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Thread: Best security cameras - Canary? Nest? Other?

  1. #1

    Best security cameras - Canary? Nest? Other?

    I’m intending to upgrade my cameras. I have ones that were about 5 years old, and a complete faff to get working online.

    Can someone recommend the best system for the following:

    1. Works straight out of box, to an app, minimal tech setup
    2. Outdoor cameras
    3. Ability to get real time notification
    4. Ability to see images / video post-event, pref without subscription (though will certainly consider)
    5. Works on android and iOS
    6. Establishes brand unlikely to disappear or have glitches

    Many thanks!

  2. #2
    Master
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    Hikvision.
    NVR

    Awesome

  3. #3
    Hikvision

    My friend runs his own cctv business
    Uses them as best option etc

    Has many contracts with likes of boots opticians, Ford, punch taverns

    Reliable and high quality build

  4. #4
    I have next indoor and outdoor... very good and would get more. Very clear, good app and night vision is great.

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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by JGJG View Post
    I’m intending to upgrade my cameras. I have ones that were about 5 years old, and a complete faff to get working online.

    Can someone recommend the best system for the following:

    1. Works straight out of box, to an app, minimal tech setup
    2. Outdoor cameras
    3. Ability to get real time notification
    4. Ability to see images / video post-event, pref without subscription (though will certainly consider)
    5. Works on android and iOS
    6. Establishes brand unlikely to disappear or have glitches

    Many thanks!
    Well I have the Canary and I would not recommend it but I'm stuck with it I'm afraid after shelling out £79 for the annual contract - if you don't pay you only get 10 secs of footage recorded rather than the whole event that triggered it which it hink is a bit naff as the set up cost me £159 anyway!!! You will also not be able to download footage to your phone - which also makes it useless as I use it to spy and check the post man has shut my gate when he drops my letters lol!

    tldr : they shackle you to a contract so you are stuck using it for a year. After 12 months it is unlikely you will buy a new one and replace it so you will be stuck with them forever. muhaha

  6. #6
    I have 2 Netatmo presence cameras and love them butbyou need a decent WiFi signal for them to reliable. No subscription as such you can use Dropbox

  7. #7
    Hikvision, just works. Put in eight cameras in the last 8 months. Brilliant.
    Last edited by catch21; 23rd May 2018 at 11:43.

  8. #8
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    I messed around with a few cameras that I put in myself, but in the end up ripped them out and paid a CCTV company to put proper ones in. The quality is so much better and they are good at putting them up high in the places you actually want them.

    We can see the cameras from apps on our phones or on PC's and smart TVs. I am unsure about motion detection, there are a lot of facilities here but I dont really play with it. We added a ring doorbell, which works very well, except it needs charging every now and then. So the system is doubled up from that perspective.

    I can get an alert of movement on ring, then choose to either look at the view from the ring on my front door, or look at all the cameras around the outside of the house. It works well.

  9. #9
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    Get cameras with starlight (Starvis) sensors. The night vision is incredible, and don't get hung up on megapixels 2mp is good enough for most situations.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by andyb28 View Post
    I messed around with a few cameras that I put in myself, but in the end up ripped them out and paid a CCTV company to put proper ones in. The quality is so much better and they are good at putting them up high in the places you actually want them.

    We can see the cameras from apps on our phones or on PC's and smart TVs. I am unsure about motion detection, there are a lot of facilities here but I dont really play with it. We added a ring doorbell, which works very well, except it needs charging every now and then. So the system is doubled up from that perspective.

    I can get an alert of movement on ring, then choose to either look at the view from the ring on my front door, or look at all the cameras around the outside of the house. It works well.

    I have a ring doorbell too bit hard wired it so no charging required.
    I should add regarding the netatmo presence that they look and act like security lights except in the app you choose what they do when it spots a person, animal, car or something else. It either turns the light on and/or records and/ or alerts depending on what you want it to do.
    Means I don’t end up with thousands of videos of the dog doing his stuff in the garden :)

  11. #11
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    Dahua is another brand to consider. In the same category as HIK

  12. #12
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    I have 2 Arlo cams set up, changed the batteries after about 8 months but haven’t needed to do anything else and they have been excellent!

