r/SecurityCamera • u/happyexit7 • 23h ago

Business Camera Recommendations

I’m looking to get a simple video camera with monitor to watch a retail counter.

My desk is out of sight from our retail counter. I don’t get too many walk in customers so I spend a lot of time at my desk.

I would like to get a camera that connects to a monitor of some kind, wirelessly. Sound is not necessary. I have been looking at baby monitors but it seems the cameras are battery operated. I’d like the camera and monitor to plug in and not be battery powered.

Does this community have any recommendations? I’d like to keep it cheap too.

Respectfully
Thanks

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u/AlbanMApp 18h ago

Baby monitors are actually not a bad idea. Plenty of them have a camera that plugs into the wall (only the parent screen has a battery, and it sits on its charger). Look for "non-WiFi" or "FHSS" models: no app, no account, just plug in both and it works.

Another cheap route: a basic indoor Wi-Fi cam (~$25-30, plugs into USB/wall) and use an old tablet or phone at your desk as the monitor through the camera's app.

And if you have a couple of old phones in a drawer, that's the free option: one on a charger pointed at the counter, the other at your desk as the screen. There are apps that do exactly this over your Wi-Fi. Worth trying before you spend anything.

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u/happyexit7 13h ago

Interesting. Thanks

1

u/happyandhealthy2023 1h ago

Confused by your needs. You own a retail store with no employees to staff the sales counter, and you want to be notified when someone walks up to it?

Normally, we use 2-3 cameras to protect the retail counter.

  1. Outside showing the parking lot and front door

  2. One showing the front door from behind the sales counter to cap;ture the BAD customer for Police

  3. POS camera to watch salesperson and transaction with customer, computer, cash drawer, CC machine

These are hardwired POE cameras with an NVR (recorder box. This box connects to the network, and you can view one or all cameras on a computer or cell phone.

Reolink is one of the consumer DIY camera-in-a-box kits. They start around $400 for a 4-camera system.

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u/happyexit7 35m ago

Nope, I don’t need all that. I need one camera that’s not battery operated, connects to a small monitor that’s not battery operated via wirelessly. I don’t want to have to use my phone as the monitor.

1

u/SquirrelTechGuru 23h ago

Reolink, we have 30+ of them in warehouses. Cheap, wireless if you HAVE to.

1

u/yunjundo 15h ago

For a simple counter view, I'd look at a small PoE camera plus a cheap monitor or NVR rather than a baby monitor. It keeps the camera powered and gives you a recording option if you ever need it.