Recommendation?

[detneirbo 0]

Hi,

 

I'm new to your forum but have done some reading on here over the last few days. I'm trying to figure out whether or not there's a camera available on the market that fits my specific requirements:

 

1. It'll be mounted outdoors and exposed to the Spring and Summer elements (taken down in the Fall and Winter) so it needs to be somewhat durable

2. It needs to be wireless and to have the ability to connect to a public WiFi connection *without* the need to do any port forwarding or open any specific ports on the router

3. The camera will be mounted about 20' up the side of a tree so I'm really looking for a solar powered camera if possible so I don't have to run power to it

4. It needs to support pan and zoom

5. Night vision is not a must but would be a welcomed feature

6. 720 resolution or better would be nice

 

The cameras that I've looked at online from the generic retailers don't seem very durable and for the most part are getting poor reviews, so I'm posting this here in hopes that someone will have a recommendation on which make/model of cameras I should be looking at, or if there's anything available on the market that covers the requirements I have.

 

Thanks in advance

[buellwinkle 0]

Sounds like you need a trail camera. Those tend to have batteries that last months, some up to a year, will take up to 1080P video or 5-8MP pictures on movement and are typically mounted on trees so they come with straps to do so. No need for WiFi as that would kill a battery in a day or two. As for PT, none that I know of, again, that would kill a batter in a day or two.

[detneirbo 0]

Thanks for the quick response.

 

I'm not familiar with trail cameras so I did some quick research and I see that there are quite a few available, and even a couple that do offer a wifi connection but a few questions/comments about battery life as you suggested. They sound great for their purpose, but I don't think they're going to meet my needs as pan/tilt will be a requirement and I don't see (m)any that offer that.

 

If I was to take the solar/battery requirement out of the requirements for my camera and actually run power 20' up the tree would that change my options and/or your recommendation what camera(s) I should be looking at?

[buellwinkle 0]

So you want WiFi in the cloud (no port forwarding) and you want PTZ. You have to think low end, very low as only consumer grade cameras that are not very good are WiFi, so maybe a Foscam FI9828W fits your bill. The only question would be how to enable it in the cloud and Foscam has a cloud, you'll have to google it.

[detneirbo 0]

I've researched the Foscam camera you mentioned and I see on their website they have a guide on setting up port forwarding for it which at first doesn't sound promising, but they do mention that by default the camera comes set up to use port 80 which is perfect if it actually works. I'll have to contact Foscam directly to confirm it.

 

In the reviews I've read they the one negative that keeps popping up is the size of the wire bundle sticking out the back of the camera mount, and people talking about they weren't able to flush mount it without having to drill some substantial holes in the wall and/or using a electrical box for mounting. That's going to be a bit of an issue up in a tree, but I'll contact them anyway to see if they have any other models that offer something more in line with what I need.

 

If any other cameras come to mind please let me know.

 

Thanks again for the information...much appreciated.

[buellwinkle 0]

Not sure you read it right about port forwarding, that's if you don't use the Foscam Cloud.

 

As for flush mounting it, how were you planning on doing that in a tree? You'll have to mount the camera to a box and mount the box to the tree. In the box you'll have your battery to power the camera and the rats nest of wires that comes with many of the newer cameras. You may be able to disconnect the bundle of wires as it probably contains things you don't need like the Ethernet jack, audio in/out, alarm in/out. The only wire of concern really is the power cable and typically it's a standard 2.1mm jack.

 

What's your budget? Anything I would seriously recommend is going to cost at least $500 for the camera, $100 for an outdoor WiFi access point and then you'll have to setup a VPN to communicate between the camera and home without port forwarding. You'll still need a box for the battery, WiFi access point and wiring between them. But it will be way better than what Foscam sells, but more complicated to setup.

[detneirbo 0]

Thanks for the info on the Foscam Cloud, I'll do some reading on it.

 

I don't know anything about wiring or mounting devices so I'm not sure what I was expecting, but by the sounds of it I might be able to work with it by removing some of the wires like you suggested.

 

I don't really have a budget so I'm open to any cameras you suggest.