Hello. Front doorbell camera is picking up a suspicious person heading for our back yard in the middle of the night. We are looking for an ip camera, but have specific criteria.
First: truly wireless: Solar powered with battery backup. We have lots of Sun here in Southern California. Connects to WiFi.
Second: not proprietary. No required subscriptions to see video. Needs to support bluecherry. Supporting onvif would be a plus, but not strictly required.
Third: needs to be a good name brand. I’m not looking for junk. Doesn’t need to be top of the line, just needs to be reliable.
The other usual suspects are fine for the camera. Night vision would definitely be a plus, however there is an automatic light that will illuminate the area if motion is detected. Audio recording would be nice, but not strictly required. I don’t need PTZ. Bullet cam with a wide viewing angle is preferred.
Reolink has a solar panel camera, but I can’t tell if it supports RTSP (Eco model). I’ll do some more digging and see if I can find anything else.
Let me know if you find anything.
https://reolink.com/us/product/argus-eco/#faq
Last question in the faq is: does this work with any NVRs or NAS systems. The official answer is no.
I had looked at that one already…
Update: after speaking with the landlords (my parents), and informing them of the difficulties in finding a truly wireless solution, I reminded them that the Internet router is on the other side of a wall from the desired mounting location, and so is a power outlet. My father is quite stressed at work, and we don’t want to give him anything more to do than is necessary. That said, running a 10’ Ethernet cord and an 3-5’ power cord through a wall shouldn’t be too difficult for him. The stucco is difficult to drill through, but the cables might be able to go through the nearby door or window frame.
This will open many more possibilities, so I believe this matter is closed. That said, if anyone has any personal consumer reports on a good wired IP camera. Yes, I realize there are quite a few models out there, which is why I want to know what folks have already tried, and their likes and dislikes.
Thanks.
if you do a poe connection (most ip cameras support this) you will only need to run the ethernet cord. just make sure you get a poe injector or a poe switch.
Sorry, late reply. Yes, I am well aware of that. I had already ordered one before I got your response.
Update, in case anyone is interested. The POE camera I purchased, was supposedly a KKMoon brand. I purchased it on ebay, for about $45, after looking at many options. I got the camera, and immediately noticed the generic-looking box that says only “IP camera” on it. The camera itself is plain white, but has a pair of adhesive stickers with the kkmoon logo. I quickly smelled the proverbial rat. I checked kkmoon website. They don’t appear to sell IP cameras! All of the cameras I looked at are analog, and use coaxial cables, not Ethernet!
I quickly filed a return with Ebay, citing that the product was fake. The seller got back to me, an offered me a $20 refund, and I could keep the camera, if I would drop the return request. I mentioned that the return address they had on file with eBay was a 15 minute drive from my house, and that I could deliver it there saving them the return shipping. They gave me the same sad story about the hassle of doing returns, but offered $30 back and I could keep the camera. I was reluctant, but ultimately agreed.
Besides them selling a fake product, my main gripe was the buggy web-interface on the camera. I am completely unable to disable the clock display. As the clock changed every second, the motion detection in BlueCherry was being detected every second. I eventually discovered that I could have BlueCherry ignore sections of the video feed, so this works out for now.
Meanwhile, I ordered an Amcrest IP8M-2496E POE Camera, this time, directly from the manufacturer. Works great. Did a test setup in the kitchen, before it got mounted, and noticed two bold little rodents on my kitchen floor when they thought I wasn’t looking. Soooo glad I did that test setup! For the next several nights, I watched the oh-so-cleaver vermin avoid the traps and get past the obstacle barriers I put up. I knew that if I could keep them out of the sink area, they would get hungry enough and eat the bait in the traps. I also discovered how they were getting into the kitchen with the help of that camera and BlueCherry. Thank you to everyone involved in making BlueCherry better!
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Thanks for the update! Glad you finally got a camera that “works” 