Best Security Camera Setup For Shop

[autoguy]

With all the available wifi cameras these days, what is everyone using for shop security? Anyone using Nest, zmodo, d-link, arlo or other? There's a ton of them out there especially on amazon. 

[Alex]

If you are looking for an inexpensive option, I like zmodo for the price and features. The meshare app is pretty good. I use the cameras at my house. The ones below are outdoor but can be used inside, have 1080p and night vision. At $400 for 8 cameras with repeater, hard drive and NVR, its a good deal. This is on amazon. 

 

The indoor ones are good and have an intercom feature where you can speak into it. Here's a mix of 4 outdoor and 2 indoor:

 

 

[autoguy]

Picked up a few zmodos on black friday. Also picked up a ring for the house. I have to say, I am impressed with the ring pro. Ended up getting a ring 2 on black friday for a relative's house, battery operated. works well.

[tomkatv10]

After doing research on the wireless cameras, I had wired cameras installed by a professional security coming inside and out of the building. Best investment I made. It cost about $2300, but worth every penny. It picked up three accidents in my lot after hours. Saved me from responsibility each time. I’m at a major intersection and the police use it for accidents. Protecting my business is my first priority and wired cameras are the best bet. Just my opinion 

[ScottSpec]

I upgraded an older system a few years ago. I went with a system from Lorex https://www.lorextechnology.com/. I think my system was around $1500. I wanted the highest resolution cameras I could get and I would never go wireless. I wanted to be able to capture as much detail as possible, so we had the best chance of capturing tag numbers and possible damage to vehicles. The system has paid for itself many times over. First, there have been several hit and runs in our parking lot that the cameras have captured. This alone has saved me thousands of dollars. If a customer makes a claim, that damage was done while there car was with us, I can quickly look at the video to see if the damage was there when they dropped off. I trust my employees, and never put cameras in the shop with the old system. With the new system I did. I realized there were a lot more benefits to having them there. When the cars come in and out, you get a better look at any possible damage, and we have 6 loaner cars that are always being recorded. We have not had any issues, but if a car were to come back damaged, we would be able to quickly check to see if the damage was there before or not. Then there are a number of different scenarios where the cameras have been useful. Can't find a key, look at the video to see who drove the car last, and what they did after. A car sitting in the parking lot for days who's origin is unknown, just look at the video. The guys are always coming to me asking me to check the security cameras for these types of things.

I would never trust wireless cameras. I would do as we ask most of our customers to do, and focus on performance and quality over price, and make sure the Hard Drive is big enough to capture several weeks on continuous recording. Which is the mode that I recommend. If you run them on activation mode, you run the risk of missing something valuable.

Scott      

Edited January 6, 2020 by ScottSpec

[ScottSpec]

7 hours ago, CAR_AutoReports said:

We usually double the capacity from the start, of whatever the system came with.  Most NVR's have room for one more hard drive in the enclosure.

We try to get as close to 30 days as possible.  Working on backup solutions for 90 days, had some scenario's that warranted the use case.  Not a rush, but will be nice to figure that out as well.

I added a Hard Drive to mine as well. I wanted the max I could get, which is about 3 weeks with 2nd HD and constant recording. I too have thought about having it store to a PC to extend the history, but have not had a need to go back farther than 3 weeks yet.

 

[dfrisby]

I use Nest. They seem to work well and I have to say the video quality is great. I'm adding more cameras as I go. Currently have 7. My building has two furnaces and I have two of the nest thermostats as well. Plan to add 3 more cameras as well as the Nest deadbolts on two of my doors. I prefer to be able to unlock a door for someone when I am away than to have to hand out keys.  I'm hardly ever away as I live in the same building. I went wireless because of the amount of wire I'd have to run to get cameras everywhere I want them. Only downside is it only holds 5 days worth of video and that is subscription based. Can get longer storage, but it's quite costly. 5 days has worked ok so far, but I can see where that could be a problem in some cases. 

[Alex]

On 1/7/2020 at 12:05 AM, dfrisby said:

Can get longer storage, but it's quite costly. 5 days has worked ok so far, but I can see where that could be a problem in some cases. 

Yes, it can get costly with more nest cams, even with the 50% off for additional cameras. Ring does something interesting which I think will carry over to more brands, they offer one fee for all cams at one address for around $100 with 30 days. Right now with Nest it would be $300 per year for the first and $150 for each additional.  It can get expensive for more storage.