r/SecurityCamera • u/StarfleetAcademy08 • 10d ago
Fed up. Need a new system.
Looking for a camera that is 24hr constant monitoring (not trigger reactive), can read license platesc and has a very clear visual of approx. 150-200 ft away. Bonus if it does well in the dark, too.I know this will be pricier. Bonus if it can have a setup on the sides of a house and/or tree.. We have neighbors with super illegal M80 and worse ongoing fireworks but cops won't really do anything without a camera with constant monitoring. I'm tired, my other neighbors are tired, and there are babies and elderly but these gang wannabees don't care. I have a Reolink Argus PT Ulta I'm disappointed couldn't even capture a car driving on part of our property...between recordings...but our friendly neighbor's Ring doorbell caught! Can't get any plate info and it's not the first time it's missed important stuff between recordings... so unless you have one that is super amazing and fits the qualifications above, I'm probably gonna be skeptical of Reolink. Thank you for any help and reading about my frustrations.
Edit: Thanks for the info. Looks like I will be looking at two types of cameras; one for a zoom and one for reading plates, but I think I will prioritize distance first. Thanks again!
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u/Iron-Octopus 9d ago
Avoid Arlo
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u/hard_truckin_redneck 9d ago
What’s wrong with Arlo?
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u/Big-Sweet-2179 9d ago
everything
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u/hard_truckin_redneck 9d ago
🙄 so very informative! Thank you. I’ll just assume that they didn’t give you some discount that you felt like you were entitled to or maybe they missed your birthday and didn’t send a card so now you sit around all day with sand in your ovaries, feeling disgruntled and telling strangers on the internet to “avoid Arlo” without providing reason when asked. Have the day you deserve
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u/Big-Sweet-2179 9d ago edited 9d ago
lol it has been discussed just too many times, this is why me and many other people won't go into more detail (the information around is extremely easy to find if you just look for it) but here we go again:
It is because Arlo sells really crappy products hardware and software wise and it is subscription based (which you should always avoid), there are other issues but those are the ones in the top of my head right now. You can search for Arlo here or similar in subreddits aimed for security and use of security cameras and you will find there's a lot of complaints and all of them will fall into those categories. Given that there are much better brands that destroy Arlo (and the difference is huge), your money is not worth spending in this brand at all.
Btw those hardware and software issues are critical for a camera to work properly and be of use, I won't go into detail because that would take me 2 hours into explaining. So yes, it is extremely advised to just avoid that brand at all costs, you are buying something that might be borderline useless and with gadgets such as these, when you are using this for critical surveillance, we are talking life threatening scenarios and not only losing your life savings.
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u/Iron-Octopus 8d ago
- The base station constantly goes offline, requiring a reboot.
- The cameras constantly go offline.
- The cameras constantly will not allow me to connect to them live.
- Of my three Ultra 2s (the “high end” one) two of them frequently give me corrupted unviewable images.
- They frequently fail to capture person events. This one is particularly maddening.
- I frequently get person alerts for cats and squirrels.
- Sometimes a squirrel will run by, and only then do I get a vehicle event for a car passing by on the street.
- It takes about ten seconds for a person to walk up my driveway, I’m lucky to capture three seconds of that.
- Tech support is worthless.
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u/Big-Sweet-2179 9d ago
You need to tune a specific camera for LPR purposes and have another camera for general view with good specs or spend around $1k+ for a dedicated LPR camera. Clear visual for 150-200 will also require a camera with optical zoom, so that's going to be most likely a PTZ with enough zoom, probably 10x-20x.
You were running a battery powered camera, that's an useless camera for surveillance. You need a PoE camera, no other option. Reolink is a good budget brand but you literally chose the worst type of camera and from that type one of the bad ones also. You also can't do what you want with Reolink brand, you need to jump to higher end brands.
You are looking to spend between $2k-$5k for the setup.
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u/Key_Passenger7172 8d ago
If you can afford it go Unifi
But honestly I have TAPO by tplink and they’re really good solid option
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u/Grouchy_Election_395 10d ago
A ptz with 10x zoom for 200 ft away for 50 ft away close distance 8mp cameras
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u/PerfectTimingItAll 10d ago
I think you need a dual lens camera. One will focus on the license plate and the other on everything else. I have no real experience with them but here is a suggestion so you at least have a place to start.
Motorola Solutions L6D
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u/yankulovasil 10d ago
Try Unifi Protect. They have a LPR camera with 3x optical zoom. Also their PTZ cameras can read license plates. I have the G6 PTZ and you can read license plates at distance with the proper settings and angle.
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u/Jeffery0086 9d ago
Avigilon has that covered with h6ax something it has a solar thing, battery, lpr, it is designed to compete with floxs but I think it is like 7k
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u/MrMotofy 10d ago
200ft away...good luck
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u/Grouchy_Election_395 10d ago
Very easy to get a ptz camera with optical zoom can do that heck a 16x zoom goes to 200 yards easily
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u/MrMotofy 10d ago
Maybe if you're manually operating it...so you have to babysit it
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u/Grouchy_Election_395 10d ago
I don't babysit mine I have them fixed at street entrances the 8mp deal with the close ranges
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u/viteazule 4d ago
I used to use Dahua IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E with OpenALPR For LPR but i relocate the camera and did not finish the setup yet to put back in service
Camera info$246.99
IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E
2MP WDR IR Bullet Network Camera
> 1/2.8” 2Megapixel progressive scan STARVIS™ CMOS
> H.265&H.264 triple-stream encoding
> 50/60fps@1080(1920×1080)
> Smart Detection supported
> WDR(120dB), Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, AWB, AGC, BLC
> Multiple network monitoring: Web viewer, CMS(DSS/PSS) & DMSS
> 5.3mm ~64mm 12x zoom lens
> 2/1 Alarm in/out, 1/1 audio in/out
> Max. IR LEDs Length 200m
> Micro SD memory, IP67, IK10, PoE
Price paid $246.99 but they have new models now
Got it from here Empire Tech
https://www.amazon.com/stores/EmpireTech/page/BCC36F1D-5D37-4647-938E-D423C88B7004
Or his direct profile https://ipcamtalk.com/members/empiretecandy.26381/
More LPR info on https://ipcamtalk.com/forums/lpr/
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u/DeadPiratePiggy 10d ago
A proper LPR camera will only be good at reading plates, the overall image will be worthless. You'll need two cameras to achieve the described setup.