I want a security camera system that I can trust to be only my own. My requirements are not hugely unreasonable, but I can’t find them the way search engines suck shit these days. I want a camera system with:
Local storage
No internet connection
No phone connection
No cables
No cloud storage option
No router necessary
And the option that seems impossible with the others: No option of remote connections
I don’t want to see whats going on in real time on my phone, I want a completely private recording saved if I ever need to see if I got robbed. I don’t want offline ability, I want cameras that can not connect to the internet at all, even through another device. I’m not worried about local network hacking, I want saved video that can only be viewed directly from the local storage. Longish life batteries so I don’t have to route power, and no cables that can be unplugged. Solar powered would be nice, but isn’t necessary.
Why is that so hard to find?
Without wires you have no permanent power. Also, it sounds like you want it to be wireless transmission without a network. That’s a challenge.
Lets Ignore the “no cables” part then. If you want this to be cheap, highly reliable, and non-networked… use wires. You can’t go wrong.
You can get 4 camera systems with local storage from companies like Lorex for a reasonable price for good quality. I got mine at CostCo for $299. It might support cloud storage (maybe?) but I never enabled it. It just records locally. It’s been running for years with no downtime or issues and the cameras still look great.
Second this, including buying from Costco. I don’t love the Lorex interface, but they’ve been around for a long time and can’t really compete on the modem Ring-style features so they’re now advertising the privacy benefits of their local storage.
PoE (Power over Ethernet) cameras are the way to go, connecting the camera wires directly to the NVR box, which doesn’t itself need to be connected to your network. The NVR box has a hard drive and an HDMI port. If you do optionally connect it to the network (but just don’t), then their app will facilitate connecting to your box either locally or over the internet so that you can stream your video directly from your hard drive, not their cloud.
If you want it protected against power outages, you just put the NVR on a UPS and you’re done.
Of course, if a burglar finds your NVR and takes it, then all of your footage is gone.