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

Thanks for explaining the different levels of camera coverage in detail. That will help inform folks new into security cameras and perhaps help them make the right decision on what to get. Some people will want more expensive cameras and NVR systems. On the flip side some folks may want to spend less and sacrifice some quality and to some extent reliability (due to WiFi).

A couple of other cool things about my "cheaper" dc powered WiFi cameras. I currently have them set for color night vision. They record in black and white continuously at night, but the moment they detect a human or vehicle, the spot light comes on and it puts out enough light and records the event in color. I already have solar lighting around the house. So the event recordings at night are in pretty good color. Also, I can change the spotlight to a strobe light if I want to. Also the cameras have a flashlight feature. If I hear a noise out in the yard but it's too far for camera detection, I can certainly use the PTZ feature to look around in black and white, but I can enhance looking into the yard by clicking the "flashlight" feature for the camera. This manually turns on the spotlight, and then I can pan around and zoom and see the yard in color and in more detail.

We are in a country setting. If I spot a new large hole in the ground near the house, I'll change or create the preset camera default view to focus on the hole. These cameras have 12 preset locations that return the camera to the preset position after motion ends plus some amount of time afterwards. I'll temporarily change that camera's AI settings to detect any motion. That way I get to see if the culprit animal is a ground hog or armadillo(s), etc so I know what I need to do to take care of the situation (trap the animal, etc).

Ive been amazed at how feature rich the EZVIZ C8W Pro 5MP 3K 4mm cameras are and how much better they are (and how much better the phone app is) compared to my Wyze Cam V3 and Reolink PTZ cameras. I had a little bit of issues up front upgrading the firmware to have all of the listed features and that also improved their detection range. Before that I was about to return them. I was able to call EZVIZ support and they helped me upgrade the firmware. They apparently had not upgraded their server to indicate a new firmware version was available to download from the phone app. They sent me a file for manual updating but before I did that I noticed the phone app was fixed to allow me to update the firmware from the app. Also these cameras have about a foot long cable attached to the camera with a DC power cable connection and an Ethernet connection. I opted for the DC connection to just use WiFi. So I had to figure out how to waterproof the Ethernet connection. I just applied dielectric grease on the Ethernet connector, plugged in an Ethernet cable and cut it off just past the connector and then coated the bare wire side with clear silicone. That way they are waterproof and if I want to buy an NVR and run Ethernet cables in the future I have that option.