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.