CCTV Recommendation

[SP_]

Hikvision 100%

[S6PNJ]

Corso Marche said:

Without hijacking this thread too much, but as this thread is current and this is related I hope the OP doesn't mind me adding a question to it.

Does anyone have experience or recommendations for solar CCTV cameras which could be used to monitor a rural yard and lockup?
I imagine a SIM in each camera will be necessary? Remote access and monitoring alerts are a must. But there's no power whatsoever on site, hence me wondering if solar powered cameras have gotten to a usable level?
Not a permanent setup, but could be needed for a period of circa 6 months.

Thanks in advance.

If there is no power on site, how are you going to manage the remote access aspect? Are you looking for the camera (or system) to have 3G/4G/5G as part of it? If you are looking for a sloar camera with remote access capabilities (ie it has WiFi for conencting to an existing WiFi network) then look at the Reolink offerings which can come bundled with a solar panel - they get good reviews https://reolink.com/gb/product/argus-3-pro/

[NoTreadLeft]

SP_ said:

Hikvision 100%

This^. I run mine with SD cards in each, so no need for an NVR or NAS spinning away 24x7. They’ve been flawless for the last 7 years and the police were interested in the footage they provided when my car got nicked last year.

[S6PNJ]

NoTreadLeft said:

SP_ said:

Hikvision 100%

This^. I run mine with SD cards in each, so no need for an NVR or NAS spinning away 24x7. They’ve been flawless for the last 7 years and the police were interested in the footage they provided when my car got nicked last year.

I run both of my Hikvision cameras with 64GB cards in them as well as the NVR (Synology NAS). The NVR looks after 24/7 recording whilst the SD cards look after events only, so via the Hikvision app, I can see events only, but via my NAS interface I can look at any time point.

[NoTreadLeft]

Salted_Peanut said:

What was the scaremongering?

They are Chinese, so you need to be prepared for the occasional snarky comment about the Chinese government watching your cat. Also there was a very well publicised vulnerability found (and fixed) in their firmware back in 2017.

They are the world’s biggest CCTV camera company, used by oppressive regimes worldwide, so they are a big target for hackers. I’ve not heard of any hacks of recent firmware for a long time, which I personally find reassuring vs smaller “domestic” brands of camera.

[NoTreadLeft]

S6PNJ said:

I run both of my Hikvision cameras with 64GB cards in them as well as the NVR (Synology NAS). The NVR looks after 24/7 recording whilst the SD cards look after events only, so via the Hikvision app, I can see events only, but via my NAS interface I can look at any time point.

Actually mine are set to only record events too. But they are pretty sensitive- they’ve never missed anything I’ve wanted to see.

[Corso Marche]

Corso Marche said:

I imagine a SIM in each camera will be necessary?

S6PNJ said:

If there is no power on site, how are you going to manage the remote access aspect? Are you looking for the camera (or system) to have 3G/4G/5G as part of it? If you are looking for a sloar camera with remote access capabilities (ie it has WiFi for conencting to an existing WiFi network) then look at the Reolink offerings which can come bundled with a solar panel - they get good reviews https://reolink.com/gb/product/argus-3-pro/

Yes, presumably it'll have to be a SIM card in each unit.

I'll have a look at those Reolink products over the next few days to see if they have any such offering. Thanks.

[donkmeister]

HantsRat said:

Hikvision - Ignore the scaremongering around the brand. CCTV shouldn't have direct access to the internet anyway. Great quality kit for the prices.

Problem there is:
1) Most home CCTV users use the app that works with their brand of cameras, and the cloud services that go along with that.
2) People who can set up BlueIris/Frigate/ZoneAlarm generally don't need to be told "don't expose this to the internet" and will be fine with setting up a no-internet VLAN for the cams, blocking internet access to their CCTV server and setting up a WireGuard host and client to allow viewing remotely.

So, most people who buy Hikvision will in fact give the Chinese government access to their LAN (which is really the issue here - not Tiddles being watched by the MSS).

It's really not scaremongering!

