Camera setup suggestions

Devices & Integrations Device Ideas
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I’m interested in a camera setup for my house, and I’d prefer that it go through Smartthings. So far, I have a single Smartcam Pro, and it’s worked great as a baby monitor. But there are quite a few missing features, including the ability to deactivate motion alerts, that I think are essential for use in other rooms.

So, I’m looking at other options. Since the rest of my house is in Smartthings, it seems logical to use the same system for video. I’ve been looking over @blebson’s D-Link setup and @RBoy’s Blink setup. The blink cameras look like a good setup and definitely have a good price, but I’m weary of the lower 720p resolution. I like that D-Link has a variety of cameras that work, but I’d rather not have to deal with port forwarding, if I can help it.

Can anyone share their experience with a camera setup? I’m interested in likes, dislikes, or any other suggestions you may have.

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A few threads on this, here’s one:

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I use a Foscam C1 and Blue Iris for recording. Use RBoy’s Foscam DH for integration with ST. Main reason I chose Foscam was the much quicker motion detection in ST vs Blink (unless that has changed). This way I can also use it as a motion detector on my porch. As soon as i get my doorbell in ST i’ll use RBoy’s DH to take a picture via the ST.

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Do you have ports open so that you can access your cameras from outside your network? I assume you haven’t had any issues with that.

How much quicker is the motion detection reaction with the Foscam camera compared to Blink?

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One port for Blue Iris, through which I can view cameras, recordings, some settings, etc.

Last I checked it’s ~5 seconds for Foscam and ~30 seconds for Blink.

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Nope it’s about 2-5 seconds for blink depending upon your configuration. Basically it’s video recording length + 2 seconds. So if you’re set the default recording length to 1 second (minimum) you should see a notification in about 2-5 seconds (depending upon ST performance).

Other thing to consider is power source and duration of live video. If you have a power source then both are great. If there’s no power source then it’ only blink (and keep in mind it has about 300 minutes of live video on a pair of batteries).

Flip side, Foscam rotates and has InfraRed, Blink is static with wide angle lens and white LED

Next thing to consider is port forwarding, foscam needs it for external access, blink doesn’t.

So plusses and minuses

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Hmm, that’s kinda a crappy trade off,

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Yeah that’s the current Blink, still working with them to making independent but for now I’m happy it reduced from 30-60 seconds to video + 2 seconds.

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I’m not sure if your issue with port forwarding is security related or not wanting to have to set it up, but it all comes down to what level of risk is acceptable to you. If you have a crazy tech-talented stalker I would stay away, but if you are like most people it’s probably extremely low risk.

I personally like the D-Link cameras (obviously) but other cameras can give you similar functionality, it just takes someone to create the actual DTH for it.

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I was thinking security, but you’re probably right. Heck, if I were really concerned with security, I probably shouldn’t have my home connected to the internet.

Thanks for the feedback, Ben.

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