Anyone with experience using ‘stand alone’ security cameras?

Hello, I second the recommendation on Reolink. It is now carried at Costco as Lorex was dropped I believe due to new china policies.

 

Reolink is good too.

 

Reolink in my opinion is one of the most underrated companies. I don’t have experience with their dvrs unfortunately. I do use their cameras tied to a synology dvr, blue iris in the past.

currently looking to revamp my home system again though.

 

Have to add my support for reolink. I currently have 8 POE cameras around the house and one WiFi camera that I can sit where ever I need it. The wifi one can be steered and has two way communication.

Didn't see it mentioned, but the reolink app works pretty good. No cost and you can access your recorder over cellular or wifi.

 

Another Eufy user here. I use their model 330 4k res wireless cameras that link to Eufy’s base station. I upped the base unit to 1TB storage, but I tend to keep events deleted. The cameras network through the base and so does their doorbell. One camera is roughly 40’ from the base, through a number of walls and a floor, and it connects fine. The cameras record in 4k and videos are very sharp. They also have microphone, speaker, spotlight and IR lighting for sharp images at night. Video images are stored on the base so no subscription fees and can be downloaded through their app or usb port.
The cameras have a solar panel and after a few months and many events all camera batteries are still 100%. They also have recognition AI so you’re supposed to upload family face pics and they don’t activate a recording event if it recognizes a face. I haven’t messed with that feature yet to form an opinion on the viability of that.
The only drawback is the base has to be hardwired to your router, so they need to be proximate, but the base is small device and not that obtrusive.
I’m very pleased with this system and you can essentially put cameras anywhere you want absent wiring.

 

I use the Nest cameras for many years (~13 yrs) and loved them but then the price/mon for video added up plus you had to pay that price for each camera.

Long story short, you know how the story goes “if you can’t beat them buy them” and along came Google. I used to be a fan but like most monopolies (oops, don’t say that too loud it offends them) the customer service becomes not that at all, no service or care but a WHOLE BUNCH of apologies. They made changes, the cameras were made in a different facility, software changed and pricing changed. Well I took some cams offline (no notifications in the entire time we lived here so offline it went) and stopped the monthly service for some and only kept what I thought was most pertinent. Well I started getting all kinds of surveys sent my way from them and told them like it was.

Now Google is much more helpful than the past and now I pay one price per year no matter how many cameras I have. That was one of my suggestions, I said people would stop paying unless one price for unlimited cameras then the money made from their cameras increased. They actually became better quality over time.

If $100/yr (I reached in elbow deep for that price) or something like that does not bother you I would recommend them. Word of caution, if you have new cameras and old equipment like your Wi-Fi router or old phone then the speed will not make you happy. Same thing with old cameras and new equipment in your home, the incompatibility makes for a long handshake before things appear.

I also heard from a guy at the Club House that has two cabins in Canada and he showed me on his phone where he had 18 cameras and everything was so flipping fast. He said I believe the cameras were Arlo cameras and he did not pay anything.

You would not have to pay anything for Google cameras either “if” you do not want to be able to go back and review your camera footage to review an incident. That is how I found out who hit my trash can in front of my house. Damn! I could not load the video here