Ideas for Home Security Camera (price, moving, roach)

[ebbe]

Originally Posted by JONOV

For a cheaper option, look at a trail camera. Dicks has them on sale right now. Motion activated, can record or simply snap a picture. no wifi or anything, but you can monitor the SD card when you get back.

What a good idea. I'm doing this.

[fvncresident04]

Originally Posted by ebbe

What a good idea. I'm doing this.

The problem with a trail cam is they are made to be mounted on a tree. You can probably rig it up for indoor use, but if someone breaks in and sees it, they will steal it along with the sd card inside of it. I think they make some cell capable trail cams now, so you can view them online, but for the cost you are better off with x10 or some of the other dedicated indoor camera companies.

[Bpobill]

I use arlo for interior, and will be using this for exterior. https://www.amazon.com/Amcrest-Secur...%2Bsystem&th=1

Arlo is good and could be used for both, but I plan to mount up high and dont want to change batteries.

[mlhm5]

Originally Posted by Repatriot

Spinning this off from the apartment thread to see if anyone has recommendations to pass on for interior home security cameras which can detect motion, record, notify.

I am looking for a simple apartment-sized solution to catch if anyone enters our place while we are out.

Some Google and Amazon searches brought up a few in the $200 range, one called Blink looked good and easy but as usual, the comments gave cause to consider other makes.

$80

https://youtu.be/HdDXjYGfTSY

[K4GPB]

https://www.techbargains.com/deal/12...-free-shipping

shows a great deal on a camera I have installed.

[m378]

For those that have cameras with motion detection, do you find that you get a lot of false alarms? The last thing I want is my phone blowing up with an intruder alert every night.

[K4GPB]

Originally Posted by m378

For those that have cameras with motion detection, do you find that you get a lot of false alarms? The last thing I want is my phone blowing up with an intruder alert every night.

No, once you set sensitivity % & what part of the image you wish to detect motion in.

Motion detection is a very adjustable parameter in the D-Link cams.

See: How to Set Up Motion Detection on Your D-Link Camera | D-Link Blog

[Emitchell]

Originally Posted by m378

For those that have cameras with motion detection, do you find that you get a lot of false alarms?

Yes. I have four different D-link cameras, and while the camera itself isn't too bad, the software is weak. Even after tweaking the motion detection sensitivity, sometimes it will record a delivery to my front door, sometimes not. Then other times, turning off my front porch lights will trigger an alert.

Yes, you can select what area of the picture to detect motion. but you are stuck with using a a square or rectangle with lines that are parallel to the picture frame. You can't "draw" the area with a "pencil," specifically to the area you want.

They disconnect from the network frequently. Sometimes fail to save your settings. Ie: I have one camera set to record over old footage when the SD card is full. The small radio button is lit, yet I still get messages that the card is full "what do you want to do." Ie: tell the camera to record continuously, but it doesn't.

They have a more robust software you can download, but it won't recognize the cameras and crashes the computer occasionally. I need to continue my search for a third party program that will work.

I know some people have success with these, but I am not impressed. They are not reliable. Very frustrating.

[NDS]

Originally Posted by Emitchell

Blink looks pretty attractive, until I read that it can't detect motion through glass, so that rules out recording the person approaching my front door. I have no areas outside protected by the weather, and their website has no mention about placing outdoors.

In my experience, the weak link in the consumer-level products is the web interface and/or phone app. The cameras have improved nicely, but if the software can't function reliably and consistently, what's the point?

This may not be local, but I don't mind it here at all -- there are a number of people on this board who have opinions I trust, which is more than I can say for some of the people on Nextdoor.com.

I just set up Blink this week, having purchased the 5-camera pack off the BF sale. So far nothing but positive things to say.

- *Super* light - have stuck them to walls in convenient places using sticky strips
- Acceptable quality video - can make out face of person from up a full flight of stairs
- Very easy set up - took me 15m total to figure out how to unbox, setup, and view all 5 cameras
- Motion detection works well the couple of times I've tried it, and unlike the Arlo cameras is pretty
instantaneous

- Have *not* tried it as an outdoor camera/detect motion outdoors, it's not rated for outdoors i.e.
not waterproof
- It *does* now integrate with SmartThings, so you could purchase a cheap Iris motion detector
from Lowe's, put that outside on your front walk, and have it "trip" via the SmartThings hub to turn
on your Blink camera. Several folks on the various automation forums (Reddit/etc) have reported
success in that approach.

[919 rtp]

I'm interested in learning more about this issue without taking over the topic. I think something in/at/near the front door peephole would be good for me. From general laziness of I don't want to go look through the peephole to see if it's a neighbor or a sales person to taking video of people approaching the door when I'm not there. Any recommendations for a place to read up on security cameras for someone who isn't too tech savvy?