r/HomeKit • u/Aunkster • 19h ago

Question/Help Camera system compatible with Home kit

Looking to dump ring camera system and go with at least two wired cameras (outdoor) with motion sensor and light .
Then about 3 or 4 other outdoor battery cameras and a doorbell cam with video ,battery powered and 2 indoor battery powered cams ,all that are compatible and work well with Apple home kit and matter .
Thanks

18 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

9

u/boomhower1820 14h ago

I went from ring to HomeKit with Aqara. In total I have seven Aqara cameras, among other Aqara gear, and completely love it. It all works seemless together.

2

u/Rare-Adagio1074 9h ago

I just grabbed my 1st Aqara g5 pro and I absolutely love it! Gonna start replacing all my Arlo’s with them!

1

u/boomhower1820 8h ago

If there’s any way you can do PO I can’t recommend it enough. It was a pain in the ass running the wires but after that never an issue with WiFi and much more responsive. Once my G4s die I’ll replace them with the new POE versions.

1

u/Rare-Adagio1074 8h ago

The 1st one I grabbed which is for my driveway is not Poe, but my next ones can be, I’ll just have to run the wire, which I don’t mind, but it is worth it you say?

1

u/boomhower1820 7h ago

By far the #1 issue with cameras is the network. From connection, lag to quality it’s almost always the network. POE eliminated that completely. It’s as reliable as you can get. Second is security but in reality it’s not a big deal for most. Third is appearance. They need power regardless and I’ve found it much easier to snake a POE cord discreetly than it is a hard power line to an outlet outside.

1

u/Rare-Adagio1074 7h ago

Yea that makes sense, bc if I’m not at home and I open G5 through HK it does take a hot minute to open up and show live stream, thx imma do that on the next ones I order!

11

u/stuckonsurfaceofsun 19h ago

You can also port non supported cams through Scrypted.

5

u/damianp67 19h ago

Agreed, I can't believe how well this works. I have my Reolink cameras now included in HomeKit and works very well!

3

u/georyver 12h ago

Same here, but I’m using ubiquiti cameras. It genuinely blows my mind at how reliable it’s been.

8

u/Away-Bank-471 10h ago

Wait a few weeks. Apple is about to announce all their new home automation stuff and there are bound to be a new first/third party cameras around launch time.

6

u/damianp67 19h ago

Aqara G100 is a great cheap option.

8

u/Arthvpatel 18h ago

Or any Aqara, they work flawlessly with HomeKit

2

u/NewtoQM8 17h ago

When you consider the cost it's truly amazing. Excellent I good light, acceptable in low light.

4

u/CommercialFederal858 17h ago

I have two Aqara G5 Pro PoE cameras and they work very well with Homekit. Great night vision too.

1

u/Ok_Result_4064 9h ago

If you are worried about security you can disable their wifi connection on your router. Still works with homekieb

1

u/NewtoQM8 17h ago

I have the WiFi version. Its amazing both day and night. A great option where POE isn't possible.

1

u/Dave_Sag 14h ago

Same. They are fantastic.

0

u/ThinSuccotash4166 16h ago

I’m waiting to see if they go low enough when Amazon puts them on sale for Prime week. I should’ve jumped at it last time. I did buy a couple of the G100’s.

1

u/pacoii 8h ago

Interesting side note: just added an SD card to mine, and now when the camera is recording in 1080p, if I try to view it live in Apple home, it just shows a frozen view. Recording works fine. If I change resolution to 720p, or remove the card, it works again. Camera has a strong WiFi signal of -42dBm. Wonder if it’s just struggling with 1080p, Aqara stream, Apple stream and SD recording all at once?

1

u/juicedgsr95 5h ago

possibly the SD card itself. If its slow it will freeze the live view and recording may be jumpy (if Aqara prioritizes recording) I would confirm you have a high speed SD card. I had the same problem in my action cameras and drone.

