Home Security Cameras ?

[Overdrive]

You can buy a decent DVR for a few hundred bucks.

For a good CCTV system.....Your major costs are gonna be cameras. Cameras for a CCTV system is what a scope is to a rifle. You can have the best rifle in the world you throw a $30 Walmart special on it you’re not reaching out and touching anyone .


For your use you may be ok with some Ring or Nest cameras.

[diveRN]

Just wanted to post an quick head's up regarding a camera system I recently bought on Amazon.. before the Parler fiasco. You might be able to find them elsewhere. I had a 16 channel Q-See that died on me in October after 6 years. I bought it from Costco when we first bought this house. It had been having some issues for a while and wouldn't record, wouldn't allow me to connect remotely anymore. Done, dead. I've used a DDNS service for years and the service kept throwing errors that it couldn't connect to the host.

Since my needs are relatively simple, I didn't want to go out and spend $1500+ on a higher end camera system so I started looking at cheap, Chinese alternatives and found this one for $180. I don't need PTZ or wifi cameras so YMMV depending on what you want/need.

FYI - It does NOT come with a hard drive. Pick your size, I bought a 3TB Western Digital for $70, so I'm into this system for $250 and all I had to do is replace the DVR, cameras, and program it. It used the same coaxial cable and 12v connectors as the q-see so I didn't have to run new cables, but it does come with a 100' cable for each camera.

Resolution is better than the Q-see. You can specify HD or SD for recording depending on what size HDD you get, I just set everything to HD. The interface is a little clunky, but it actually works well. Lots of customization options. Mobile viewing can be done via iPhones, Samsung or whatever you got.

From a mobile standpoint, it will connect without a DDNS service (it uses a MAC address and serial number) which I assume is run through the company's native service (you can sign up for an account). I wasn't wild about a Chinese company being able to look through my system whenever they wanted, so I went back to the DDNS and disabled my account.

Anyway, for the money, it's decent. Longevity will remain to be seen.

[xfer42]

I use a bunch of Reolinks with an NVR (Blue Iris).

Two of the reolinks are wireless PTZ cameras.
The rest are wired PoE IP 5MP cameras.

The cameras can operate standalone, where you can put a SD card in and have them record. The downside to that is you have to manage each one separately and the video is not aggregated into a single interface. Each camera does have a web server, and live viewing though.

If you go with an IP camera, they will be stand alone and can be used with just about any NVR (not DVR) or without. All of the encoding is done on the camera, recording on the camera is optional, and each one has its own management interface. They run for ~$50 for a 5MP each for the PoE cameras. The wireless PTZ cameras are like 3MP and maybe twice as much.

[4P0X1]

Get something that runs on PoE instead of wireless. It's not hard to run a deauthentication attack, so put in the effort and run wired cameras.

[67Cuda]

Here's a video of the Reolink cameras that came with my system.

[Epaphroditus]

I use both Wyze and Blink. I rewired the Blinks to use D cells. Did a similar thing for Wyze to run off a car battery.

The two way audio of Wyze is a huge advantage over Blink.

Even with my sketchy internet both work fine.

I have the interior versions but they are mounted outside in semi protected areas. We have very wet conditions but have had no problems.

[five.five-six]

Originally Posted by tyler_sti

If anyone is interested I am a professional installer of Security cameras and generally all low voltage structured cabling. Just PM me I am based in Los angeles.

I am as well, licensed and bonded and insured. Surveillance cameras make up a good portion of my business. I call them surveillance cameras because they offer no security whatsoever. I would offer advice but the unit’s I’m installing start at $500 per camera installed, most of the posters in this thread are looking for an installed system for less than that.

The advice I will give to the value minded is:

DIY, labor is more than hardware in most instances.

Stick with wired. Wireless works pretty good most of the time and that makes wireless worthless.

I’d buy a Lorax system with more cameras than you need. That way you have hot spares and expansion. Last I checked Lorax is part of FLIR. No, you are not getting FLIR cameras but there is some crossover in R&D and they’ll be around and have been around.

I would do my best to avoid propriety cables and connectors, you want to be running UTP and RJ45

If you really need it to work well then hire a professional and pay the money. It is quite possible to install an adequate system in your home or small business but if you need to depend on it pay a pro. Every year 10-40% of my surveillance camera business is ripping out a armature or hack-pro job and doing it right. Ironically, it’s that 10-40% of customers who most appreciate the value in my services.

[cup half full]

My advice....stay away from wifi systems. Use hard wire systems. Far more reliable and cant be hacked into. Also, get a big hard drive so you can keep a few days worth of video. You dont need anything bigger than 1080, avoid the 4k stuff.
Also, instead of one system with 8 cameras, buy 2 systems with 4 cameras and make them independent of each other.

[Hunt]

I would think that any self respecting criminal would go to youtube to learn how to jam these wireless cams before committing the crime. That being said we live in a world of idiots so probably not.

[five.five-six]

Originally Posted by Hunt

I would think that any self respecting criminal would go to youtube to learn how to jam these wireless cams before committing the crime. That being said we live in a world of idiots so probably not.

Probably a waste of time. You’d be lucky if the desk jockey at the local police department would even take a report over the phone.


The criminals all know this. They don’t even care. Really all they’re good for is seeing if UPS really did drop it off, figuring out which of your neighbors is letting their dog poop on your lawn and maybe if there’s a murder the police might take the time to look at it.

Also, you can post up videos on next-door app and get sympathy points from your neighbors once something gets stolen. Thinking the police will do anything with it is actually LOL very funny.

[augoldminer]

I use a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) wifi solar powered camera.

No DVR I use a raspberry Pi 4 as a DVR with a gamers joy stick i got at a thrift store and a 500 GB soild state drive for storage.

The raspberry Pi 4 makes a great low cost recorder and cost less then $100 with a $10 joystick