  13. #13
    Master Alansmithee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanBear View Post
    I have 2 Arlo cams set up, changed the batteries after about 8 months but haven’t needed to do anything else and they have been excellent!
    I've found arlo to be a dud - camera where the IR filter fails (so the image is pink), cameras that eat batteries etc.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by D4RK1 View Post
    Dahua is another brand to consider. In the same category as HIK
    "Get cameras with starlight (ie Sony Starvis) sensors. The night vision is incredible, and don't get hung up on megapixels 2mp is good enough for most situations."

    These are the ones I fitted and that I'm talking about, Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (model no IPC-HDW5231R-Z) cameras. Google them for a review, they are well worth a look.

  15. #15
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    Another vote for Hikvision.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    I've found arlo to be a dud - camera where the IR filter fails (so the image is pink), cameras that eat batteries etc.
    I've had 4 Arlo cameras for three years now, and I'm a fan. You do have to replace the batteries, but for me that's a price worth paying for the easy wireless placement.

    IIRC the subscription only kicks in when you have over a certain number of cameras and if you want to keep videos for more than a month.

    The only downside for me is that (because they're battery powered) they only record when they detect motion, so you can't review the last days' footage to see if anything happened (y'know, like they do in cop movies), but they work well for knowing who was at your door when. You can also look at them remotely at any point and manually trigger recording.

    I'd say Arlo happily satisfies all your criteria.

  17. #17
    Many thanks for all the responses so far, plenty to be thinking about. With Arlo, the customer service seems to get less than stellar reviews?

  18. #18
    Master robcuk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MadeOfCheese View Post
    I've had 4 Arlo cameras for three years now, and I'm a fan. You do have to replace the batteries, but for me that's a price worth paying for the easy wireless placement.

    IIRC the subscription only kicks in when you have over a certain number of cameras and if you want to keep videos for more than a month.

    The only downside for me is that (because they're battery powered) they only record when they detect motion, so you can't review the last days' footage to see if anything happened (y'know, like they do in cop movies), but they work well for knowing who was at your door when. You can also look at them remotely at any point and manually trigger recording.

    I'd say Arlo happily satisfies all your criteria.
    AFAIK all home CCTV systems only result on movement, I understood they compare the last image to the current and only save an image if there is a ‘significant’ change, otherwise you’d need a NAS the size of a small planet if it recorded 24/7, surely?

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by robcuk View Post
    AFAIK all home CCTV systems only result on movement, I understood they compare the last image to the current and only save an image if there is a ‘significant’ change, otherwise you’d need a NAS the size of a small planet if it recorded 24/7, surely?
    They (mine anyway) can record continuously and 'rotate' recordings when disc full.

  20. #20
    Master robcuk's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kingstepper View Post
    They (mine anyway) can record continuously and 'rotate' recordings when disc full.
    So, without reuse, what’s the maximum time a recording is likely to remain? A few days, a wee?

  21. #21
    Master senwar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by robcuk View Post
    So, without reuse, what’s the maximum time a recording is likely to remain? A few days, a wee?
    Mine is 30 days (hikvision). 2TB hard drive.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by robcuk View Post
    So, without reuse, what’s the maximum time a recording is likely to remain? A few days, a wee?
    Depends on recording quality and disk size. On my system 24h would occupy ~40MB though I don't record continuously and rely on motion detection.
    Last edited by Kingstepper; 23rd May 2018 at 21:47.

  23. #23
    Master JC180's Avatar
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    Another vote for Hikvision, have 16 they just work and quality is exceptional.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by JGJG View Post
    Many thanks for all the responses so far, plenty to be thinking about. With Arlo, the customer service seems to get less than stellar reviews?

    Not having had to use it, I can't comment. The setup is super simple, and I've found it 100% reliable over the years, so I haven't had to use customer services or support.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by robcuk View Post
    So, without reuse, what’s the maximum time a recording is likely to remain? A few days, a wee?
    Depends on drive size, but WD Purple drives aren't that expensive. Like £100 should buy you a 4TB drive that can save 1 camera for ages.

