we are looking for a "ring" style door camera , but also want to have 3 or 4 more cameras. with a hard drive back up. it seems all the newer systems are cloud based, and I am too skeptical of their actual secure-ness and cost effectiveness. any experience to share? battery life expectancy?
please recommend a decent security camera system.
- Thread starter angerhater
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We have the Blink cameras. Battery life was 2 months until I bought cords for them (all different lengths available on Amazon). Now they plug into the wall for constant power. Of course, doing it that way, we had to reposition a couple of cameras near outlets, but it wasn't too hard to get them where we needed them to be. Blink is cloud based. I'm sure China is watching our house for us too.
S4Cruiser
SILVER Star
I use Arlo at our mountain cabin and they have been great so far, had them almost 2 years now. They are the regular 1080p versions that can be used for free with their cloud software. Image quality is acceptable during the day but leaves a lot to be desired when dark. They are also motion sensor activated so there is a small lag b/w when movement wakes up the camera and images are recorded. I would upgrade to a 4k version but that would require paying a monthly subscription fee...the last thing i need is another 'subscription'.
edit: battery life is great, even in the colder winter months but it's all relative to how 'active' the area is where the camera is pointed / it's field of view. I have a couple cams that don't see much motion at all and they can go 6-8 months.
If i ever install at our primary home I would lean toward a hard wired ethernet system with local storage vs cloud.
edit: battery life is great, even in the colder winter months but it's all relative to how 'active' the area is where the camera is pointed / it's field of view. I have a couple cams that don't see much motion at all and they can go 6-8 months.
If i ever install at our primary home I would lean toward a hard wired ethernet system with local storage vs cloud.
forrest5000
SILVER Star
Hit me up , I can give you some options
Not much escapes these cameras
lumbee1
Native American
- Budget - Wyze v3. 1080p and $30 each. Cloud connectivity, alerting, starlight sensor for nighttime. Requires a power connection but is weather protected. No extra fees.
- Midtier no cables - EufyCam. Like Arlo but better since there are no extra cloud fees. Battery powered with tons of flexibility for placement. Comes with a base station. More expensive at $200 to $300 for basestation and cameras. Battery life claim is 1 year between charges. I typically get 9 to 11 months with heavy use.
- Premium - Reolink with base station / Annke with Blue Iris. 4k resolution. Needs POE switch for power and data. Scalable solution with best alerting, flexibility, features, and detection. $400 to $1000 depending on cameras.
I recommended the Wyze cam v3 to neighbors and they love them.
Other options: Arlo, Next, Ring, Blink, etc.
Wyze Cam v3
Eufycam
S4Cruiser
SILVER Star
S4Cruiser
SILVER Star
Also…I know some of the Arlo (higher resolution) versions allow creating a high activity area of a cameras field of view where the camera won’t activate if activity is seen there. Helps if the field of view for a camera includes a street Way that has high traffic (conserves battery life).
- Budget - Wyze v3. 1080p and $30 each. Cloud connectivity, alerting, starlight sensor for nighttime. Requires a power connection but is weather protected. No extra fees.
- Midtier no cables - EufyCam. Like Arlo but better since there are no extra cloud fees. Battery powered with tons of flexibility for placement. Comes with a base station. More expensive at $200 to $300 for basestation and cameras. Battery life claim is 1 year between charges. I typically get 9 to 11 months with heavy use.
- Premium - Reolink with base station / Annke with Blue Iris. 4k resolution. Needs POE switch for power and data. Scalable solution with best alerting, flexibility, features, and detection. $400 to $1000 depending on cameras.
I recommended the Wyze cam v3 to neighbors and they love them.
Other options: Arlo, Next, Ring, Blink, etc.
Wyze Cam v3
Eufycam
Wow! Info and lawns
We did wired with UPS. Lorex 4k cameras. Can hook up to the internet but never bothered. Ring has to charge way too often in busy areas. Getting a solar attachment for Ring shortly for the mother in law.
lumbee1
Native American
I don't do anything to the lawn. The bermuda sod they laid down in this neighborhood is amazing and it looks and feels like carpet.
Fescue is a total ripoff propagated by seed companies, big box stores and landscapers. Bermuda and Zoysia are the way to go. Set it and forget it.
lumbee1
Native American
Absolutely!!! I had fescue at my previous house and fought with it year after year. I spent thousands on seed, fertilizer, water, and man hours trying to make it pretty. I specifically remember one summer we had the fescue looking great. We left for a one week beach vacation and came back to brown dead straw. It took a full year to recover from not watering the grass for one week. With this bermuda, watering too much or at the wrong time can cause fungus and make brown spots but it recovers after just a few days.
I've been really happy with Google Nest cams. Very sensitive; I often get alerts for changes in light or shadow, hammock swinging in breeze, even picks up headlights out of view. If that sounds annoying to you, the camera is "trainable" to stop alerting you to familiar things / pets / etc but I personally like the alerts. I chose it due to ease of use and comparability with Google home - installation was a breeze.
They do seem a bit pricey not on sale; Home Depot randomly had them for half off.
Have a friend with the Blink set up; she found a work around on the required cloud purchase by hooking up USB storage.
Have a friend with the Blink set up; she found a work around on the required cloud purchase by hooking up USB storage.
