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Game cams for home surveillance


Windermere

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So my wife's catalytic converter got chopped off overnight last night. It was parked ok the street one house over. I work on cars for a living and everytime we have a car come in with stolen cats, I'm always like how did they not hear the saw? Well, I didn't hear a damn thing!

 

Anyway, damage is done, parts are ordered. At least I don't have to pay for labor, and I have a discount on parts. Total damage is about 450.

 

I'm still on the fence about home surveillance cameras wired vs wireless. So I'm thinking of picking up a game cam for now.

 

Anyone else use them for surveillance?

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By now everyone has seen the commercial for the ring doorbell. They sell cameras now too. You can set it up to text you any time there is motion if you wish. Then of course they also offer for 30 bucks annual to record any motions for up to 3 minutes I believe. I have the door bell no experience with the cameras. The image on the doorbell is really clear. Enough to pick up a license plate from over 75 feet.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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By now everyone has seen the commercial for the ring doorbell. They sell cameras now too. You can set it up to text you any time there is motion if you wish. Then of course they also offer for 30 bucks annual to record any motions for up to 3 minutes I believe. I have the door bell no experience with the cameras. The image on the doorbell is really clear. Enough to pick up a license plate from over 75 feet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

We have a Ring doorbell too, and I also like it. The power from the doorbell wires keeps the battery charged so it's ready to go 24/7 to send video to your phone via your WiFi router. We don't live in a bad neighborhood, but I guess everyone says that until they are hit by thieves and no neighborhood is completely safe.

 

I'm not sure how the other Ring devices work, I guess if they are hard-wired into the power they would be just as reliable. Unlike trail cams (I believe), they record video. You just have to make sure they are close enough to your WiFi router to have a good signal.

 

Look up Ring doorbell videos on YouTube - it is immensely satisfying to see thieves caught in the act of stealing.

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I have both the Ring camera and doorbell. During the daytime the video is fine. At night it becomes a little sketchy. The biggest problem with the Ring camera is that the software used to control it, or more properly schedule it to notify you, doesn't work very well. I, personally, do not enjoy getting awaken in the middle of the night when a bug flies by, or the wind blows.

The Ring camera is powered by a battery. However, it can be connected to power by either a fairly long USB cable, or using a small solar panel to charge the battery during the daytime.

 

In addition to the Ring devices there are also a couple of Arlo cameras that have much better management software and do a good job as well. The Arlo cameras are powered by battery.

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I like ARLO cameras. Storage for seven days no fees battery-operated but some you can plug-in. Smartphone app. Notifications on your phone or email. I also use Wink for lights and garage door and window and door sensors. Notifications and no fees. Arlo also connects to Wink.

 

Nest cameras charge a fee.

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Below is a spy point trail camera that sends pictures to your smartphone and runs off Verizon 4G LTE service.

 

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/1048995-spy-point-link-evo-verizon-cellulartrail-camera.html

 

Below is a spy point trail camera that based on the specs of spy point website runs off of 4G(HSPA+) Which is a type of 4G standard used by AT&T and Tmobile and the coverage map resembles AT&T wireless.

 

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/1048994-spy-point-link-evo-cellular-trail-camera.html

 

Both will need to be activated by using the app and the cheapest plan is free.

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Cameras are only some what effective if someone is watching the monitor. Having a recording of someone ripping you off is not if any help. I believe that alarms are more effective.

If no one is home, then it's a thief's play ground.

In a home wireless is easier to install because the camera still need a wire, electricity. In an open building as a garage or pole building i find wired to a camera dvr with s large harddrve works best.

To record wireless requires software on a computer. I use a stand alone desktop but the software for my cameras is flaky.

A wired system on my range is simple and trouble free and the old cctv house system is trouble free.

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Cameras are only some what effective if someone is watching the monitor. Having a recording of someone ripping you off is not if any help. I believe that alarms are more effective.

If no one is home, then it's a thief's play ground.

In a home wireless is easier to install because the camera still need a wire, electricity. In an open building as a garage or pole building i find wired to a camera dvr with s large harddrve works best.

To record wireless requires software on a computer. I use a stand alone desktop but the software for my cameras is flaky.

A wired system on my range is simple and trouble free and the old cctv house system is trouble free.

That is why ARLO is a good idea. Notifies you as soon as the cameras triggered and it has cloud storage so no hard drive to destroy by the thief. You don’t need to wire it is battery-operated but certain cameras can have external power. The range of my Wi-Fi exceeds my property.
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In order to get a good look at the offender, you're going to need 1080p resolution at a minimum. Especially, if it is dark or they are at any distance from the camera.

The narrower the field of view (angle) the camera has can help with this as well.

 

Co-worker has several of the Ring cameras as well as Xfinity security cameras. The Ring have a much clearer picture and are battery powered.

I've had good luck with Amcrest 2K cameras but, I'm currently only using these indoor.

 

Other nice feature is the Ring can sound an audible alarm & will send you a notification via their app.

The Amcrest can be hooked into a conventional alarm system to trigger an alarm. I receive notification both through the app & via email when motion or noise is detected.

 

You can set-up zones within these cameras to target but, it can be difficult to adjust the sensitivity where you want... outside on a public street, I would imagine you'd get a LOT of notifications!

 

Best of luck in your search.

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In order to get a good look at the offender, you're going to need 1080p resolution at a minimum. Especially, if it is dark or they are at any distance from the camera.

