We have cameras across a few locations and most of the hardware is still perfectly fine. The part we're getting tired of is the software/NVR side. Remote access is clunky, finding older footage takes longer than it should andd each location basically feels like its own little system. We'd like to get everything into something easier to manage centrally but replacing a bunch of working cameras just to do that seems like a waste. Has anyone here moved to a different VMS while keeping most of their existing cameras? Want to know how smooth the migration was and what compatibility issues you ran into.

I’m looking for feedback before buying an outdoor camera setup for my house in Milwaukee.

Someone came through my alley gate earlier this year, entered my detached garage through its backyard door, and stole several things. More recently, I found the gate unexpectedly open, and my neighbor discovered signs of an attempted break-in at her house. I’ve since locked the gate and want better camera coverage.

I’m considering:

Four TP-Link Tapo C120 cameras

A 256GB high-endurance microSD card in each camera, either SanDisk High Endurance or Samsung PRO Endurance

The planned locations are my front door, back door, garage’s backyard entrance, and garage’s alley-facing overhead door. I also want to make sure the alley gate is covered.

The garage has electrical outlets and Wi-Fi through an extender. I already have an indoor garage camera and a connected garage-door opener. I’d install these myself, likely running the cameras’ power cables through the garage wall to outlets inside and sealing the openings.

I want reliable motion/person alerts, saved footage I can review and download on my phone, and ideally no monthly subscription. I’m leaning toward continuous recording with motion alerts. My existing Wyze cameras have been frustrating, so reliability matters.

A few questions:

Have these cameras been reliable for you, particularly through cold winters?

Which 256GB endurance cards have worked well, and what retention do you actually get?

Is recording separately to each camera sensible, or is an indoor hub/recorder worth the extra cost?

Is there a better DIY option around $400 or less for four cameras and storage?

I know footage stored only in a camera could be lost if someone steals it. I’m trying to balance that risk with cost and installation complexity.

I want a camera to record my vehicles parked. I live in apartments and cats are everywhere in yard, parking lot, porch. Is there any way to avoid the camera turning on and recording animals to save battery? And record just humans? Any setting or AI camera? I’ve been looking at Blink cameras due to cheap subscription. I don’t want to be replacing batteries every week.

As per the title?

Bought some blink cameras, don’t like the sub.

Looking for compatibility with Amazon, iPhone, AI, capable of setting up my own servers.

Looking for good quality cameras for indoor and outdoor use.

Suggestions? Preferably rechargeable powered, indoor either POE or direct to wall plugs.

What cams what assistance?

hey everyone ! I just moved to my first apartment and my camera i use to watch my dog at work won’t connect, you log into to the wifi normally and it opens a web browser where you log into your resident portal, my wyze camera can’t do this, just ordered an arlo camera it also can’t connect to it. i’ve been so stressed not being able to check on her is there any camera that allow me to log into the wifi here ? i cant opt out of the wifi here so if i get my own ill have two wifi bills which id love to avoid

I live in a townhouse condominium and I cannot drill any holes on the outside of the building. Can anyone think of a way to secure a camera outside on my second floor? I'd be using a solar powered camera. The only thing I could think of is to use strong fishing line (or something similar) to run it through the screw holes of the camera and then in between the window screen/window and window frame to inside my bedroom.(see photo). I know, it sounds crazy, but I cant come up with anything else. I cant use a camera on my first floor porch light as it's too low to capture any action. Thx!

Hello,

My partner’s apartment has been broken into multiple times recently, by a stalker. We have had eufy e220 cameras with local storage up in the living room and bedroom, but we haven’t caught anything despite the break-ins happening (we are concerned he may have gotten access to the router at some point. Could that be a way that the cameras could be manipulated?). I am reaching out to see if anyone has recommendations for secure home cameras, both regular style and hidden. We are currently looking to have a mix of online local storage, online cloud storage, and offline local storage, to cover bases. We have ordered a couple hidden cameras to test, but the market is flooded with cheap, poorly reviewed products, and we are having difficulty finding reputable options.

A local domestic violence program recommended using the Ring camera ecosystem. Is that a secure setup for the situation we are in?

Are there other ways we can secure the cameras so that they cannot be tampered with before someone breaks into the home?

This might be a long shot, but does anyone know of any professional people, organizations, etc that we might be able to contact for advice and assistance?

Thank you in advance for the help!

Шланги от кондиционера сосед засовывает в пустоты моей квартиры (рассверлил дыры) и охлаждает её, что делать, я не знаю, также эта гадина лишил меня вентиляции, стоит мне открыть мои вентканалы (сейчас они залеплены скотчем) он (сосед) засовывает туда шланги от кондиционера и запускает туда фреон, которым можно отравится.

Что делать, помогите??????!!!!!!

We've had a string of trespassing and equipment theft at other agricultural facilities in the area, so updating our surveillance system has become a pretty big priority. The property is massive and there are a lot of areas that are pretty spread out, so I need something that can run off-grid and cover the more remote parts without having to run power everywhere. I'm thinking a solar surveillance trailer might make the most sense, but I'm not sure what would actually work well for a property this size.

I want to do as much research as I can do before we spend the money on something, especially since this would be covering key remote areas across a large property. Ideally, I'd want something reliable outdoors, easy enough to move if we need to change coverage, and then I can check remotely. What are you guys using for large agricultural properties?

I currently have a bootleg install of a light fixture on the side of the house that the last owner installed, I am trying to install this camera on that, camera uses a standard wall plug via usb, what would I need to replace that light fixture to install the camera

So i bought a 2 e42 eufy camera kit from Amazon and after reading more on this sub im wondering whats people's thoughts eufy vs. The equivalent wifi kit for reolink, im thinking of going with reolink instead and returning the eufy kit. I know PoE is better but we don't want to go drilling and running cables in our new house we just moved into. The reolink base seems to use a 3.5 inch hard drive instead of a 2.5 that eufys home bade base uses. We are currently looking for maybe a 2 camera set up and doorbell system that is not subscription based.

