Comment Re:Laughs at robbers in PoE... (Score 1) 174
Yep.
I have PoE cameras, with inaccessible cabling, wifi backups, notifications for obscuring or losing contact with the cameras, on-board SD, local and remote cloud backups of footage, plus detection alerts to my phone (because literally the only person who cares about my property is ME, so the only person worth informing is ME, and I can then check the cameras and decide if escalation is necessary or it's just the cat).
Have I spent a fortune? No. Just cheap "smart" cameras. IP68, fitted and cabled by myself and I also have PTZ models, 2-way calling to them, external lights and alarms on them if I press the right button in an app or configure their "smart" junk, RTSP streaming/recording, etc. The most complex part is the internals to power them via PoE (which is also backed up not only by UPS but by an ATS to switch to solar power banks).
I spent almost nothing on the cameras themselves.
I fit CCTV as part of my job, working IT in schools - mostly CCTV is useless. In 25+ years and numerous crimes (thefts, assaults, trespasses, burglaries, hit-and-run car incidents etc.), there was only ever one conviction based even vaguely on actual footage... and that was of a teacher in a school corridor breaking up a fight. Most footage is useless precisely because even with the best camera you'll be lucky to get more than "a guy in a black hood, with black clothing and black shoes hid his face from the camera in the dark".
But my experiences with all that told me many years ago when they first came in that wifi-only cameras were the dumbest idea in existence. First, they're a nightmare to reliably power (batteries running out, not enough solar, etc.) but second they can be jammed by the cheapest piece of hardware ever from quite a distance.
And CCTV in general is only useful is someone is AWARE of what it's picking up as it happens. After-the-event recordings are only for evidential requirements, not crime-detection. If you don't have someone watching, being alerted, being responsible for acting upon the footage (like you would do with your own house if the CCTV pings your phone to let you know something's moving indoors), then you're wasting your time. All you've done is record your security weaknesses for posterity.