Good cheap IP camera

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#1505569 3-Mar-2016 15:47

I've seen a Panasonic home monitoring kit at JB hi-fi, starter kit is around $500 but seems to work like the MorePork system that Spark sells (without the monthly fee)

ZollyMonsta

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#1505582 3-Mar-2016 16:16

I've now got two Escam QD520 IP cameras (approx $33 USD each) and picked up a 8 Camera NVR for $60 minus hard drive.
Another camera on the way (For indoors use with a 2.8mm lens) which was $22USD. Will be interesting to see how well that camera performs.
All cameras are 720p

The Escams work ok. The only quirk is the time on the cameras sometimes jumps forward or back an hour.. but I can live with it. The NTP has been set to check every couple of minutes so it will always correct itself. Motion detection works fine also. Camera picture quality I've no issue with. The annoying part was setup via IE as ActiveX required but once set up it's all good. There's no support on the cameras but the NVR seller was resonably helpful and the NVR does the job just fine.

I'm utilising the PiPo X7 I got a while ago as a go-between, so I can view the camera's remotely and view recordings (rather than leaving everything avaialble via 'the cloud' built in to the chinese equipment. The PiPo isn't much use for anything else due to it throttling it's CPU.

I also used both the Escam cameras for some time with iSpy and they worked flawlessly.

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#1526394 5-Apr-2016 15:29

So on the topic of cheap IP cameras, can I ask some newbie questions about cheap CCTV cameras? We've been having mail stolen and I'm sick of it, we cant see the mailbox from inside so the next best thing would be a camera of some sort. I work from home so I think a small tv with live stream from the camera, set up beside my workspace where I can watch it out of the corner of my eye would work best (don't need to record it and don't really need night viewing because not much post comes at night ;)), it doesn't need to be proper security/long term/crystal clear picture/over $50NZ as all I really need to see is if ANYONE is near my mailbox and I'll go sprinting outside, a yellin' and a whoopin'. I've looked into both IP Cameras and CCTV Cameras and it seems like the CCTV Camera would be the cheapest way to go for this.

Can one of you clever folk please tell me if I've got my understanding of a live/nonrecording CCTV set up correct? CCTV Camera (like this or this or this) plugs into a cable (like this), and that cable runs back inside and half of it plugs into the wall (via a 12v adaptor like this) and the other half hooks up to a regular old small tv on my desk (make sure the tv has 'X' input for the cable, I'm not sure what exactly the input is called)?

If that's correct, are there any laws around having surveillance cameras on your own private property (if the street can be seen in the background etc), or any laws around if you have a visible camera, it must always be on/working/recording in case someone runs to it for help/proof during an attack or such? I would only need it during the day time, and if such laws exist, id be happy to hang the camera up in the mornings and take it down in the evenings.

richms

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#1526574 5-Apr-2016 21:57

Composite input is what you are looking for. Most TVs have it on a yellow RCA plug, newer slim ones will have a 3.5mm input and come with a short adapter lead.

If your tv is widescreen then look for a "960H" camera - that is basically their way of saying it is a higher horizontal resolution and they generate a widescreen image, so everything will be the right shape on the tv, if you get one with a 4:3 sensor then you will be looking at a distorted image, which may really annoy you. It certainly does me.

But the thing is, if you just plug it into a TV, you will not have anything to alert you to movement and no record of what happened to do anything with. So unless you plan to sit staring at the picture in shifts ready to run outside to bash whoever is nicking your mail, it is pointless.

A cheap wifi IP camera will be watchable on a computer. Any computer on your network, and some have a sd card slot to record events into themselves, or you can leave the camera management software running on a PC to get them. Alerts on movement from the software, easy to have multiple people watching (not too many on a wifi camera because wifi is pretty slow) etc.

Richard rich.ms

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#1526578 5-Apr-2016 22:16

ZollyMonsta:

I've now got two Escam QD520 IP cameras (approx $33 USD each) and picked up a 8 Camera NVR for $60 minus hard drive.
Another camera on the way (For indoors use with a 2.8mm lens) which was $22USD. Will be interesting to see how well that camera performs.
All cameras are 720p

The Escams work ok. The only quirk is the time on the cameras sometimes jumps forward or back an hour.. but I can live with it. The NTP has been set to check every couple of minutes so it will always correct itself. Motion detection works fine also. Camera picture quality I've no issue with. The annoying part was setup via IE as ActiveX required but once set up it's all good. There's no support on the cameras but the NVR seller was resonably helpful and the NVR does the job just fine.

