Apartment security camera question.

November 29, 2020 11:01 AM

Need a indoor security camera.

Was using D-Link 936 camera,but now I need a new/different one.
I want a camera that will send a notifications to my android cell,and it will include phot & a short vid,which I can keep and play on my desktop.
I don't want to be paying monthly service.

So, any good cameras out there? Please let me know.

Thanks :-)

posted by LOOKING to Technology (7 answers total)

I use Wyze cameras to do things like monitor some of my machines, and they work pretty well. I do not pay for the "camera plus" subscription (which adds person detection and the like) because simple motion detection is sufficient for my purposes.

Also, they have limits on the interval between recordings and length of recordings, but holy cats they're cheap.
posted by aramaic at 11:46 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I also came to recommend Wyze. The length of recordings is 12 seconds and I'm pretty sure they'll send you an alert of movement every 5 minutes. So if, for instance, your cat is moving around for 5 minutes, you won't get constant alerts, but one every 5 minutes. You have the option of putting in a memory card which will record continuously, and then if you need more than the 12 seconds, you can pull the memory card and download onto your desktop.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:50 AM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank everyone-I went with Wyze.
posted by LOOKING at 2:18 PM on November 29, 2020

For the cheap bastards out there, any old cell phone with a decent camera and a WiFi connection, conjoined with the free app “Presence,” does the trick, including motion detection and email alerts. I use my old iPhones as cameras. Works flawlessly, has for a year or so for me, with at the moment four different phone cameras. And the video quality from an iPhone far exceeds the crappy image on most of the Amazon Chinese security cameras out there. I also have an ADT alarm system with a real video doorbell thing, as our insurance required us to have a security system when we lived here part-time. The iPhones with presence are better image quality, work better as two way communicators, and cost me nothing.
posted by spitbull at 3:37 AM on November 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Also be aware of the risks of this. Wyze had a major data breach a while back.

I severely limit what gets stored on the Presence server, on the logic that any free data repository is going to be sub-optimal for security. But you are opening up a video stream to your home to the world, security is a real issue and a reason to wonder about super cheap solutions. Plus in my case my cameras show things like my basement floor (watching for water) and the level of fuel in my heating system, not wide angles on my life in general.

Oh and our expensive ADT system SUCKS. DO NOT USE ADT. We will quit as soon as our contract is up. They’re terrible people. We tape over our video doorbell unless we are leaving for more than an hour or two, which is very rare anymore. Don’t trust them either.
posted by spitbull at 3:40 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

I should mention that Presence also lets me control which camera (front or back) on my phones is sending a stream and also to turn the flashlight on the phone on and off and talk to someone remotely over the phone/camera, or just listen in. Audio quality is also better than a brand name video doorbell. And the dual camera and flashlight options have real utility. I have one camera that shoots a fuel level meter from the front camera and a floor view from the back one. The room is dark most of the time. I turn the flashlight on and I can see both camera images. Then I turn it off and if anyone hacks my stream all they see is darkness.
posted by spitbull at 3:48 AM on November 30, 2020

Looks like I was too late. I have Wyze and Reolink and I prefer the Reolink. It has all the things you asked for including a free cloud storage tier.
posted by terrapin at 9:18 AM on November 30, 2020