Recommendation for indoor camera

Devices & Integrations
1

Guys…any suggestions? I’m not sure what to get.

2

Can you be any more specific about how you intend to use it? What price range?

3

I’m looking for basic in house monitoring, alarm, disarm, motion detection/take a photoetc. Nothing to expensive. Oh and live viewing.

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4

Foscam and amcrest are two brands that aren’t too expensive and can do all that.

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5

I’ll take a look at foscam. Thank u.

6

Hi @all4dom,

My recommendation is simle. Blink for home interior and exterior. Check out this thread. I use them and recommend them. And Ialready did the comarison with Arlo before and still recommend Blink.

https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-official-blink-camera-device-handler-with-motion-sensor-live-video-streaming-integration-with-smartthings-shm-temperature-signals-and-push-notifications/40535?u=lmosenko

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7

Did you post the comparison in a thread somewhere? I would like to check it out if you did.
Thanks!

8

Sorry but no. However, there are other on that thread that have. I did my comparison shopping and testing when I received my Kickstarter kit from Blink and re-did the comparison when Blink went public with their camera system some time later. Arlo is nice, but Blink Won me over.

9

No prob. The battery life deal piqued my interest so I will give it a look. Thanks!

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10

Here is one thread:

Blink is by far the easiest camera to setup if you’re placing them in odd positions and can’t wire them up. Otherwise for rotating cameras I prefer Foscam.

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11

I use a Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW that I got from Aliexpress with a modified version of the Generic Video Device handler that can be found on this forum. It works great, can do both live feeds and photo taking.

However it doesn’t seem to work with SHM’s ‘take video’ feature, so you’d need to handle that yourself.

My primary requirement for a camera was that it not stream to the internet (unless I specifically set something up, like I did with device handler) and no open ports. This is why I opted not to use any of the Blink / Nest / etc. types.

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12

In case anyone else is using a non-cloud / Samsung camera, you can integrate through Blue Iris which is camera monitoring software (I was already using it). There’s a SmartApp already available to integrate with it, so you can set the modes and get motion alerts.

Edit: here’s the link for anyone who’s curious:

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13

Hi guys, im also on the market for basic monitoring cameras. Id like to use one of the camera as a baby monitor that would have 2 way voice and that I could look at continously without motion detection, would Blink be suitable for that?

Thanks for you help.

14

Blink has a microphone to record sound but it doesn’t have a speaker.

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16

One thing I noticed about cameras and smartthings is not being able to use the motion sensor in the smartthings app. The other thing is heavy data usage. So here’s my revised question:

What camera can be controlled in the smartthings app, allow motion to be selected and take video only when trigged, but can allow a live view?

I hope I ask the question correctly.

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17

Thank you for clerifying.

While Blink is great choice, here are my answers:

Q: What camera can be controlled in the smartthings app?
Samsung HD camera can be directly integrated into ST, however as I already tested it, it SUCKS!
Blink can be integrated into ST via 3rd party integration above.

Q:allow motion to be selected
Blink can detect motion and send notification but mostly after it records a clip. You can still use it as a direct motion sensor, but you will need to set the clip length to 1 second. That defits the purpose of the video recording, but may serv as a motion camera when you are home.

Q: take video only when trigged
Blink takes video clps 60seconds long without @RBoy integration and upto 120 seconds with his code. And is always triggered by motion.

Q: Live view?
Yes, if you use the 3rd party integration in ST, you can access the Blink live view and photo capability.

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18

Is it safe to say the Samsung cameras are a waste I have been reading about @rboys dth for blink and also he is very active when it comes to aupport. My only other question would be are the.blink cameras with rboys dth better then the slink or foscam?

19

Do you mean D-Link?

And to answer, I am not certain on D-link and Foscam. I have also tested generic WiFi cameras from China and ST. My experiance is a headache when integrating them and the problem of directly securing them for the non-IT community mambers. For most, the hardest thing should be to copy and past the DTH into ST IDE. With other cameras, you may run into situation of having to locate their dedicated URLs and searching the community for how they are used in i.e., ActionTiles.

For more info on those, you should ask the creator @RBoy

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20

Sorry to be a pest I forgot 1 camera brand…arlo q…it’s powered & not wireless but is the integration with smartthings seamless considering it’s netgear? I guess the other thing about the arlo would be motion control & in app viewing.

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21

Thank you for this advice. I also use HikVision, have you tried using these with ActionTiles? I have spent £1k on HikVision so would like to integrate this into ActionTiles if possible - just to view is fine.