Hi, we are new to Smartthings and have the starter set plus a few extras, Now please can we have advice as to which is the best smart camera to integrate fully with Smartthings without needing to use a separate app.
Many thanks
“Best” is hard to define broadly, as everyone’s home environment is different and people have different needs/wants for their security cameras.
But start by looking at the cameras on the official “works with SmartThings” list if you want the cameras to integrate with ST.
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Foscam is what I’m looking at. Motion events can be pushed to smart things to be a motion event in it as well.
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I use a lot of the Foscam w/ my ST, and i like them. They are cheap, reliable and you can use them within a lot of different apps and NVR if needed.
Just my 2 cents.
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I was on a similar boat as you are, but as mentioned before everyone has different needs or their idea of best is more personal. For example some may look for wire free cameras, some wont mind the wiring work. Some look for local storage or cloud storage, different night vision technology, 2 way talk, video resolution, budget. My suggestion to you would be to think about what is important to you when choosing a camera system, and post those, so the members here can give you feedback based on what you want. Good luck!!
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How about we start with what cameras have the ability to view the stream inside the Smartthings app for Hub V2? So many video cameras I see mentioned either don’t have that ability or did under V1 but not V2.
I’m looking to use some simple cameras but being new to ST, there are a lot of things I like but information on Officially Supported devices, and community device handlers are scattered all over the place.
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Wouldn’t that be the cameras on this (short) list?
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Is that the case with V2? I thought I read in a thread that live video was lost in V2 but that might have been old information and it was updated.
Info on Smartthings is pretty confusing with all the “official”, “unofficial”, “community DTH”, “official smartapps”, “community smartapps”, ect floating about.
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The v1 Hub NEVER had any official ST support for video. Official support for video for a very small number of cameras was a selling feature of the v2 Hub. Unfortunately, I don’t think ST has really ever fully exploited this capability, rarely adding support for new cameras.
If I were you, I’d forget about official support from Samsung/SmartThings and focus on getting a camera that meets your family’s needs. The user community has done a much better job of supporting cameras than ST itself.
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Thank you for your advice. I guess we want less expensive cameras which will give notifications if motion is detected and an ability to record that motion.
Also cameras that are easy to set up and wire free. We have a Btsmart hub and I have heard that there can be problems with BT hubs and some cameras.
Which foscam cameras would you recommend then ?
From my understanding of rboys code is that pretty much any foscam will work and there are quite a few. I would say to just take a look at a few and see which one fits your needs best.
I’ve had 3 of my 4 Foscam cameras fail, all purchased in the last few years. I’m giving Amcrest a try, but I’m also wondering if they will mimic the Foscams in long-term reliability. Other brands I use have shown no reliability issues thus far.
I’m curious what people here think is the advantage in ST integration for video cams?
Video feed in the app? - It’s not the ST mobile app is fast and responsive. Rule triggering? Yes, you can trigger recording based on motion detection and what’s not not but all those cams have built in motion detection anyway.
At first I got Samsung smartcam because I thought integration is important but ended up using the Samsung app (not great but the ST app is too limited). Then I got the Netgear Arlo (not the Pro) that has no ST integration, and found it much better than the Samsung app, primarily because the app looks great and is easy to work with. Later I got Ring video doorbell and it’s video app is also much better. Ring has ST integration but you can do very little with it and don’t find any use case for it.
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Agreed I use Blue Iris and it is awesome.
With that said I have an Arlo which works with ST and not BI. I like being able to attach it to my SMH to switch on/off, motion, modes etc.
Time to bump this. Foscam security holes in the news make them a bad choice.
I bought some blink cameras which are sweet. Let’s hope they are better secured!
I think triggering recording is a HUGE benefit of ST integration of video cams. Sure they all have motion triggering (and often sound). But there are many false positives, which is a big negative for battery-powered cams. I have already determined the optimum locations for motion detectors in my home, which was a little tricky with an active dog (and I had to get detectors that had pet avoidance–but still had to be careful with placement). Those locations are not optimal for camera placement. So I’d rather use my own motion detectors to trigger recording.
There is also often a delay in the start of recording when using the camera on its own (the original Arlo, I am talking to you). But by using ST integration you can mitigate that fact. For example you can have recording trigger the moment a door sensor is triggered.
For me ST integration to trigger recording is a must. I don’t even care if it has live video within ST: that doesn’t do much anyway, and I need to use the camera’s app to look at saved clips.
Mike
I want to have a (6410PN) camera motion sensor trigger a light switch through the ST hub.
So far… no luck. It does not seem that this camera is yet supported by the hub. Thoughts?