I'm utilising the PiPo X7 I got a while ago as a go-between, so I can view the camera's remotely and view recordings (rather than leaving everything avaialble via 'the cloud' built in to the chinese equipment. The PiPo isn't much use for anything else due to it throttling it's CPU.

I also used both the Escam cameras for some time with iSpy and they worked flawlessly.

Hmm... might have to get you tom PM me some links when you have some time, Mr ZollyMonsta!!

Youi

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#1527296 6-Apr-2016 20:21

richms:

Composite input is what you are looking for. Most TVs have it on a yellow RCA plug, newer slim ones will have a 3.5mm input and come with a short adapter lead.

If your tv is widescreen then look for a "960H" camera - that is basically their way of saying it is a higher horizontal resolution and they generate a widescreen image, so everything will be the right shape on the tv, if you get one with a 4:3 sensor then you will be looking at a distorted image, which may really annoy you. It certainly does me.

But the thing is, if you just plug it into a TV, you will not have anything to alert you to movement and no record of what happened to do anything with. So unless you plan to sit staring at the picture in shifts ready to run outside to bash whoever is nicking your mail, it is pointless.

A cheap wifi IP camera will be watchable on a computer. Any computer on your network, and some have a sd card slot to record events into themselves, or you can leave the camera management software running on a PC to get them. Alerts on movement from the software, easy to have multiple people watching (not too many on a wifi camera because wifi is pretty slow) etc.

Ahh, I do know what a Composite input is, my brain just couldn't recall the information lol, thank you :)

As I said above, the plan is to put the monitoring screen/tv right beside my laptop and to literally keep my left eye on the screen to see when any mail is delivered (I can run out and get it before he has a chance to steal it), and keep my right eye on my laptop screen doing my work (my peripheral vision is pretty good). Because the mailbox is on a footpath and has a road right behind it, any motion-alert system would be useless, it would go off every 30 seconds, there is lots of foot traffic so it really does need my eye on it/ability to quickly determine whos at my mailbox (be it a postie or someone stealing stuff), and I really don't think I could afford a security system that could differentiate between posties/general foot traffic/someone lingering too long at my mailbox! Its more for seeing when mail is delivered/whos walking up to my front door (we have no peep-hole nor way of seeing whos at the door without opening it), than it is for taking footage of a criminal in the act (and then giving said footage to the police etc), sorry, I should have been more clear about that.

I've done another 8+ hours of researching cameras today (I know how to spend a day off :P) and I'm not much closer to deciding. I thought I had decided to go with CCTV because I can get an outdoor camera + cable + power supply for under $50. But then you said "cheap wifi IP camera" so I went looking to see if such a thing existed (for an outdoor camera) and sadly it does not, any that come close are over $100+ :(

An IP camera would be better if I had a dedicated computer to view it on, I do not, my laptop can only handle running the program I need for work, I certainly couldn't have any other programs open and be viewing video at the same time, it would keel over and die lol. It would let me easily set up recording if needed in future. Outdoor IP cameras are also very expensive (for my budget level).

A CCTV camera would only be for live-viewing, which would show me a) mail deliveries, and b) visitors walking up to my door, two things I really want to know about (if I had a bloody window facing that way, id sit in front of it all day lol). I wouldnt feel like spending more money on a DVR etc for recording, but I don't want to record at the moment and have no plans to in future, though I do like to keep my options open. CCTV set up (outdoor camera + cable + power supply + old 14" tv) is much cheaper and closer to my limited budget (Id love to get the whole thing set up for under $50, but could stretch that to $70 max if anyone had and great ideas of how to do this that I've missed?).

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richms

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#1527297 6-Apr-2016 20:29

Put the camera in the mailbox in that case, so you can see if there is mail there if that is all you care about, or a motion sensing door alert inside it etc.

I know you think you will be able to watch it all the time, and I have a 3rd monitor for watching my IP cameras on and will often look up from a reciept im reading or something similar and see a courier van backing out that I did not notice arriving since I had music playing so didn't hear the ding from the motion sensing.

