Advice Needed for Outdoor Security Camera(s)

[Douglas-001]

Last October my father in law passed away suddenly. His house which is out in a rural farming area -as in flat wide open, his farm -is now being maintained by all of us. All has been well until a family friend who was plowing snow from the driveway noticed the license plates on his truck are gone. Theft is suspected. Later today local law enforcement will be meeting with my sister in law for a full report. We have been considering some type of camera system to keep an eye on things. I started sniffing around but wanted to ask members if there is any system they would recommend? Thanks as always!

Doug

 

[oneshot86]

Be patient, lotta smart guys who know a crap load about this here.

 

[z77280]

Nocturnal Security Cameras

Empower your business with a top performing professional-grade monitoring solution.

www.lorex.com

I have a friend who owns a medium size security consulting and installation company. He says these are be best bang for the buck systems out there. Best night vision on the market. Have to get the 4k nocturnal series though.

Been trying to get some myself but something always happens when I’m about to buy.

 

[alamo5000]

We have them at work but I am no expert by any means. My .02 cents says to make sure you cover bottlenecks. IE access points. Make sure to position at least a couple of cameras to capture entry and exit points and position them low enough to capture plates. The people that installed our cameras thought it was a good idea to just have all wide angle views from a high vantage point (say overlooking the parking lot). Yeah, I can see that for one or maybe two cameras but it would be a whole lot nicer to capture the entry points in high res including license plates or whatever.

Another thing that if I were doing it myself is to get a system with high enough resolution so that you are not just looking at some grainy blob on the screen.

Another thing not related to cameras per se is to get some solar powered motion sensor lights. You can get a bunch of them for cheap. When cars drive by or if people are walking around it will light up. I live in the country and we have a ton of those down the whole driveway. They don't give off floodlight type lumens but it's enough to know if anyone or anything is in the area. Personally I think they deter a whole lot just being there. It's just this little solar powered self contained thing that you can hang on a post or a tree or whatever. It doesn't need anything other than to get sunlight during the day and it will light up with any kind of motion.

 

[Long Range 338]

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for... That does't mean you need to spend a fortune, but you do need to educate yourself somewhat to get the desired result. The low priced system are usually "cloud based" and require a lot of bandwidth to do a decent job. I would recommend recording onsite and get some help doing a layout/design so you get the right equipment in the right locations for good coverage. If you post or pm me an overhead image I can make a few suggestions.

 

[stefan73]

Nocturnal Security Cameras

Empower your business with a top performing professional-grade monitoring solution.

www.lorex.com

I have a friend who owns a medium size security consulting and installation company. He says these are be best bang for the buck systems out there. Best night vision on the market. Have to get the 4k nocturnal series though.

Been trying to get some myself but something always happens when I’m about to buy.

I have a friend that runs the Lorex and loves it. That is what I am currently looking at. Still looking to see what other recommended options there are.

 

[Holliday]

Make it a pitbull rescue sanctuary……

 

[kcbird]

I was in a similar situation to yours not long ago. I needed security cameras quick. I purchased a few of the google nest cameras at home depot, $200 a camera. They were a life saver and worked well. They pick up motion and sound and send the video to your phone. The only down side is you have to have wifi and plug them into the wall.

 

[hafejd30]

I have Arlo pro. Need WiFi however if you want them to truly be effective.

Wireless, mount anywhere, about the size of a rangefinder and sends you real time notifications when motion detected and allows you to live view from anywhere. Of course with WiFi

Downside is they have to be charged if not plugged in. Batteries last about 3-4 months depending on usage and temp

Think it was about $300 for the hub and 3 cameras.

