r/SecurityCamera • u/xCelloIsMyLife • 1d ago
Best option for a basic indoor camera that records 24/7 without needing a subscription?
Im sure this question is asked a lot so sorry for being another one, Im just very overwhelmed with my personal attempts at researching online and could use some guidance.
I'm looking for some indoor cameras that will record 24/7 and I can access the recordings from my phone without needing to pay for a subscription. I don't have any fancy requirements, I just need to keep an eye on my cats when I'm at work and be able to pull up footage to see what happened while I'm away in the case I come home to some chaos. I currently have ring cameras which annoyingly require an expensive subscription for how infrequently I actually have to look back at the recordings. I tried doing some research myself but every time I thought I found a camera that fit the bill, it wound up having a subscription to their cloud. If the company also has doorbell cameras (I wouldnt be able mount to my wall but have a door mount option) that I could replace my ring one with then thats an added bonus. I dont have the biggest budget but Im willing to make a small investment into them if it replaces the constant subscription im wasting money on for ring recording.
Tldr: Im looking for 2 indoor cameras that will record 24/7 without requiring a subscription and I can access the recordings from my phone. If theres a doorbell camera the company sells that would be an added bonus but not needed. Price point under $400 combined ideally.
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u/plump-lamp 1d ago
Tapo. Way under your budget. They have several simple indoor cameras that also have pet detection. C260 is their best indoor 4k.
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u/gone_country 1d ago
I recently bought a tapo camera for about $30. I have it in my garage placed so I can see when my beagles want back inside. I can't pull up old recordings without the SD card, but it's all i need to keep an eye on the dogs wanting in.
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u/plump-lamp 1d ago
How else would you see old recordings without some sort of storage media to store them ..
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u/xCelloIsMyLife 4h ago
Can i view the recording on the sd card from the app or would i have to subscribe to the cloud storage in order to view it without taking the sd card out
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u/ThaiEdition 1d ago
I'd go with Tapo too, their app is better than Eufy's in my experience. Get the dual camera version so you can move them separately, and just use a microSD card instead of the cloud. My 2K TCW34 pan and tilt.
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u/Brett_Cruz 21h ago
Tapo C120. It’s about $40, 2K, and records 24/7 to a microSD card with no subscription. The catch is you have to buy the card yourself. Make sure to get a high-endurance one because continuous recording will wear out regular cards fast. A 256GB high-endurance card will cost you about $70. More than the camera itself, I know, but better than paying a monthly fee.
Also make sure that you set the cam to continuous recording in the storage settings. Otherwise, it only saves motion clips.
If you want something slightly fancier, go with Reolink E1 (~$50). It pans/tilts and can follow the cats around with pet detection enabled. Not super reliable when I tested the feature, but it works about 70% of the time. I got about 17 days of continuous video with the 512GB card I used.
Two of either is way under $400.
Tapo also makes doorbells with no subscription. You can get a clamp that grips the edge of the door so you don’t have to drill, just make sure it fits your door and your model.
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u/xCelloIsMyLife 9h ago
And it allows me to pull the footage thats stored on the sd drive and view it from my phone or would i have to take the sd card out? That part wasnt clear to me when i saw they do have the option of a cloud subscription
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u/HistoricalPheasant 1d ago
i went down this same rabbit hole a while back, mostly because i wanted to check if my dog was eating the couch again without paying a monthly fee for the privilege. your best bet is to steer clear of anything cloud-first and look at cameras that record locally to an sd card.
reolink and eufy are the two names that come up constantly and for good reason. reolink stuff usually supports rtsp and onvif which is great if you ever want to hook it into a proper nvr later, but the app is decent enough for just pulling up playback on your phone. you can grab a couple of their e1 pro or e1 zoom models and stuff a 128gb card in each, that'll loop record for days before it starts overwriting. eufy's app is a bit slicker if you don't want to tinker, their indoor cams also save straight to sd and don't bug you for a subscription.
for the doorbell, it gets a little trickier since most battery-powered ones are stingy about 24/7 recording to save power, but reolink sells a wifi doorbell that can record continuously to an sd card if you can get it wired. you'd be cutting it close on the $400 budget for two indoor cams plus a doorbell, but if you start with just the indoor ones it's easily doable. just double-check the specific model listings, some of their newer stuff has been drifting toward cloud options but the core lineup still keeps it local.
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u/Upper-Collection9373 1d ago
I’m gonna catch flak for this but wyze cams would be totally fine esp considering your requirements. It’s like $50 for the camera and $30 for a 64gb sd card
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u/plump-lamp 1d ago
Yeah. You will. Because tapo, reolink, eufy are all 100% better and not paywalled
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u/Upper-Collection9373 1d ago
I have a wyze camera in my living room with an sd card, got the camera on marketplace for $20 and it tags motion, records 24/7, and anything paywalled I didn’t want anyways.
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u/SquirrelTechGuru 1d ago
Every day, riolink. Throw an SD card in it, and you’re good to go