You can choose which areas are motion sensing, and most cameras let you have 4 sets of areas and put a different sensitivity on each of them.

IP cameras are cheap as, and the software doesn't do much CPU wise at all. under 1% on my crusty i5 machine. US$25ish for this one, I have the same guts in a metal case that I paid $35ish for, and other than a noisy sensor making it look bad at night (cheap analog cameras have the same) it works great. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/P2P-ONVIF-Megapixel-720P-HD-802-11b-g-n-Wireless-Wired-IP-Camera-WifI-IR-Outdoor/32313211840.html

Richard rich.ms

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#1527348 6-Apr-2016 21:56

I listened to Sbiddle and put in a couple of dahua hbd4300c dome cameras. They're nice and small. I use a Marley drainage end cap (100mm) to mount them as with a 40mm screw, it will go through camera, end cap and nicely into the roof space with enough room for the camera cable and Poe splitter to exist in the end cap....meaning all I have to drill into the roof/wall is the 3 screws and a hole for cat5.

Actually starting to look at nvrs now. Does something Like the dahua nvr4104 have its own dhcp? Thinking about running the cameras in they're own network and routing to it for playback.

I saw this thread send quite liked the look of it http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=73&topicid=154602

I'm currently using the Smartpss software and software NVR. But would like to remove it from my main server.

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#1527563 7-Apr-2016 11:56

Setup Hikvision about a year ago for parents drive, very happy with it.

Think this is the same model http://www.amazon.com/Hikvision-DS-2CD2032F-I-Replace-DS-2CD2032-I-Multi-language/dp/B00YJ2QICO/ref=sr_1_2?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1459986885&sr=1-2&keywords=hikvision+ds-2cd2032-i

reven

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#1528688 8-Apr-2016 19:06

Order one of these

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/161647799372?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Arrived yesterday, so much better than a QD520. Setup was a breeze (works in chrome, very easy to configure) added it to blueiris (motioneyeos is giving me troubles atm) and working very well.

Just ordered 2 more of them, very cheap (doesnt come with power adapter, but I bought a multi power adapter that powers 4 cameras with one power supply & some power + network injectors).

night vision seems to work well, theyre waterproof and are very cheap. im happy with these ones. so much better than a QD520 (which was a PITA to setup)

Blanch

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#1528733 8-Apr-2016 20:09

reven:

Order one of these

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/161647799372?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Arrived yesterday, so much better than a QD520. Setup was a breeze (works in chrome, very easy to configure) added it to blueiris (motioneyeos is giving me troubles atm) and working very well.

Just ordered 2 more of them, very cheap (doesnt come with power adapter, but I bought a multi power adapter that powers 4 cameras with one power supply & some power + network injectors).

night vision seems to work well, theyre waterproof and are very cheap. im happy with these ones. so much better than a QD520 (which was a PITA to setup)

Thanks, what supply does it need?

I'll give blueiris a try and see if I can get my logitech alert 750 to work with openhab

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#1528786 8-Apr-2016 21:56

heres the power adapter I bought for the cameras

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201275551883?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=500473913217&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

ZollyMonsta

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#1528788 8-Apr-2016 22:14

reven:
heres the power adapter I bought for the cameras

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201275551883?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=500473913217&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Is it certified for AU/NZ? Looks interesting...

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reven

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#1528798 8-Apr-2016 22:20

ZollyMonsta:
reven:

heres the power adapter I bought for the cameras

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201275551883?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=500473913217&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Is it certified for AU/NZ? Looks interesting...

god i have no idea, and I could care even less tbh.

SepticSceptic

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#1546062 3-May-2016 14:29

Just received a couple of these from Aliexpress, 2 weeks delivery ..

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/ip-camera-720p-HD-wifi-outdoor-wateproof-cctv-security-system-surveillance-mini-wireless-cam-infrared-P2P/32416891295.html

I have a couple of Dlink Indoor cameras, DCS-930L, and a DCS932L, doing ftp transfer to a server after motion detecting. Works reasonably well, though the motion detection settings took a bit of work to prevent false triggering, and still does occasionally false-trigger with varying cloud cover.

I'll use one of the Jienuo cameras externally, and the other to replace the DCS932, as the clicking from DCS932 as it changes infra-red modes is annoying.

Probably look at BlueIris, as these camera are purported to be Onvif compliant.

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