Cameras, which ones?

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Hey everyone! I'm in the process of replacing all my Nest cams with non-subscription-based cameras and could really use some advice. I’m currently looking at the TP-Link Tapo Indoor/Outdoor 2K Battery-Powered Camera and wondering if anyone knows if it can be integrated with Blue Iris to show a live view on the Habitat dashboard?

If not, do you have recommendations for other cost-effective WiFi outdoor cameras that would work? I'm selling my place soon and thinking of mounting a tablet on the wall to display the Habitat (or HD+) dashboard, including live views of some security cameras. I think it would be a great way to impress potential buyers by showcasing a smart home setup.

I’d really appreciate any suggestions or advice on this. Thanks so much in advance!

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Reolink or Foscam

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Paul Hibbert does some great reviews of Reolink but I think there are very dear to the pocket book.

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It’s all relative, and depends most on which features are make or break for a given user.

At Amazon US, Reolink is selling a bundle of eight 4K PoE cameras with an NVR that’s currently only $815.99. Not bad IMO.

Granted that’s a sizable system, and doesn’t meet OP’s needs re: wire-free, but they have other bundles.

I’d expect somewhat less from foscam or amcrest cams, with a lower price point, and considerably more from say, a unifi protect system, at a much steeper price point.

I’m not sure there is a good option for battery powered cameras that’ll integrate with blue iris though. Battery power and continuous availability on the network don’t really go well together.

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For a decent outdoor camera with solar charging $49.00

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Yeah, Paul always get the "good sh@t" from Reolink to test so it's $$$.
I'm stuck in the dark ages with 9 indoor/outdoor Blinks.
Damn the kickstarter and Amazon Black Friday sales! :rofl:
Cheapest alternative at the time as I didn't need a NVR with cloud access.
Plus, the integration here from @snell is killer.

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Hey .. I resemble that remark. I've got twice that many Blinks (damn the sales!) and I'm quite happy with them. Of course, the reason is that I (like you, I'm sure) got grandfathered in before April 15, 2020, and thus have never paid a penny for a subscription for cloud storage.

If I were buying today, I'd almost certainly go in a different direction.

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Thanks again for all the suggestions earlier! After looking into it more, I realized most battery-powered cameras don’t support RTSP, which I really need for integrating with Blue Iris. So I’ve decided to go with a wired option instead.

I found the Tapo C320WS, and it looks like a solid choice. It’s a 2K outdoor camera, supports RTSP, and is only $50 Canadian —hard to beat that price! I’m planning to grab a few and see how they work with my setup.

I’ll update once I’ve tested them out. Thanks again for all the help!

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I have some of the Genbolt line powered Wi-Fi cameras working with Blue Iris.
Not as well built as my Reolink stuff but all in all pretty good.

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I have three Reolink PTZ wireless/solar cameras. Decent if you use their app and fine for checking on things around the property when away using that app, but they don't integrate well with much of anything else, including NVRs. I had another of their wired (fixed focus) cameras that was much better in that regard. Might want to check on that before purchasing, as their wireless stuff operates differently than their other cameras.

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I have Amcrest and Reolink cameras. I started accumulating the Amcrest cams back around 2016, and they still function perfectly to this day. Never had a failure. The older HD/2K Amcrest cams are getting a little long in the tooth in terms of modern image quality, but I really can't say anything bad about Amcrest cameras. Give 'em a try...this is the modern indoor equivalent of my older Amcrest cams:

https://www.amazon.com/Amcrest-Monitor-Detection-Motion-Tracking-Wireless/dp/B09Z533R6Z/

I use a macOS app called "Security Spy" to receive all my camera streams on my LAN and record to SSD, trigger actions based on detected motion, etc.

In the last few years, I wanted to try something new, so I started adding Reolink cameras. I got this one:

...because it has a superwide field of view plus generously bright floodlights plus PoE connectivity (I recommend a 30 watt PoE adapter for it). The image quality is top-notch.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH2SP1LR

I also bought a Reolink solar-powered cellular camera for a remote location that has no wifi, no power, and weak cellular signal. It works great. The cell signal is always up, and the overnight battery usage has never dipped below 90%.

The solar/cellular-only Reolink camera can't be used with ONVIF/RTSP (Security Spy or other 3rd party cam apps), but the Reolink app is pretty decent for my use case with this camera specifically.

My only criticism of Reolink is its motion detection - it often triggers a "person" alert when a bird gets right in front of it. That aside, the image quality is great, the app is fairly intuitive, and they just work. I use Security Spy's motion detection for all my LAN based cameras.

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I would not do this for a sale. It makes logical sense, but buyer reactions can swing extreme. The safest approach is not doing it.

