Cameras, cameras, cameras

THE ALM

I know there are various cameras mentioned in various threads but thought it might be an idea to group them under one thread so that you all give you experience/thoughts on the various models that are being used.

I see that Hive have launched a new indoor camera to there range, the Hive View. I see this can also be added to the Hive Home/Heating app unlike the other camera that they do which requires a separate app . Will be keeping an eye out for reviews of this as it would nice to keep all under one app. Similar to others in this market with 1080p streaming and 24hr free camera history, 30day at a charge. It also has an internal battery which will give an hours use, nice feature if the power goes that doesn't see to be an option on many other cameras. At €199 currently but hopefully deals in the future might tempt me to try one.

Originally started out with the Withings home, of which we have two, and would look to replace these with the Hive if the price was right. Have these a couple of years and have found that the app can be buggy and crashes often enough. The picture quality has also gone downhill with the last couple of updates and the 24hr playback is in 10min chunks. It originally started out at 1min playback so now if anything happens you could miss it entirely. I suspect this was to limit bandwith and storage and move users over to the payed subscription. Thankfully bought these at half price and will probably look to move these on to the mothers house. These may have improved since they were taken over by Nokia.

Recently installed two POE Reolink outdoor cameras and have found these to be great. Good build quality, easy setup, picture is clear with push notifications for motion to phone along with a clip emailed to me. Night vision is good although the sensitivity at night has to be turned down as it notifies for anything due to the infrared picking up everything from raindrops, snow flakes to insects. I suspect more careful positioning in a more sheltered spot would help. No local storage on the ones I have although they can be got with an sd card, I intend to build a low power server to store video from these. Only using these that last couple of weeks but would certainly recommend them and managed to pick them up at £52 and £65, which seems great value to me.

Hope this helps anybody that is looking at adding cameras.

bk

First thing to note about any wifi camera is that you really want decent wifi coverage and throughput through out your home or you can run into issues with performance.

I use to have Canary cameras, but I don't recommend them at all now due to poor actions and attitude from the company.

I also have Logitech Circle 1 and 2 cameras which I'm very happy with.

The Circle 1 sounds very similar to those Hive cameras, though it only cost me £65! It has a battery too that gives at least 30 minutes of constant streaming and much longer if streaming only movement.

The Circle 2 doesn't have the battery by default but is an extra option if you want. I paid £75 for a perfect condition one from Amazon Warehouse. The Circle 2 has slightly improved picture quality and wider angle over the Circle 1.

Both give you free 24 hours of recordings. Note that it only stores video when it detects movement, but I've found it excellent at doing this so no concerns about this really.

I've found you get notifications of movement detected within 30 seconds and if the cameras go offline (power/broadband down) you get a notification after 5 minutes.

They actually have different notifications of when movement is detected versus a person detected. Seems to work well. But I don't have pets, that would be the ultimate test.

They both support two way talk.

App seems very nice and works well.

THE ALM

That is a good price for the Circle. Looks like the Hive has the different levels of detection as well for pets etc and are looking to update to send a picture of any faces so a user can see who is there.

I find cameras usually get good discounts throughout the year so always worth keeping an eye on them.

Agree on the need for good wifi if using wirelessly. If I move the withings too far from a good signal it can be hit or miss.

AndyBoBandy

I got one of these from G*****st about 2 years ago, and it's an excellent little wifi camera, great app that sends you a notification when it detects sound/movement (with you getting 5 frames of the movement stored in the app). you can also record video directly onto your phone from within the app.

Initially bought as a baby monitor for the sitting room, but now used as a security camera when we are away.



they are on Amazon now, and seem to be a little bit more expensive.

bk

THE ALM wrote: »

That is a good price for the Circle. Looks like the Hive has the different levels of detection as well for pets etc and are looking to update to send a picture of any faces so a user can see who is there.

One really nice feature that I see this new Hive camera seems to have, which Circle doesn't have, is sound detection.

It would be great to get a notification if the camera hears your non connected smoke, co2 or traditional security camera go off.

Though I'd like to see reviews of how well that works. Canary claimed to have it, but never enabled it :rolleyes:

FrankGrimes

I'm also trying to find my way through the minefield and pick the best cameras for our needs. 1st fix wiring of the new house we're building coming up shortly so really just need to determine what I need to wire for at this point.

We use a standalone camera with hand unit that shows the screen for baby monitoring, like the Samsung one linked here. Happy enough with that, so main interest is internal security cameras rather than baby monitoring.

I'll likely have an external CCTV setup (likely 8 cameras) and a local NVR: is there any merit in linking internal cameras to that rather than having to use cameras that require their own proprietary recording & notification system? Thinking hikvision, but haven't fully researched the functionality to determine if it can easily give notifications and remote viewing the camera streams (prefer to avoid having to VPN in if possible).

