Indoor PTZ or wide angle starlight?

So since our kids have become teenagers, suddenly someone must be breaking into our home and eating entire buckets of ice cream and other random stuff that nobody has any clue how it happened... or someone is a big liar. Anyways, my wife is at her wits end with them lying and we need hidden camera that checks off the following requirements:

1. Wide angle or PTZ
2. Good low light performance, preferably a 2MP starlight.
3. Wireless (it can be plugged in for power, but no data cables, we prefer wifi/sd card)
4. If you have any ideas for a hide (think deer stand for a camera lol) we are open to ideas. She loves making decorations/craft ideas off Instagram or one of those social media things, so I was thinking making something glass with 99% painted minus a peep hole or strip if it was a PTZ just to let it see out. Or something wood with a design that would allow an opening for a hidden camera. We would prefer to keep it under $200 if possible. If wide angle, would prefer at least 120 degrees. If PTZ, preferably one that doesn't make almost any noise when moving.

Any camera that comes to mind that fits these needs?

I have a few thoughts. First, if it were me, i would not go wireless or super small, just small like the mini wedge dome 3.6mm Dahua ( IPC-HDBW4231F-AS ) in the ceiling aimed at the area of interest from 15 ft or so. The goal is to either stop the activity (more visible the better), or catch the activity, likely any camera will work but who wants big indoor camera around the house? Stick a 128 GB uSD in it and you are golden (after running the EN wire).

The wireless Wyze cam for $20 is an amazing option for placing near things you want to keep an eye on. Pop in a 32 GB uSD in each and plug in the uUSB and plot it near by. They now have a motion sensor and hub kit to trigger the camera too (i have not played wit that yet). These are an insane bargain, and useful add ins for a lot of temporary situations, and especially easy to overlook/hide. They are no substitute for a good low light PoE camera and NVR, but one size does not fit all.

Although it's an outdoor cam, here's some ideas for hiding a cam, posted April 2018 by @Jim Pederson here:

BEFORE



AFTER

Well, this is not a hidden camera.. however, just noticed this deal on newegg for a Amcrest PT ( no Z ) indoor 1080P for $55

Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi Camera 2MP (1920TVL) Indoor Pan/Tilt Security Wireless IP Camera IP2M-841B (Black) - Newegg.com

bug99 said:

I have a few thoughts. First, if it were me, i would not go wireless or super small, just small like the mini wedge dome 3.6mm Dahua ( IPC-HDBW4231F-AS ) in the ceiling aimed at the area of interest from 15 ft or so. The goal is to either stop the activity (more visible the better), or catch the activity, likely any camera will work but who wants big indoor camera around the house? Stick a 128 GB uSD in it and you are golden (after running the EN wire).

The wireless Wyze cam for $20 is an amazing option for placing near things you want to keep an eye on. Pop in a 32 GB uSD in each and plug in the uUSB and plot it near by. They now have a motion sensor and hub kit to trigger the camera too (i have not played wit that yet). These are an insane bargain, and useful add ins for a lot of temporary situations, and especially easy to overlook/hide. They are no substitute for a good low light PoE camera and NVR, but one size does not fit all.

Click to expand...

That Wyze cam is actually a pretty cool idea. I just watched a review of it by some YouTube tech guy and he pointed out something very cool about it... you can plug a rechargeable phone battery pack into the micro usb spot that powers it and run the camera off the battery pack completely wirelessly. Its also comes with 14 days of free cloud storage as well as has a sd card storage option. We could easily hide this next to a decoration up on top of our cabinets in the kitchen. Plus it has notifications built into the camera to notify when it detects movement, plus has time lapse so you can review longer footage quickly. All that for $25 is insane. Plus it having the ability to be 100% wireless gives us unlimited options to catch other issues in other parts of the house later on should they arise. To be honest we really only need this temporarily until the "culprit" is caught. So this might make the most sense.

Slp82 said:

So since our kids have become teenagers, suddenly someone must be breaking into our home and eating entire buckets of ice cream and other random stuff that nobody has any clue how it happened... or someone is a big liar.

Click to expand...

We have someone named "I don't know" that lives at our house from time to time as well

usaf_pride said:

We have someone named "I don't know" that lives at our house from time to time as well

Click to expand...

Yep....in my house "I don't know" was a sibling of "nobody".

FWIW, that Amcrest IP2M-841B @mat200 mentioned is a great cam and is a steal for $55. IMO ($58 at amazon). It's a re-branded Dahua, is 1080p, has PT and digital zoom, wired or wireless, 2 way audio with mike in/speaker out jacks, alarm in/out terminals, ONVIF, RSTP, Blue Iris compatible AND can take a micro-SD card.

I have one going now for 3 months; have installed 2 of them and 3 of it's lower res cousin , the 720p IPM-721, at several places in 3 years and all function without a blip.

EDIT 4/1/21: V3 of the IP2M-841 does NOT provide relay I/O nor jacks for an external mic and speaker.

TonyR said:

FWIW, that Amcrest IP2M-841B @mat200 mentioned is a great cam and is a steal for $55. IMO ($58 at amazon). It's a re-branded Dahua, is 1080p, has PT and digital zoom, wired or wireless, 2 way audio with mike in/speaker out jacks, alarm in/out terminals, ONVIF, RSTP, Blue Iris compatible AND can take a micro-SD card.

