Outdoor Security Camera reccomendations

UncleZen

I want an outdoor security camera
Connect to wifi
Motion sensing
Upload to the cloud and preferably keep for (say) 7 days before overwriting
I know there are a ton of online reviews. But I'm looking for personal reccomendations and any "gotchas" to watch out for.

Thanks

arciere

UncleZen wrote: »

I know there are a ton of online reviews.

Actually not really. If you want something that instantly uploads to the cloud, your options are quite limited.
How fast is your internet connection? If you want HD quality, anything less than 20Mbps upload won't let you upload anything to the cloud.
The best (and probably cheapest) option you have is to keep a local storage device (NAS or other) then access it from the internet if and when required.
Also, keep in mind that WiFi cameras still require wires.
That's your biggest problem, imo. Once you solve it, then you can look at cameras and camera reviews.

EssexExile

Amazon's Blink don't require wires, but they are very limited in what they can do. The range of the motion detection seems to vary with the weather & all the cameras need to be within range of the sync module & your wifi modem.

I have one covering the front door & it's fine for that.

ballyblack

I have the Arlo system wire free and very pleased

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TDNYNP8/?coliid=I1FGRSTM5E355P&colid=1TZ0IUVM9UVOQ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

thebigstillmeister

I can definitely recommend my Nest Outdoor IQ

Has face recognition and can also tell an actual person from a car/cat etc,.. so doesn't give you constant alerts.

Think I pay £4 a month for 7 days of recording, brilliant phone app which is really easy to use,. can just swipe through the time line, and small bubbles show 'it saw something' large bubbles are when it has picked up people or things of interest. Then just plays back instantly,

It also zooms in and follows people automatically, all uploaded on the cloud. I'm very impressed with it and will soon be buying a second.

You do have to plug it in for power (very long cable), mine is on the brick pillar between my garage doors, so simple enough to drill though and plug it in the garage.

UncleZen

arciere wrote: »

If you want HD quality, anything less than 20Mbps upload won't let you upload anything to the cloud.

Seriously, why would that be?
20Mbps upload would suggest fibre.
My internet is adsl and 11-12Mbps (download).

I was watching something on NowTV the other day and I uploaded a 25mb file to dropbox from my tablet at the same time, that was the end of the TV until the file was uploaded. So you may have a point about bandwidth that I previously hadnt considered.
I do have a NAS, with a ton of free space, so perhaps thats a better idea.

I shall certainly look at all these options.

bengalknights

Nest Outdoor IQ does what you want but for the cost you could have a professional system with local drive thats easy to access via app.

thebigstillmeister

arciere wrote: »

How fast is your internet connection? If you want HD quality, anything less than 20Mbps upload won't let you upload anything to the cloud.

Think that's a bit of an exaggeration,

Yes I agree you need a good internet speed, I have fibre 80Mb download and anything between 10-20mb upload depending when i run a speed test,

I've never had any issues,

arciere

UncleZen wrote: »

Seriously, why would that be?
20Mbps upload would suggest fibre.
My internet is adsl and 11-12Mbps (download).

Yes seriously, and yes, you do need fibre if you want to constantly upload HD quality videos.
An HD camera will easily reach 6-7 Mbps at normal quality/frame rate. Given that I doubt you will be using a dedicated internet connection for the camera alone, you will need at least double of that upload speed. Also, keep in mind that during busy times, broadband connection tend to have reduced capabilities.

An ADSL line will have 1Mbps upload speed if you are very lucky.

You can upload HD videos even with a 56K connection, the question is not if you can do it, rather how long it takes. And if you are expecting live monitoring, you need to have at lest that upload speed.

arciere

thebigstillmeister wrote: »

Think that's a bit of an exaggeration,

Yes I agree you need a good internet speed, I have fibre 80Mb download and anything between 10-20mb upload depending when i run a speed test,

I've never had any issues,

That's not an exaggeration, because that's exactly what you have. Try to do the same things with an ADSL connection with a 1Mbps upload speed.
The 20Mbps upload speed recommendation takes into account the fact that broadband speeds are rarely stable. If you have 20 Mbps, you may end up running at 10 during busy times. But if you have 10, you can run 5, which is no good for HD content.
Just imagine what happens if you need to check your CCTV recordings because someone broke into your house and the recordings show 1 frame per minute because your broadband connection couldn't cope with the bandwidth requirements.

UncleZen

Yeah, my dash cam saves a huge amount of data. Astonishing really.