I've had a search and the last post was about a year ago, so hopefully it's ok to make a new thread.
I'm looking for a simple, reasonably cheap security cam setup, mainly to monitor the front of the house. One camera will do, two would be ideal. Outside mounting would be perfect but definitely not essential as I can see it complicating things a lot.
Just your usual basic home camera setup.
Any recommendations/reviews?
Good shout, looks like the cheapies are all on the same page from their recommendations. I don't want a subscription either, happy to manage storage etc.
Two years ago I did the wyze vs tapo camera comparison and tapo seemed better albeit not with amazing tech of wyze.
I really wanted offline recordings to SD card with no monthly prescription and the ability to view live stream and recorded content remotely which tapo provided
I’ve just installed a TP-link Tapo C425. (My second Tapo cam)
Tapo are quite good in that you don’t need any subscription for most advanced features/remote monitoring unless you want the cloud storage.
Onboard microSD storage (downside being if someone can access and physically takes the camera, the footage is gone too)
Auto-detects between general movement, people, vehicles, pets, and can set the sensitivity and notification status for each independently. (Seems to work remarkably well)
The C425 is wi-fi and onboard battery, no wires, just recharge via usb every x months, or get the solar panel to skip that, even.
IR night-vision is fairly short range.
“colour” night vision just means built in sensor spotlights..
Paid $125 from Bunnings, who were undercutting a Noel Leeming sale, to give you a price reference.
Do your research on the various brands with particular attention to which features on the box actually require a subscription.
A powered camera will have the advantage of constant loop recording with motion events being saved, whereas a battery cam like the C425 relies on waking up for events, so can sometimes be a bit slow or potentially miss something.
I've had experience with Xiaomi cameras and they've just broken but lasted about 9 years. Currently looking into Eufy cameras which also don't require a subscription.
I second that tapo is quite good if you don't need a lot of features. It covers almost everything you need for basic home security.
I also second Tapo cameras, installed two recently with solar charging, the price was very reasonable compared with Eufy etc.
There has been lots of discussions in the past.
Few posts
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/48753
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/47109
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/46198
https://www.cheapies.nz/node/38569
There some considerations before you can decide on what you want.
Depending on what you select there are different options out there. I have different types of 6 Eufy cams (indoor & outdoor) with homebase recordings. Couple of them also have onboard storage. Tapo is another good option for battery operated local storage. Finally, if you are able to get wired connections Reolink is one of the great cams.
Do you ever get one of your eufy cameras showing offline in the app if they are all connected directly to Home base 3?
Never. I have seen few seconds of delays, but never offline.
How far is your homebase to the camera. Remember, camera is connected to your homebase wifi network and not your normal wifi network.
After learning they are all connected directly by wifi to HB3 i moved them pretty close, but the annoying thing is once a week one of them will show offline and i had to go home and restart that one, i've seen similar posts on reddit, thinking to change connection to multi-bridge wifi but don't know if they will still record to HB3.
@kyogui: Is HB3 connected via lan or wireless to your wifi network? Mine is connected via lan to my router. So maybe wireless connection both ways might be an issue?
@kyogui: Maybe. Not really sure. I have my router, HB3, homeassistant zigbee 2.4g network all on the same rack and don't have any interference.
But just to rule out that, change your 2.4g wifi channel to something else and see.
… it's close to the wifi router maybe interference
If they are using completely non-overlapping channels, then that seems quite unlikely.
If they are overlapping, then move one or the other. Your router, at least, should give you that option, no idea about the HomeBase3, but I would be surprised if it didn't.
Even better, maybe put one of 2.4GHz and the other on 5GHz if you can?
Another vote for Tapo - c425. Keep an eye between Noel Leeming / PbTech / Bunnings, you can score a good deal if Bunnings don't react fast enough (i paid around 400 for 3 units).
Does this have functionality to send a notification/pic to your phone without a subscription? Find on not having cloud storage generally but that functionality would be good.
i run them with SD cards, i assume so but i've turned off all notifications
It sends a notification to your phone, but no picture with the notification unless you have a subscription.
Have to open the app and check the clip or live feed yourself, although it does classify the alert in the notification. “Movement/Person/Vehicle detected”
Eufy can send you a notification with a picture, with no subscription. I can't recall the exact setting but I get the initial notification that something has triggered a camera and a few seconds later get the image in another notification.
I do recall something about those notification pics having to get sent to the cloud so they can then be sent as a notification. Have no idea why but if you're super security concious, especially about photos potentially being stored overseas, then look into it. There'll be a stack of posts on their forum.
I'd say avoid ring if you're price conscious. I have it per recommendation from friends but the subscription fees shoot up considerably once you have 2 cameras.
App is good though.
Do tapo cameras have good home assistant support?
I brought their button and hub and regretted it
I currently have the Tapo C720 via home assistant, this is with the Tapo integration too. looking between my HA dashboard and my Tapo app, its got the same options and settings. What button and hub did you get, and what was the main issue? i was looking at getting a Tapo hub soon
I got the S200B button and H100 couldn't find an integration that worked reliably.
I think it's also got some problems where HA has to continually ping it to get it's state rather than it pushing state to HA which caused long delays.
Reolink via AliExpress.
i bought the bunnings own brand, orion with free app grid connect. really cheap and cameras amaxing quality especicslly at night. need micro sd cards to record. but no subscription required.
very impressed.
They are probably tuya based ones. I don't think we'll ever beat the $10 kogan versions of those. I'm still using those around the house a d they are phenomenal for $10. I would not lay the full $100 each for them though, they have a lot of limitations I'm not a fan of that I only live with because of their price tag.
I'm considering when the time comes to swap them out looking at hard wiring reolinks or something similar in. My IT stuff is better than it was back then so I could sort better network cables and storage for them if/when needed.
I have no recommendations as I am also in the process of looking at options right now.
One thing I have noticed, and determined that I want, is one where no ongoing subscription is required to be able to record or monitor the cameras. Your preferences might differ of course, but for me the total cost is a significant factor, and those subscriptions will add up very quickly to ridiculous amounts (in my opinion).
I also don't want my feeds / recordings being sent off to some random place on the internet - I want them going to local storage, and I will handle access to that myself, including archiving off to cloud storage after encrypting it (as I already do with everything else anyway, so I want it to be part of what I already have setup in that respect).
If you haven't already considered those factors, then you might want to bump them up your list of things to do, since stipulating 'no subscription' will likely reduce the field of potential products very substantially from what I have seen so far.
Its not my top priority project at this time, and is more of a 'sometime this year' thing (maybe Black Friday sales), so I'm keeping my eye on things (such as your OP here) :-)
Good luck!