What do people generally do for power cables? I'll use POE for external cameras but don't want to miss the opportunity to run cables behind the walls for internal cameras, will be neater than just plugging in a consumer unit and have to perch it somewhere.

bk

I haven't looked into it and I don't have any experience with them, but I suspect your best bet will be to use internal versions of the external cameras hooked up to the same NVR over POE. Wired is almost always more reliable then wireless.

I'm not sure if any of the NVR's have more advanced features like notifications and cloud recording. Though I'd be shocked if it doesn't eventually come to them or they would eventually get left behind.

If you want to hedge your bets, you could also run power cables to each internal location where you think you might want an IP cam.

Another option is that you can get POE to USB power adaptors which would work with at least some IP cams that are USB powered, like Logitech Circle:

https://www.howtogeek.com/294628/how-to-power-a-usb-powered-device-over-ethernet/

So either way I'd say go for POE to each point you want cameras.

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

Patww79 wrote: »

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Any chance of a link to those?

OldMrBrennan83

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eamondunphy

bk wrote: »

First thing to note about any wifi camera is that you really want decent wifi coverage and throughput through out your home or you can run into issues with performance.

I use to have Canary cameras, but I don't recommend them at all now due to poor actions and attitude from the company.

I also have Logitech Circle 1 and 2 cameras which I'm very happy with.

The Circle 1 sounds very similar to those Hive cameras, though it only cost me £65! It has a battery too that gives at least 30 minutes of constant streaming and much longer if streaming only movement.

The Circle 2 doesn't have the battery by default but is an extra option if you want. I paid £75 for a perfect condition one from Amazon Warehouse. The Circle 2 has slightly improved picture quality and wider angle over the Circle 1.

Both give you free 24 hours of recordings. Note that it only stores video when it detects movement, but I've found it excellent at doing this so no concerns about this really.

I've found you get notifications of movement detected within 30 seconds and if the cameras go offline (power/broadband down) you get a notification after 5 minutes.

They actually have different notifications of when movement is detected versus a person detected. Seems to work well. But I don't have pets, that would be the ultimate test.

They both support two way talk.

App seems very nice and works well.

Do the logitech circle 2 work through glass? I got 2 blink xt cameras and one is in the porch but it doesn't record motion until the porch door opens, is really annoying

FrankGrimes

bk wrote: »

I haven't looked into it and I don't have any experience with them, but I suspect your best bet will be to use internal versions of the external cameras hooked up to the same NVR over POE. Wired is almost always more reliable then wireless.

I'm not sure if any of the NVR's have more advanced features like notifications and cloud recording. Though I'd be shocked if it doesn't eventually come to them or they would eventually get left behind.

If you want to hedge your bets, you could also run power cables to each internal location where you think you might want an IP cam.

Another option is that you can get POE to USB power adaptors which would work with at least some IP cams that are USB powered, like Logitech Circle:

https://www.howtogeek.com/294628/how-to-power-a-usb-powered-device-over-ethernet/

So either way I'd say go for POE to each point you want cameras.

You're a fountain of (highly useful) knowledge bk! What this info confirms for me is to run ethernet cable to every location I want to have an internal camera (like I plan to do anyway for external cameras). I'll then decide at a later date if it's going to be POE or if it's going to be a USB-powered device, in which case the POE to USB splitter you linked to will cover that. Ordered a couple of different models of those (value packs seem to have the 5.5mm power output, gonna test a USB adaptor on one of those). The ones that have female USB output seem most flexible so I've ordered a sample of that also - reckon I'll go this way for full flexibility rather than get a specific type of output (e.g. micro USB) as it gives me option of changing things at the endpoint at a later date.

I'll use those USB splitters for powering tablets I plan to have around the house for controlling the various systems. Will start researching that next, looking for something that is reasonably flush, charges the device but yet allows it to be easily picked up to be used in the hand. Can see a tablet that spends its days on kitchen island and nights in a wall mount in the kitchen.

bk

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I'll use those USB splitters for powering tablets I plan to have around the house for controlling the various systems. Will start researching that next, looking for something that is reasonably flush, charges the device but yet allows it to be easily picked up to be used in the hand. Can see a tablet that spends its days on kitchen island and nights in a wall mount in the kitchen.

Thinking of doing something similar myself, probably in a few months. Let us know how all this goes.

bk

eamondunphy wrote: »

Do the logitech circle 2 work through glass? I got 2 blink xt cameras and one is in the porch but it doesn't record motion until the porch door opens, is really annoying

I heven't tried it myself, but they specifically have an accessory for the Circle 2 that allows you to attach the camera to the inside of a window, facing out.

From what I've read, yes supposedly motion detection works. However night vision doesn't work.

This all makes sense, the night vision doesn't work as glass blocks IR. You can work around this by putting lights or a separate IR emitter outside.

If I'm not mistaken, the blink cameras work like standard PIR's. The cameras record when the IR detects motion. However the glass blocks the IR

Circle I don't think use IR for motion detection. Instead they are "recording" all the time and use software to detect motion in the video.

But no guarantee as I haven't tried it. I always recommend buying from a place with an easy returns policy.