The narrower the field of view (angle) the camera has can help with this as well.

 

Co-worker has several of the Ring cameras as well as Xfinity security cameras. The Ring have a much clearer picture and are battery powered.

I've had good luck with Amcrest 2K cameras but, I'm currently only using these indoor.

 

Other nice feature is the Ring can sound an audible alarm & will send you a notification via their app.

The Amcrest can be hooked into a conventional alarm system to trigger an alarm. I receive notification both through the app & via email when motion or noise is detected.

 

You can set-up zones within these cameras to target but, it can be difficult to adjust the sensitivity where you want... outside on a public street, I would imagine you'd get a LOT of notifications!

 

Best of luck in your search.

I can attest to that. My wife likes the notification that there is motion. Unfortunately when cars drive by at night, it will trip the motion. Getting woken at 3am because a car drove by is frustrating. For the first few nights, I was clearing the house every night. I've become immune to it and now ignore it. The dog is my alarm.

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I live in a small town but about 10years ago a buddy of mine had someone come right into his garage snooping around a couple times while he was home(lights on and all)......my answer was to go out to my truck and grab a bunch of empty .45acp brass and we sprinkled it around his walk-in and drive-in garage doors in plain sight. Needless to say the problem was solved :cool:

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I have game cameras setup on my driveway, my driveway is 1/4 mile long and I have a hard time catching vehicles both coming AND going reliably. It seems that I can set a camera to catch vehicles one way or the other but I've yet to find a spot I can catch them all hours of the day AND going both directions. There are times when I know it isn't picking up my truck going to work or my wife going to work but it catches us fine at night or vice versa and it works well in the daytime but not at night.

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In order to get a good look at the offender, you're going to need 1080p resolution at a minimum. Especially, if it is dark or they are at any distance from the camera.

The narrower the field of view (angle) the camera has can help with this as well.

 

Co-worker has several of the Ring cameras as well as Xfinity security cameras. The Ring have a much clearer picture and are battery powered.

I've had good luck with Amcrest 2K cameras but, I'm currently only using these indoor.

 

Other nice feature is the Ring can sound an audible alarm & will send you a notification via their app.

The Amcrest can be hooked into a conventional alarm system to trigger an alarm. I receive notification both through the app & via email when motion or noise is detected.

 

You can set-up zones within these cameras to target but, it can be difficult to adjust the sensitivity where you want... outside on a public street, I would imagine you'd get a LOT of notifications!

 

Best of luck in your search.

 

I can attest to that. My wife likes the notification that there is motion. Unfortunately when cars drive by at night, it will trip the motion. Getting woken at 3am because a car drove by is frustrating. For the first few nights, I was clearing the house every night. I've become immune to it and now ignore it. The dog is my alarm.

I had a netgear WiFi camera setup a while back to catch a neighbors dog crapping all over our lawn. I had software program set up on my desktop that would only record when motion was detected (and start from a few minutes back) but would only trigger from certain areas that I had selected. It would ignore cars driving by and what not. A wired security camera system I had years ago would do the same thing. Both worked really well. I can’t recall the name of the program but it’s probably still on the desktop. It was free and compatible with just about any WiFi enabled camera.

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"I had a netgear WiFi camera setup a while back to catch a neighbors dog crapping all over our lawn. I had software program set up on my desktop that would only record when motion was detected (and start from a few minutes back) but would only trigger from certain areas that I had selected. It would ignore cars driving by and what not. A wired security camera system I had years ago would do the same thing. Both worked really well. I can’t recall the name of the program but it’s probably still on the desktop. It was free and compatible with just about any WiFi enabled camera."

 

 

With the Ring & my Amcrest cameras you can pinpoint (or exclude) certain areas that you want to observe. My comments directed to the OP were due to the fact that they wanted to monitor a vehicle on the street "a couple doors down".

 

My co-worker with the Ring cameras, has one set to monitor his front porch. The street is visible on the edge of the picture. Even with the target area set as the porch, he still gets several 'false' alerts a day. It is MUCH harder to limit the number of alerts in a public area.

 

For myself... If I was going to a larger network, I would probably go POE (vs WiFi) and use software such as Blue Iris to control my network.

 

Respectfully,

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my setup will work with almost any camera. I use an opensource software called zoneminder. It only runs on linux systems.

https://zoneminder.com/

It can work with most any camera. I have an old axis 211m that i use right now.

zoneminder is a bit tricky to get installed and running but if you are running a linux/unix system at home I suspect you have the skills to get it up and running.

Feature wise zoneminder has all kinds of options. It allows me to connect to one source to see all the different cameras. No need to remember all the different ip addresses of each camera.Or to poke a hole in my firewall for each of them. I select the camera I want to see or the one that is alerting from the web based interface of zoneminder.

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Sorry to hear of your loss. Ironically I installed a home system last year because of the exact same occurence. I went with a Amcrest HD system based on the fact the phone app live monitoring was supposed to be most stable, and it has proven so. Great vision at night too, I think 90' is illuminated pretty well. It is hooked up to a week long loop DVR. The motion detector feature is basically useless on all of these systems IMHO. Everything sets it off and it will drive you insane. A leaf falls, moth flys by, almost anything trips it. So basically you are just using it in the event something happens you can go back and see footage. Def go 1080P, I can zoom in and see a license plate about 70' down my driveway the image is that good. I think I paid about 350 for 4 cameras and the DVR.

Love being able to open the app anytime day or night and take a peak whats going on back home.

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