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 wouldâve made the camera way less effective for my use case.
I was looking everywhere for an alternative but I canât find a camera with the same features.
I could run Frigate/Blue Iris or other DVR softwares but Iâd like for them to work indipendently anyway as the Reolink did. No account needed would be best, but Iâll 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?
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 âon the cameraâ at this point.
Software is not an issue really. Thanks for recommending me Zoneminder.
My current issue is hardware, something that wonât require me to log into any app of any kind, with decent video performance and bug free firmware (or with very little broken).
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. Thatâs it. Thatâs the extend of their âDRMâ.
Frigate recommends Amcrest/Dahua cameras. I havenât 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 itâs not easy to teach computers to look for stuff YOUâre interested in.
Iâve 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.
I went to their website first but they have only four devices recommended. If thatâs whatâs considered âindustry standardâ for home application so be it. If theyâre 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 Iâll 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.
Thatâs where I am at. It works great if you only consider a single âthingâ to track. It breaks down if there are more than one âthingâ in line of sight.
For this youâre 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. Theyâre improved or pro lines combine relatively large sensors with IR lights (if you donât want people to notice theyâre being recorded) or white lights (if you do, and prefer color in your vids).
They also cost a pretty penny.
Usually the AI behind the PTZ cameras is good and just focuses on one âsujectâ, usually the last thing that showed some motion.
And the issues I had with the Reolink cameras wasnât related to that. The motors inside where just going through the homing sequence for whatever reason. Tracking was fine.
Iâve learned my lesson. Itâs not just about functionality but hardware too.
Iâll check them out and see if can get something for not an eccessive amount of money. Like 100$ per camera is my maximum.
I donât usually plug YouTubers, but this guy does all the kinds of visibility and motion tests for specifically local focused cameras that youâd want.
Thatâs 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.
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 âstarlightâ, 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 itâs gonna require me to put holes in the wall to place it. And thatâs something I didnât really want to do. Also look ugly as sin inside, but thatâs a compromise Iâm willing to make.
I tried and returned a bunch of cameras until I reached that point âŚ
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.