    Quote Originally Posted by MadeOfCheese View Post
    I've had 4 Arlo cameras for three years now, and I'm a fan. You do have to replace the batteries, but for me that's a price worth paying for the easy wireless placement.

    IIRC the subscription only kicks in when you have over a certain number of cameras and if you want to keep videos for more than a month.

    The only downside for me is that (because they're battery powered) they only record when they detect motion, so you can't review the last days' footage to see if anything happened (y'know, like they do in cop movies), but they work well for knowing who was at your door when. You can also look at them remotely at any point and manually trigger recording.

    I'd say Arlo happily satisfies all your criteria.
    Big fan of Arlo as well when recommending camera's to people that don't want to put in too much effort. The battery usage when triggered by movement (based on schedule) is very modest, plus it saves you having to set up cables (even PoE requires you to drill big holes in your walls). Compared to setting up a NVR (e.g. Synology + Surveillance Station) with some Foscam/Dahua/etc. cams, it's a breeze, with a well-working app and great features. Now, it's not that dramatic setting up a NVR, but if you're not tech-inclined you do run into a wall of badly translated Chinese manuals if something doesn't work, especially when using brands like Dahua (while their Starlight camera's are excellent!). E.g. with Dahua I had a couple of camera's fail about a year ago because of an unwanted firmware update which caused the camera's to keep rebooting. It took ages with much resetting and eventually blocking the outgoing traffic from the camera's on my router to get them going again, but that caused issues with the app I used on my phone. Very long story short: if it works, it's great. If it doesn't, it's up to you (or paid help) to get it going again. I just wouldn't recommend them if you want:
    1. Works straight out of box, to an app, minimal tech setup
    6. Establishes brand unlikely to disappear or have glitches

    If you do end up going for Dahua or any sort of affordable Chinese camera, be sure to shop around as the prices in the EU tend to be very high (much more expensive than just accounting for the VAT).

    Anyway, Netgear has also recently expanded the range with the Arlo Pro 2, which now has 24/7 recording (although it will need to be wired, rather than batteries):

    Optional 24/7 CVR
    Upgrade to keep nonstop recordings in the cloud when the camera is plugged in and used indoors.
    Not the cheapest option, but I've set up 3 systems for friends now and everyone is loving it, so I can recommend it, with the only real caveat being that if you watch it a lot (e.g. set the sensitivity to super high so even a fly triggers it) and don't like buying batteries... Well better just go wired immediately. If it's indoors (or just your doorstep) then the batteries will last months. If you do some shopping and buy bulk, the CR123 batteries can be found for not too much money.

  26. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kozzy View Post
    Depends on drive size, but WD Purple drives aren't that expensive. Like £100 should buy you a 4TB drive that can save 1 camera for ages.


    Big fan of Arlo as well when recommending camera's to people that don't want to put in too much effort. The battery usage when triggered by movement (based on schedule) is very modest, plus it saves you having to set up cables (even PoE requires you to drill big holes in your walls). Compared to setting up a NVR (e.g. Synology + Surveillance Station) with some Foscam/Dahua/etc. cams, it's a breeze, with a well-working app and great features. Now, it's not that dramatic setting up a NVR, but if you're not tech-inclined you do run into a wall of badly translated Chinese manuals if something doesn't work, especially when using brands like Dahua (while their Starlight camera's are excellent!). E.g. with Dahua I had a couple of camera's fail about a year ago because of an unwanted firmware update which caused the camera's to keep rebooting. It took ages with much resetting and eventually blocking the outgoing traffic from the camera's on my router to get them going again, but that caused issues with the app I used on my phone. Very long story short: if it works, it's great. If it doesn't, it's up to you (or paid help) to get it going again. I just wouldn't recommend them if you want:
    1. Works straight out of box, to an app, minimal tech setup
    6. Establishes brand unlikely to disappear or have glitches

    If you do end up going for Dahua or any sort of affordable Chinese camera, be sure to shop around as the prices in the EU tend to be very high (much more expensive than just accounting for the VAT).

