re: General security camera discussion (was "Unifi Protect security cameras")

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 I can build a "birdhouse" out there

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We have a network of hidden/camouflaged outdoor security cameras but also include highly visible outdoor security cameras. It doesn't really do any good as a deterrent if would be intruders can't see any of your cameras.

We currently have nine EZVIZ C8W Pro PTZ cameras covering 100% of the perimeter of our house. They are dc powered WiFi cameras (but also have an Ethernet connection if you wanted to run Ethernet cables and set up DVR recordings). Granted the EZVIZ cameras and system are not nearly as good as Ubiquity Unify Ethernet cameras and components, but I love them as relatively inexpensive highly capable and configurable security cameras. First, they are highly visible to anyone approaching our home. We live in a rural area and I WANT people to know we have lots of cameras. You can't miss seeing the kind of large EZVIZ C8W Pro cameras. We have additional more strategically hidden EZVIZ C3X dual lens fixed cameras, Wyze V3 cams and pole mounted camouflage painted Reolink PTZ solar powered WiFi cameras outside on our property as well.

These EZVIZ C8W Pro cameras have AI and will auto track detected humans within a minimum of about a 70' radius from the cameras. They are rated as detecting to 100'. So anyone walking near our house is going to have one to three cameras locked onto them tracking them. I have ours set to turn on a spotlight when they detect humans or vehicles and I also leave the blue LED indicator light on each camera. At night you can see the blue indicator lights from far away and if anyone approaches the house they will have one to three spotlights shining right at them and following them around like prison spotlights. It's very intimidating to an uninvited person on our property, but also nice when I walk outside at night to have spotlights where I am walking. Anyone walking right towards our house is walking straight into one or more bright "blinding" spot lights right in their face while I have been instantly notified before they arrive. Sure beats a security system from an early warning perspective.

The above is how I have the cameras setup while we are asleep, away or not expecting anyone. If we are expecting anyone, I change the settings to not autotrack and I also turn the spotlight feature off. I also can instantly unarm all of the EZVIZ cameras with one click so my phone notifications are not constantly going off if we are outside, especially when neighbors, visitors, contractors, etc. are at our house. With a single click I can arm all of the cameras again.

In the event we have any issues with WiFi, the cameras still work fine independent of the WiFi. They are all recording continuously to microSD cards and still capture events and auto track, turn on the spotlights, etc. If the WiFi happened to be out, I just wouldn't get instant notifications or be able to live view or look at events, etc, until the WiFi was back online. But that is rare when the WiFi is an issue. 99% plus of the time our WiFi mesh system is working fine. Once any rare WiFi issue is cleared, recorded events can be viewed from a filterable event library with thumbnail pictures for each event recording. Each event recording adds 10 seconds of recording before the event trigger happened which is a really nice feature.

It's also really nice that we can watch all or any grouping of our EZVIZ cameras live simultaneously in multiview on all of our smartphones and tablets. So if I get woken up at night to more than one camera notification I grab my phone and I can quickly live view all of the perimeter cameras simultaneously. These cameras also have excellent two way communication. The camera speaker is loud. They also have customizable alarms that play on the camera's speaker upon detection (which can be set to Mute, a short ding, a siren, or custom recorded sound).

The only complaint I have with all of our outdoor cameras are those dang spiders. I am going to start trying repellents, etc and might even invest in separate IR devices, although that is somewhat of an issue since separate IRs typically have a 90° field of view and my cameras have PTZ with auto tracking to 340°. I haven't figured out yet how many separate IRs I would need for 100% coverage around our house.