I just bought a house in a rural area and need outdoor cameras. I want cameras for the doors, the greenhouse, and the detached garage facing the driveway.
Looking for recommendations on what works best in areas like this. Thanks!
I use Reolink on a large property, and they work well. I have a mix of PoE, powered, and solar with battery backup. The key is having strong Wi-Fi where the cameras are. I use a mesh router for coverage.
@Nick
I have Starlink and just installed a mesh router. I might need a satellite in the greenhouse to extend the range to the garage. Where did you buy your cameras?
Max said:
@Nick
I have Starlink and just installed a mesh router. I might need a satellite in the greenhouse to extend the range to the garage. Where did you buy your cameras?
I bought mine wherever I could get the best deal. Reolink had a good holiday sale, so I upgraded then. My router came from Amazon.
Switching to a mesh router was a big upgrade even without the cameras.
@Nick
I’ll check Costco—I’ve seen them there before.
Max said:
@Nick
I have Starlink and just installed a mesh router. I might need a satellite in the greenhouse to extend the range to the garage. Where did you buy your cameras?
PoE cameras can reach up to 100 meters, and you can double that with an extender. If you need more range, you can set up a PoE camera with a wireless bridge (as long as you have a power source at the remote location). Otherwise, you’d need a 4G LTE camera.
You don’t need a satellite in the greenhouse. PoE cameras are always better than Wi-Fi because Wi-Fi cameras are unreliable.
Reolink is a decent budget option, but if you can spend more, there are better cameras.
Since you’re in a rural area, I assume it gets very dark. Reolink’s infrared (IR) cameras don’t perform well at night, so you might want external IR floodlights. The trick is to turn off the camera’s built-in IR and only use the external floodlights—this also reduces bugs, spider webs, and floating dust showing up in the footage.
Vivotek cameras are a solid option.
I’ve been happy with WUUK cameras. No subscription is required, and their customer support is great.
Tactacam game cameras work great. You can find them on Amazon.
- Clear pictures
- Works with a Wi-Fi subscription (mine was $198/year, but it may be higher now)
- Sends notifications to your phone as soon as a picture is taken
- Runs on batteries, and they last a long time
I used ADT before, but the picture quality wasn’t great and retrieving images was difficult. Tactacam is much better.
I hear good things about ADT, but they’re more expensive. I do NOT recommend Ring. Mine only works half the time, and the cameras don’t always catch everything.
Someone rang my doorbell at 8 PM, and my cameras didn’t even pick them up!