Is there a best make of CCTV/camera?

longwalks1

looking for a 2 (or 3 or 4) camera system for home, have looked at the sets on Maplin and Amazon but mixed reviews, is there a market leader for CCTV cameras/systems please? Want it to monitor front of house (full width open driveway with 2 cars on it), and cover side alley and rear of house. I'd say the driveway is 10m long, so would ideally be crystal clear up to that distance even at night.

And what type of camera would be best to cover the drive, and also pick up faces of visitors etc? (I'm assuming need to be mounted more face height than up the top of the house looking down)

Any pointers greatly appreciated

googler

Arlo

£300-odd for a 3-camera system from Amazon and other places.

Base unit plugs into your broadband router or homehub. Wireless cameras connect to it (no cabling). Stores video footage in 'the cloud', you access it from web browser anywhere, or with app on phone or tablet.

Motion-activated, so cameras aren't running permanently. You can get alerts on phone or tablet when motion activates them.

Ideally, you need camera mounted ABOVE where the intruders will be, or else they can just cover them or damage them, so you're more likely to get tops of heads than faces. They have to be outside, the motion activation won't work through glass.

Storage included in cost, but you can expand this at a cost, as well as add cameras later on

wacko911

I like the HIKVISION ip cameras. Even the cheap chinese firmware ones will do off aliexpress. (Just dont update the firmware on them unless you want to pull your hair out for weeks trying to get it back to english again)

Most of the camera systems I'v seen on amazon/eBay are analoge outdated junk.

dearlouise

Rather than create a near-duplicate thread... I'm looking for a wireless, outdoor camera, just for front door/driveway. Don't want to spend a fortune, but I've got a nutty neighbour that really upped their game today.

googler

dearlouise wrote: »

Rather than create a near-duplicate thread... I'm looking for a wireless, outdoor camera, just for front door/driveway. Don't want to spend a fortune, but I've got a nutty neighbour that really upped their game today.

Arlo is available in 1-camera package.

jshm2

As you can't really beat a proper setup. But you can buy "off the shelf" solutions like Netgear Arlo and the slightly cheaper Arlo Q if you want something easy to setup.

If you want something more, then the Watchbot HD could be up your street.

Strider590

£60 will get you a fairly decent IP camera, then you just need an always on PC/laptop and some free CCTV software (Contacam).

Alternatively for lesser image quality you could get a normal analogue dome camera for £15-£20 (go for 700 or greater TVL) and a 4 ch DVR for £25 (search for kkmoon) + £20 for a refurbished 500GB HDD.

The DVR I mentioned is actually no bad at all, but i'd recommend buying a beefier branded power supply, especially if you fit a 3.5" HDD.

Or go ahead and buy an all in one package for 2-3 times the cost.