If you used a more premium product like Control4 the reaction can actually be similar because some buyers don't understand it and it may overwhelm them that they will buy something they don't understand.

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Just catching up to this thread, but if all you want is RTSP support with your Nest cams, you could just buy a Starling Home Hub (https://www.starlinghome.io/). While Starling is designed to bring Google Nest Devices into Homekit, it also has an option to enable RTSP streams on the cameras. I have three of the original indoor Nest Cams and three Google Home Maxes that are compatible. It might be cheaper than replacing all your cameras.

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Yes, grandfathered in.
I think the biggest thing for me was the battery life; can't beat Blink for ease of use.
I don't have power availability or the access to put POE in 9 places.
My house is only 30 years old. I did have access to the stick frame when it was built but future me didn't know I would need cat5/6E (cat3 was the standard then) or what a "SmartThings" was. :upside_down_face:

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I made the mistake of buying a number of Yi cameras some time ago. They worked great for a while, but now their app is so overrun with ads, it is practically unusable. I have to scrap all of them and move to something else.

But it sort of begs the question, what is safe to turn to? Foscam and Reolink appear to be out of China, just like Yi, and I can't help but wonder whether they'll eventually turn to ads as well. Wyze seems like it might be a winner since they are based in the U.S., but after some reading, it appears they are also already using pop-ups in their app to push their Cloud offering. It seems like the next step would be ads for them, but I can't be certain about that. Ultimately, the best option I've found might be Amcrest. I don't know a thing about them, but they are based in the U.S., affordable, and don't appear to be have ads or pushing their cloud (for now at least).

Does anyone know of a clear winner in this space? Yes, I do know I could purchase a dedicated system with something like a central recorder, but those cost more than I would like to spend. There are a lot of affordable options out there, I just don't know if any come with staying clear of ads and pop-ups. Is there possibly any consensus in this space or does someone know of a clear winner? Any suggestions are appreciated.

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Ubiquiti UniFi cameras. Worth the investment if you're starting over.

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Not the advice you were seeking, but social media is all about unsolicited advice so...

For the most part, the only people who are impressed with a smart home setup are geeks like us.

I've sold two houses in the last couple of years, one was our residence and another that was my former house that we turned into an airbnb. Both were automated with HE, a Qolsys alarm system, smart door locks, smart thermostats, smart bulbs, the whole 9 yards.

I took it all out. Every last bit of it. Much of it didn't have any value to me, for example a lot of GE z-wave 500 series switches, ring cameras and doorbells (which I grew to despise), and other things I really didn't want to use in our new house. I replaced every switch and bulb with dumb ones and the thermostats with the most basic non-programmable ones I could find at Home Depot.

In our residence, I took everything out before it went on the market, which was a good decision because the buyers couldn't even figure out where the water shutoff was. In the airbnb, it was only on the market for a few days before it went under contract and I hadn't removed everything yet. I asked the buyers if they wanted any of it and it was a hard no, with no hesitation.

My (unsolicited) advice: unless you are certain that most people who will be interested in your property are home automation geeks (and your realtor agrees), take it all out and save yourself a lot of headaches. Do you really want to be doing tech support for the buyers forever? It won't stop there, every little issue they have with the property will become your problem. Take the check at settlement and be done with it, and invest your time into your new house.

For cameras (in your new house :slightly_smiling_face:) you can't go wrong with Ubiquity. They have cameras across a wide range of prices and they do a pretty good job of recognizing people, vehicles, animals, etc. You do need to invest in their ecosystem, but that's one decision I definitely don't regret for a second.

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I totally agree with this advice. I'm a real estate investor.

I had one mid century house that I added outdoor lighting to for curb appeal. Looked great. The buyer contacted me a year later wanting to know how to turn it off. I had literally printed, laminated and zipped tied an info graphic and simple language of the instruction to the transformer in the basement. Like it was a memory care facility. Didn't matter.

Some smart stuff in a rental helps get a few bucks more in rent because the kids today expect it. In a sale of a home it's meaningless. I will typically add ecobee to a house I'm flipping, but the main reasons are 1) their trim plate covers most of the paint imperfections that exist around thermostat locations 2) they are subsidized by our power company so they cost what stupid ones cost 3) I can remotely
control the hvac to save money during renovations and market time.

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I have a lot of FOSCAM cameras. I don't use their apps and their firmware doesn't have any ad stuff in it. I use Camect to bring motions and what not into hubitat (you can also use blue iris). Fantastic resolution and IR. I just ordered a Foscam B4 today. You can get their stream directly from IP addr. No app needed.

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I have Reolink and Wyze cams, Do Not Recommend any Wyze products.

Happy with the Reolink's

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