[NoTreadLeft]

donkmeister said:

It's really not scaremongering!

Well it kind of is scaremongering, given that there are no known cases of the Chinese Government doing what you allege they will do, nor any currently known back-doors through which they could do it.

I agree it's technically possible but the real world risk that most people should genuinely be worried about is hackers of the more common or garden variety. I'd argue that Hikvision or Dahua are a lot more hardened against those risks than most of the cheap cameras you can pick up on Amazon. Including the US ones.

[Alex_225]

I use a Eufy set up which came with two solar cameras and a hub which stores videos locally. Very easy to set up, all wireless and the app is very good and detection seems to be quite clever.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B7NLK2T1/ref...

[eein]

donkmeister said:

HantsRat said:

Hikvision - Ignore the scaremongering around the brand. CCTV shouldn't have direct access to the internet anyway. Great quality kit for the prices.

Problem there is:
1) Most home CCTV users use the app that works with their brand of cameras, and the cloud services that go along with that.
2) People who can set up BlueIris/Frigate/ZoneAlarm generally don't need to be told "don't expose this to the internet" and will be fine with setting up a no-internet VLAN for the cams, blocking internet access to their CCTV server and setting up a WireGuard host and client to allow viewing remotely.

So, most people who buy Hikvision will in fact give the Chinese government access to their LAN (which is really the issue here - not Tiddles being watched by the MSS).

It's really not scaremongering!

The Chinese government thing is less about them watching your cat, and more that they have access to your network and therefore other devices. There are plenty of example of Chinese government interference in western networks and equipment, but it's rarely by way of a deterministic hard link from a bit of equipment to a confirmed branch of their government - that's just not how cyber, spying and gaining leverage on your adversary's CNI works.

The other controversy around Hikvision is ethical, which most consumers in the west won't care about when offered cheap prices. It has been confirmed that the facial recognition in their cameras using AI is trained on Uyghurs as part of their oppression. So the AI model that's loaded in to your Hikvision camera / back end software has come from torture of innocent people. Some people will make an ethical chouse not to purchase from suppliers that have created their products with such methods.

[NoTreadLeft]

eein said:

The Chinese government thing is less about them watching your cat, and more that they have access to your network and therefore other devices. There are plenty of example of Chinese government interference in western networks and equipment, but it's rarely by way of a deterministic hard link from a bit of equipment to a confirmed branch of their government - that's just not how cyber, spying and gaining leverage on your adversary's CNI works.

So you are saying that a vague, unquantifiable & unproven risk which has probably never happened on a domestic network ever, and would cause immeasurable political and commercial damage to the perpetrator if it were discovered, is greater than the well understood risk (posed by many other camera brands) that you'll wake up one morning to a demand for BTC to get your files unscrambled. Righty ho.

eein said:

The other controversy around Hikvision is ethical, which most consumers in the west won't care about when offered cheap prices. It has been confirmed that the facial recognition in their cameras using AI is trained on Uyghurs as part of their oppression. So the AI model that's loaded in to your Hikvision camera / back end software has come from torture of innocent people. Some people will make an ethical chouse not to purchase from suppliers that have created their products with such methods.

My local Police force uses Hikvision cameras to perform live face recognition. I have very real concerns about their use of both Hikvision and LFR in general. I'm less concerned about my doorbell, which does not implement LFR.

Edited by NoTreadLeft on Friday 5th July 17:48

[FMOB]

NoTreadLeft said:

donkmeister said:

It's really not scaremongering!

Well it kind of is scaremongering, given that there are no known cases of the Chinese Government doing what you allege they will do, nor any currently known back-doors through which they could do it.

I agree it's technically possible but the real world risk that most people should genuinely be worried about is hackers of the more common or garden variety. I'd argue that Hikvision or Dahua are a lot more hardened against those risks than most of the cheap cameras you can pick up on Amazon. Including the US ones.

This is the same country that setup several unofficial Police Stations in the UK to monitor their citizens (dissidents) so wouldn't think twice about subverting any cctv to keep an eye on their people.