Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

We are planning on putting some cameras on the outside of the house. We want wireless and have looked at reviews online but most reviews are so mixed it is hard to decide. So any recommendations from anyone that has them?

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

We use simplysafe, very happy with them and the whole system.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

Thanks. Looking at them on Amazon.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

We have got Eufy cameras. Some outside and some inside. Very happy with them.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

We have Heimvision cameras, and are very pleased with them - easy to install - using either a screw or magnet anchor, and they stay charged for ages - I mean like 3-4 months!

Mrs P has them linked to the Heimlife App on her phone, and she can see parcels delivered on the porch, vehicles coming down the driveway, plus me (and hopefully only me) behind the house. ..... We have two mounted under the eaves, and the one at the back on a tree, to give it a panorama of the back of Pulaski manor house.

You can hook the cameras up to solar charging panels, but we have too many trees to make it worth our while.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

What is the picture like at night. I have a security camera on my alarm system and the quality when it is dark makes it useless. Looking for something that gives a good picture at night.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

We use nest mainly. I have some wyze too that honestly are a lot better when you factor in how cheap they are.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

Night vision on the Eufy cams I have is excellent.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

Sorry for the delay, I had to check with Mrs P, and take a look at her phone, as she is the designated alert responder.

The images at night are fairly good, black and white, but even at the back, when we don't have the outdoor lights on, and the camera is set back about 30ft away on a tree, the house is clearly visible and a person would be easily discernible in size, clothing, and gait, though perhaps not with much facial detail. I would say similar to a 1920's or 30's B&W photograph.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

Another fan of Wyse cameras.

Yes, they are cheap, and require a monthly subscription per camera if you want to record to the cloud. They do have a micro-SD slot, although that's no good if the camera is stolen.

Not the best of apps (can be slow to open the camera), and sometimes there is a delay when operating the pan/tilt cameras, but can't fault them for value for money.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

So what are the primary reasons for having security cameras on a house? Is package theft the mostly likely thing one would need to investigate?

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

Actually we are looking for two reasons. First of all to figure out what kind of animals are getting into our fenced yard and destroying our garden. Secondly, we have just retired and as soon as we can we will be taking a few long trips.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

We just use ours to make sure the horses are on the same side of the fence that we left them on. (No fancy requirements for us so we just use Blink).

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

Do you own an aspiring puissance competitor? :unsure:

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

About on a par with what I have I would think. We had someone come on the property after parking their van outside the house, and steal stuff at 3am. The video was unusable to see the guy, or get any identified features from the vehicle. Idiot came back 3 days later by which time I had installed a movement sensor alarm. Burglary 101 - don't steal from the house at the end of a cul-de-sac because when the local constabulary come down the road there is nowhere to run.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

:rofl: My parents moved and bought a house in a cul-de-sac when I was 18months old, and they (well my mother, my father died in 2006) have lived in a cul-de-sac ever since (moved twice). When I bought my first house, that was in a cul-de-sac, and I have moved twice, and only ever lived as an owner-occupier in a cul-de-sac. When my sister bought her first house, that was in a cul-de-sac too.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

I'm using Arlo cameras, inside only at the moment but want to put some outside. Arlo is a branded product of Netgear, so pretty mainstream. They provide remote access to the cameras from anywhere, no subscription (unless you want to store > certain amount). I've had mine for 3 years and they seem very reliable. Mine are USB powered, so need to plug into the wall but they have a range that are rechargeable.

My cameras do great at night, but they do so by switching to Infra-Red mode, which changes the image from color to b/w, and also relies on a built-in infrared light source; works great within the confines of a room, but not sure how effective it would be outside.

You say you had to check with Mrs P; Does your system not support 'browser' access (that is, on a laptop using a classic browser such as Chrome/Firefox/etc) in addition to being accessible through an 'app' on the iPhone or Android phone? I can certainly access my cameras on my phone using an app but I must prefer to view on my laptop which is obviously a bigger screen.

Good point about the cameras being stolen. I'm assuming any camera that is rechargeable is likely to be also easily removable from its mount for convenience, which seems counter to the idea of making them hard to steal!

I'm away from my home for extended periods and having a 'view' of the home is helpful. I'm most concerned about leaks, etc. I've since focused more on sensors; I have water leak sensors in at least 6 locations, as well as motion sensors. I've also recently put two wireless temperature sensors in my fridge/freezer ever since my fridge/freezer died on me recently. All my sensors are integrated into the Samsung SmartThings family of products, which requires a ~$100 hub in addition to each individual sensor. Samsung recently did a major major upgrade and I'm fearful that a lot of the work I put into monitoring and automation will be broken when I do the upgrade, which is mandatory by October ...

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

I have some iSmartalarm cams (rebadged wyze) they work well for the money and the subscription is free. They also link into the alarm system that tells me when someone comes through the gate. Our neighbor uses a trail cam to monitor what animals go in and out of his yard. Seems to take reasonable picture.

I have a Tuya cam that has good night vision and I can use with my google hub.

None of the cams that I have used have had apps that are fast enough to check who is at the door unless they hang around for a bit.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

That's a great question, and I will have to look into it. ..... The reason I needed to refer to Mrs P is that my phone is "full" and I was unable to load the app. My phone is over-due for an upgrade, and I hope to be upgrading within a few months. I am prepared to pay pretty much whatever is needed to get a phone with plenty of memory as it is very annoying to not be able to add apps, and only carry a small suset of my music to play in the car.

To MrKen's points, our Heimvision cameras are subscription free, unless we want to pay for on-line image storage, and the alerts and images are near instant, so we can see people real-time outside our home whether we are inside our home, or anywhere else that has internet accesss.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

That's something I had forgotten about. My iSmartalarm cameras only work on a phone app. My Tuya camera only works on devices that support chromecast. My Swann cameras used to work on a windows app, phone app and a browser. The browser compatibility ceased to function after a few browser upgrades.

I guess just buying a camera system isn't always simple. My Swann device does record direct to an VNR. I have a 1 TB disk volume I keep in the basement that it records to. A lot can email the photos or upload to an ftp server.

Re: Wireless Security cameras. Any recommendations ?
 

I've been using 'internet accessible cameras' since long before they were linked to 'smart phone apps', and this is a huge issue - obsolescence. Many of my earlier cameras became unusable when the software they came with stopped working (only worked on windows XP, etc etc). Even a simple webcam I plugged into a USB port on my laptop stopped working in windows 10. And now, my latest (and not exactly cheap!) Arlo cameras are threatening to stop work, thanks to the choice of 'flash' by the vendor. Every time I access the 'site' on my laptop, I'm warned that Flash support will end soon. I visit Arlo's website and they are totally mum about upgrading their viewer software for my model. They come up with a camera design, release a 'viewer' that goes with it, and then never spend time on either shortly thereafter. Obviously, buying a new camera is what they want you to do. I'm still hopeful an HTML5 site will be provided before flash support ends, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe the smartphone version of the viewer will continue to work, but I hate using my phone for 'viewing' tasks due to the much smaller screen size.