Question Cheap wifi surveillance camera that allows to record video on free cloud services such as Google drive, Dropbox etc?

[thosecars82]

Hello
Is there any cheap wifi surveillance camera that allows to record video automatically on free cloud services such as Google drive, Dropbox etc whenever the camera detect movement?
Thanks

 

[Ralston18]

You need three parts: cameras, software (for camera configuration and daily functions), and then storage to retain video and audio images). Motion detection being one function.

Many survellance systems offer such features and functions.

Some systems may require using the manufacturers cloud services - may be free up to some limited amount of storage space.

However, the costs can and do vary. As well as reliability, image recovery/playback, etc.

What is your budget (i.e., how is "cheap" being measured)?

 

[USAFRet]

If this is to be an outside camera, be very careful about your expectations of "whenever the camera detects movement".

Outside is a chaotic place. Everything is moving, all the time.

Cats and dogs, cloud shadows, neighbors flag, rain, car headlights at night, a spider spinning her web, right in front of the lens...

I messed with it for years, and gave up. My cameras now just record 24/7.

 

[punkncat]

I am not certain that you can record raw video and download straight to DB or Drive, etc. As is stated above, most of these cheapo systems you can find either have some storage space in the DVR, or download to various vendor "cloud" solutions. Be careful in this space. There are a lot of "nice" cameras out there that are FULLY insecure and have been implicated in being an open door to information being "beamed home", as it were.

IMO, Nest would be my unsolicited suggestion for a cheap and workable camera with variable storage based on budget/desire. The only one that I have liked better (and only because of being truly wireless at the time) is Arlo. I have not been crazy at ALL about how Arlo dropped and is dropping support for some of the early gen equipment. I believe that Nest units are now wireless as well, but have not used any of those yet.

For what it's worth, I actually like(d) Arlo's mobile app better and IMO adding or changing cameras was easier. Part of that last aspect (in relation to Nest) is that I am actually third wheel on the Google recording software accessibility. IE, it is the business owners account so I only have limited access and rights. Some things I have to call them to do.

 

[thosecars82]

You need three parts: cameras, software (for camera configuration and daily functions), and then storage to retain video and audio images). Motion detection being one function.

Many survellance systems offer such features and functions.

Some systems may require using the manufacturers cloud services - may be free up to some limited amount of storage space.

However, the costs can and do vary. As well as reliability, image recovery/playback, etc.

What is your budget (i.e., how is "cheap" being measured)?

Please name a few indoor wifi cams that allow to record straight to free cloud services such as dropbox, Google drive, onedrive,....

Budget, well I would like to know a range of products that do this from the cheapest ones regardless of their particular price. Then I will choose whether the cheapest on the market satisfy my needs or not.

The camera along with a router should be able to record on the cloud without the need to leave a computer on.

 

[bill001g]

Your problem is you want "free" storage. This actually costs someone money and they somehow must recover these costs. They are either going to find some data they can sell, maybe even reading the files you upload or they are going to force advertising on you.

First the security camera companies want to make you pay them for cloud storage so they don't include support for other sites. It would be a lot of effort for them to include support for dropbox,google....etc etc.

You will find a few cameras that still support FTP to store data. This is one of the original file transfer protocols on the internet. You will also find so called "free" ftp sites. I think reolink which is a large security camera manufacture has cameras that support FTP. You are going to have to read lots of fine print to see what the true cost of "free" ftp storage is going to be. Be easier to just pay a small amount a month.

I guess when you are determined to do this no matter what you are going to have to learn the hard way.
First this is a massive security risk, unless you don't care if someone can get control over your camera and also take your recordings. The firmware that runs in cameras is extremely poorly maintained. You hear of constant hacks even on very large well known brands like ring.

Next as stated above the motion detection on the camera itself is horrible. The CPU on the camera can barely capture the data and compress it. They really are not powerful enough to analyze video images and still produce video at acceptable frame rates. The only way this works better is to have a separate PC that collect the continuous video from the camera and then analyzes it after the fact and tries to detect motion. The PC is not having to worry about delay the feed by looking at the data and they generally have many more cpu cores.

Still even when I have tried this it works extremely poorly at times. You set it either way to sensitive or it misses to many things. A sunny day with lots of wind for example mess this up. You have lots of very strong shadows say from tree limbs moving around. Since the sun moves throughout the day you can not even use the masking tools to block out areas like you can do for the actual tree branches themselves.

I like many people just record constantly. I let it try to log movement but I just use that as a timestamp to manually look at the feed. Note I do this with a actual pc running blueiris and it still leaves much to be desired.

Before you get real far maybe just get some camera and let it store to the onboard storage card. You will quickly see the motion detection issue. You can actually put quite a bit of storage in many of these cameras.

 

[Ralston18]

I would expect that any indoor wifi cam can record via the manufacturer's software or perhaps third party software. The manufacturers control such things and may choose a proprietary method that forces end users to use whatever recording software and destination that the manufacturer chooses.

Other products allow the end user to select the recording destination and configure accordingly.

If the requirement is that the webcam connects directly to the host network and sends the recorded video directly to a cloud service destination then that is a different matter. All such functions need to be part of the camera's firmware.

The camera will need to be connected to the host network's router: wired or wirelessly.

The camera will also need to be configurable in some manner to set that up and then recover and continue to work if there are power outages and/or internet/ISP outages.

Initial setup will likely require a an Ethernet connection in order to configure the camera for the host network: E.g., Wireless network name, wireless user name/password, Static IP address, subnet mask, destination server drive. Could be done by using software provided by the camera manufacturer and/or perhaps direct access to the camera via some default login name, password, and IP address.

Start by googling "Indoor webcam reviews". Filter to the last year or so. Look for professional sources and reviews.

Read the reviews and select 2 or 3 webcams that seem appropriate and applicable to your requirements.

Then go the webcam manufacturer's websites to find and read the webcam's User Guide/Manuals, Installation documents, configuration process, etc.. Take a close look at all of the fine print and listed caveats. Also read through any Forums and FAQs. Pay attention to what is said and what is not said.

Other concerns: security, performance, maintainability, web access to the storage location to recover and view recordings.....

 

[USAFRet]

Please name a few indoor wifi cams that allow to record straight to free cloud services such as dropbox, Google drive, onedrive,....

Budget, well I would like to know a range of products that do this from the cheapest ones regardless of their particular price. Then I will choose whether the cheapest on the market satisfy my needs or not.

The camera along with a router should be able to record on the cloud without the need to leave a computer on.

Looking through Amazon, I see a bunch of cameras that might work for you.

From the description of one:
"Free Cloud Storage & 2 Year Warranty - This smart security camera has dual storage mode, SD card (up to 128G, not included) or free lifetime cloud storage base service (record 6s & 7 days loop coverage)."


How do you plan to power this camera?