I don’t have yet any preferences. Cheap, easy to set up, secure. What do you use and can recommend?
Reolink. Cheap, good enough quality, great HA integration, no internet connection needed.
+1 they are completely local, cheap and have a tight integration with home assistant, I have 5 of their cameras.
Reolink cameras are twice the price of the Tapo ones in my area…
I’ve never used either, so I can’t speak to their actual quality, but cheaping out on cameras defeats the purpose of getting cameras if the footage is too grainy or blurry to be used for anything.
The wireless Reolinks are not great. Like, nothing against the camera itself, however, the WiFi antenna must be smaller than the one in my watch. The range is truly abysmal.
Tapo ones are perfectly fine, good quality all around, but it’s important to specify that I have experience with external, solar powered Reolinks and indoor Tapo, so it’s a bit of a different category.
And probably four times the quality. If I could go back in time and choose Reolink for every camera I have, I would. In a heartbeat.
I’m pretty happy with the 2K footage on mine.
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I use TP Link’s TAPO C310 for outdoors and a C200 indoors. They are Wifi or PoE and have a custom component for Home Assistant that works pretty well.
I use Amcrest PoE dome cameras with frigate. Quality and price are excellent. My only complaints would be the dome cameras get dirty fast and at night the IR light from inside reflects off of the dirt and makes them useless. Frigate also seems pretty bad at detecting things in night vision mode. And yes, I’ve already made the recommended adjustments in my frigate config.
Not cheap but easy to setup and very very capable are the Dahuas. Especially in HA they are really mighty. But sadly they are not cheap.
Wyzecam (V2) / Neos Smartcam with Dafang Hacks
Works like a charm. Cheap. Cheerful. I have 3 around the house all streaming to HA