They attach to anything metal via a built in magnet. Very handy if you want to move them around

I’ve positioned mine to temporarily monitor furnace issues as well as keep an eye on my smoker etc when busy

Good quality video. If you want to read plates at any distance tho the ones I have would lack a bit compared to the new Arlo or higher end cameras

 

[PDXGS]

Is there:

1. Reliable power to the home?
2. An existing internet connection?

Power and signal wires can be cut and cameras can be obscured.
I'd suggest a camera system that runs on power delivered through a CAT6 cable....They're less hassle but they need to be hard wired.
You also need a central switch and a storage hub- all that gets backed up by an APS/UPS power supply - in case the power or internet is shut off or those wires are cut.
This kind of system can be set up to record to the hub and also to the cloud. Look for a security camera service provider in your area and see if any of them use the Ubiquiti /Unifi components...they're not cheap, but they've worked well in several instances when I've needed decent coverage.
More- I'd put up a physical barrier to vehicles entering the driveway if allowed or possible and some dumb game cameras- well hidden at eye level as back up.
Lastly- pay a relative to live on site or take turns doing it until the estate is settled.. I live in a meth-ridden part of the world and have had several friends deal with similar issues....one of them ended up with the thieves getting shot. Be prepared as needed.

 

[346ci]

How do these work when you are outside in the yard working, is it recording and listening to every move you make?

 

[godofthunder]

I like Wyze, they're relatively cheap and incredibly simple to set up. Would need wifi there though.

They're battery powered, wireless, with a central hub that can store the data or you can have it stored in the cloud. View it from anywhere with an app on your phone. They have AI integrated so they'll alert you if the motion detected is a person.

 

[hollowoutadime]

I have Reolink 4k cameras. Record to an 8tb HDD and accessable via web. (also have older Amazon cloudcams).
If you look around my property, you see a lot of cams, I think that discourages bad elements that will look elsewhere.
Also have a mannequin heads in my barn (freaks some ppl out).
And this:

 

[Mike Casselton]

I bought the Wyze to monitor my mom's house. She's 87 and has fallen a few times.
They work very well and are super easy to setup.

Screen shot of the front porch camera.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Just my 2 cents worth........
Stay away from any security system and components that are advertised as "HOME SECURITY"............ Including the ones Costco, Home Depot, etc sell... Been there, done that. No customer support and next years supply will be totally different and you can't add onto your existing system.

I won't recommend any brand name components. Go with commercial system components. Yes, they are more expensive. Start small, get the bugs worked out and then have the capacity to add on.

See what Set up the local commercial stores use because those components are available locally. You would be money ahead to consult a local, small security outfit and at least get some prices and ideas from them.

Remember..... All the security systems are going to give you is after the fact information. Disappointing when the LEO looks at your video and knows the perp by name.

Talk to the local Sheriff who patrols your area on the graveyard shift.... Pick his brains as to what system he has.... Even better, ride with the Deputy at night to get a feel for what happens when you are at home in your warm bed.

An ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of cure.

Best of luck.

 

[PDXGS]

How do these work when you are outside in the yard working, is it recording and listening to every move you make?

Most keep recording. Most can be set to record at certain times. Most can be set to only record with movement in certain parts of the field of view.
But yeah, you can be watched by your own system....which is why you should fully understand your field of view, particularly if youre going to do something that might not look good on camera....

 

[n2ishun]

The 'Ring' brand sucks bad.
Stay away from that trash.

 

[UKDslayer]

Nocturnal Security Cameras

Empower your business with a top performing professional-grade monitoring solution.

www.lorex.com

I have a friend who owns a medium size security consulting and installation company. He says these are be best bang for the buck systems out there. Best night vision on the market. Have to get the 4k nocturnal series though.

Been trying to get some myself but something always happens when I’m about to buy.

Costco has had some Lorex systems on sale of late...and of course great return policy.

 

[bullseye13]

I run Arlo's. I don't have a lot of experience with different brands. I like that they know the difference between animals and people.

 

[6.5SH]

Most keep recording. Most can be set to record at certain times. Most can be set to only record with movement in certain parts of the field of view.
But yeah, you can be watched by your own system....which is why you should fully understand your field of view, particularly if youre going to do something that might not look good on camera....

Or put the camera on a smart plug so you can power them off or reboot as needed. Obviously internet and wifi need to be functional for remote usage. But off truly means off on the camera then.

