1. Decide the job first
- Detail: reading number plates or faces needs far more pixels on target and a narrow field of view than "is someone at the door". Work out distance and field of view before choosing resolution. More megapixels in a wide lens does not give more detail at distance.
- Night: infrared or white light, and a sensor that copes with low light. Check real night footage in reviews, not marketing numbers.
- Weather and mounting: outdoor rating, a mounting height that is out of reach, and a spot where sun and headlights do not blind it.
- Count: each camera's bitrate adds up. A recorder's disk, network and CPU or detector all scale with the number of streams.
ONVIF is the industry interface standard, and its conformance profiles tell you what a device can do. From the ONVIF profiles page:
- Profile S: basic streaming, including PTZ and audio.
- Profile T: H.264 and H.265 streaming, metadata, motion and tamper events and HTTPS streaming.
- Profile G: edge storage and retrieval (recording to an SD card in the camera).
- Profile M: metadata and events for analytics.
- Profile Q is deprecated (since April 2022). Profile V is a release candidate at the time of writing.
3. Codec and streams
- Look for H.264 and H.265 support. H.265 saves bandwidth and disk but can be harder to play in browsers, so check how your viewer handles it.
- Want two streams per camera: a high-resolution main stream for recording and a low-resolution sub-stream for detection and live view. Cameras without a usable sub-stream make detection heavy.
- Avoid cameras that only work via a vendor app and cloud relay. Look for local RTSP access that works without internet.
- PoE (Power over Ethernet): one cable carries data and power, so you need a PoE switch or injectors with enough total power budget. Check the camera's wattage, especially for PTZ or heater models, against the switch's per-port and total limits.
- Use solid copper Cat5e or Cat6 cable (not copper-clad aluminium). Ethernet runs are limited to about 100 m, and cheap cable shows up as drops and resets in the worst weather.
- Outdoors, use UV-rated cable, weatherproof the connectors and consider surge protection. Mains or switchboard wiring should be done by a licensed electrician in Australia, whereas low-voltage data cabling rules vary, so check with your cabler.
- Wi-Fi cameras are convenient but less reliable for 24/7 recording and use more of your Wi-Fi airtime. Wire where you can.
- Change the default password on every camera before it touches your main network. Do not reuse a password across cameras.
- Put cameras on their own VLAN or network with no internet access. Let only the recorder or Home Assistant host reach them. See the project post in this forum.
- Never port-forward a camera or recorder. For remote viewing use a VPN into your home network.
- Keep firmware up to date, but update from the manufacturer's official site and check release notes first.
- Disable features you do not use (UPnP, cloud/P2P, telnet or SSH if offered).
Surveillance and audio recording laws differ by state and territory. In general, avoid pointing cameras at neighbours' private spaces, and be careful with audio recording, since recording conversations can be restricted. I am not a lawyer, so check your own state or territory's rules if cameras cover shared or public areas.
Links
Question for the group: which IP cameras are you running locally with no cloud, and which one would you not buy again, and why?