I have one going now for 3 months; have installed 2 of them and 3 of it's lower res cousin , the 720p IMP-721, at several places in 3 years and all function without a blip.

Click to expand...

I didn't realize it was a Dahua. I may order that too. I actually think we need two indoor cameras as we want to cover the front half of our house where the front door is as well. I would keep the Wyze for no other reason that it can be ran on a phone battery charger pack for about 33 hours straight (imagine if it was motion only set).

Is this the same thing?

NEW Amcrest Indoor Wireless HD 1080p IP Camera IP2M-841B Black/Tilt/Pan/Speaker 705087017995 | eBay

Is this even a better price or could this be a knockoff?

Slp82 said:

Is this the same thing?

NEW Amcrest Indoor Wireless HD 1080p IP Camera IP2M-841B Black/Tilt/Pan/Speaker 705087017995 | eBay

Is this even a better price or could this be a knockoff?

Click to expand...

Yes, that's it, not a knock-off unless the seller is being untruthful. The ebay seller has a good rating, but IMO it's a roll of the dice to save $5 over newegg (from whom I bought over $25K worth of items 2006 - 2013 without a hiccup).

The Wyze cams are unbelievably cheap - I know a couple of neighbors who use it to monitor their front door with a whole heap of smart home features & even talk through the microphone feature to visitors

TonyR said:

Yes, that's it, not a knock-off unless the seller is being untruthful. The ebay seller has a good rating, but IMO it's a roll of the dice to save $5 over newegg (from whom I bought over $25K worth of items 2006 - 2013 without a hiccup).

Click to expand...

I ordered one from the ebay guy, as you said, he has a good reputation. Figured it was very low risk. It will be interesting to see how the Wyze compares to it (if at all).

Just a quick update/review incase you guys were wondering about the Wyze. This is for the "Wyze Pan". The app has the options of "HD" (1080P), "SD" and "360P". I am assuming this would be useful for people with slower internet. As a side note, we have 100 MBPS internet and the Wyze Pan has some video chop/lag (or maybe you call it ghosting) despite which definition setting its set at. For example if I wave my arm, even slowly, it will show it smooth for a few seconds, then suddenly my arm will "jump" from one position to a much further position. I think this is either the camera or the app as our internet never gives us issues and is silky smooth.

The app is super easy to use, and laid out very well. I can see why so many people like this camera. I feel like a 70 year old could set this camera up in 15 minutes max. I took me under 5 minutes. There is literally 4 steps in the instructions, and each step is one sentence.

The audio it picks up doesn't sound very good. If the tv is on in the room, or any other noise, you can forget about understanding any conversation. I would say from 25 feet away, you couldn't understand anyone even with no background noise.

It has 2 way audio/talk, but again, when you speak into the app, the level of voice that comes out from the camera is not very loud. If the tv was on, or people talking, you wouldn't understand what the person said through the camera.

My biggest complaint would have to be that Wyze advertises night vision using the IR lights built into the camera up to 30 feet away. I tested this in pitch black dark, and I can tell you that you can't make out anything until it is 10 feet away from the camera. At 13 feet you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a human and animal walking. So the 30 feet is a huge exaggeration.

For $39 shipped and tax, I guess you can't complain too much. It would definitely work for keeping an eye on a baby or pets. I definitely feel like I would want a clearer camera for attempting to identify someone in my home.

Slp82 said:

..........the Wyze Pan has some video chop/lag (or maybe you call it ghosting) despite which definition setting its set at. For example if I wave my arm, even slowly, it will show it smooth for a few seconds, then suddenly my arm will "jump" from one position to a much further position.

Click to expand...

If it's on your network using your wireless LAN, that's likely where your choppy video with lag is coming from.

You might be able to mitigate some (note I said 'might" and "some") by having the Wyze on it's own wireless access point plugged into your LAN (like a wireless router configured as wireless access point, static IP, DHCP disabled, etc.) and the rest of the household remaining on your existing wireless. This may, just may, provide more bandwidth for the Wyze.

TonyR said:

If it's on your network using your wireless LAN, that's likely where your choppy video with lag is coming from.

You might be able to mitigate some (note I said 'might" and "some") by having the Wyze on it's own wireless access point plugged into your LAN (like a wireless router configured as wireless access point, static IP, DHCP disabled, etc.) and the rest of the household remaining on your existing wireless. This may, just may, provide more bandwidth for the Wyze.

Click to expand...

Well when its in SD mode (the difference between SD and HD is not noticeable to me at all, but the 360p is noticeable) it shows in the upper left corner what the data being used is (it changes depending on level of movement on the screen) but I would say the average is about 50 kbps. When in HD it is closer to 90 kbps. Is that really enough to make my TP-Link Archer C9 router lag? Also this is being moved to a different house (we have two) where the internet is 200 mbps. Not sure if that matters or not. We hardly ever use the internet, in fact when I tested this, nothing was using the internet. I admittedly know very little about networking.

@Slp82 ,
FWIW, a wireless IP camera streaming video thru a wireless router to be viewed DIRECTLY by another device (PC, tablet, smartphone) on the same LAN will NOT affect or be affected by Internet upload/download speed; matter of fact, no Internet is even required at all.

Using an app that employs P2P is another story, as the data is uploaded to a server ("cloud") then back down to be viewed.

Too bad the Wyze can't stream via Ethernet to see if the video lag/skipping improves or disappears.