If you are interested in buying a home IP camera to monitor your home while you are away, you should take into account some very important features so that you can monitor your home without problems and with guarantees. Today there are many home IP cameras, from different manufacturers such as D-Link, EZVIZ, Xiaomi and many others, there are also different product ranges with different prices, so you should take a good look at what features they have and if it will work for you.
Characteristics and recommended models
IP cameras have many characteristics that differentiate them from one another, however, there are four characteristics that we consider essential for their proper functioning. If you are going to buy a new camera, make sure that they fulfill these important functions.
resolution and night vision
The resolution of a camera is one of the most important aspects, although it is not the only one. It is useless to have a high resolution if the camera’s CMOS sensor is of poor quality and does not look very good. Today, for domestic environments, it is best to buy models that are Full HD 1080p , because the price difference with 720p models is very low, and it is not worth saving a little money and having a clearly lower resolution.
The following camera model is very cheap and perfectly complies with Full HD 1080p resolution, in fact, it is motorized, so we can see everything around us.
Another aspect related to the image quality of the camera is to know if it has night vision or not. Generally, all models have infrared to see in complete darkness , yes, at a certain maximum distance and in black and white. The higher-end models have a light on the front to be able to record in full color, in addition, these higher-end models usually have brighter sensors.
This other Xiaomi model has infrared night vision and also 2K resolution, taking into account its price, it is also a highly recommended model.
Today with cameras of about 50 euros we will already have Full HD resolution and a quality sensor.
Motion and/or sound detection without false positives
This feature is at the software level, generally domestic IP cameras allow us to notify us with a push notification if a movement or sound has been detected, however, on many occasions they are false positives because they are not people, but it can be a an insect that has landed on the camera and even a reflection of light that the camera identifies as movement.
There are camera models that are capable of detecting the movement of people only, ruling out any other type of movement such as insects or a reflection of light. Thanks to the software incorporated in the cameras, it will allow us to have zero false positives. In addition, it is also possible that it can be configured to detect vehicles, in case you have the camera monitoring the outside of the house.
The following D-Link cameras incorporate AI-based person detection, so they can notify you if they only detect people and not objects or animals in your home:
After using IP cameras for years, our recommendation is that you buy models that are capable of detecting people, in order to rule out false positives.
Wi-Fi and wired connectivity
The vast majority of cameras allow us to connect them via Wi-Fi to the main router, however, we must differentiate between the models that can be connected to the 2.4GHz band and the models that also allow connection to the 5GHz band. In certain cases, it is very important that they have the possibility to connect to the 5GHz band in order to have a high bandwidth and the lowest possible latency. We must bear in mind that the 2.4GHz band is quite saturated, so being able to connect to the 5GHz band is something that you should take into account.
Of course, there are camera models that allow us to connect it via an Ethernet network cable , so that we do not have to depend on wireless connectivity. We must bear in mind that if we use the WPA2 protocol, as happens in the vast majority of IP cameras on the market, we are vulnerable to a deauthentication attack, so a thief with some security knowledge could block the WiFi connectivity of the camera. camera so that we do not receive notifications or see anything that is happening.
A highly recommended model with this type of wired connectivity is the DCS-8526LH. Only the most expensive models usually incorporate this feature, so if you are looking for a cheap camera, it will surely not have an Ethernet port.
As you can see, the price of about 100 euros is justified by its technical specifications, and it meets all the features mentioned here.
Cloud Recording
Finally, a feature that should not be missing in your new device is the recording in the Cloud of the IP cameras , especially if you use the cameras to monitor that thieves do not enter. If you have video recording locally through a micro SD card, all the recordings will be stored locally, so if a thief enters the house, he could perfectly take all the recordings and you would not see who it was, that is, It wouldn’t do you any good to have the camera.
By having recording in the manufacturer’s cloud, even if it is limited, the recordings will be safe and we will be able to access them even if the thief physically steals the camera from our home. Manufacturers like D-Link or EZVIZ have support for recording in the Cloud, other manufacturers like Netatmo rely on the integration of Dropbox in the app to upload video clips to the public cloud.
As you can see, we consider these four characteristics essential if you want to be successful when buying a camera to monitor your home.