 

[blessyourheart]

If you want to do it right go to ipcam talk...it's like the SH of security cameras and set ups. Be prepared to read a lot. Most of the cameras already mentioned are security risks in their own right. But in a nutshell Dahua, Blue Iris and a dedicated PC.

 

[TACC]

Lots of great info here

 

[sharpshot50]

I've run a bunch of different types. Wyze work well, enterprise options work much better but get very expensive very fast. I would really recommend staying away from Arlo.

At least when I used Arlo, it would record 15 seconds chunks and it was just very clunky. Some of them would burn through the battery in 2 weeks, some would last 2 months, even given the same amount of traffic. Arlo also requires a monthly fee if you want "always-on" recording instead of the 15 second chunks, and it gets pretty expensive. Video quality was decent, but overall I hated them and I now have 8 or 10 Arlo Pros that just sit in their boxes.

For outside cameras, I use mostly Axis now. They are enterprise level and can be upwards of $700 per camera, but they are fantastic with excellent IR cutover nightvision. They can run their own VMS (video management system) on the CPU or you can bring them into pretty much any VMS you choose, such as Exacqvision. You can throw an SD card in there and have storage on the camera itself or supply it with some kind of network storage. I generally have network storage as well as the SD card. If your network drops for some reason but the camera still has PoE power, it will continue recording to the SD card.

The downside to local recording that isn't cloud mirrored is that your recordings are useless if someone breaks in and steals the storage device or the camera itself if you're just recording there. Some cloud-recording enterprise cameras (e.g. Meraki) are very misleading with this as well. One of my clients had Meraki enterprise cameras, which record locally and upload to the cloud, at their facility when it burned down and we discovered that the camera footage was missing, because the cloud part of it was just an interface that streamed the video footage directly from the camera. You had to buy additional "cloud archive" licensing to actually have your video data pushed and archived into the cloud.

 

[hafejd30]

Just FYI the Arlos I have will record for as long as there’s detected movement. Stores videos in the cloud for 7 days. Battery on all 3 have been excellent. They do shut down for temperature generally when below 0°. Doesn’t cost anything to run them. I’ve had mine for about 4 years now

 

[sharpshot50]

@hafejd30

You're right, they will continue recording for as long as movement is detected. I misspoke--what I meant to say was that they will only store video from 15 seconds prior to the first detection of motion. Another thing I recall was that their motion detection left a lot to be desired--if something wasn't fairly close, it wouldn't detect the motion and therefore wouldn't record at all. One that was overlooking a half mile driveway wouldn't detect motion until the cars were about 30 feet from the camera. The rest of these were being installed throughout a 7-figure house with very high ceilings and other exuberant accoutrements, so that may have contributed to the perceived poor performance. It killed me to install those things, but the owner wanted wireless only!

 

[Schroedernd]

Arlos are nice but I've seen a high failure rate with the battery ones. I personally have 5 ring cameras and pay $100 a year for monitoring. App interface is nice and their prices aren't bad.

 

[sharpshot50]

I started sniffing around but wanted to ask members if there is any system they would recommend?

It's very easy to recommend something like the Lorex systems as they are great entry-level systems. If you wanted to get more of a tailored recommendation, the following questions are generally where I start with potential customers:

1. Do you have a budget in mind, and is it flexible or hard?
2. Do you want only outdoor monitoring, or also indoor?
3. Do you know how many camera views/placements you'd like to have?
4. Do you need a system that will allow you to access the data in the event of a total theft, fire, or vandalism in which the system is destroyed?
5. Do you want/need audio recorded as well?
6. Does your location already have any type of internet/networking setup?
7. Do you want the cameras to record everything 24/7, or just when motion is detected?
8. Do you want the cameras to be visible so they can act as deterrents, or would you prefer them to be more discrete?
9. Is there a hard requirement for how many days of footage you want to retain before the oldest footage is overwritten?

These answers can steer you toward a system that will best fit your needs and budget.

 

[502Chevelle]

We have the Blink system from BB and are not happy with it. Cameras are very slow to pick up movement and they will alert your phone, but the person has walked on through and isn’t there anymore. Very slow, and doesn’t do what it says it will at the display. We will be replacing them.

