I want to set up a movement-triggered camera to overlook a back yard and gate. It doesn't have to be GoPro quality as it'll be inside on the windowsill (will it work through glass?). Don't want it to be noticeable from outside, so between things on the sill. Needs to be self-contained (no wifi there; running off wall wart OK) so a micro-SD card or similar. I've tried searching and all those that I've found are FO expesive - £150 - £300! Is there anything else that's possible - don't really what other possibilities there are.
I have 13 massive great 8x8' patio doors with only a couple of clear glass windows above the two kitchen sinks and it made sense to have most of the security cameras inside where some scrote cant easily see them or steal or damage them.
The movement trigger doesnt work.
HikVision do some cameras which actually use a movement in the video image to trigger the capture and alarm, but they are much more expensive.
Yeah, that was my requirement too. Easy to conceal the camera in stuff inside so it isnt visible at all.
Or inside something with lots of holes with the camera looking thru one of the holes.
I'd add wifi so you can respond to an alarm and watch what is going on to decide if its a scrote or just something blowing in the wind or a cat etc. My arlos work very well inside the house and even detect a mouse moving thru the field of view.
Yeah, the best of them aren't cheap, particularly if you want to be able to read a car or motorbike number plate.
Yes, the best of the security cameras, but they aren't cheap at all.
I have never seen any that guarantee they will work through a window, since some double glazed units have coatings that interfere with infra red transmission. Luckily these days I have no use for one. I'd have thought there were lots of outdoor ones about though from some of the adverts for security systems I hear. Brian
Somebody I knew a few years ago, mounted his camera in a false roof built on a bird nesting box. I'm sure one could disguise any old camera if you wanted. I'm assuming then you are setting up a criminal honey trap? Brian
It could be image processing by comparing two consecutive image frames. It could be a PIR motion sensor similar to those used for lights. It could be microwave motion sensing, again as used on some lights.
I have a £50 TP-LINK Tapo C320WS 2K WiFi Outdoor Security Camera that needs setting up via wi-fi and an app on a smart phone but once set up it just needs power. It has a AI function (to detect humans), a line crossing function (records anything crossing a configured line on the image), area detection and exclusion zones. It uses the image to do these functions AND within the camera itself.
If you are just looking for human intruders the AI function works extremely well without false alarms.
It can be configured to record to a sd card only on detection of any of the above triggers. It's monitoring all the time but only records a bit before and a bit after the triggers detailed above. It can also record
24/7 if configured that way.
Although a cloud storage is offered I decline to use it.
Having used it the stand alone mode with just power and no wi-fi it can be brought back into the home network environment and the recorded video viewed on the smart phone app.
Before writing this I switched off my router/wi-fi and tested the recording function.
What you may lose is the clock/date by not having wi-fi connection whilst power is removed.
Night illumination is via IR LEDS so if placed indoors behind the window the lens may have to be touching the glass to avoid reflections from the LEDs and maybe the night time illumination range may be shortened. Without wi-fi the connection LED will also flash so a bit of tape across it may be required if the camera is not to be noticed.
Tapo do a C310 camera with similar features and cd storage for £35 (the higher spec 320 has low light colour but at night/darkness reverts to black/white with IR illumination)
Tapo also have the C100 indoor camera at around £20 with sd storage but I haven't looked too much into that models operation. It has a lower resolution.
Other points to note. Motion detection can be triggered by raindrops dripping in front of the camera and at night by moths and other flying insects. It's advisable to exclude bushes and trees swaying in the wind. The latter will be difficult with the TAPO devices because there in no inbuilt viewing and you need the Tapo app. I have my Tapo connected via my router for Wi-fi but possibly it could be connected directly to a smart phone BUT I haven't investigated or tried this method of connection.
alan_m snipped-for-privacy@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote
That's not that cheap.
That has no mechanism to alarm when it detects an intruder.
Trouble with that approach is that its too late to be able to do anything useful with it unless its one of your neighbours who is the intruder and so can be recognised and even then, its too late to do anything useful about the intrusion.
So isnt even very useful for recording what a neighbour got up to.
But not very useful to have an after the event recording of what happened and you would have to take the sd card out and look at what got recorded to even realise that someone had intruded.
So what you consider to be cheap for a camera that has the functions that the OP requires? As I wrote there is a cheaper version @£35 that effectively does the same.
Again the OP has already said "no internet , computer, or anything else in the house" so what camera at less than £35 has an alarm function that will either sound an alarm or report it by some other means to the user in a timely manner.
BTW the Tapo C320WS has both a white light and an audible alarm that can be triggered on detecting an event.
What does the OP want to monitor? Without wi-fi, internet it is unlikely to be transmitting live video elsewhere. if the OP is monitoring a screen on the camera then he may as well be just looking out of the window instead.
But it will record. The only thing you may not have is an accurate time stamp. If it's that important just configure the camera to record continuously 24 hour a day. You will know when you switched it on. With a 256G sd card it can record for a month before starting to overwrite the most historic data. A fast 256G card would however be the same price as a camera.
How is the OP going to transmit the live feed with no wi-fi, no internet and no computer. From what he has written I suspect that he will be viewing the content of a sd card after any events.
Again, what would you advise at under the expensive £35 price point for a camera that meets all the OP requirements plus overcomes all the problems that you have mentioned in this post.
I not suggesting that the Tapo is the correct or best solution but it is a possibility. It may not suit the OP.
It's not a bad camera if you have it connected to to your home network.
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