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 John in Bridgewater, New Jersey listens to the podcast and asked: "I need some help finding some indoor Wi-Fi cameras so that I can see what's going on when I'm not around. I saw a set of 4 on Amazon for $100, it was like 720p. 720p sounds okay, but 1080 would be better. Working with Alexa would be great, but not required as long as I can still see the cameras from my phone and get alerts when there's motion. If you could give me some ideas, I'd appreciate it. Don't want to break the bank, but don't want to go so cheap that I can't even see that it's my cat walking there."

John, you won’t necessarily have to pay a lot of money for 1080p or even Alexa compatibility. For example, a 4-camera system from meShare sells on Amazon for $116 and they are both 1080p and Alexa-compatible.

Having said that, where a lot of these cameras get you is with a monthly service of some kind. For example, since they are Alexa compatible it is generally assumed that they’ll have access to the internet, since they have access to the internet they skip a physical DVR and sell you a cloud DVR service. The meShare cameras we mentioned before do just that, and they try to get you hooked with a 6-month free offer.

Zmodo is another company that sells a 4-pack fro $115, and they’ll offer 1 month for free. Instead of that, you could pay $200 for a 4-camera system, 720p system with a 1TB hard drive. Or $150 for a 1080p system that comes with a DVR, but without the hard drive already in it, so you have to bring your own.

In the long run, in terms of cost, you’ll probably be better off with a local hard drive instead of a cloud DVR. And if you don’t mind using an app rather than Alexa to check on the cameras, you can drop some price there.

The 720p system you were looking at is probably just fine, 1080p looks better, but 720p isn’t exactly a blur. Check out 720p security camera videos on YouTube for a sample of what you’d be looking at if you got those. It may be good enough for your needs.

 

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