As the title states, I’d like to hear your thoughts on your experiences with cameras for home security.
Please limit sharing on this thread to only your own experiences or someone close to you.
How many cameras and what kind of recording capabilities, app, and support
I’m shopping for a camera system that comes with at least 4 cameras.
Admin feel free to merge this if there is a similar topic 
I use 2 outdoor wireless Blink cameras from Amazon. I will probably get more in the future.
These are my first security cameras so others may have better suggestions.
For the price I am happy with them.
Being wireless is a big plus as well.
Good topic.
Also looking at security cameras for the house/yard, Ill be following along to see what everyone uses
the best alarm!
This is after 25 solid minutes of play where she almost draws blood 
Hey, “bed ball” will tire a girl out!
Re security… whatever you get, if anything happens, youll wish you had “one more” camera!
Have blinks also. Better than nothing, but I really hate the trigger speed of these. You basically have to have someone walking to the camera to catch the image. If someone is walking crosswise across the frame for instance they are nearly out frame by the time the camera triggers and in some instances if they are moving fast enough the camera won’t catch them at all. Other than that, easy to set up and use. If I were getting serious, I’d use something with much better trigger speeds. Just my 2 cents.
Wyze cams here. The V2’s (current model is V3) have custom firmware so I can turn on RTSP and access them in Home Assistant. Wyze also has an app which isnt bad. Free portions are ok, you pay for more recording time obviously (like 15 seconds per “event” otherwise). But push notifications to your phone, etc. are still free… I have 7 of them in Home Assistant…
Stay away from Simplisafe cameras… They are shit. Constantly dropping wifi and not alerting me. The whole reason I purchased was to save my deliveries from local crack heads who like to steal from me and a couple of neighbors and they’ve proved to be pretty unreliable. Thinking about dropping their system honestly and trying something new. Hope this helps narrow your list.
definitely NOT lorex
the hardware is fine but their software and app are terrible
Good topic 
I need to follow up with my homie who installs wifi on ranches & rural properties; the distance from my entry at the roadway is about 600 ft from the house. Even a wired set up could work if the signal was better. And there’s no electricity there either. Probably need a separate solar shed for that.
For folks wanting to be able to use the images in court, the picture quality must be VERY good— blurry won’t work. 
I have google nest cameras. I absolutely love them I also have 4 well three cameras and a video hub. I’ve had them for years and not a single issue. The new ones are even completely wireless. Worth every penny imho it’s 8$ a month for recording capabilities
I love my Ring cameras
I have a flood light sensor camera in the front of my home and regular cameras on the sides and rear with night vision and motion sensors
The image and quality is great.
Have a few Wyze cams also. Would love to know more about using them with Home Assistant…
Any assistance, Reading materials, Thread post etc…would be much appreciated.
Thank you!
which version(s) do you have? The PTZ model I think has RTSP. V3 didn’t have a firmware for it for the longest time, perhaps one was written? I thought they abandoned custom firmware for the V3.
Key is you need RTSP protocol (streaming over your LAN) for HA integration.
This is a good primer for a V2 cam:
I did see a link for a V3 setup in HA, but I have no V3 cams because I purchased mine WITH the intent of using in HA so I had to seek out V2’s.
Its simple. Update the firmware on the cam with the one in the link, reboot cam. Edit configuration.yaml with a few lines, restart HA, and your cams will be available under devices.
DO note this line “Setup RTSP Streaming and note down the URL the app generates for each camera.” The Wyze app on the phone will show the IP under sharing or something like that. So you will use the App just to figure out the IP assignment for the cam. Then you can program your router with MAC address / IP, and put it in configuration.yaml (the example has ip-adress_1 in both places for their two cams, but in your case each would be unique IP for that cam, its not the same IP as the example might make it look)
The biggest PITA for me isnt the cams, or HA, its my cable company provided router. Can’t assign IP to the cams based on MAC address with it GRR. So, prolonged power outtages could shuffle my camera IP assignments a bit, and you are hard-coding that into YAML, so you have to change it. (Or just buy a decent router that lets you assign IPs based on MAC address).
Appreciate the info…
I have a couple of the WYZE Cam V2.
Another hole for me to jump into… 
If I may ask, are you using Home Assistant for complete automation or just cams?
btw… I have 7 on a HA setup using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+. Thats alot TBH, that poor Pi works its butt off. I have a 500gb Samsung T5 drive for storage instead of the micro-sd (that WILL fail, they are NOT made to last forever as an OS drive). The T5 is 10x more stable, and easy to mount.
I got probably 2 dozen sensors, 7 cams and a tone of node-red routines, but that pi just chugs along!
