Hi all,
I am looking for a wireless outdoor security camera.
Looking for good battery life, glad if I could find something that has more than a month of battery.
Have been seeing mixed reviews about ARLO PRO 3/ Ultra/Eufy.
The house is facing a moderately busy street.
Can anyone share their experiences with these.
Thanks in advance.
It's definitely better to get wired, but that doesn't mean wireless is bad. I have Eufy wireless cameras, they are okay, I'm not particularly impressed or disappointed with them. But battery lasts months even on the busier sections of the house.
I find all of the brands give too many false positives in terms of notifications.
Thanks for the feedback mate!
I guess there is no easy choice, if you don't want to go wired. Good luck mate.
don't forget reolink
I was looking at the Eufy 2c but a mate of mine who has Reolinks convinced me to go for them. Haven't received yet but they look like good value for money. Can get the solar panel too, to keep them charged up. Only downside is they only have local SD storage at this stage but that wasn't a huge issue for me.
The Argus has cloud storage. 1GB of storage is free
Thanks Mate.
I will look into Reolink options thank you mate.
This might be a dumb question, but if the reolink have sd storage does that mean I don’t have to have a permanent wifi connection to be able to record?
My ideal security camera would be rechargeable, record to sd card, no wifi required (beyond the initial set up to pair with app).
Any suggestions for something that ticks all these boxes would be very much appreciated (dealing with teenage deadshits around all hours of the night/early morning causing property damage. Nothing too serious at this stage, just really irritating)
The Reolink Argus 2 works like that without wifi but then you need wifi to get alerts to phone etc
@chrisie: I don’t care if I don’t get alerts. All I want is to be able to record the vision to catch the scums! Thanks for the reply, seems like this is the way to go
eufy cameras have a home base that the cameras send the data to. The homebase connects to the net so no need for a subscription unless you want the cloud backup.
I have the Arlo Pro 2 system, and it works "ok". It certainly isn't as good as a wired system, but for home use, it's not to bad. Clear images day and night, easy to mount and batteries get a month or two with regular interaction. Downside is lag. Quite often they have alerted me to movement and I have gone to look and the video it captures shows only a portion of what it needs to or nothing (I'll get a leg or a foot leaving the capture area). This can mostly be overcome by better placement.
Pro: easy to mount, easy to move, good quality images, easy setup, notifications for movement
Cons: start up lag, flaky phone app, data usage and upload speed required. Need spare battery to swap over for uninterrupted coverage, placement can mean the difference of capturing useful footage or useless footage due to startup lag.
Stick clear of Ring cameras. They are even slower again with capturing footage. And they ramp up in really really low resolution. So if someone walks into its trigger area, the first 2 or 3 seconds are just a pixelated mess, and often this is the only footage you get because of the late triggering.
Good review Thanks
The lag is my biggest consideration, for the wireless camera. Would steer clear of Ring. THanks mate.
Should have pointed out in my earlier comments, the Eufy has definite lag. I have a Ring doorbell on my front fence which has zero lag. I really don't care about privacy given it only records the street! I don't seem to get the issues mentioned in other comments, my one is mains powered, so no battery on that which may make the difference.
I'm waiting for the eufyCam 2 to be released in Australia. Latest firmware supports Apple's HomeKit secure video which is a key requirement for us. Check out the other specs on the US website: https://www.eufylife.com/products/variant/eufycam-2/T88411D1
Good luck mate. THank you.
I purchased a Eufy 2C system a about 6 months ago and have been very impressed with it. A friend has an Arlo system and I would say they are virtually the same apart from price.
The Eufy app is good and works as you would expect. I get about 3-4 months of use before it needs a recharge, I have it set on maximum recording time so hence why I don’t get the full 6 months they advertise.
One of my cameras points towards a busy street and I get a lot of false alerts, I tried using the zoning but bright headlights from trucks still set it off, next time I charge it I shall try adjusting its direction to see less of the street.
Purchased for $380 for 3 camera of JB HIFI on special. I would certainly recommend at that price
Hi Mate, THanks for the reply.
Are you having the 'start up lag' and missing the action on the video footage?
cheers
Yes to an extent. I think any battery powered system will suffer from that as the camera is in a low power mode waiting to detect motion before powering up the video sensor.
Example, the camera at the front the house looks down the drive. When it detects someone walking up the drive, the video will start with them about half way up the drive. Personally this is fine for me as I am only really concerned with what they are doing once they get to the front door, I don’t mind missing a few seconds at the beginning.
If that is going to be an issue for you I would suggest looking at a wired system.
How long is the start up delay?
I guess I could sacrifice a few seconds over the convenience?
Cheers.
hey mate just wanted to see what you ended up going with 1 year on, i'm now in the same boat. TIA.
Hi Mate,
Sorry for the late reply, wasn't checking the notifications much lately.
I ended up getting nothing as most of the wireless ones have that 'start up' lag as you could see above. Thinking of getting a wired system sometime soon.
Thanks for the reply. I got the Eufy 2k Wireless doorbell and there's definitely a lag but minor, probably same same with the cameras. I think that depends on the speed of the internet connection.
Thanks mate. Glad you are happy with the Eufy. I will look into them.
Cheers
Was considering Eufy too; but a mate was saying its better to get wired. Still shopping around as well