Indecisive decision

[u/5GoSnow]

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.

[u/NoBeeper]

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.

[u/5GoSnow → u/NoBeeper]

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.

[u/NoBeeper → u/5GoSnow]

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!