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Wow... that's quite a price tag. For ~$60 USD you can pick up a 1080p camera with quite good quality, nice Sony sensor and hardware H.264 with no mandated cloud

Wow... that's quite a price tag. For ~$60 USD you can pick up a 1080p camera with quite good quality, nice Sony sensor and hardware H.264 with no mandated cloud connectivity - then hook it to Xeoma, Zone Minder, Blue Iris or similar software and automatically ship the latest motion detection results up to your favorite cloud storage platform or your own server. I guess I'm probably not the target market for this though, but if you're a tinkerer there are some interesting options. And fun to be had in the firmware reverse engineering department too.

nblavoie 9y ago
Any suggestion for this kind of product, I'm interested to hooking one to a Pi.
- markkanof 9y ago
  I'm just getting into the world of surveillance cameras, but I think it's more important to decide what you want to get out of any given camera, than to be concerned with any particular brand of hardware. For example, if you are hoping to capture license plates you will likely want a camera with a narrower field of view so you can get the maximum pixels per inch of coverage area. If instead you want to monitor a large area to just see people coming and going, you might want a very wide field of view, but then don't expect to be able to read license plates or get a really clear face shot from that camera.
- problems 9y ago
  See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 Only catch with the Pi might be decode/encode performance if you plan to do anything with the video on that side of things, you'd have to have video software that can take advantage of hardware acceleration on the Pi.
hilyen 9y ago
Also interested in your recommendation. I've tried many, all have their shortcomings.
- problems 9y ago
  See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 I'd be interested if you know any shortcomings of these, so far my experiences have been quite positive, though I have only been running a Hikvision and a cheap rebranded one for about a month. Biggest catch is probably software - you basically need a Windows box or VM for one-time configuration as ActiveX or proprietary tooling is common, once that's done you're all set and don't need to touch that tooling again, just monitor your camera via the standardized ONVIF and RTSP stream. There's potential security catch too - I managed to dump the firmware off one and crack a telnet password, but I had to manually enable telnet and so long as you do not expose it to the internet, there's not much harm there. I've read about older cameras that had hardcoded default telnet passwords with telnet on by default and unable to be turned off, fortunately I haven't seen anything that egregious yet. Overall, the shortcomings, while present are very manageable as far as I've seen. Definitely not a perfect "out of the box" experience like a Nest device will be, but cheaper, more flexible and more interesting to me as a tinkerer.
deleted 9y ago
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jahewson 9y ago
Can you link to a specific product which achieves all those things? The cheap cameras I've tried either don't support open protocols, or they want to stream your video to China, or both.
- jsight 9y ago
  I have had good experience with an amcrest camera. It encourages you to set it up with their (terrible) service, but it also has an RTSP endpoint. It works pretty well with Zoneminder as well. Edit: I also recommend checking out the Zoneminder wiki for suggestions. Here are some pages for Amcrest: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest_QCam https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest_QCam They also have a listing here: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Hardware_Compatibility_List#Network_Cameras https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Hardware_Compatibility_List#Netw...
  - shostack 9y ago
    How is the security of Amcrest with where they stream and store your video? I can't find anything on their site on where the company is actually based out of. They just mention that sales in the US are sold out of the US. It's like they go out of their way to avoid answering the question of where they are headquartered.
    - jsight 9y ago
      They update it for security holes pretty regularly. I get the impression there are plenty of holes for them to fix, too. AFAIK, you don't technically have to keep it connected to their service.
- problems 9y ago
  Any cheap Hikvision or Dahua camera will usually support ONVIF. ONVIF is the key search term, if it has that it supports the standard open protocols and it'll work with most software around. Try searching it on ebay or aliexpress. Some of these do offer their own cloud too, but it's disabled by default on all I've tried so far. A few samples: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-New-model-DS-2CD2135F-IS-replace-DS-2CD2132F-IS-DS-2CD2132-I-3Mp-Audio-Alarm/32539863703.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10152_10065_10151_10130_10068_10344_10342_10343_10340_10341_10139_10307_10137_10060_10155_10154_10056_10055_10054_10059_100031_10099_10338_10339_10103_10102_440_10052_10053_10142_10107_10050_10051_10326_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10178_10110_10111_10112_10113_10114_143_10312_10313_10314_10078_10079_10073,searchweb201603_30,ppcSwitch_5&btsid=6984f630-d70e-483b-af48-d925ae5be162&algo_expid=accc8357-e6d8-4982-8544-c4dd28b405d2-2&algo_pvid=accc8357-e6d8-4982-8544-c4dd28b405d2 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-New-model-DS-2CD2135F-I... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4MP-Dahua-H-265-IPC-HDBW4431R-ZS-IP-Camera-2-8mm-12mm-motorized-lens-IR-50M/32760551643.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10152_10065_10151_10130_10068_10344_10342_10343_10340_10341_10139_10307_10137_10060_10155_10154_10056_10055_10054_10059_100031_10099_10338_10339_10103_10102_440_10052_10053_10142_10107_10050_10051_10326_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10178_10110_10111_10112_10113_10114_143_10312_10313_10314_10078_10079_10073,searchweb201603_30,ppcSwitch_5&btsid=a2e720a4-074b-4c5e-98ac-13bae9415812&algo_expid=d0d50ed6-48ad-438f-867a-6303737124ff-2&algo_pvid=d0d50ed6-48ad-438f-867a-6303737124ff https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4MP-Dahua-H-265-IPC-HDBW4431... Heck, even my local computer store has their own branding of a cheap camera for a quite good price: http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=37_498_500&item_id=102484 http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=37_498... I bought one of these recently and it seems to be a Dahua based firmware, full ONVIF support and available locally is pretty nice.