    Anyway, Netgear has also recently expanded the range with the Arlo Pro 2, which now has 24/7 recording (although it will need to be wired, rather than batteries):



    Not the cheapest option, but I've set up 3 systems for friends now and everyone is loving it, so I can recommend it, with the only real caveat being that if you watch it a lot (e.g. set the sensitivity to super high so even a fly triggers it) and don't like buying batteries... Well better just go wired immediately. If it's indoors (or just your doorstep) then the batteries will last months. If you do some shopping and buy bulk, the CR123 batteries can be found for not too much money.
    Alot has mentioned Hikvision and I have to agree, got a 5mp system installed and quality is super.

    Sent from my [device_name] using TZ-UK mobile app

  27. #27
    If you are getting the Nest Thermostat then their cams make sense, they are superb plug and go things and everything is in one very good app

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  28. #28
    With Arlo, what’s the time from there’s movement in the camera field until a phone alert (assuming excellent internet connectivity, etc). I’ve seen huge variation between brands in online reviews (ring seems to be great), but can’t find anything on the Arlo alerts?

  29. #29
    Just to bottom this out, I went with the Arlo Pro, and would like to thank those who recommended it. Truly first rate, easy to install - so far I’m very impressed. Now they need to bring out a doorbell module to compete further with nest and ring....

  30. #30
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    Which Hikvision system or product are you guys using?

  31. #31
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    I'd only be buying an IP camera system. Go for at least 4MP cameras. I would prefer varifocal lenses but that's just so I could dial in the view of each camera.

  32. #32
    Master Harry Smith's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by uktotty View Post
    Hikvision.
    NVR

    Awesome
    We've recently got this fitted. Just don't mount the NVR on anything that will amplify the humming from the box or it will drive you crazy. New hobby: checking the cams from your phone

  33. #33
    Craftsman T1ckT0ck's Avatar
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    Anyone tried out the Nest doorbell? Now available in UK... I’m tempted but fitting looks a faff.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  34. #34
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    Blink took me about 5 mins to set up. Very impressed so far.

  35. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Harry Smith View Post
    We've recently got this fitted. Just don't mount the NVR on anything that will amplify the humming from the box or it will drive you crazy. New hobby: checking the cams from your phone
    My DVR is in the loft don't hear a thing and tucked out of the way.


    Sent from my Mi MIX 2 using TZ-UK mobile app

  36. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    Which Hikvision system or product are you guys using?
    I have the turbo Hd with 5mp cameras with a mixture of lenses depending on view plus have a 30 X zoom ptz to play with.
    Fitted with cat 5.
    Hikvision are now doing the iwatch systems for domestic installation with not as much options in the dvr.

    Sent from my Mi MIX 2 using TZ-UK mobile app

  37. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by T1ckT0ck View Post
    Anyone tried out the Nest doorbell? Now available in UK... I’m tempted but fitting looks a faff.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I've got the Ring pro with the internal chime. Works flawlessly.

  38. #38
    Craftsman Byron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    I've found arlo to be a dud - camera where the IR filter fails (so the image is pink), cameras that eat batteries etc.
    Agreed, I will be looking to replace my Arlo set up with a wired solution.

  39. #39
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    I'm just going to put in 4-6 cameras. Was set on Hikvision but have seen some reviews complaining about the low light performance. Has anyone experienced this as well? I'm looking at the Dome cameras...

  40. #40
    Craftsman ray_li30's Avatar
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    Which arlo verison are you using? I have the latest arlo pro 2 and have neither issue. In fact the battery has lasted close to 4 months without the need for a recharge.

    Quote Originally Posted by Byron View Post
    Agreed, I will be looking to replace my Arlo set up with a wired solution.

  41. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ethos View Post
    I'm just going to put in 4-6 cameras. Was set on Hikvision but have seen some reviews complaining about the low light performance. Has anyone experienced this as well? I'm looking at the Dome cameras...
    I'd avoid dome cameras. Look fo fit turrets. Much better protection from the elements and spider webs (protection as in the screen in front of the lines). There is a visor to help with the sun also on a turret. If you read an earlier post the dark fighter lenses are getting some good feedback. As always though the better lit an area the better the camera will perform.

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