Security Camera Options and Installers?

thisisjames

New member
Hi guys,

Looking to install security camera for my home (both indoors and outdoors, but primarily outdoors).

Does anyone have recommendations on equipment or installers?  What's the typical cost of installation?

I had previously thought about Arlo Pro, while the battery concept is good, the lag and the thought about changing batteries made me think twice.  Costco has a few different units that looked cost effective, but I would need some professional installers to help hide wires.

Thoughts?
 
I have Arlo Pro from Costco and works fine for me. 3 months in and battery is still at 65% full. Lag is about half to 1 second. Really not that bad. Recharge of battery will only take about 4-6 hours once every 6 months. Don't believe the reviews, most people I know that have Arlo are happy with it.

If you want super Hi-Res, face recognition and all bells and whistles, Arlo is not for you. Than again, those systems are more expensive.

I chose Arlo Pro because I just did not want to deal with running wire and getting an electrician in. Did it myself.
 
rickr said:
I have Arlo Pro from Costco and works fine for me. 3 months in and battery is still at 65% full. Lag is about half to 1 second. Really not that bad. Recharge of battery will only take about 4-6 hours once every 6 months. Don't believe the reviews, most people I know that have Arlo are happy with it.

If you want super Hi-Res, face recognition and all bells and whistles, Arlo is not for you. Than again, those systems are more expensive.

I chose Arlo Pro because I just did not want to deal with running wire and getting an electrician in. Did it myself.

Thanks.  I'm not looking for that much bells and whistles, just need something that's hi-res enough to capture faces, and to capture cars plates pulling into driveways. 

As for Ring, we were looking for something in addition to the door bell camera.  They also have the Stick Up cam with solar panel option.  The problem is it's only 720p.
 
If the purpose of having a camera is to produce footage as evidence in the event of criminal activity, then you need a camera that is capable of producing high quality imagery.  I'm not sure that any of the Wi-Fi cameras are capable of this; especially at a distance of 20-30 feet.  I have a hard wired surveillance camera system with 3mp cameras and can attest that when I needed to produce footage for the police, it was nice to be able to zoom in and see the suspects' faces in detail.  The footage is of no value to the police if it is grainy or fuzzy.
 
thisisjames said:
Thanks.  I'm not looking for that much bells and whistles, just need something that's hi-res enough to capture faces, and to capture cars plates pulling into driveways.

We have Arlo but not the Pro. It can not view plate numbers. Believe me - we've tried. We've even tried to enhance the footage and still no luck. There are a lot of things we like about the Arlo. This just isn't one of them. I hope the Pro will do what you're looking for but unless it's a huge improvement, it may not.
 
irvine buyer said:
If the purpose of having a camera is to produce footage as evidence in the event of criminal activity, then you need a camera that is capable of producing high quality imagery.  I'm not sure that any of the Wi-Fi cameras are capable of this; especially at a distance of 20-30 feet.  I have a hard wired surveillance camera system with 3mp cameras and can attest that when I needed to produce footage for the police, it was nice to be able to zoom in and see the suspects' faces in detail.  The footage is of no value to the police if it is grainy or fuzzy.

Thanks.  Exactly why I'm looking for hardwired options.  The units from costco seem to be decent at around $800 for 8 camera.  I'm curious about the installation costs...
 
Most vendors will charge between $80-100/hour.  Our home came pre-wired for cat-5 and the builder's installer provided pull wires that made it easier to run cabling where needed.  The install cost will depend on how easy it is to wire the surveillance cameras. 
 
I have a friend who consults for security systems using hikvision cameras and I use a 3MP one.  The motion detection is infinitely better than a Ring's and I use an NVR with a RAID 0 (data redundancy) drive to record about 3 weeks worth of data.

If anyone's interested, feel free to hit me up or come look at my install.  I like this setup because it uses PoE (Power Over Ethernet)  Both the power and the Internet is carried through the Ethernet cable.  It's really clean and works well with a new build house.
 
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