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What is the best/cost effective home security camera system?

lefty

lefty

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 24, 2002
Location
Menlo Park, CA USA
Moto(s)
'05 ZRX1200
Name
Ed
I have two sets of home security cameras on my house. Set #1 is a wired system, from Costco, that I installed many years ago. That company has gone out of business, but I have never taken down the system.

Set #2 is a wireless system by Wyze. I liked it but it is a PITA to have to recharge the cameras every 2-3 weeks. Also, they lose signal all the time and I have to deal with some person in the Philippines for 2 hours and it is beyond frustrating.

I have been in my home for 40+ years, and I have never had anything go missing until recently. I was away on a camping trip and I left my shed unlocked. When I returned home I was putting my camping stuff away I saw my brand new DeWalt Drill bag on the floor. It was opened and the drill was gone and the batteries and charger were spilled out onto the floor. Apparently a thief got interrupted and left the important items.

So, now I want a decent camera system. Any advice?
 
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I have a total of 20 cameras, inside and outside, of my two houses, that I view from the web every day from anywhere. Handy on my RV trips, such as the one I came back from yesterday at the Giant Redwoods.

Mine are a mixture of wireless and wired, some fairly new, some rather old. Nothing real fancy, 3-Swan systems and a recent HFT 4K system that is no longer available but works very well-cameras fed with RG45 cables.

I find all wireless systems occasionally drop out. but often have very clear video. I think it has mainly to do with OTA interference on camera frequency because different ones drop out at different times. A few seconds per hour or so of occasional dropping out is not a big deal, IMO.

I don't think you can go wrong these days with any newer system. They have made so many recent improvements. Now, even full color at night. Just get any newer system that does what you need/want.

All my camera monitoring requires IE. I do not use it with my Smartphone, as I do not use a Smartphone often (unlike most people these days!). Widows Edge has an IE mode that works very well and that is what I use to view all of my cameras.

I do not have any that require batteries. I don't think I would want to put up with that.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
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Have had good luck with TP-Link (Tapo) cameras (This one is pretty nice.) Agree with Don, battery ones suck.

I use micro sd cards in each camera so I can see past events without paying the cloud storage subscription fee.
 
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Read the fine print on whatever you buy. Most will requires a subscription to view past events. We have a blink camera that is only good for live events. You can't go back and look at the past, which is what you would want in your case in order to see who went in your shed.

I have an old nest doorbell that records up to 7 days. I think it's about $100/yr. I also have a google nest outdoor camera that has 1 day of events only saved for free. Stupidly the nest doorbell acct is older and doesn't work with the newer google nest camera.
 
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We bought Arlo four or five years ago when a bike got stolen from our backyard (We got it back, thanks SPD).

The good:
Only $200, base station and two cameras.
No monthly fee, videos are stored for 10 days, which is plenty of time to view and save/send the clips via phone to email.
Good picture quality that I can zoom in on.
Live feed can be turned on any time.
Replacement batteries and chargers are cheap.

Bad:
Cameras drop out and need to be re-synced. Random interference I guess?? Happens every two weeks or so.
The camera takes too long to turn on so sometimes I get the tail end of someone passing by it.
Batteries need changing every three weeks or so, BUT I bought AC adapters for $20 or so. I only hooked one up to the power because I didn't have an easy AC option to tap into for the other.
 
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Old Arlo cameras - similar experiences with Bubba.

Don’t forget about trail cameras. They have solar panels to keep batteries charged and can send pics to your cell phones. They are good to have when the power goes out or to put in a spot where no one expects there to be a video camera.
 
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I have ring cameras, though the batteries last between 1-1/2 months and 4 months.

I have a neighbor who has blink and his camera batteries have lasted almost 2 years. If I were buying at this time, I'd go with Blink.
 
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Thank you guys for all of the fantastic advice. I ordered the set of 5 Blink cameras from Amazon, for $160. I can get the subscription for $100/year to be able to look at past events. I will let you all know what I think of them. BTW- Does anyone want a set of Wireless Wyze cameras for cheap?
 
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I've had 2 sets of Lorex cameras. 1st was wired 24/7. The bitch was you had to watch 24 hours of video to find what you were looking for. 2nd was Lorex but wifi. Easy install but the motion activation meant you only saw say the mailman leaving, not coming. Have blink now. Said it wasn't subscription but it is unless you want to check every notification you get. And then you only get the mailman in passing. I hate subscriptions! I think I liked the 24/7 the best but it took about 2 hours to watch a 24 hour day on fast forward.
 
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Had a free blink system, which was the correct price. Ate batteries like candy, which likely has to do with how long you set your camera to record a given event

Arlo I liked for snooping on my mom's yard when her health was failing. Recharge life was decent but I'd put the solar panels on all of em were I to do it again and not worry about recharging. If you don't want to run wires I'd endorse this one

I have Reolink on my house. Hard wired, local HDD storage internet accessible and no monthly fee. 100% recommend
 
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