OT: Recommendations on Outdoor Surveillance Video Camera

[pjmsj21]

My wife and I are fortunate to own a small vacation home. We would like to find an outdoor surveillance that we can use to monitor our driveway/carport. A motion sensor version seems to be most appropriate along with the ability to view it via the web. Easy to install with minimal wiring would be best.

Any advice would be welcome.....

TIA

Pat

[Tickdoc]

My wife and I are fortunate to own a small vacation home. We would like to find an outdoor surveillance that we can use to monitor our driveway/carport. A motion sensor version seems to be most appropriate along with the ability to view it via the web. Easy to install with minimal wiring would be best.

Any advice would be welcome.....

TIA

Pat

Got wifi?

If so, ring makes a nice camera with infrared motion. I have their newest doorbell, but thinking of adding their camera to the backyard for pool monitoring.

If you want something a little more professional, check with a local computer guy. My computer guy has outer work weird ( two locations, six camera total) that are easily monitored and recorded on a loop, also,accessible by phone.

[weisan]

Check out Costco.

[bcroslin]

I bought a Uniden on Amazon. Works great.

[carpediemracing]

I looked recently after a not so local shop got vandalized. There are a ton of options out there and I have no idea what is good or not.

However...

Based on having to view and share surveillance video with police (and for us to analyze) I'll offer two things I wish our cameras had:

1. HD. The lower definition camera works for very general identification purposes ("it's a light colored sedan" "A short person with a hoody on") but virtually never gives enough facial features to identify a person definitely. It will never give you a plate unless the car drove the plate to a couple feet of the camera lens. 720p is pretty good, 1080p is better.

Related to HD is color - color helps identify a car color for example. One thief drove a copper colored car. Various people remembered it as different colors (it was red, it was orange, etc) but on the video it was clear it was a copper colored car.

Color only really works in day time videos leading me to point #2...

2. Night vs motion activated light. Night vision is pretty poor from what I've seen. A much better option would be a motion activated light. You'll lose a few seconds of picture as the light floods the camera's sensors from the super duper light but then you'll see regular stuff, like color if you have color. Night vision is practically useless for even vehicle identification ("well it has two working headlights..."). In a lit parking lot it's a bit better ("it's a pick up truck with two working headlights"). You can't positively identify color, forget about anything more specific.

It goes without saying that any video would be saved on some drive, whether cloud based (I hope you have a reliable internet connection and your modem/network is on a UPS) or locally (I hope you have a UPS attached to the drive and whatever is controlling that drive). If it's a "view and gone" image meaning it's not being saved anywhere then you'll have to be able to capture that video immediately as you're watching it.

The system I worked with could record by default or you could set it to record if certain pixels moved. We could also set how long to record (I made it 1 minute). I could set which pixels would activate the camera. Since we weren't a bank I typically set walls as "motionless" since I didn't expect people to bust down a wall. Otherwise floors, doors, windows, and anything outside were all set to activate recording. This way if there was an incident you could just look at 5 separate recordings (for example) rather than trying to sift through a week or month of archived video. If there was something in the parking lot with all footage recorded all the time we'd have to sift, which takes forever.

Hope this helps.

[Tickdoc]

Am loving my doorbell after only a few months. It is awesome to watch the ups guy leave a package.

This is so wrong it's right. Here's an unintended surprise form our cleaning gal last week:

https://ring.com/share/509059515

Thankfully I wasn't around my phone at the time or I could have said hello to her. Would've been fun to say the least.

[Bob Ross]

ICRealtime makes a 720° IP camera (http://store.icrealtime.com/products/cat-720-IP-Cameras/BEAM720-24-W-200.html)that is stunningly cool in terms of all the post-capture (!) manipulation you can do w/ the image. e.g., imagine being able to steer the camera around remotely to follow the perp after he walks out of view...not only in real time but afterwards when you're viewing and reviewing the video! Serious sci-fi stuff.

[hooter]

carpediemracing is spot on with his post.

I've also review a lot of video and there is no way to positively identify people or vehicles with the low definition cameras.

I would also add that from my experience having a cloud based system with at least a two week loop will work. A 30 day loop is better. And make sure you or whoever you have install the system know how to download the video onto a flash drive. Nothing worse than having your place broken into and nobody knows how to work the system and download the video for the police.

Also make sure the time stamp is correct on the system so the time stamp on the video will match the time of any incident that may occur.

