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Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

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Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#41

Post by michaelt »

lloydatkinson wrote: post #5

This is a very disturbing trend for sure. Given that these new cameras that need accounts sure aren’t showing ads on the feeds either, meanwhile an account being required must be important to the manufacturers in some way. I can only conclude that they must be selling access to feeds, because even the most incompetent agile product delivery manager type person isn’t going to simply suggest every camera needs an accou…

> I can only conclude that they must be selling access to feeds, because even the most incompetent agile product delivery manager type person isn’t going to simply suggest every camera needs an account along with all the extra engineering requirements involved for that for simply no reason - there surely must be a financial motive.

Eh, probably they're just targeting users who want to view their CCTV on their phone when away from home, without their camera ending up visible to the whole world.

I mean, if you're selling a retail product to consumers, very few of them know WTF things like ONVIF are.

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#42

Post by LukeShu »

One trick is to look at whatever camera FRC (high school robotics competition) is using in their kits, since those are requirements for putting the camera on a robot, and they've got to put out a new kit each year, so there will always be a current model.

Last I knew, they were using Axis cameras, but that was a few years ago.

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#43

Post by leesalminen »

iaresee wrote: post #12

You can build out a UniFi system without giving them any information. The entire system can be run local-only.

I was looking at buying a new camera from them to use in standalone mode. AIUI, you are required to have a Protect account to activate newer model cameras. It appears as though they’ve done away with standalone RTSP streams. This is a new change on their newest models.

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#44

Post by EvanAnderson »

kunwon1 wrote: post #6

I have worked professionally with access control and surveillance. I can give you two manufacturer recommendations: Axis and Geovision. Axis cameras are high end and expensive, but they will, in my experience, do anything an IP camera could reasonably be expected to do, and they will do it well. They are European in origin and are available from various retail outlets to ship this week. Geovision cameras are low end…

I'll throw out a word of support for both Geovision and Axis.

My Geovision experience is also not current either. I've got three Customers using their cameras in isolated VLANs w/o Internet access. Both hardware and software reliability have been very good. Some of the outdoor units are coming up on 7 years old and still working fine. I think, in total, there are around 300 (mostly indoor) cameras in all their systems combined.

I work at a site w/ >100 Axis cameras, also w/o Internet access. They're phenomenal devices-- built like tanks-- but very expensive. I particularly like that you get root on the cameras (which are running Linux). There are third-party applications that can run directly on the cameras.

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#45

Post by dboreham »

Nice to see this because I was mulling posting basically the same question. My quest is to find cameras that don't depend on a cloud service, because in my experience such services are always flaky and end up being EoL'ed.

My current setup is Samsung cameras (bought at Costco years ago) which are now suffering from the aforementioned problem. Before that I used RPi with OTS USB cameras and OSS webcam s/w. The RPi burned through their memory cards in short order however. It does appear from the posts here that Axis has the market still.

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#46

Post by fullstop »

leesalminen wrote: post #38
fullstop wrote: post #30

Take a look at https://openipc.org/ and choose a camera from their supported list.

I’m in a similar situation to OP and recently came across this project. Their supported hardware lists compatible SoCs, not actual make/models of cameras. I’ve found it fairly hard to map an SoC to a camera. Anyone have any suggestions?

Right, I should have said SoC and not camera in my original post. To install these you will generally need to physically open the camera and attach a serial adapter to issue the commands, so it's probably not for everyone.

I'm also curious if anyone has found cameras available through Amazon or Ali which guarantee support.

edit: I found this -- https://github.com/OpenIPC/wiki/blob/master/en/guide-support...

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#48

Post by hello_computer »

idatum wrote: post #34
hello_computer wrote: post #7

I bought a couple Amcrests just a week ago, and they still operate identically to ones I purchased back in 2017. They have apparently been re-branding Dahua's software, since the HTTP APIs are identical, and there are still lots of "Dauha" strings in the configs[0]. I think a lot of the problems with IP cams aren't with the cameras themselves, but the poor state of open-source media players. Getting mplayer, ffplay,…

I recommend explicitly blocking internet access for Amcrest devices. I configured my camera with a static IP and blocked it in my PF rules with logging, and my camera model was making 1000s (16k in 24 hours) of DNS requests for config.amcrestcloud.com. I don't use any of their cloud services.

Rather than play whack-a-mole with filters, it's simpler to put mystery-meat devices on a separate VLAN+subnet that doesn't route. Firewall will keep the camera from accessing the internet, but does nothing to protect other hosts on the LAN.

The cloud thing can be disabled from their web UI or the HTTP API, but between all of the knock-offs out there (of any brand), and the eventual end of firmware updates, it's best not to trust any of this stuff.

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#49

Post by starky »

I'm not going to recommend specific cameras (as I work for a company that sells them), but one tip is to look for industrial cameras with ONVIF certification and them look them up in the conformant cameras database [1]. They have a page for each camera that describes how you can connect to them on the first time.

[1] https://www.onvif.org/conformant-products/

Re: Ask HN: IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

#50

Post by dboreham »

kova12 wrote: post #37
akerl_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can second this. I have several Axis M1065-LW cameras inside (running on wall plugs and wifi) and several Axis P1447-LE externally (running on PoE). Would recommend both of them. Notably, I had one exterior camera fail (wouldn’t run off PoE), and the Axis support/RMA process was smooth and fast.

P1447-LE is sold for over $500 used. What is it that's inside of that camera, which makes it so pricey?!

The fact that someone will reply to your support email and fix bugs?
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