Arlo Essential Spotlight Camera. I've been looking around for a while at these and this price is easily the lowest I've seen.
Perhaps price beat with Bunnings, as they also have it for this? https://www.bunnings.com.au/arlo-essential-spotlight-wire-fr…
RRP seems to be $199, Harvey Norman has this price.
I did some research a while back and for Arlo you'll need an ongoing subscription if you want to make the most of it.
I highly recommend Eufy which has a home base and does not require subscription.
Which Eufy? The Cam 2 Pro or 2C Pro?
yeah, the arlo pro 2 or whatever base system 2 camera setup i've got, the motion detection stops working if you don't have subscription …
to clarify, it can sense if it's motion, animal, vehicle or person and you can set notifications for each and it was quite accurate … once the trial period runs out, it's no better than a 20$ aliexpress camera that notifies you whenever the wind blows
"it's no better than a 20$ aliexpress camera that notifies you whenever the wind blows"
that's a cheap weather station!
TBH it depends if you want longer battery life or not.
the issue I have is I want programmatic control. There's a python library for Arlo.
edit: Looks like EUFY has one too!
Only problem with Eufy is the security bug they haven't fixed after at least 12 months where the camera can quite easily be unassigned from the base and all recordings deleted.
Of course dependent on someone knowing it's Eufy and of the bug.
this store has had bad history https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/664625
consider price matching elsewhere, don't support them. shady guys the lot of them.
well then I'd go to bunnings for the $159 there. Price is good tho!
Isn't TA affiliated with this mob?
Off topic but can anyone recommend cost effective cameras for a highset home so that I can monitor my elderly mother to make sure she is fine. Would like something I can check using my mobile, thanks !
I quite like Reolink. They are affordable, decent quality and the mobile app works well (I have only used it on Android). Setup is easy with the app and QR code scanning. They support Google and Alexa.
Unfortunately you just missed the big sale, but many of the cameras are still somewhat discounted.
I recently bought the E1 Zoom, which is a 5MP pan and tilt Wi-Fi camera with 3x optical zoom. $85 currently at Reolink (including delivery) or from about $80 on eBay depending if you have eBay Plus or use other codes. Camera is good, and you can do two way communications through it, set motion alerts etc. They can be roof or wall mounted. The camera ball part at the top is about the size of a tennis ball.
The Zoom and pan and tilt is not super fast. It's more for changing view or framing than something you would want to be zooming in and out all over the place all the time. You can set a 'guard point', so if you look at something else, the camera will auto return to a specific point after an adjustable length of time.
https://reolink.com/au/product/e1-zoom/
They also have The E1 Pro (4MP, no zoom) for $64, and the E1, which is 3MP no zoom for $51.
The Reolink Lumus ($64) is not bad for outdoors (I set one up for the in-laws to monitor their front door while away) and has a spotlight, but is only 2MP (1080P) and no pan and tilt.
There also also a range of chunkier traditional cameras, but mostly for outdoors.
Out of the above, only the E1 Zoom is a true IP camera that can be recorded to a NAS etc. But they all have a microSD card slot if you want to record locally, and Reolink also have some cloud stuff, but I have not tried that.
Thank you so much for your info, much appreciated !
As I am not a tech savvy person so the easier to set up and to run, the better for me.
I will now read up the reolink product and try to find the right ones.
No worries, happy to help. I found the Reolink cameras very easy to set up, and the app walks you through the process. Access is also easy to share access to other family members too.
Are you looking to monitor indoors or outdoors too?
One other cheaper option for indoors is the TP-Link Tapo C100 - $37.5 right now on Amazon delivered ($39 at Bing Lee). I have not used it myself, but have read good things. I have other TP-Link gear, and their apps are very easy to use and walk you through setup.
It's a lower resolution camera (1080P) and no pan and tilt, but still good picture quality. If you had it set up in the corner of a room, it will see everything.
And it still has all the features such as two way audio etc.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B083V41T6M
https://www.t3.com/au/reviews/tp-link-tapo-c100-review
There is also a pan and tilt version (Tapo C200) for $11 more. ($48.90)
https://www.amazon.com.au/TP-Link-Tapo-Detection-Control-C20…
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/tp-link-tapo-c200
@Prong: I only need it for indoor. My mum has health issues and I worry she might pass out at home without anyone knowing that's why I need to be able to check on her when I am at work.
I don't recommend these types of cameras. Another member mentioned above about the subscription where if you stop paying it you lose all of its best features.
There are a ton of other issues (not necessarily specific to Arlo but to this profile of camera).
It's fine if people knew about those limitations before purchasing and were OK with them. But unfortunately they usually find out about them AFTER they've purchased.
Bit of a writeup about those problems here:
11 Reasons to Avoid Wireless Battery Cameras
while the article has valid points, it is a negative write up of wireless cams from a website that makes commission from cctv installers, hardly an objective review.
Arlo support are also useless. They now have tier support levels. Users who dont have subscription will only have access to chat bot and KB articles that arent helpful.
Those who have a subscription will still have to go through the chat bot and after going around in circles, they will put you onto an agent who just refers to the KB articles. Pretty useless support from them. I've had 2 RMA with the Arlo Ultra and each time it took over a month of back and forth and repeating the same power off/factory reset process because you get a different agent each time that asks for the same process they read from KB despite all the info provided in the case.
I have 5 arlo pro 2 cameras on a free subscription. Have had no problems with Arlo themselves any issues have been tracked down to our bad internet speeds.
moved to Eufy and never looked back
There's another 10% off if you buy it off their eBay store with code PLUSMKP
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/403263817033