Home security cameras, talk to me please

[rash_decision]

Hi All, I’m looking to install a few security cameras around my house, in looking there’s a vast amount to choose from, and I am struggling!

What I am after is 3 cameras, I don’t need a monitor, but a system that uses an App/Cloud based storage if possible??

Can anyone advise, or suggest something they currently use themselves?

[595Heaven]

Are you after battery / solar powered ones or wired?

I ve got a mix of both and the Eufy Solocams with solar are pretty good for the battery option. Onboard microSD cards for storage and no subscription.

I’ve also got powered wifi (not PoE) Tapo camera and a Reolink one which chuck data to my NAS drive. Again, no subscription. The NAS is a Synology one and came with two licences for their Surveillance Station software which works really well. Additional licences not cheap.

Edited by 595Heaven on Wednesday 25th February 14:51

[rash_decision]

595Heaven said:

Are you after battery / solar powered ones or wired?

I ve got a mix of both and the Eufy Solocams with solar are pretty good for the battery option. Onboard microSD cards for storage and no subscription.

I ve also got powered wifi (not PoE) Tapo camera and a Reolink one which chuck data to my NAS drive. Again, no subscription. The NAS is a Synology one and came with two licences for their Surveillance Station software which works really well. Additional licences not cheap.

Edited by 595Heaven on Wednesday 25th February 14:51

I had assumed, possibly incorrectly, that the wired ones would be better?

I have seen the Eufy ones and they seem pretty good and like what I am after…

[Up_North]

You’ll get a gazillion answers. In a perfect world they would be powered over PoE and linked to a recorder but this involves laying cables. Can’t really go wrong with Reolink or Hikvision stuff for that.

A halfway house is mains powered wifi cameras. They’ll record 24/7 to memory card. I’ve got a couple of Evziz that do this - no problem with them.

But if you just want to get notifications for motion detection etc rather than 24/7 recording then I’m happy with my battery and solar powered Eufy stuff. App works well and no subscription needed unlike Ring. Get as high a resolution as you can and maybe look for those with built in spotlights also. But again, plenty of other brands - Reolink, Tapo etc.

Check out YouTuber Lifehackster - he has loads of reviews on this sort of stuff.

[Dog Star]

I’ve got Blink cameras - ten of them dotted around the property, doorbell, hidden in garage etc.

They’re ok for monitoring what’s going on.

[B'stard Child]

Up_North said:

You ll get a gazillion answers. In a perfect world they would be powered over PoE and linked to a recorder but this involves laying cables. Can t really go wrong with Reolink or Hikvision stuff for that.

Since being burgled we've had Hikvision cameras fitted - PoE - Hard Drive recorder has capacity for 4 weeks recording - can review cameras live on phone app or view historical footage on the app - easy to use and has been very reliable in the last 6 years

[Dave Hedgehog]

Up_North said:

You ll get a gazillion answers. In a perfect world they would be power.

we recently bought some PTZ 4k reolink cameras, amazing PQ and functionality for the price, 1/10th of the cost of similar "pro" CCTV cameras

[Jurgen100]

We had Arlo before and monthly subscription charges started to take the pis* and the app responsiveness wasn’t great. Now have a couple of the cheapest Eufy cameras and really impressed. Do everything we need them to do with no monthly charge.

[Sporky]

rash_decision said:

I had assumed, possibly incorrectly, that the wired ones would be better?

They are. More bandwidth and can't be jammed. Some of the wireless ones are horribly insecure.

I have Axis, with an on-prem recorder. When the time comes I'll go Axis again.

[Night Owl]

We've got an Abus Easylook setup. Basic system is expandable to four cameras and it is all connected over it' own wireless system (not WiFi). Great picture quality and control options; records to an SD card.

[NDA]

I've got a couple of Blink cameras... the regular AA batteries last a couple of years and they ping my phone when there's movement.

I chose not to have the subscription and the 'cloud' storage - I store locally on a USB drive which plugs into the Blink hub. It works very well.

Blink is a cheap and cheerful solution, however it's fairly high definition and it's been running for a few years without any issues at all.

[Byker28i]

595Heaven said:

I ve got a mix of both and the Eufy Solocams with solar are pretty good for the battery option. Onboard microSD cards for storage and no subscription.

Having gone with a Eufy doorbell camera, we went with these Solocam with the solar panel, never needs charging, works really well.

[Essel]

We've got Tapo cameras. Started with a couple of indoor ones, mostly for dog monitoring, recently got a couple of outdoor ones, one mains, one battery. Memory card in the camera, decent app for phone, and you can pay for offside storage. I also see they do a home base unit as well, which I assume records it all and stores it. Also do solar powered units. Reasonable price I feel, but obviously not like a full professional setup.

[Funk]

Essel said:

We've got Tapo cameras. Started with a couple of indoor ones, mostly for dog monitoring, recently got a couple of outdoor ones, one mains, one battery. Memory card in the camera, decent app for phone, and you can pay for offside storage. I also see they do a home base unit as well, which I assume records it all and stores it. Also do solar powered units. Reasonable price I feel, but obviously not like a full professional setup.

I went with Tapo and have the H500 hub as you mention - it does indeed record locally but can be hidden away so if the camera's nicked etc you still have the footage. I don't use their cloud and am planning to fit a larger hard drive at some stage.



I wouldn't touch Hikvision due to their links to the CCP and Uighur persecution and Eufy (part of Anker) had a major security breach that they lied about so I wouldn't trust them either.

Tapo - as far as I can tell - is US-owned which is the best of a bad bunch tbh.

[AstonZagato]

I want to cover my oil tank. It is c 50m from the nearest wi-fi router. Is there a solution?

[mjcneat]

I recently installed this Reolink POE system to replace an old Annke analogue system.

It's on offer at Costco (if you're a member) https://www.costco.co.uk/Home-Improvement/Home-Saf...

Very easy to install and set up. The notifications and customisation is great via the app. It can all be set up remotely via laptop/tablet/phone via the Reolink app.

The quality is very good in day and night. The most impressive thing to me is the object detection on the cameras. It can differentiate between people/animals/cars and these can all be filtered when reviewing the footage to narrow down clips if you're looking for a specific event.

I would not hesitate in recommending the Reolink kit.