Anybody know about surveillance cameras?

[pembquist]

I want to put a camera in my Mom's apartment so I know what is going on, (she has the Alzheimer's.) I would like to be able to access it remotely and ideally would like to be able to store continuous video but with someway of knowing when there is activity. Ideally I would like to be able to graph activity level to see if it is declining, that kind of thing. I don't really know squat. I looked at the Nest camera but I don't get the impression that it does what I want, seems very phone based and you have to subscribe. I think something that was a DVR with a camera with remote access might be right. I found this company https://reolink.com/ but I would appreciate it if anyone had real knowledge/experience with this stuff. I only need one camera but I am guessing that that doesn't save any money with a DVR. Ease of setup/use is pretty paramount as is stability. Internet access would be good but is not completely necessary and it would be ideal if the system could work with or without.

Thanks for any info.

[Meatwad]

If you do want to access the video feed via internet, see if it requires a static IP address from your ISP or if it will work with a dynamic IP

[Brooke]

I got one of these, a camera and mic you can drive around remotely using your Android or Apple phone, and drive back into its recharge station.  Works very well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FZB6NHW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After looking around a bit, I also got one of these as a video camera and mic (as I wanted one at our front entry), but I haven't used it yet, so can't give a review.  This one, you'd mount in a location, and you can pan and title, but not drive it around.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071DDBT7M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Oldman731]

I want to put a camera in my Mom's apartment so I know what is going on, (she has the Alzheimer's.) I would like to be able to access it remotely and ideally would like to be able to store continuous video but with someway of knowing when there is activity. Ideally I would like to be able to graph activity level to see if it is declining, that kind of thing. I don't really know squat. I looked at the Nest camera but I don't get the impression that it does what I want, seems very phone based and you have to subscribe.

We have a couple of Nest cameras.  They work as you describe, giving you an alert when they sense motion, otherwise staying quiet.  You don't need the subscription if you don't want to save the video - but it's about $100/year if you do.  Works fine within those constraints, color is useful.  You have to be careful on placement, sometimes something like a ceiling fan will trigger it.

- oldman