of these have a dual video stream. Why?

High res to record, lower res for viewing.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

High res to record, lower res for viewing.

Thanks.

 

[Alamo]

Ring.com has wireless versions. The doorbell/camera combo claims "up to a year" for battery between charges, don't remember what the battery powered cameras (without doorbell) is supposed to last. Looking at them for myself, know two people who have the doorbell cameras and are happy with them.

I know several who have gone this way. All are pleased.

I have since purchased a Ring doorbell (bottom line model), and I am reasonably happy with it. I think cables with a dedicated DVR machine recording continuously would be the optimum solution, but for the $130 I spent on the camera and the ease of installation, the doorbell ring works for exactly what I bought it for. Which is so my wife can see, from the opposite end of the house, exactly who is at the door when they ring. She does everything else on her phone, so this works out. Also I can see it from work, and I have the "motions alert" turned on so I get a banner alert if someone comes into the parking area of our driveway (also butterflies that go by, tree limbs waving in the breeze etc, moving shadows, etc). I signed up for the yearly cloud storage of the vids, which I think was $30. I can also activate live view anytime I want, and I can talk to and hear from whoever is standing at the door bell. My wifi at the house is strong enough that it works well.

It's not perfect, and there are several things I would change if I could, but it is satisfactory. Satisfactory enough that I think I will by the solar panel bezel that goes around it so I don't have to take it off its mounting plate once a week to recharge, and if that works well, I might get one of the solar-powered cameras with a light to mount outside the house to survey other areas.


ETA: I notice the basic/first Ring doorbell is down to $99 on the Ring.com website. That's cheaper than Amazon even with shipping charged on the Ring site and not at Amazon for Prime members.

 

[dnurk]

Maybe tin foil hat thinking, but I am trying to avoid pretty much anything IoT related like Ring products. Data privacy and a host of hack ability issues exists.

https://www.iotforall.com/huge-vulnerability-discovered-ring-doorbell/amp/

 

[cosermann]

How do you define a longer run? My longest should be 50’ maybe

If your Ethernet cable is good, this should be well within PoE spec.

 

[Alamo]

Maybe tin foil hat thinking, but I am trying to avoid pretty much anything IoT related like Ring products. Data privacy and a host of hack ability issues exists.

https://www.iotforall.com/huge-vulnerability-discovered-ring-doorbell/amp/

I thought about that, but I needed something now and simple and relatively cheap, and I don't have the camera pointed at anything I wouldn't want on the internet. It might be a hole into my local wifi I suppose.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Maybe tin foil hat thinking, but I am trying to avoid pretty much anything IoT related like Ring products. Data privacy and a host of hack ability issues exists.

https://www.iotforall.com/huge-vulnerability-discovered-ring-doorbell/amp/

stick to doorbells and floods and you are good. So you can see what’s going on in my yard. Big whoop. So can my neighbors.

But yes, inside cams are a no go in the cloud.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Got my Hikvision mini bullet 4MP up and running. Very happy with the picture

 

[hoosierdoc]

Night vision shot

 

[hoosierdoc]

OP a friend of mine has ARLO, he loves it. Totally wireless and battery operated. Said battery life is great and they recharge

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/default.aspx

 

[Cameramonkey]

Just one word of caution on the Hikvision cams. Lots of them on the open market are greymarket, meaning they are not officially distributed, may not be the correct model for the country they are sold in, etc.

Hikvision equipment is ONLY supposed to be sold by professional servicing dealers. They are not intended for the DIY crowd and it is against their distributor agreements to sell them as DIY. (I work for a servicing distributor) Those that are not official dealers may be selling questionable hardware for one country that has re-flashed the firmware for another using tweaked/hacked firmware, etc. The penalty? You could brick it trying to firmware upgrade your device, no warranty support if it fails, no support if you have oddities/questions, etc. HV doesnt provide any end user support or warranties; its all handled through their servicing resellers and Amazon, etc arent servicing resellers.


With that being said, if you are comfy doing 110% of it yourself with no warranty support, GO FOR IT!!! Just spring for that extra couple bucks worth of SquareTrade warranty. You'll need it if the device croaks 9 months out because HV wont talk to you.

When I upgrade, I'm going HikVision.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Good to know on that. I don’t mind own support but bricking with firmware would be bad. Any way to check if valid device on manufacturer’s site or something?

 

[Cameramonkey]

Good to know on that. I don’t mind own support but bricking with firmware would be bad. Any way to check if valid device on manufacturer’s site or something?

Nope. The only guarantee is buying through official channels. if you know anyone with an account at ADI Global, they are an official distributor.

 

[KLB]

Good to know on that. I don’t mind own support but bricking with firmware would be bad. Any way to check if valid device on manufacturer’s site or something?

The first review on your page says it was an unauthorized distributor.

I've been looking at cameras for a while now, and it is so hard to get good info.

At some point in the near future, I will break down and buy something. NVR and at least four cameras.

 

[hoosierdoc]

The first review on your page says it was an unauthorized distributor.

Not necessarily. Amazon is combining reviews if it sees the same product. Not sure when they started doing that. That review references a listing title that is different than the one I bought throughand buy something. NVR and at least four cameras.

 

[Cameramonkey]

IF they arent the ones actually designing, INSTALLING, TWEAKING, and providing end user support for warranty and technical questions, they are not authorized. Period. Its how they structure the agreements.

The likelihood of true greymarket reflashed hardware is slim, but a possibility worth mentioning. However the lack of warranty and support (someone to call when you cant get it running or you think something is wrong) is real. But if you are OK with it nine times out of ten you'll be fine. Especially if you can get a 3rd party warranty to go along with it in case you have a burn out in the first year.

I would consider buying out of channel for the right price if I could guarantee its just somebody reselling US models for a few easy bucks.