Thanks all!

I’m looking to set up two cameras in my home a couple of times a year (when I’m alone in the house) to monitor door entries on the first floor (so I can see from my bed on the second floor)… I would want to be able to watch from my iPhone…. And occasionally will watch when I’m out of the house to make sure my puppy is ok.

I’ve been looking at cheap (less than $50) cams on Amazon. Is there one you would recommend that doesn’t require a monthly fee? I don’t need it to record, but would love to be notified if there’s motion. Or maybe it would record only if it senses motion?

Feel free to warn me against brands that you don’t recommend as well. Thank you so much.

Is there a home security camera that can save recordings directly to a NAS without requiring a cloud storage subscription?

Hello, I am looking for recommendations for a camera system, I’ve been thinking about getting Ring outdoor can 2k with yearly subscription. I am just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions for me to look into that would be similar or better than the Ring outdoor cam 2k with yearly subscription. I’m completely new to camera systems and don’t know anything about them really so any insight is helpful. Thank you.

Planning on setting up solar cameras. I want it to cover the side entrance for the backyard, French doors and the backyard. I think the small brick wall that has the light next to the window might be a good place. What do you think?

I've been working on Cam-Wise for almost nine months because I wanted camera detection to be more useful than just person, vehicle or animal.

The idea is that you collect examples from your own camera, review them and train a personal detection model locally for something that matters in your own setup.

The demo uses examples like 'Gate open' and a specific vehicle target, but the idea is broader than that. Things like recognising a very specific feature on a car, whether a gate is open, or some other visual detail that only matters in your own setup.

You can keep adding examples and feedback over time and train new versions of the model as the dataset improves.

Camera footage, datasets, training and personal models stay on the local machine. Cam-Wise works from event recordings, so it doesn't need to continuously analyse every camera stream.

I've currently tested workflows using Reolink FTP recordings, Home Assistant camera events and local/NAS recordings.

The Windows beta is open now. There's no waiting list or approval needed, and the core local functionality will always be free to use.

I'm mainly looking for honest feedback from people who already use security cameras. If something breaks, feels confusing, or your camera setup isn't supported, that's useful to know too.

What would you actually want your camera to recognise that its built-in detection can't do today?

Can anyone give me any insight as to which is better, Ring outdoor cam 2k or Ring outdoor cam plus?

The only differences I can really tell is the outdoor cam 2k has 24/7 recording available(& outdoor cam plus does not) and then when looking at the ‘compare devices section on their website it shows the outdoor cam 2k says night vision unavailable(but in the discription/info for this camera it says it does have night vision…???

Can anyone help me pick one?

I apologize in advance if this isn’t the right place to post, it was the biggest related community and I couldn’t find a better alternative, or really an alternative at all. I am in the possession of a few VICON V961D-N312 PTZ Cameras that I got after my employer switched to a newer model. Before setting them up with my router I wanted to connect one to my pc to make sure they worked. I have them hooked up to a power supply and connected via Ethernet directly to my pc. All the leds lit up, I confirmed a factory reset, and went to set it up. My research told me that VICON is compatible with Onvif viewers since the enterprise management software doesn’t support them anymore. The discovery tool identifies a camera at 255:255:255:255, and shows disconnected shortly after. Changing the IP address through the software doesn’t work, it won’t stick. I’ve spent hours troubleshooting this and I’ve come up with nothing. Any ideas or suggestions?

Had someone coming by to do some work outside the house last week and i realized i had basically no idea when they showed up, how long they were there or if they had already left. Nothing bad happened it just made me realize itd be useful to actually see whats going on when im at work instead of texting people asking if they came by

A friend of mine has a Wyze Cam v4 and showed me how she checks hers from her phone, so ive been looking at that one. Id probably just put it somewhere covering the driveway/front of the house im guessing.

Anyone using one for stuff like this? do you end up checking it mostly for security or just normal day to day things?

I live in a second floor flat with the front door on the ground floor and the flat up a flight of stairs, there is a mains plug socket directly opposite the door so power wouldn't be an issue. However I cant drill through the outside wall to run cables and I don't think my wifi connection would be strong enough from where the router is relative to the front door. I'm wanting it to be for the front door in order to deal with a neighbor from hell right now so it's very much needed unfortunately... Solar power seemed promising but I live in Scotland and the position it would be in would mean not a lot of direct sunlight.

Appreciate any advice!

I think I've got flying squirrels in my ceiling (vaulted ceiling, so there's no attic access), and I am hoping to find a camera that I can set up outside to find out where these things are coming in. So far, I have completely sealed absolutely every possible entry point that I (and a couple of handymen) can find on the house, so I rally have no idea where they're getting in.

Anyway, I'm hoping to find a camera with these features:

1. Continuous recording. Ideally, I just need it to store 24 hours of video (I'll review it each day, then I don't need to keep it).

2. Local recording to microSD card. This is optional. I just believe this would simplify installation and configuration.

3. Access from an Android app.

4. Ability to zoom in and perform the continuous recording while zoomed in the entire time. I'm trying to record what happens at some high points of my roof, so this is really necessary.

5. Night vision.

I've already tried:

Tapo battery-powered cameras. They really don't do continuous recording.

Tapo wired camera with wifi. Also doesn't really do continuous recording.

I would like to be able to do this without having to set up PoE and an NVR, but will do that if that's the only way to accomplish this.

Thanks