Needing Budget Friendly and Effective Outdoor Setup

[Brian K Bertalot]

Hello All,

I'm a newbie here and looking for some advice for a new outdoor cam setup that is budget friendly. Before we get into details, yes I've read the newbie post that outlines the ideal things you want in a system. With that being said, I need some opinions on outdoor cams. We're currently in the process of buying a house. We are moving from an apartment into a house so I'm focused on outdoor cams as we already have a indoor cam setup and use Blue Iris and a NAS to record on. I really like the idea of the all wireless cams but know those come with a bunch of implications and are heavily frowned upon here. However, they seem to be budget friendly and don't require running of wiring across a house which is a huge plus for being budget friendly. Here is an outline of what I need/want:

1. Minimum of 4 Outdoor Cams - 1 on front, 1 in backyard, 1 on side near deck, 1 in garage
2. Weatherproof - We have 4 seasons in Illinois and it gets pretty cold (-10 F) and pretty hot (100+ F) at times and rains a decent amount
3. 1080P preferably
4. Night Vision is a must
5. Want to be able to integrate with Blue Iris so I can view live feed at anytime and record 24/7 (so I don't have to worry about tripping a sensor and missing a few seconds of recording)
6. Preferably at or under $400 total for 4 cams and some way to wire them up - This is mission critical as we have a lot of first time home buyer expenses to worry about
7. Prefer to not have to use conduit or to drill into the vinyl siding - What options are there for a near wireless setup that can handle 4 cameras and cover a good distance but can also be taken to go when we the sell the house? Power over ethernet somehow?

Any help you can all lend is greatly appreciated. Please be gentle on me. Thanks in advance.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Your specs are not going to be met. A decent camera costs about $120-$160 each depending on resolution. Those are wired cameras, WiFi is just a no go, It's not a question of "being frowned upon", it's a simple fact that WiFi just isn't dependable, especially with more than one camera involved. it'll let you down when you need it to work the most. Depending on your house, one or two story, you can mount them on the eaves and wire through the attic. Another trick is that the cable can be tucked behind the siding with a little creativity, but that gets time consuming to do and you still need an exit hole at the camera as well as holes to mount any camera. Sure, you can go on FleaBay or Amazon and buy some Reostink or Foscrap stuff fairly cheaply that'll tell you how great they work at night, but they really don't and you'll end up replacing them and wasting your time and money.

 

[Brian K Bertalot]

Thanks for the reply. So my choices seem to be that we can go unprotected until we can save a lot more money for a system that meets our needs or we can buy the wireless IP cams for cheaper and hope for the best.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I would not purchase WIFI cameras, you are placing whole home network at risk.

I would start small with quality and what you can afford. If necessary one quality camera for the front door and a recorder (NVR or VMS), build out from there as you can afford it.

NOTE: cameras are a surveillance system NOT security system.

 

[sebastiantombs]

That's what I forgot to mention, cameras are for surveillance, an alarm system is for security.

Wireless, especially, Nest, Hello and all that cloud crap, are mostly low end cameras with low capabilities. There are a few wireless cameras from Hik and Dahua that are decent quality, but you're stuck again with the price. Keep in mind to have a "wireless" camera work 24/7 it needs power. That means you need to run a wire out to it. May as well use a PoE or CVI camera at that point and be done with it.

 

[Sybertiger]

We've had several incidents of unlocked car "break-ins" in the community so a number of homeowners in here ran out and bought WiFi garbage like Ring, Reolink, Nest, etc. While those are better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick it's kind of ridiculous for these homeowners to think mounting one at the door is going to observe much of anything. Add to the insult to injury they are paying monthly subscription fees that are subject to increase and also homeowners who put their WiFi cams in motion detect mode to avoid needing cloud storage. If you are serious about a BI server and IP cams then my recommendation would be to get a decent BI server set up and go with just one IP cam for now then grow it as you get money and time. There are probably some folks on here that go full bore and buy 10+ cams that just sit around until they have time to install. Better to start off small and grow as you learn and get more money and have time to plan/install. The vast majority of homeowners are surviving without any cam system so you'll likely be able to survive until you get the funds, knowledge and time.

 

[fenderman]

Thanks for the reply. So my choices seem to be that we can go unprotected until we can save a lot more money for a system that meets our needs or we can buy the wireless IP cams for cheaper and hope for the best.

Hoping for the best with a wireless camera wont end well. Save your money. Before any cameras buy an alarm system.

 

[Brian K Bertalot]

For the needs I want, what am I expecting for cost? $1000?

 

[mat200]

For the needs I want, what am I expecting for cost? $1000?

Hi @Brian K Bertalot

I recommend taking the time to wire up a camera and test it.

Typically most people find setting up 2 cameras by the front door of the garage to be a fairly easy start as often the inside of the garage is not as nicely finished on the drywall so you can do work with minimal WAF issues.

 

[area651]

For the needs I want, what am I expecting for cost? $1000?

I can't emphasize it enough. Don't try wireless cams for an outdoor setup. I've have multiple bad experiences. Someone mentioned putting your whole network at risk. Personally I'd think that would mean that the cameras would have to connect and somewhat stay connected to be true. In my experience, I couldn't keep (several different models) connected, if they could connect at all.

Go wired. Buy one cam at a time if that's all you can afford and the system will grow.