Front door video camera

[Pat-inCO]

I'll spare you the long introductions and simply say: Do any of you have/know-of a reasonable,
front door/porch video camera that . . DOES . . NOT . . require a "subscription fee"?

I had something that sounded like a knock on my door last night at at about 1am. Since, what else,
I had been asleep less than an hour, it was disconcerting. I turned on the extra lighting and looked
out the peep hole I have in the door, saw nothing, thus went to the window to see if there was anyone
not visible from the peep hole. - - - Nothing.

To put this in perspective, Saturday I watched a video from Mas Ayoob about how to NOT get shot
opening your door (at wee hours) to Law Enforcement (DON'T have a gun in hand). - - - He then
made the point of why not have a video camera in place to look and see who is there. Thus being
WIDE awake, I went looking for just such a camera.

I find a plethora of offerings that require a monthly subscription fee for cloud storage, plus a
monthly membership fee, but VERY few that do not have such fees. Thus this thread starter.

I found three, from $150 to $350 that are not a fee type, but NONE that are willing to provide you
with full information on, in total, what it will cost to get everything going. - - - While the manufacturer
will not know my full setup, they DO know all of the support structure required (battery, power, other
wiring, display panel, etc.), but I have not found any willing to be specific with their information.

Anyone with actual, running equipment? - - - Thanks!

 

[HarryD2]

I have 4 Ring cameras and can’t complain but you need fast internet and a strong Wi-Fi signal at the place you mount them. There is a $100 a year fee for storage whether 1 or more cameras. I don’t know anything about any other system.

 

[Kevin]

We have a Nest Thermostat and a Nest Doorbell (Nest is sold by Google.) You can pay for a subscription, which allows you to have cloud storage. We don't pay and it works the same, just no cloud storage.

It's pretty nice, on the thermostat you can turn the system on or off with your phone if you aren't home. They connect to the Wifi and run off of batteries, so no hard wiring to a power source.

 

[Kevin]

After hitting enter, just had a thought, what about a trail cam, or some sort of dash cam from a car setup. Those wouldn't have a subscription and could save the data on a SD card. Plus it would be obvious.

 

[Dave P.]

I've got these at the shop....

PhoenixM2 Non-WiFi. Plug-In Power Security System

Protect what you value most with the Defender® Phoenix wireless plug and play surveillance system. Simply connect the camera to a power supply and experience peace of mind by monitoring your property!

www.defendercameras.com

 

[Pat-inCO]

A-MAZ-zinG! ONE person read the initial post that . . . DOES . . NOT . . require a "subscription fee".

Thanks Dave P; Your suggestion looks good.

 

[contender]

I just saw this post,, and I too thought; "Didn't they read the whole post,, with the request of no subscription fee & other stuff?"
Now,, I'm gonna look at what Dave posted.

 

[contender]

I just viewed the system Dave mentioned. It looks very interesting to those of us who do NOT want everything "wi-fi" or having to buy a subscription service.

 

[Captain America]

I use Blink cameras and doorbells, no fees, no wiring, requires WiFi…very happy with my setup.

 

[Dave P.]

Mine are a few years old but work for what I need. In an electrically "noisy" area they sometimes get some interference and I think their range is more like 100-150 feet most of the time vs. the 450 advertised. Have a friend who just got a Swann system that has more goodies. He can look at his feeds on his cell. I think some of the newer Phoenix stuff have more capabilities than what I have. If you want to see a cars plate number in your driveway you'll need better cameras than what I got. I'm not a fan of wireless security stuff but these do pretty well for the price

 

[Kevin]

A-MAZ-zinG! ONE person read the initial post that . . . DOES . . NOT . . require a "subscription fee".

Thanks Dave P; Your suggestion looks good.

no sir, I too read the post, perhaps you didn’t read the full context of the answers:

You can pay for a subscription, which allows you to have cloud storage. We don't pay and it works the same, just no cloud storage.

