Hey Cheapies,
Looking at getting a full home surveillance systems roughly 3-4 cameras on a 2 story house, and was wondering if anyone here has any suggestions on how to do this the best way or maybe have a business come through and install.
I'm currently getting a quote from noel leeming as they offer this service but are they any that are particularly good or maybe share your experience.
Just to clarify, Reolink has both wired and wireless cameras. Their wired poe range is one of the best for the price and features you get. Highly recommend them with Nvr setup for 24/7 recording.
I have a Unifi system 8x Ubiquiti cameras and 2x Hikvision ALPR cams all on a UDM SE 16TB for about 6/7 month retention. Works great. These days ALPR is crucial for easily identifying culprits
Did the older unifi cameras go end of life
nope, purchased 2x g3 flexes last year on marketplace and 1x g3 bullet and they are working great even though the flex's aren't weather rated they've been outside for the past year and work great.
Eufy or Reolink is usually what i say to go for.
Zero ongoing costs unlike products like Arlo or Ring which have a monthly/yearly cost for recording.
OP absolutely don't go to NL for security cameras. There are way many specialized businesses out there who knows what they are doing.
I just got 3x Tapo C460 cameras, all attached to solar panels - no subscription and works well. previously had Arlo which was painful. Happy with the Tapo - does the trick. Access from iPhone, all have SD cards storing data too. Installed March '25 and zero issues.
Eufy system is great had for a couple years no issues
I have both Tapo and Eufy with Homebase 3, had some connection issues with Eufy and no problem with Tapo, and in general Tapo connects faster. Tapo AU store also ships to NZ.
Have had eufy since 6 years now. But starting to dislike them. It doesn't capture correctly and some times have no recording for days out of the blue.
Most recent Eg: it starts recording very late when the gas delivery guy has walked 80% of the driveway and then no record of him leaving.
Have tried different setting but nothing works.
Not sure if its an update that has stuffed the cameras.
Ring, its simple, it works, the batteries are easy to recharge and last a good length, the small monthly cost for the service is worth it. Especially when you can now buy powered cameras for $40.00 for use inside
Needs a subscription to save video clips I believe. Which makes it quite expensive ongoing.
Also a lot peeps prefer to keep private property surveillance footage private (personal storage device) instead of hosting in the cloud
Its $15 a month for multiple devices. i have 6 Cameras. i feel its good value…..PEEPS!
It's 15 dollars PERPETUALLY just so you can store 30 days of footage, and the hardware isn't all that cheap either.
Personally I don't want my security footage uploaded to the cloud and it doesn't cost all that much to build a raspberry pi based server to that gives me an infinite amount of storage (and also does a lot more)
@Zyo: What cameras are you using with that? I have a desktop that can fill the role of the pi but interested in what cameras are affordable to look at setting it up
@Everettpsycho: Technically any camera that supports onvif protocol.
I believe the tplink ones can be enabled through settings.
Its $15 a month for multiple devices. i have 6 Cameras. i feel its good value
I looked at Ring maybe five / six years ago, but their requirement that I pay a monthly fee put me off.
If I'd gone that way at the time, I would have spent $1,000 just on the subs alone by now, even ignoring the up front hardware purchases.
Each to their own of course.
If you're in a windy spot i.e. Wellington I'd avoid Eufy. The one I have attached to a Homebase 3 struggles a bit and doesn't always reset to the set field of view after capturing motion. Similar to what @akhmed said above, it doesn't always capture the correct screenshot of the triggered incident. I also get random clouds sometimes triggering it (though that's improved slowly with what I'm guessing is their Ai managed LLM - users can submit incorrect captures).
I get tree movements on my tapo. Would be handy if you could draw and crop out areas of detection.
You can. Under the camera settings in the Tapo app, you can set detection zones, so certain areas are ignored.
Oh sweet thanks I'll check it out
Edit: sweet I just added them. New cameras so still going through all the settings 😅
With Eufy you can set the area you want monitored so it can effectively exclude areas. However, it's not that useful for me as the camera doesn't always return to the set area of coverage.
You can also set detection for people, pets, cars
Looks like tapo stuff is cheap to ight and posted in the low quantity thread. No idea if it's any good or meets your needs but putting it here so you know.
I defo wouldn't get an electronics retailer to install a home security system.
You have two options, cable to an NVR (Milesight etc) Unifi (cable to switch/router)
Or wireless cameras such as Eufy, Reolink..these need charging every 3-6 months unless you use a solar panel version.
Cable is much better quality, but can you run cat cable back to a central hub, if not wireless is good as anything.