 

[Matches Malone]

On large bits of land, game cameras are great to spread out along property borders and access points that one might not want to run video power cables to.

Not so great for threat detection or deterrence but decent for evidence collection.

 

[Milf Dots]

Panasonic in general makes great cameras and they also make commercial and industrial level surveillance equipment.

 

[MtnGhost]

Panasonic in general makes great cameras and they also make commercial and industrial level surveillance equipment.

Yep. Their supply chain sources are also usually better than than average.

 

[clcustom1911]

How do these work when you are outside in the yard working, is it recording and listening to every move you make?

Well, I mean, like, you know, maybe you need to think ahead 1 step and don't put a camera/cameras pointing in an area where you're going to be doing illegal shit on your property.

Probably wouldn't put one in a bathroom either. Nobody wants to hear your poopie sounds.

 

[Crush]

No point to having a cam system if they can break in and steal the box. Start with an alarm system if the house will be sitting empty.

 

[Bigdog85]

I’ve been running two Reolink 8 camera cat6 systems at my business for 2+ years now with no issues. Backs up to the hub and they’ve got a pretty nice app I use for remote viewing/ playback.

 

[BAMAboy18]

I have Reolink 4k cameras. Record to an 8tb HDD and accessable via web. (also have older Amazon cloudcams).
If you look around my property, you see a lot of cams, I think that discourages bad elements that will look elsewhere.
Also have a mannequin heads in my barn (freaks some ppl out).
And this:
View attachment 7793465

We had a military crash test dummy at our hunting camp, we dressed him in BDUs a hat and sunglasses. We'd move him around randomly. He'd startle me when I was there alone. Started hearing gossiping about "that guy" that was always there. My buddy had put a toy gun in his hand once, sitting on the porch, he came up to 2 deputies with weapons drawn, trying to convince "Gordon" to drop his gun "it don't have to be this way!"

 

[Chenapan]

If the license plates are gone, the catalytic converter might be also. You might ask yourself, is it better to buy an expensive video system or is it better for the family to clean out the place and divvy up the stuff for storage on your own properties? To include vehicles, tractors, etc. You can set up teargas burglar bombs inside property structures. Some thieves might be very local and will be by during the next big power outage, so putting up hidden game cams with a low signature flash and a cell connection to an app on your phone on the main approach to the property and *inside* a house/barn will alert you -- you actually calling the sheriff's dept. is often more effective than an alarm system. Just thinking out loud.

Edited to add: Apple Airtags secreted inside things worth stealing is also another option. You might need to keep some money aside to sue your local DA office to take action, if your local jurisdiction allows that.

 

[Long Range 338]

Panasonic in general makes great cameras and they also make commercial and industrial level surveillance equipment.

What I use almost exclusively.

 

[Jim Out]

Picking up another set.

Been running them for over a year, they go down to $500 on sale.

Anything less than 4k is a waste of time.

These can be set up to record only to harddrive or to cloud if you have interwebz.

Put the drive in a safe, use cloud, your choice.

Like someone said, they only help after the fact.

However, we've been able to proactively spot some shitbags casing the neighbor's place.

Get supplemental IR whatever you do, 850 if you want the red glow to be seen.

Check out the night vision forum here for more tips.

850nm vs. 940nm Wavelength for IR Illuminators | CCTV IR LEDs

Understand the differences between 850nm and 940nm IR illuminators and learn which wavelength is best suited for your night vision CCTV security system.

ellipsesecurity.com

You may discover it's just the beginning, lots of upgrade potential depending on how much you want to spend.

This one's a great place to start:

Sam's Club - Wholesale Prices on Top Brands

FREE SHIPPING for Plus Members. Sam’s Club Helps You Save Time. Low Prices on Groceries, Mattresses, Tires, Pharmacy, Optical, Bakery, Floral, & More!

www.samsclub.com

Here's the manual, the current firmware does a lot more than the manual describes and there's a user forum online too.

 

[6.5SH]

Well, I mean, like, you know, maybe you need to think ahead 1 step and don't put a camera/cameras pointing in an area where you're going to be doing illegal shit on your property.