So there are systems out there that will work with OR without a subscription.

Next time just do your own homework.

 

[Biggfoot44]

After hitting enter, just had a thought, what about a trail cam, or some sort of dash cam from a car setup. Those wouldn't have a subscription and could save the data on a SD card. Plus it would be obvious.

The OP was looking at least as much for real time observation as for recording , a trail camera wouldn't do that .

 

[RSIno1]

Get yourself some wifi cameras off FleaBay - https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313&_nkw=wifi+camera&_sacat=0

I got a bluetooth one for about $10 that I mounted on the rear of the travel trailer to help back up. Works great.

 

[Biggfoot44]

After hitting enter, just had a thought, what about a trail cam, or some sort of dash cam from a car setup. Those wouldn't have a subscription and could save the data on a SD card. Plus it would be obvious.

The thing about Trail Cams as security cameras , is that the thieves frequently steal the trail cams . So if you go that route , well hidden , and no visable wave length flash .

 

[foxtrapper]

Amazon blink camera . No fee ,takes 2 lithium double a batteries. Batteries last 2 years or more ,mount anywhere.

 

[OM41]

We have NestCam it's the only one that records 24/7.

 

[Mega Twin]

I had 2 wyze cameras but haven't been able to find them since the move. They were wifi,but only through a phone. There was a delay from the time the motion detector in them till the phone alert.
they were older and weren't weather proof so maybe the newer ones are better.
No subscription and 14 days cloud storage.
www.wyze.com

 

[NightSailor]

I put in a video system. It has no fees. REOlink is the brand I use. I like the cameras they are day and night vision. Mine are powered using Power over Ethernet (POE). I have many cameras, both inside and outside, as I breed dogs and like to be able to check up on them.

So this requires running cat5 cable. I have several POE hubs to keep the wiring runs short.

I do not recommend wireless but you can do that as well, but will need good WiFi coverage and a battery and solar panel.

Finally I don’t much like the server for the Reolink. It work but gets bogged down if you have a lot of cameras. You can lower the resolution of some. Andreas and raise it on the door or driveway cameras. Video is stored on the server and you cam increase the storage if needed. Mine use motion sensing to save space.

If you have dogs and cameras no one will ever sneak up on you.

 

[mrmag00]

We have a ring and love it, and if you don’t need to know what happened 30 days ago you don’t need storage.

 

[G2]

ARLO, I pay nothing monthly.
IMO,,, better than a front door video camera. They have doorbell cameras but I don’t care for the view.
You can have up to 5 cameras on one system. I have 2 properties, ~400 miles apart, and while I did have to buy a extra base station for 1 of them, ~$80, I monitor both locations from my IPhone and
/or IPad. Very quick & easy.
you get 7 days of storage free, however see something you want/need to save, just download it.

Easy set up and learning curve.

The cameras can be set to; geo fenced, recording or live. ( a little delay on live ~5 seconds)
Will run on self contained re-chargable battery or constant power. Obviously the more features you, use the battery time can get short, but the system sends you alerts on low battery.

I bought my system, 5 camera, from Costco ~$500. I would suggest buy 5 cameras, you will use them, and it’s the cheapest way to get the cameras. (In a system package)

My front door is geo fenced and the camera goes into record mode once tripped. My phone gets an alert, very nice when UPS leaves a package.

This camera is out on my light post and unless you know it’s there you don’t see it.

this camera is on my driveway, walk in or around my car, yep I get an alert.

I have another 5 camera system on the Horse barn, I don't monitor it myself, it’s monitored by Groom. BUT I can look in, as a guest on this system.
If my Groom is on it, and I try to view it, will kick him off, then I usually get a text to “Stand Down”. ooops.
I use this system to check if the horses get feed when we have a temp taking care. It times when they show up to feed. Its nice when you need it. Again no monthly fee.

You can get more features, options , data storage, etc. for a fee and Arlo will keep you well informed of this…