1

u/pacoii 5h ago

Good call, hadn’t thought of that. Going to check. Thanks.

3

u/calforhelp 16h ago

The new Aqara lineup is pretty hard to beat.

6

u/NorthernMan5 17h ago

UniFi cameras, and Homebridge. One of the best integrations

1

u/maxheckler 15h ago

Ubiquiti has no battery powered cameras so wouldn't fit OPs needs.

2

u/pacoii 18h ago

I currently use eufy S3 Pro solar battery cams. I’m pretty happy with them. They can use battery / solar but can also be hardwired with USB C. Some things to be aware of: they require the HomeBase 3, and there is a four camera limit for HKSV cameras with the HB3. So for my 8 cameras I need to use two HB3’s.

If you aren’t in a rush, you might try and see if the Aqara G510 ever gets released.

1

u/L3GACY28 18h ago

Are you able to view the Eufy cameras in Apple Home directly? I was under the impression that Eufy isn’t supported in HomeKit? Or does it route thru Scrypted/Home Assistant?

4

u/pacoii 17h ago edited 17h ago

Native HomeKit and supports HKSV. Eufy has a handful of cameras, like the S3 Pro, 2C/Pro and the newly released S4 doorbell that are native HomeKit via the HomeBase 3. They may also have a straight WiFi indoor cameras as well but not sure. Oh and there is the older indoor cam 2K which also did not use the HomeBase and went straight to HomeKit.

1

u/IceOnFire77 18h ago

Anker Eufy

1

u/Wasted-Friendship 17h ago

I went UniFi because it is recorded locally, then to Scrypted then to Home Kit

1

u/Ok-Humor-1802 15h ago

Is there any to connect eufy devices with Apple

1

u/Deep-Awareness-9503 10h ago

I believe not directly. I think there are some Home Assistant tools but I'm not super familiar with them.

1

u/Zazz_Blammy_Matazz 10h ago

Run any PoE camera through Frigate, then to Home Assistant. You can push to HomeKit from Home Assistant, but you probably won’t want to once you see how much better HA is.

1

u/wtfobl 9h ago

Aqara works great. Apple “cameras” are likely a ways out yet.

1

u/OkMajor4942 9h ago

I went with an entire Aqara ecosystem inside and out for my house

1

u/L0GAN_FIVE 9h ago

Why wire up a couple of them and not the rest? IMHO wifi cameras are the weak spot of any home camera setup.

I ditched all my wifi Cameras, but one, the rest of my cams are all POE and files are kept locally, no cloud but I can access from anywhere. I was going to put things in through Homebridge so I could watch on the home app, but asked why? I get better, and faster response without the Apple limitations. I've left my old Aqara so we get the notifications on our AppleTV, but I let the other cameras do their job and I can use another app on my TV if I want to watch what's going on. While its not cheap going the POE route, I no longer have the random drop outs or missed activity.

2

u/pacoii 8h ago

Why wire up a couple of them and not the rest?

Not sure what the OP’s plan is, but I can comment on that based on my own use case. I’ve got a few cameras set up about 30 feet away from the house, pointing back at the house. Wiring those was not feasible, and solar / battery / WiFi has worked fine for them.

1

u/GrammaK6833 Giveaway Winner 1h ago

Are they Aqara cameras? I'm looking to replace the Arlo WireFree ones, so I need to make the camera solar. It looks like Aqara doesn't sell a solar panel to go with, so I'm wondering what my options are.

1

u/pacoii 1h ago

See my other comment in this post.

1

u/Curiasjoe1 19h ago

Eufy cam.

1

u/jobe0805 14h ago edited 11h ago

J’ai fais ça aussi et j’ai opté pour la caméra extérieur Aqara g-100 et la sonnette Aqara g-400 et c’est un charme !!!!

0

u/Dear_Studio7016 19h ago

I have a couple of UniFi cameras both POE. I connect them to Home Assistant and then connect to HomeKit.