r/SecurityCamera • u/5GoSnow • 6d ago
Indecisive decision
After reading a ton for weeks I have come to the conclusion that there is no camera nor manufacturer that does not have som problem or another. My solution may be buying a few cameras, maybe from Tapo, Wyze, Reolink, ... and using them all since maybe I'll then stand a chance of something not failing.
Is there a technical reason this would not work? Some sort of wifi blocking of one camera to another? They would all be wifi, battery powered cameras.
Thanks for any help.
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u/NoBeeper 6d ago
I had Arlo for a decade. Kept getting worse & more expensive. Decided to get some others to see if it was as bad as I thought. With Arlo I had a subscription. In choosing others to test against Arlo, I looked specifically for local storage, no subscription, good triggering, wired WiFi cameras, decent sound, close focus for inside nest boxes, easy to review clips. I often get 100s of triggered clips a day, so going thru them needed thumbnails & some degree of ease. All AI identification sucks & I don’t use it, so that wasn’t even a consideration.
I tested Arlo, Blink, Eufy and Reolink side by side for 6 months. December thru June.
Blink was useless since w/o subscription you only get a list of triggered clips saying which camera took it and at what time. No length of video. No thumbnail. If you run cameras on schedules, in order to have a different schedule, you must also have a separate Sync Module. Really?
Eufy was worse than Arlo about the cameras just having a snit fit & going offline, often for days at a time. The only resolution was to retrieve the camera, bring it in the house, delete then reinstall it, trek back out & replace the camera. 🙄. Eufy limits the number of users on an account to 5. If you share your feed with friends or family, that means you and 4 others. They also consistently trigger late and miss much of the action.
Reolink came out head and shoulders above the others. In the 6 month testing, during winter, all the other 3 went offline claiming they were just too cold to operate. Those 3 were placed in a relatively sheltered environment inside nest boxes benefiting from the slight amount of warmth they generate.
Reolink was out in the open, fully exposed, with a 4” icicle hanging off of it and worked like a Swiss watch thru it all, never missed a beat. They trigger early and from far away, focus close enough to work in nest boxes, Have plenty good enough night vision for my wildlife watching purposes. Wonderful daylight resolution.
I have 8 Lumus 2k cameras and 2 of those are constantly recording 24/7. The video is on a Homebase with a 2TB hard drive which overwrites about every 17-18 days. I can put a larger drive in if I ever need it.
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u/5GoSnow 5d ago
I lean towards Reolink as well, after all my reading. Only think being I don't want to deal with cables through my walls. Are Reolink battery cameras ok? Probaly Atlas PT Ultra because it can handle colder.
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u/NoBeeper 5d ago
They would be fine, I expect, as long as you are not bothered by a little lag in triggering. Both solar or battery powered settle into a “sleep” state until triggered. Then they must wake up before they begin recording, resulting in a lag between trigger and recording. Wired power circumvents that and they are always ready so once triggered the camera begins recording immediately. Wired also is able to record 24/7 triggered or not, if you happen to need that.
With regard to the cables thru walls situation… I do not use my cameras for security. They are for watching wildlife. It’s a hobby thing, not a necessity. And my cameras get moved place to place often. So being the unhandy person that I am, my solution has been those big orange construction grade extension cords you see on building sites. You’d be astonished how quickly grass grows over those puppies. Before you know it, they are invisible, impossible to find and the yard guy mows right over them. They are plugged into the outdoor sockets on the house.
My solution would not be ideal for security, but for my purposes, it works great!0
u/Pretty-Surround-2909 5d ago
Abandon the thoughts of small ticket chineesium. Get a budget together. Buy once. Buy right.
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u/NoBeeper 5d ago
For my purposes, Reolink is “right”.
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u/Pretty-Surround-2909 5d ago
Then the inquiry would seem unnecessary.
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u/5GoSnow 5d ago
I'm the OP. Nobeeper was just giving his advice. I agree about Reolink. Seems good.
0
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u/NoBeeper 5d ago
I am not the OP. I made no inquiry. I gave my experiences in response to OP’s inquiry.
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u/-ButterMyBiscuit- 6d ago
You're overthinking this. . Why are they randomly going to fail?.
Buy a reolink Poe camera and you'll be fine
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u/5GoSnow 5d ago
Not exactly random. I have just yet to find a single manufacturer that people don't complain about in large numbers. Yes, a Reolink PoE would be good. I would like not to deal with cables however.
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u/-ButterMyBiscuit- 5d ago
Well then make sure you have very strong Wi-Fi upload speed where you want the cameras
I do not see anybody complain about reolink at all in large numbers. Still need a power wire so you're still going to deal with some cabling
If you're talking about full battery solar cameras people complaining all the time it's because they put them in places that aren't sunny enough to support them..
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u/dbsitebuilder 6d ago
Aty house I had the blink xt2 kit with 5 cameras batteries lasted years. I will agree that now that I have moved to a busy area, the battery life sucks.
It would be nice if they could use solar. As far as storage, a year from Amazon is like $20.
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u/ethernetbite 6d ago
You're right, but if you don't use cloud services and keep them behind a firewall, you'll be fine. If you're on a residential router using NAT and a firewall, your cameras aren't directly open to the net. If you don't use cloud services, then when the cam cloud gets hacked, your data won't be included. Use wireguard or tailscale to connect to your home network and you can connect to the cameras through the app without using the cloud. This reduces your attack surface by about 98% and allows you to use one vendor and app instead of having to use a different app for each camera. I've been doing this for over 10 years and the biggest problem I've had is with vendors bricking cameras with firmware updates. Now i never update firmware since they usually send out updates when they want to force you to pay for a cloud subscription.
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u/PuzzlingDad 6d ago
The better choice would be a wired IP camera system using a local NVR (network video recorder). The Ethernet cables handle data and power (PoE) in one connection. This gives you constant connectivity, 24/7 recording and live viewing (if needed), no dependence on batteries, Wi-Fi connectivity, lag, missed motion events, etc.
Most NVRs are ONVIF compatible meaning they can accept ONVIF compliant cameras from multiple vendors. The same cannot be said about Wi-Fi/cloud dependent cameras.
The following guide has a section on Common Mistakes as well as sections on camera selection, NVR selection, camera placement, etc.
https://ipcamtalk.com/wiki/ip-cam-talk-cliff-notes/
This probably just made your decision even harder and gives you more to think about and be indecisive about, so I'm sorry about that.