[rockdude]

Bring this 3 year post back to life. Advise, help and recommendations needed. I want protect my home and more importantly my bikes. A camera at my front door, Driveway and in the back to watch the bears and lions. What should I look for in a systems and do you have any recommendations?

[joosttx]

I have a nest cam. It’s very nice and easy. You need WiFi and buy a subscription if you want to store data.

[R3awak3n]

arlo, arlo, arlo and arlo.


Super easy to setup. Free storage (yep, you can have up to 5 cameras for free), wireless so you don't need any wires and can put it anywhere you want, weather proof. I have 5 of them, have had the system for a few years and it has been flawless.

[C40_guy]

I have a couple of Blink XT cameras. They're HD, wireless (wifi) and battery powered, so placement is pretty flexible. I'm using one as a trail cam about 100 feet from the house and another as a dog nanny cam. :)

Motion triggered, loads video to the cloud, will provide notifications on your phone.

No monthly charge.

Video quality is pretty good and motion sensing can be adjusted.

Available on Amazon...

[mktng]

WYZE cam's are great. $50CAD via Amazon.
Wifi camera. Free cloud storage. User friendly app. Has on board memory card slot.

With the right case. It can be used outside in all weather applications.

I have a few, coupled with the Tiny Cam Pro app. I can live stream all my cameras on my phone.

It has all the regular... motion detection. 2 way com. night vision.

[Birddog]

I have a couple of Blink XT cameras. They're HD, wireless and battery powered, so placement is pretty flexible. I'm using one as a trail cam about 100 feet from the house and another as a dog nanny cam. :)

Motion triggered, loads video to the cloud, will provide notifications on your phone.

No monthly charge.

Video quality is pretty good and motion sensing can be adjusted.

Available on Amazon...

I too have a Blink system (3 cameras) No brainer to install, good image quality, audio but no speaker so you can't scare the squirrels. Very satisfied customer. Bought mine from Bezos.

[YoKev]

About 8 years ago I had to spend about $500 to get one decent camera.

I eventually got what I was after...video of my neighbor filling my oil tank up with water from the garden hose.

____________________

I am blown away by camera options now, especially price! Oh me oh my how far we have come!

[MattTuck]

About 8 years ago I had to spend about $500 to get one decent camera.

I eventually got what I was after...video of my neighbor filling my oil tank up with water from the garden hose.



What the ?????!

[azrider]

WYZE cam's are great. $50CAD via Amazon.
Wifi camera. Free cloud storage. User friendly app. Has on board memory card slot.

With the right case. It can be used outside in all weather applications.

I have a few, coupled with the Tiny Cam Pro app. I can live stream all my cameras on my phone.

It has all the regular... motion detection. 2 way com. night vision.


Wow this is interesting.

Prior to seeing mktng note above, I was pretty sold on Arlo. I'm a fan of Arlo's "ecosystem" of products: motion lights, doorbell camera, security camera, etc.

But i'll have to investigate this WYZE now also. Thanks for giving me more homework mktng. ;)

[R3awak3n]

Arlo is the OG wireless batt powered cameras then a few other brands came and copied, like the blink which I believe belongs to amazon?

[zap]

We went with a Ring because we already had a Ring doorbell system. The Ring camera/light I was able to hardwire easily as it replaced an existing light.

[C40_guy]

I eventually got what I was after...video of my neighbor filling my oil tank up with water from the garden hose.


I didn't even know that was a thing to worry about. Yikes.

Of course, after 26 years of having an oil furnace, now that we moved to a house with NG, I'm worried about the oil guy making a delivery to my house.

Of course there's no place for them to actually deliver the oil, but that doesn't seem to stop them. Others in my neighborhood do have oil, and a truck backed up onto our driveway recently. I think he was either lost, or confused, or both, and I waved him off before he could attempt a delivery. :)

[dpdan93]

for sure Blink from amazon, we have them and love them. They're very easy to use.

[jwalther]

Another vote for Arlo. Super easy to set up, intuitive app, and long battery life.

[rockdude]

Has anyone used the Nest cameras?

[azrider]

Bumping this to see if anyone else has anything they want to contribute.

Our contract with COX homelife is expiring (thank GOD) so we need replacement outdoor surveillance system.

Leaning towards Arlo....

[rockdude]

I went with Arlo and am completely happy.

[verticaldoug]

My daughter just needs one for the people stealing from her garden.

[R3awak3n]

I went with Arlo and am completely happy.

you done a good choice. Also is tried and true. I have 5 right now and I have to give it to them, its a system that has always just worked perfectly, never had to fuss with it.

The fact that is free is also pretty awesome.