recommendation for battery-powered run camera with video, works with cell phone and WiFi, SD card, not cloud stored

[Mother of Chaos]

Flipped a coin between this and the coop and run forum, and the coin landed here.

I'd like to get a camera that covers our 8'x15' run and immediate surroundings to monitor for uninvited visitors, mostly four-legged.

1. It doesn't have to be amazing quality, but images should be more than blurs at night.
2. Video should be triggered almost immediately, not when the moving object is already gone (I've been reading reviews...)
3. I'm indifferent as to whether there's a soft glow at night.
4. It needs to be battery powered, possibly solar. We will eventually run power out there, but not right away.
5. I don't need a siren, a spotlight, or 2-way audio - I've no plans to chat with predators.
6. It doesn't need a camouflage pattern - it won't be mounted in wilderness.
7. 130° viewing angle (side to side), ideally 90° pitch (up and down.)
8. I want to be able to store images on an SD card or on our own wifi. I'm not paying a subscription, and I'm not selling my info to someone.

Most cameras I've found that fall into these categories are from home security systems. We don't have (or particularly want) Blink, Ring, etc. I'm not trying to monitor for two-legged trespassers at this time.

I've searched here on BYC, and I was surprised to not find a thread that was already dozens of pages long! Thanks.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Wish I had a good answer pointing to a product, but I've also been looking for something like this for ages too with good battery life and near-immediate video and not found something decent. I think part of the problem is that there is just a fundamental tradeoff between video recording responsiveness and power requirements for battery powered devices. I've also looked into extremely DIY options involving programming a Raspberry Pi / Arduino and the same issue exists with those. To have instantaneous capure that includes the actual event that set off the motion sensor, video monitoring must be constant to maintain a buffer for recording. That requires more power. Battery power will also struggle in cold temps. Best quoted battery runtimes I've seen for battery devices are from things like Ring; I don't like the mandatory cloud aspect of those type of home security devices either, so I've never tried any of them.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Wish I had a good answer pointing to a product, but I've also been looking for something like this for ages too with good battery life and near-immediate video and not found something decent. I think part of the problem is that there is just a fundamental tradeoff between video recording responsiveness and power requirements for battery powered devices. I've also looked into extremely DIY options involving programming a Raspberry Pi / Arduino and the same issue exists with those. To have instantaneous capure that includes the actual event that set off the motion sensor, video monitoring must be constant to maintain a buffer for recording. That requires more power. Battery power will also struggle in cold temps. Best quoted battery runtimes I've seen for battery devices are from things like Ring; I don't like the mandatory cloud aspect of those type of home security devices either, so I've never tried any of them.

Have you come across anything that hits the rest of my wish list, but is wired?

Maybe we should ramp up the electrical installation.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Have you come across anything that hits the rest of my wish list, but is wired?

Unfortunately not that avoids cloud storage of the video or some other kind of questionable internet access requirement for the device to function (although there would definitely be DIY Pi/Arduino type solutions that are privacy-preserving so long as there's an outlet for power).

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Unfortunately not that avoids cloud storage of the video or some other kind of questionable internet access requirement for the device to function (although there would definitely be DIY Pi/Arduino type solutions that are privacy-preserving so long as there's an outlet for power).

* sigh * This world…

 

[Raubkatze]

Pricey, but this might cover everything you are looking for: https://a.co/d/8RyBROv

I personally went with Blink cameras. There is some delay between the cameras coming up in my app, but I think that's just a wifi issue. My cameras are at the far reaches of my wifi's range.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Pricey, but this might cover everything you are looking for: https://a.co/d/8RyBROv

I personally went with Blink cameras. There is some delay between the cameras coming up in my app, but I think that's just a wifi issue. My cameras are at the far reaches of my wifi's range.

I’ll check it out; thanks!

 

[DonyaQuick]

Pricey, but this might cover everything you are looking for: https://a.co/d/8RyBROv

It looks like there is a hard subscription requirement with that one. It says "One Month Free of EggsteinAI (Required)" and "Every purchase requires a 12-month Eggstein+ commitment (...) Cancel anytime after the initial 12 months."

 

[webrx]

https://a.co/d/brdjNiu

Tp-link c402, $50, Solar, no cloud storage required you can micro sd card if desired. I have it on my run. Which is 70 feet from the house and can view live.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

https://a.co/d/brdjNiu

Tp-link c402, $50, Solar, no cloud storage required you can micro sd card if desired. I have it on my run. Which is 70 feet from the house and can view live.

Thanks! This looks promising. Has your connectivity been ok? That seems to be the main reservation in the comments.