Probably wouldn't put one in a bathroom either. Nobody wants to hear your poopie sounds.

Until the common and benign becomes illegal, forget about 1984 and the Telescreen that watches you?

 

[clcustom1911]

Until the common and benign becomes illegal, forget about 1984 and the Telescreen that watches you?

Uhh yeahhhh. That's exactly why I dont have cameras, alexa, or smart TV's.. but have cell phones so we're all fucked anyway

 

[6.5SH]

Uhh yeahhhh. That's exactly why I dont have cameras, alexa, or smart TV's.. but have cell phones so we're all fucked anyway

As little of it as I can get by with for sure.

 

[Jim Out]

 

[Jim Out]

Uhh yeahhhh. That's exactly why I dont have cameras, alexa, or smart TV's.. but have cell phones so we're all fucked anyway

FWIW we pull down about 250gb a day, run full iR dark.

No one but me has access to those files, 104Tb so far.

You won't know you need it until it's too late.

The void is already staring at you, time to stare back......

Interlocking fields are hilarious when shitbags realize "that's a camera".....

.....then there's the other cameras.

Since we're in the downtown/U of A area there's the woo girls in the "dark".....

.........unfortunately their not-hot friends shit on the sidewalk too.....

....some things you can't unsee......but holy shit are they hilarious when you turn on the white light.

PTZ, you'll want it.

 

[clcustom1911]

FWIW we pull down about 250gb a day, run full iR dark.

No one but me has access to those files, 104Tb so far.

You won't know you need it until it's too late.

The void is already staring at you, time to stare back......

Interlocking fields are hilarious when shitbags realize "that's a camera".....

.....then there's the other cameras.

Since we're in the downtown/U of A area there's the woo girls in the "dark".....

.........unfortunately their not-hot friends shit on the sidewalk too.....

....some things you can't unsee......but holy shit are they hilarious when you turn on the white light.

PTZ, you'll want it.

Yeah I'm gonna get a handful to cover my house. Just not in the states right now to supervise and/or install.

 

[Jim Out]

Yeah I'm gonna get a handful to cover my house. Just not in the states right now to supervise and/or install.

Do it yourself, it's super easy.

Plus, regardless of whether you go POE or Siamese you'll want to hide stuff.

Buy the cable and the tool and run it yourself.

 

[padom]

Nocturnal Security Cameras

Empower your business with a top performing professional-grade monitoring solution.

www.lorex.com

I have a friend who owns a medium size security consulting and installation company. He says these are be best bang for the buck systems out there. Best night vision on the market. Have to get the 4k nocturnal series though.

Been trying to get some myself but something always happens when I’m about to buy.

lolol. Lorex best night vision on the market?? Yea no, not even close....

Ive owned a full service commercial IT company for 16yr now. We sell 1000's of cameras a year.. Lorex isnt even a name discussed or mentioned when it comes to quality, commercial grade security cameras. They are your typical better than most, big box store brand for consumers... The quality, features, accuracy, dont even compare to commercial grade cameras.. Axis, Hikvision, TuringAI, Panasonic, Sony, Dahua, Honeywell.... these are all commercial brands that rule the CCTV market today.

And another thing, there are a lot of brands out there that will give you a good 4K picture, especially during the day.. Your DarkFighter, Lowlight, Twilight, LightFighter, cameras will give you crystal clear, full color images at night with virtually no ambient light or looking directly into full sun or light like a glass lobby entrance. This is due to their .003 lux lens that only needs the smallest amount of ambient from a front door light or garage light or bright night sky or street light to give you this super bright, clear image in the dark. This little bit of ambient doesnt need to light up the area is covering or even be close to the camera either... That .003 lux lens pulls just the smallest ambient light in to give you a beautiful, bright, full cover image at night. But where the good camera companies shine....the AI, alerts and notifications.. These new AI algorithims a few of the big camera companies I mentioned above are building into their camera and NVR chipsets is downright scary accurate. Think Jan6 human and face recognition technology.