nblavoie 9y ago

Any suggestion for this kind of product, I'm interested to hooking one to a Pi.

markkanof 9y ago
I'm just getting into the world of surveillance cameras, but I think it's more important to decide what you want to get out of any given camera, than to be concerned with any particular brand of hardware. For example, if you are hoping to capture license plates you will likely want a camera with a narrower field of view so you can get the maximum pixels per inch of coverage area. If instead you want to monitor a large area to just see people coming and going, you might want a very wide field of view, but then don't expect to be able to read license plates or get a really clear face shot from that camera.
problems 9y ago
See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 Only catch with the Pi might be decode/encode performance if you plan to do anything with the video on that side of things, you'd have to have video software that can take advantage of hardware acceleration on the Pi.

hilyen 9y ago

Also interested in your recommendation. I've tried many, all have their shortcomings.

problems 9y ago
See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296354 I'd be interested if you know any shortcomings of these, so far my experiences have been quite positive, though I have only been running a Hikvision and a cheap rebranded one for about a month. Biggest catch is probably software - you basically need a Windows box or VM for one-time configuration as ActiveX or proprietary tooling is common, once that's done you're all set and don't need to touch that tooling again, just monitor your camera via the standardized ONVIF and RTSP stream. There's potential security catch too - I managed to dump the firmware off one and crack a telnet password, but I had to manually enable telnet and so long as you do not expose it to the internet, there's not much harm there. I've read about older cameras that had hardcoded default telnet passwords with telnet on by default and unable to be turned off, fortunately I haven't seen anything that egregious yet. Overall, the shortcomings, while present are very manageable as far as I've seen. Definitely not a perfect "out of the box" experience like a Nest device will be, but cheaper, more flexible and more interesting to me as a tinkerer.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

jahewson 9y ago

Can you link to a specific product which achieves all those things? The cheap cameras I've tried either don't support open protocols, or they want to stream your video to China, or both.

jsight 9y ago
I have had good experience with an amcrest camera. It encourages you to set it up with their (terrible) service, but it also has an RTSP endpoint. It works pretty well with Zoneminder as well. Edit: I also recommend checking out the Zoneminder wiki for suggestions. Here are some pages for Amcrest: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest_QCam https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Amcrest_QCam They also have a listing here: https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Hardware_Compatibility_List#Network_Cameras https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Hardware_Compatibility_List#Netw...
- shostack 9y ago
  How is the security of Amcrest with where they stream and store your video? I can't find anything on their site on where the company is actually based out of. They just mention that sales in the US are sold out of the US. It's like they go out of their way to avoid answering the question of where they are headquartered.
  - jsight 9y ago
    They update it for security holes pretty regularly. I get the impression there are plenty of holes for them to fix, too. AFAIK, you don't technically have to keep it connected to their service.
problems 9y ago
Any cheap Hikvision or Dahua camera will usually support ONVIF. ONVIF is the key search term, if it has that it supports the standard open protocols and it'll work with most software around. Try searching it on ebay or aliexpress. Some of these do offer their own cloud too, but it's disabled by default on all I've tried so far. A few samples: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-New-model-DS-2CD2135F-IS-replace-DS-2CD2132F-IS-DS-2CD2132-I-3Mp-Audio-Alarm/32539863703.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10152_10065_10151_10130_10068_10344_10342_10343_10340_10341_10139_10307_10137_10060_10155_10154_10056_10055_10054_10059_100031_10099_10338_10339_10103_10102_440_10052_10053_10142_10107_10050_10051_10326_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10178_10110_10111_10112_10113_10114_143_10312_10313_10314_10078_10079_10073,searchweb201603_30,ppcSwitch_5&btsid=6984f630-d70e-483b-af48-d925ae5be162&algo_expid=accc8357-e6d8-4982-8544-c4dd28b405d2-2&algo_pvid=accc8357-e6d8-4982-8544-c4dd28b405d2 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-New-model-DS-2CD2135F-I... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4MP-Dahua-H-265-IPC-HDBW4431R-ZS-IP-Camera-2-8mm-12mm-motorized-lens-IR-50M/32760551643.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10152_10065_10151_10130_10068_10344_10342_10343_10340_10341_10139_10307_10137_10060_10155_10154_10056_10055_10054_10059_100031_10099_10338_10339_10103_10102_440_10052_10053_10142_10107_10050_10051_10326_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10178_10110_10111_10112_10113_10114_143_10312_10313_10314_10078_10079_10073,searchweb201603_30,ppcSwitch_5&btsid=a2e720a4-074b-4c5e-98ac-13bae9415812&algo_expid=d0d50ed6-48ad-438f-867a-6303737124ff-2&algo_pvid=d0d50ed6-48ad-438f-867a-6303737124ff https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4MP-Dahua-H-265-IPC-HDBW4431... Heck, even my local computer store has their own branding of a cheap camera for a quite good price: http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=37_498_500&item_id=102484 http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=37_498... I bought one of these recently and it seems to be a Dahua based firmware, full ONVIF support and available locally is pretty nice.