Best Surveillance Cameras: Which One To Buy And 11 Recommended Models For Indoors, Outdoors, Babies And Pets

To keep an eye on what’s going on at home, to keep an eye on your baby or pet, to control the surroundings of your farm… there are many reasons to put a surveillance camera at home. In this buying guide for connected security cameras, we help you choose the one that best suits your needs and we offer you a careful selection of candidates.

How to choose a surveillance camera

Throughout this article, we will see various models for different usage scenarios, but there are several common features in all of them:

• Video resolution. You’ll find 4K and 2K models, but to see what’s going on, 1080p quality offers enough detail and works well with standard Wi-Fi data relay.

• Viewing angle. Unlike webcams where the idea is to record in the foreground for video calls, here it must cover a good area so that we can see what is happening in the environment. If you’re aiming at the crib it’s not that important, but for safety or pets, it is.

• Two-way audio. It’s not about the quality of the recording, but hearing what’s going on and being able to intervene is interesting: to calm your baby, to prevent your dog from climbing on the sofa or just to be aware of those moving bushes.

• Movement alerts, a function that is of interest both outdoors to differentiate a cat from an intruder or to know if a person or a dog is entering the kitchen.

• night vision. It will allow us to visualize what is happening when there is no light or in low light. If you are especially interested in the night, there are some with colored night vision.

• Where they store the recordings: locally, in the cloud, or both. In the case of using servers, it is usual that they are linked to a monthly fee. Be careful because there are models whose more advanced functions are associated with that payment service.

• scalability. Although you may only want one camera, if the idea is to set up several to form a surveillance service, then you want it to be expandable.

• Powered by cable or battery (there are also solar options for outdoors). While the first ones lead us to have a plug nearby (indoors it is not a problem), with the second ones we can easily install anywhere. In the same way, there are also those with Wi-Fi connectivity or with ethernet for a wired connection.

• Other extras such as geofencing, come into action or deactivate depending on your position or compatibility with voice assistants.

In summary:

• If you want it for outdoors, pay attention to the resistance they offer to the elements (they generally offer IP certification data ) and how is the installation.

• If you want it for pets: then you are especially interested in having two-way audio (a shout in time can prevent greater evils), a wide viewing angle to control what is happening around you, night vision, and some type of detection/recognition. Be careful because there are specific smart feeders with an integrated cameras to entertain and monitor them

• If you want it for babies: in this case, in addition to two-way audio, it is important that if you want to put it in the foreground, it is friendly, non-toxic, and resistant. There are models with crying detection.

TP-Link TAPO C200

If you want a basic, discreet, and cheap model, the TP-Link TAPO C200 ( 29 euros ) is a good option. One of the advantages of this indoor camera is that it can cover 360 degrees horizontally, very useful for large rooms or corridors. Vertically it covers 114 degrees.

Not bad in features, it records in Full HD, has motion detection, two-way audio, and night vision, and is compatible with Alexa. As for where it stores the recordings: on an SD card up to 128GB. However, the brand has a cloud storage service (Tapocare, paid)

Xiaomi Mi Home Security Camera

For a little more you have the Xiaomi Mi Home Security Camera 360° ( 37 euros ), a model that, as in the previous one, also has a design that allows it to travel a complete circumference to monitor the entire perimeter, only in this case the resolution it’s 2K. In addition, you can mount it both upside down and upside down.

In addition to night vision, motion sensor, and two-way audio, it has “AI intelligent human detection”, a technology that according to the brand allows distinguishing people.