HikVisions AcuSense 2.0 and TuringAI's Turing Vision is mind blowing, affordable technology that gives you instant notifications via text, email or push of any event/alert you want to setup with amazing accuracy and virtually no false positives. Thats groundbreaking as false positives have been the biggest frustration in camera alerts the past 5yr. Leaves blowing, squirrel running by, etc and false positive alerts are constantly being sent over and over... Not anymore with the right cameras..

I have some new TuringAI Twilight VF 8MP cameras the sent me to demo, their new Lowlight line that utilizes their Turing VI AI... Ive had it up for about a month now and the alerts, notifications and detailed data are crazy. Cars coming and going, I get text alerts on my mobile with a picture of the area, and if it was a car... the picture has overlay stating the car's license plate, color, make, model and type... insane

If its a person, it gives me the image of the camera along with cataloged faces of the person or persons zoomed in, just head shot of the face. Crazy stuff and the best part, this isnt NSA only grade camera technology that costs $100's of thousands of dollars. Very very affordable.

 

[padom]

Do it yourself, it's super easy.

Plus, regardless of whether you go POE or Siamese you'll want to hide stuff.

Buy the cable and the tool and run it yourself.

There is absoluetly ZERO reason on a non-retrofit NEW installation to use siamese cabling... Why run big, thick, pia to work with siamese that requires you to mount and install a 12v standalone power supply that fail over time, limits you to the quality and type of cameras can be used, limits feature set of cameras???... When you can pull cheap, easy to work with Cat6 wherever you want to mount a camera, terminate your ends with RJ45 and plug and play right into your POE NVR. You now have power and data over that one cable and arent limiting yourself on the cameras you can use.

We installed lots of TVI (Analog HD) in retrofit jobs....mostly a lot of our high rise and mid rise clients that were already wired with siamese that didnt want to re-wire the building. HikVision (and other companies) came out with camera technology years back that allowed HD over coax. Good quality cameras that were plug and play with your old analog siamese wiring....

Now, when we upgrade those clients or acquire new clients that want camera system upgrades but dont want to replace siamese with cat6... we use POE over Coax IP converters.. whether your only doing a few and use transmitter and receiver dongles on either end of the old siamese, or a full rack mount Altronix system, they work great and have been using them in the field for almost 2yr now. Essentialy turns the coax RG59/RG6 portion of the siamese cable into a POE cat6 cable and discards the 2wire so you can then use any POE camera..

​

 

[padom]

No point to having a cam system if they can break in and steal the box. Start with an alarm system if the house will be sitting empty.

Any modern commercial NVR today has technology that makes this statement obsolete if the end user so chooses... Offsite and/or cloud continuous replication is standard today. You can take any NVR we have installed, we still have the video offsite whether its replicated to another office, cloud server like AWS, Vultr, DigitalOcean, etc. if thats something the client is worried about when we bid the job. We got it..

 

[padom]

Here an example of TuringAI's Turing Vision technology in one of their 8MP Lowlight VF cameras we have been testing....below is an actual example of an instant text notification received when a vehicle enters...

This car pulled in, turned around, and drove off but you can see the amount of detail this camera recorded and sent instantly to the programmed phone number for alerts...

Sent this pic...along with Make, Type, Color of vehicle and the license plate#....

You can then click right on the link in the text notification and it will launch the Turing Vision app to see that camera live...or go back and watch the recorded incident..





Here's another example of the same camera I just showed recording the vehicle info, also has amazing people and facial recognition AI tech in the same camera..

It will send the same notification as above about the car, for people as well. It also catalogs all faces that it can see in view, no matter how far away because its an 8MP camera.. So even though the view looks zoomed out, the AI tech can zoom in on faces without distorting the image too much because the image is 8MP... You have a problem person coming onsite... You can go click that persons face in the cataloged faces and setup an alert to tell you EVERY time that person comes on property, day or not... Same thing with a vehicle or an object....

 

[Maser]

Be careful with the IP cams because it's pretty common for people to hack into those cams. In fact I remember over at 4Chan or Reddit where there was a thread dedicated to listing people's IP cam links.