Wireless rechargeable outdoor camera?
- Thread starter broona
- Start date
I use reolink Go with solar panel chargers as standalone units in rural setting, where there is no chance of cables, power etc.
Does the job well in my specific situation, but the cameras aren't great for the money compared to wired CCTV.
Does the job well in my specific situation, but the cameras aren't great for the money compared to wired CCTV.
Soldato
- Joined
- 2 Apr 2006
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I have the Reolink Argus 2 and I'm happy with it, other than the fact it doesn't have cloud storage over here yet.
Thanks for the replies, I'll have a look, hopefully one of them is reduced on Prime Day!
The eufy 2c cameras are on offer as we speak, can recommend with using them myself. Sure its not going to beat the quality of a wired system but good for the price point
Thanks for the replies, I'll have a look, hopefully one of them is reduced on Prime Day!
The eufy 2c cameras are on offer as we speak, can recommend with using them myself. Sure its not going to beat the quality of a wired system but good for the price point
I have a ring stick up camera with a battery and its pretty good. You can also get a solar panel to link to it to keep the battery topped up (I don't have that though).
Reolink Argus is pretty much the best out there at the moment but it’s still pretty crap. Also, please be aware that if you’re pointing a camera that predominantly only covers the street and is routinely capturing pedestrians and road users then you’ll need a Protection of Freedoms Act 2013 Privacy Assessment, a REALLY good reason why you need the camera pointing out to the street, strong signage and almost certainly an ICO Surveillance Camera Licence. And you’re subject to the data storage requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
So if it’s your car you’re worried about, front and rear dash cams that monitor continuously to a buffer but only record the impact are the way to go. Why? Well, firstly you don’t have any of the legal complications. Secondly your 2MP Reolink Argus won’t see number plates in the dark because of IR reflections and it probably won’t be at a good angle to record faces or even descriptions of anyone damaging your car. Front and rear dash cams are perfect for this. Especially if you get a good night vision one like the BlackVue 750 range.
Just an alternative view
Who actually enforces this? My camera set up captures images across a busy A-road and a pedestrian footpath that passes my front door and is used by 100s of people daily. One camera solely monitors the footpath - capturing the view across my gates.
I have had police and detectives visit around 10 times over the last 5 years to see what footage I have when trying to see where suspects may have gone. Not once did any of them mention anything like the above.
So just wondering who actually in reality would enforce it...
The Police and local authority Enforcement Officers following a complaint.
The Polce will happily turn a blind eye until it suits them. As an example there was a chap prosecuted in Norfolk recently because his camera was recording clips of people walking past and he was near a school and someone complained. When they checked his SD card most of the clips were of school children. Which is to be expected if it’s near a school and it records everyone who wanders past. What he was doing wrong (apart from not complying with the legislation) was he hadn’t set the camera to wipe itself every day because he had no reason to store images of children from 6 months previously. I believe he got a smallish fine (£1000 or so) and a criminal record. So I’m still suggesting the dash cam route. Just to be safe.
The Polce will happily turn a blind eye until it suits them. As an example there was a chap prosecuted in Norfolk recently because his camera was recording clips of people walking past and he was near a school and someone complained. When they checked his SD card most of the clips were of school children. Which is to be expected if it’s near a school and it records everyone who wanders past. What he was doing wrong (apart from not complying with the legislation) was he hadn’t set the camera to wipe itself every day because he had no reason to store images of children from 6 months previously. I believe he got a smallish fine (£1000 or so) and a criminal record. So I’m still suggesting the dash cam route. Just to be safe.
Slightly OT but is the same technically true for a video doorbell?
There's also the Blink XT2 camera system from Amazon with free cloud storage. I've been using various Reolink cameras myself and will likely use their cloud storage when they offer it here.
Flippin GDPR policy is blocking it currently.
Flippin GDPR policy is blocking it currently.
No, because they only make images when pressed and, as far as I’m aware, don’t make recordings. Now, if it was recording everyone that wandered past, probably yes.
I wonder why that might be? Surely not because the developers all sit round with a beer and HUGE packet of crisps doing AI searches on the stored images for images of women? I’m sure that couldn’t be the case...
The Nest Hello Doorbell does 24/7 recording and most others on the market will do motion-detection, so someone walking past your house could set it off if your door is close enough to the road.
For most doorbells with motion-detection you can set up activation zones, so potentially you could set it up to not trigger if someone walked past, but does trigger if someone actually walked onto your property. However, this looks like a potential minefield — especially if you live near a school.
Never put something on the cloud if you don't want it shared
They're welcome to watch my front and rear gravel gardens as much as they want!
Have a look at arlo from Netgear. Used then to catch a lodger who spent his time selling my stuff to pay the rent.. but apart from that an amazing bit if kit.
Free version of the cloud system gives some storage/history paid version is great for longer periods.
Free version of the cloud system gives some storage/history paid version is great for longer periods.
I think it would come down to two things - firstly, is the camera focused on the public or the private area of your property and secondly, are you making and storing images inappropriately. I would suggest that a doorbell camera doesn't need to make images 24/7 and you would have to have a REALLY good reason to store those images for more than say, three weeks as that gives you time to go on holiday, find a problem when you come back and review the stored images.
But I don't want to get too off topic.
Never put something on the cloud if you don't want it shared
They're welcome to watch my front and rear gravel gardens as much as they want!
But huge numbers of people just click through the service agreement when you install these things and there have been some truly hideous cases of people in development teams sharing videos of people wandering around their home naked, having sex etc. Generally they get caught because they post stuff on line or their own internal security teams find out. And don't imagine they're randomly looking for images. As part of their development they're feeding all these cloud images into AI engines to improve the human detection, face detection, ANPR accuracy etc. and as a side effect of that they can pull out all the images of people with a certain percentage of exposed skin, between certain ages, hair colour, gender. Quite specific search criteria. And they have definitely been caught doing this. And I don't recall reading that many of them had been fired when they were caught.
Thanks for all the replies and interesting discussion!
The dash cam looks brilliant, but I only really wanted to spend a maximum of £100, and preferably less, there don't seem to be any decent ones in my budget.
There probably aren't many decent outdoor cameras in that budget either, but I've been looking at the Heimvision HMD2 or HMD3, along with the Blink XT2, although I'd prefer something with a card slot over cloud storage.
The dash cam looks brilliant, but I only really wanted to spend a maximum of £100, and preferably less, there don't seem to be any decent ones in my budget.
There probably aren't many decent outdoor cameras in that budget either, but I've been looking at the Heimvision HMD2 or HMD3, along with the Blink XT2, although I'd prefer something with a card slot over cloud storage.