Hi Guys -

We are looking to add an outdoor wireless home security camera system. Probably want 3 - 5 cameras. Looking for advice on brands. Looking at systems from Arlo and Blink right now. After reading reviews on line I don't know what to think. The reviews seem split between they are great systems and they suck. Anyone have experience or advice on the quality and usefulness of these or other do-it-yourself systems? Thanks.

I’m looking too. I think I’m going with Arlo. I don’t really know much about them. I would prefer a system that has its own computer and saves files to a scan card.

You'll probably get the same mixed responses asking the question as reviews.
I haven't bought anything yet but have been looking off and on. The biggest things I'm looking for is one that the system works the way I like because some plain suck. Also something that the cameras aren't proprietary so that you aren't stuck buying the same make or model of camera if you want better cameras or want to expand later. That's computer based so that you can log into it from any computer in your house to see what's going on.
I don't get what they advertise as wireless cameras. Yeah they might be wifi but just about all of them still need a power plug. It's easier to run a network wire to them then it is to put a plug near it.

I got a read deal on Ring stuff, (w/o the deal I never would have paid what they cost full price) have a doorbell cam and 2 floodlight cams. They work great and the online cloud storage of video costs $10/mon or $100/yr but it works reliably.

budget matters, how tech savy are you matters, as 5th ave mentioned, how wireless is wireless to you. There are battery operated camera's, but it gets expensive even with rechargeable, as they don't last that long.
There are also people that wire up battery packs to power non-battery operated camera's in hard to get at area's of the home or away from power. using inverters and POE type camera's.

also some expectations should be set depending on budget and what you plan on doing with the camera's as well.

night vs day, distance, PVR record time, clarity, notifications or remote viewing. All of these change the price point, some a little, some dramatically.

Piecing together a system can be done, but cost will be a factor. While it is true you are allowing flexibility of cameras, the capture portion depending on the camera can be expensive. There are "free" softwares out there that let you use generic IP camera's as well. but then they limit the ability to use them till you pay for that feature.

You should also be careful about "cloud" based storage or company storage like Ring.
If the internet goes out you don't get a recording of what happened.
like the old days where they cut your phone line and no alarm goes out, cutting your cable / internet means ring doesn't record what happened when they come to your front door.
a few others are like that wyze is like that, but they do offer the ability to put in a memory card in their camera's so at least you have local recording.

Reolink is the one I currently use, but that was more budget minded.
I have added on to the original system a few times, but may have to step up due to clarity issues, as well as speed to view on their apps.

all that was to say, what are you trying to use it for, and what kind of budget do you have in mind. how easy is it to run power vs actual cable connections?
As I have places I can run power easy, but to get ethernet back to a central place would be impossible.

I use the Nest system. I like the quality of the video and sound.
https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_cam_iq_outdoor

My wife did the research and she purchased the Blink system. She knew if it was a complicated install that it wouldn’t ever get done. I think it took me 20 minutes to install three cameras. Truly wireless, the ONLY caveat to the system is you need to keep the stepladder handy with a bulk pack of lithium AAs as you’ll be changing the batteries every now and then. My kids play in the yard and front porch all the time and trigger the hell out of the cameras and even with that wasted energy the battery replacement is still a small price to pay IMO for the convenience of the system. This is geared for the people with good WiFi and smartphones. If you have a flip phone you’re missing out on most of the system’s convenience. Sensitivity and quality are all very adjustable and the motion detection is so advanced, you can gray out certain areas of the picture and it will ignore motion there. This is very handy if you want good sensitivity on the driveway without false triggers every time a car goes by or neighbor walks down the sidewalk. They’re still tweaking the effectiveness of that feature, it’s pretty new. Everything is adjusted and viewed from your smartphone I will try to upload a couple screenshots of the adjustment page.

How long do the batteries last? How good quality is the videos? Does it work without internet?

How quick is the reaction to motion sensor? Instant recording, or is there a delay?

Batteries could last a year in a house with adults or 6-8 weeks if you’ve got kids playing in the backyard and forget to disable the motion detection. Quality is good, does not work without internet. You can toggle notifications from the app. We had a high school kid drive through our backyard one afternoon and we got a notification instantly, within 30 mins we not only figured out who it was, he was notified we had him on camera (he didn’t tear up the yard he was playing cat and mouse with other kids/cars) and he apologized.

Motion sense is quick. It’s a very very good system for the money spent and ease of install. I have no doubt you could spend thousands and get higher image quality etc etc but for the couple hundred dollar price category it’s about impossible to beat. Videos upload to the cloud almost instantly so even if someone’s saw the camera and ran off with it I still have the video of them doing it. We use it to keep track of the kids, which of their friends come over, whether they had their glasses on when they came home or left them at school, etc etc. endlessly handy. We were on vacation in Texas and saw that a relative had left the garage walk in door open and got a neighbor to go close it for us. We know when the mail shows up too.

Got this 8-camera wireless system about a year ago, no complaints. Crystal clear images at respectable range and cloud-based smart phone access.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ZOSI-1080p...urity-Camera-System-1TB-HDD/221757400580

Thanks, Good to know on bttery life. I'm looking for something that's not cloud based. At the moment i use trail cams and can at least check them from time to time to see what's going on and have picture record of who comes and goes.

I've had Ring and Nest for years. NEEST is the only way to go because you can see a continuous stream of historical video. The Ring onkly records a couple minutes whenever there is motion (or sound) but sometimes you want to be able to see the history.

I have Wyze cameras. Can view playback on an SD card and save a few days worth on a 32GB card. If you're looking for actual security cameras, I would use them with caution. I mainly use them to watch the dogs when I'm not home, see if the garage door is closed, see who comes to the door, and a few other areas. Not instant notifications and sound is not great. No subscription needed for most things.

I just went through this. Got talked out of wireless and ended up with 5 cameras from back street surveillance.

Ring with the solar panel has been working well for 2 years so far. I have another one that is a hardwired floodlight, and a couple that run off batteries. Those last a few months at a time, more in the warm, less in the winter of course. I keep a spare and rotate them and it’s no big deal. Have the door bell too.

I just recently bought a couple of Wyze Pan Cams. They can pan and tilt and they were $60 with the outdoor wiring kit. They work very well with some exceptions. They do some weird stuff, the backyard cam occasionally just turns around and faces the house for no reason, and my front yard cam stop detecting motion. They track motion which is nice, when someone gets out of their car in the driveway it follows them all the way to the door and back. They have a great picture and good sound, since you can move them around they can take the place of 2 cameras in some cases. They have had 2 updates in the few weeks I have had them so they seem to be working on them.

You get more features if you subscribe to the cloud service which is $20 per camera.