Is it possible to set up a security camera outdoors over wifi for around fifty to a hundred bucks?

You cannot get high resolution videos over WiFi. I have tried that. Anything over 720p will be choppy. Even 720p will be choppy if not close to the WiFi router. You should consider using network cable to connect the security camera to your router.

That's good advice at this stage when I'm deciding what will work best, as I'm not trying to get fancy but it has to be good enough to recognize license plates and faces I would think, in case of a recordable event.

An advantage of the cable is it is its own POE which I think can go around

How do they store the events? Can they do a day? A week? A month?

Most store via an SD card or to your hard drive or ISP.

Depends on your storage size.

One of the simplest options is to put one of those cards in a USB camera. Then you can use an ethernet to USB dongle to power it long distances. The watertight housing can be as simple as a pickle jar.

Maybe a Raspberry Pi camera in a transparent watertight container. Since the RPi has USB, you could also use a USB camera you like. There are even POE to USB adapters for more options to power it.

A Raspberry Pi is $35 for the 1 GB version ``(but spend a little more for the 2 GB or the 4GB).

Do an amazon look at this for 50 bucks. I bought similar 2 years ago but the page is gone. I get alerts, can set sensitivity, from my phone, laptop, whatever. I can talk and listen. I can turn on while at work to take a look. I charge it every 5 or 6 months. The app is called adorcam. No regrets. In my cart when i just looked at old orders was also a scandisk card. Bioth were about 85 bucks. The videos remain until you delete them. My wife deletes them from her phone and they are all deleted from all devices.

Cameras for Home Security, 1080P Security Cameras Wireless Outdoor with Motion Detection, Spotlight/Siren Alarm, Color Night Vision, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof SD/Cloud Storage Battery Powered WiFi Camera

I use these.

They're WIFI and I would never use a wireless camera indoors. It records audio as well. 

Amazon.com : WYZE Cam OG 1080p HD Wi-Fi Security Camera - Indoor/Outdoor, Color Night Vision, Spotlight, 2-Way Audio, Cloud & Local storage- Ideal for Home Security, Baby, Pet Monitoring - Alexa & Google Assistant : Electronics

However, the only way you can get "events" (audio and/or video) is with their online service. But it doesn't cost anything and the videos are stored in the camera with an SD card. Not online. You can configure it to record continuously or only record events. You get the events regardless.

You can access the video on the SD card online. I was able to watch what was going on around the house while we were on vacation. What I like the most is being able to specify a detection zone and its sensitivity for events. It notifies you online in real time with the Android app when there are events. 

You can have a conversation as well. I've never used that.

You can't use ethernet for the video. You would have to have WIFI. Maybe a show stopper. You have to get a third party POE adapter. Wyze doesn't have one.

I've had them since 2018. They work OK. They're not the high end but they're pretty stable. Day and night.

I think the op wanted something that didn't send the video to a 3rd party.

I think a simple USB webcam (4MP video (2560x1440) at 30 frames/sec for $36) under a small aquarium for rainproofing would work fine.

Because it is USB, all of the free motion-detector software can use it, and store the videos on his computer.

If you want a super cheap camera an ESP32 cam may be the way to go. It needs wifi but the ESP32 cam is prolly the cheapest setup possible.

Here's a video of a guy walking through the ESP32 cam setup.

However they're crap. They're like buying a dancing bear on the cheap (it's not how well the bear dances, but that it can dance at all).

An advantage of a real camera is to catch license plate numbers.

Those services that save in the cloud (such as Wyze, Nest, and Ring) tend to blur out the license plate numbers for a reason unknown to me, but as a result, they're often not useful for security cams that face the road.

However, that little ESP32 camera does not have the resolution or speed to capture the plate number anyways.

A 4k video camera would be nicer, or a still camera with even better resolution in motion-detector mode. But they're prolly more than $100.

Nick Agostini snipped-for-privacy@hughesnet.com wrote

You can get a Hikvision LPR camera:

Another option, although above a hundred bucks, is a POE camera.

Charles Jack Jones snipped-for-privacy@cjj.com wrote

I wonder if an old Android phone with a motion detector app can work?

My camera has an option for uploading to the cloud, but that is optional.

I have a 256 GB microSD card in it, and I can access the camera using my local intranet. It was $110, which is outside the OP's target price, but I wanted the 12 megapixels to see license plate numbers (day and night).

Given they're made for cars, the OP might consider a cheap $50 dashcam.

Even better is to rig a can of spray paint and some mace. :)

All the people streaming videos today at higher resolutions would disagree. You only need a few mbps, I regularly connect and see speeds an order of magnitude higher on wifi.

The camera I have is this one, which costs about $110 each.

Either one would typically work in normal day/night security norms. If that's too much money for the OP, this should work

It is only 5 megapixels (2592 by 1994 pixels) but that is still better than high-definition television. They have free returns if it doesn't work out for the OP.

I would suggest a 4mm lens instead of the wide angle (2.8 mm) lens. This will go a further distance which is often needed in such cameras. And the bullet form will probably be better than the turret form.

The OP can put in a microSD card and it uses a POE & CAT5 cabling. The OP will likely want to connect it directly to his home router. It will probably involve drilling a hole in the wall to get outside.

Does anyone else have experience with these security camera setups?

Thomas snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

I had bought this only a month or two ago.

I have it locked with a six-inch Master lock holding it onto a steel post.

I would have bought the better one for another $3 had I seen it first.