Home Security Camera - burned once, want to avoid more troubles

Hi everyone! In my quest to restructure my smart home I bought a couple of Reolink E1 Zoom cameras that fit my use case due to having open streams, web GUI and no need for an account to log on the devices.

Much to my dismay they had pretty bad motion performance, triggered notifications when switching to night vision and, worst of all, they constantly went through the homing sequence on the motors for no reason. I tried all the settings available and updated the firmware. Only disabling tracking worked, but it would’ve made the camera way less effective for my use case.

I was looking everywhere for an alternative but I can’t find a camera with the same features.
I could run Frigate/Blue Iris or other DVR softwares but I’d like for them to work indipendently anyway as the Reolink did. No account needed would be best, but I’ll take a Frigate deploy over handing my security footage to a third party.

Is there anything on earth, available for similar price, with the same features?

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Bumping because I am curious as well…

ZoneMinder and almost any camera you like. it is extremely local and on you to make it do what you want with the hardware you want.

Frigate is also a valid option, again the work and time are what make it what you want in the end.

i was an active ZoneMinder user for years and slowly migrated over to Unifi. would i recommend that to everyone no. would i say it is worth looking into and may be a valid option for you? sure.

mostly if you want everything as stated, you will be hard pressed to find it ‘on the camera’ at this point.

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Software is not an issue really. Thanks for recommending me Zoneminder.

My current issue is hardware, something that won’t require me to log into any app of any kind, with decent video performance and bug free firmware (or with very little broken).

Axis IP Cameras.

but they cost a lot.

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I have 6 of these around my house. You can get new old stock off eBay sometimes pretty cheap. Some claim they only work with the AXIS appliances. You can get around this by adding ?Axis-Orig-Sw=true to the end of the URL. That’s it. That’s the extend of their “DRM”.

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Frigate recommends Amcrest/Dahua cameras. I haven’t used any with PTZ capabilities, but the brands offer models with it.

I reviewed Dahua/Amcrest documentation and some reviews of PTZ models and came away with the impression that it’s not easy to teach computers to look for stuff YOU’re interested in.

I’ve looked into them and frankly I cant find a seller outside the US? It was a low effort search, granted, but one would think a product would be eager to be sold out?

Axis official website want my personal details up front before I even see their lineup. A lot of personal details.

Nevermind, I forgot to check Amazon first.

I really want to avoid these, especially the HikVision ones. It feels like I am helping the dystopia propagate.

But when they are firewalled and hooked up to my local license plate and facial recognition db it’s MY dystopia!

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I went to their website first but they have only four devices recommended. If that’s what’s considered “industry standard” for home application so be it. If they’re not too expensive I could consider replacing the PTZ capabilities with one more camera.

Yeah, I figured in the limited amout of time I had to research this topic. At this point I’ll give up on PTZ but get the better motion clarity, more framerate and key frames at every frame and not every two like the Reolink cameras.

Are they walled off by apps of any kind that require me to hand over my DNA to work? Do they need to be flashed to avoid letting people in my network?

Unless I go for a Pi with a camera every option feels like a lose-lose situation.

That’s where I am at. It works great if you only consider a single “thing” to track. It breaks down if there are more than one “thing” in line of sight.

For this you’re better off with better optics - higher pixel count (for detail) and larger sensor (for signal/noise ratio). Really, sensor dpi is the important metric here.

I am also interested in better visibility in dark or close-to-dark situations.
I found that Dahua/Amcrest have great offerings. They’re improved or pro lines combine relatively large sensors with IR lights (if you don’t want people to notice they’re being recorded) or white lights (if you do, and prefer color in your vids).
They also cost a pretty penny.

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Usually the AI behind the PTZ cameras is good and just focuses on one “suject”, usually the last thing that showed some motion.
And the issues I had with the Reolink cameras wasn’t related to that. The motors inside where just going through the homing sequence for whatever reason. Tracking was fine.

I’ve learned my lesson. It’s not just about functionality but hardware too.

I’ll check them out and see if can get something for not an eccessive amount of money. Like 100$ per camera is my maximum.

I don’t usually plug YouTubers, but this guy does all the kinds of visibility and motion tests for specifically local focused cameras that you’d want.

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That’s amazing! Companies usually flood youtube with positive reviews sending their devices out and indipendent testing falls way behind in shown results.
Will watch some videos and hopefully clear my mind a bit.

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All these myriad of camera types exist for reasons. Watch for

  • style: bullet or eyeball/turret for outdoors
  • lens type: I look for fixed focal length as they offer best low light capabilties. Zoom offers convenience, but drops image quality
  • power: I want wired data transfer and minimal amount of wires - PoE it is!
  • sensor size: I look for 4MP (1440p) 1/1.8" CMOS sensors which Dahua typically markets as “starlight”, although the marketing idiots also do shenanigans with that word.
    There are also more costly 8MP (4k) 1/1.2" CMOS sensors, which offer similar low light quality but offer higher resolution.

These are restrictive requirements and qualifying cameras cost >$100.

The easiest way to save money is going with smaller sensors, which require higher light levels for clear pictures. Note: on bright sunny days every camera produces stunning footage: night time footage separates the crops.

The more I look into the matter, the more I realize my budget is unrealistically low.

These all make sense, beside the bullet style since it’s gonna require me to put holes in the wall to place it. And that’s something I didn’t really want to do. Also look ugly as sin inside, but that’s a compromise I’m willing to make.

I tried and returned a bunch of cameras until I reached that point …

The technical requirements are brand agnostic, but I find myself drawn to the Empiretech store on Amazon, which specializes in upper quality level ip cameras from Dahua.

Also - when shopping for fixed focal length optics you need to consider the required focal length for your application. I see 2.8mm, 3.6mm and 6mm optics available - all with their respective angles of view.