IP cameras that don't require an app or internet?

I have worked professionally with access control and surveillance. I can give you two manufacturer recommendations: Axis and Geovision.

Axis cameras are high end and expensive, but they will, in my experience, do anything an IP camera could reasonably be expected to do, and they will do it well. They are European in origin and are available from various retail outlets to ship this week.

Geovision cameras are low end and not expensive. They are Taiwanese in origin and are pretty easy to find.

I have personally configured a wide range of cameras from both of these manufacturers and I have never needed an app or internet connectivity. It's been a few years since I looked at Geovision's product lineup though, my information is not 100% current. I don't have any specific camera recommendations. If I were setting up a home NVR today, I would buy Geovision cameras and put them on an isolated network.

Both of these manufacturers are nominally ONVIF compliant (ONVIF compliance is a mixed bag and can't be fully trusted from any manufacturer IMO) and have readily accessible RTSP streams

I want to add a term that I haven't seen in this discussion so far. IP cameras can interoperate with Open Standard NVR systems using ONVIF. [0]

ONVIF cameras, or cameras that support ONVIF are capable of communicating settings and streaming video to recording servers without intermediaries. RTSP or MJPEG are available as media layers ( not the only ones, but ones called out so far in the conversation as desirable for viewing and recording), but the ONVIF configuration makes this easier.

Looking for ONVIF cameras will help you find cameras that might not NEED the app for full functionality use even though, like Reolink, they may offer one. The NVR is the appropriate "glue" for those app functions.

Examples of ONVIF NVRs are not rare, but self-hostable, and free to try or use at some scale are hard to find. These are often the Big Boys. Milestone XProtect, Senstar [ Aimetis] Symphony, but also more DIY options like iSpy, Blueiris, and things in the middle, like Orchid from IPConfigure [1] that you can run on a Raspberry Pi at a small scale, or a Hybrid Cloud setup for enterprise use.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONVIF [1] - https://www.ipconfigure.com/

For my apartment, I run rtsp-simple-server[1] on my home server and use Raspberry Pis with generic USB webcams running ffmpeg to stream the audio/video to the RTSP server. Then I run camera.ui[2] separately for a nicer interface on top of all the cameras, HomeKit integration, etc.

The only downside hardware-wise is I don't get any indoor IR night vision with these, which some of the nicer "smart home" account-locked ones do.

It's honestly not too bad to set up if you run [1] and [2] in Docker. I've done disaster recovery scenarios of my home infra where I straight up disconnect the modem's uplink and everything works without any issues.

[1] - https://github.com/bluenviron/mediamtx

[2] - https://github.com/seydx/camera.ui

I have my sketchy Chinacams on a "red LAN" that does not have internet access. It only goes to the second ethernet port on the device that does the capture/motion detect; it does not route to the internet or even do DNS resolution.

This was originally done to keep all that traffic off my main LAN, but it has a handy anti-cloud/anti-spyware firewall purpose too. My Chinacams come from an era, though, where all you had to do is uncheck "cloud" in the ridiculous ActiveX required GUI setup, and that was it for them trying to access the internet. Things may have changed; the last of these didn't even let me set a password to get into the GUI before activating through the cloud and that was a few years ago.

Spending extra to get a commercial grade camera is really not that bad if you plan to use the camera for a while.

I'm not going to recommend specific cameras (as I work for a company that sells them), but one tip is to look for industrial cameras with ONVIF certification and them look them up in the conformant cameras database [1]. They have a page for each camera that describes how you can connect to them on the first time.

[1] https://www.onvif.org/conformant-products/

Bosch, Hanwha, Axis, Ubiquiti/UniFi.

I personally prefer Bosch and Hanwha cameras. Great optics, low light performance and solid firmware. Axis tends to be expensive and low light performance is not as good, for the price. UniFi Protect cameras are decent, but the standalone firmware is rather limited.

I connect these cameras to Frigate[1] locally.

Some example model numbers: Bosch Flexidome IP Starlight 6000 Dome Security Camera - NIN63023A3; Hanwha Techwin XNO-8080R WiseNet X Series Network Bullet Camera 5MP 3.7-9.4mm; AXIS P1468-LE Bullet Camera

I usually find these on eBay.

[1] https://github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate

This is a very disturbing trend for sure. Given that these new cameras that need accounts sure aren’t showing ads on the feeds either, meanwhile an account being required must be important to the manufacturers in some way.

I can only conclude that they must be selling access to feeds, because even the most incompetent agile product delivery manager type person isn’t going to simply suggest every camera needs an account along with all the extra engineering requirements involved for that for simply no reason - there surely must be a financial motive.

Furthermore what good is the feed if they can’t also sell the associated metadata, such as the account holders details, nearby WiFi access points, the list of devices on the network.

This is yet another angle they can use to try track every aspect of a home including the infamous example of Samsung “analysing” what type of content you’re watching and selling that to ad companies.

OP is probably better off looking at enterprise/industrial manufacturers.

Axis cameras is a strong recommendation from me. They make a huge range from tiny "server room" cameras through to spy-agency grade dome-CCTV cameras, industrial, weather proof etc etc.

Their basic range all have a web GUI, RTSP and ethernet/wifi. Have a look at the M11 range, or the M30 for a cheap dome camera.

UniFi Protect cameras can all be set up in standalone mode by visiting the camera's IP address in a web browser — they will obtain an address from DHCP by default. From there you can set up the RTSP streams which become accessible from the camera IP directly. You do not need to use a UniFi Protect app or console in this configuration.

You don't mention your use case but the ESP32-CAM gets you an ESP32-based wifi streaming camera for about $10 USD. No app. No account. Surprisingly powerful.

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-cam-video-streaming-fa...

I'm assuming, given where you're asking, that it would be fine to suggest a DIY option?

If so: on my desk right now is a Raspberry Pi Zero with a NoIR camera, configured so that when it gets power a small Python script starts up as a web server and begins hosting the camera output.

Here's the code for both the server and a webpage to auto-refresh the camera view. MIT license, so have fun:

https://github.com/BenWheatley/PiWebcam

A little off topic, i don´t know your use case, but you can use an old phone as webcam, they will be better in quality than any IP camera.

A little example using my old galaxy s11. ( its connected to a pc using usb, airplane mode, no internet )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CDE7PsLwzk

You didn't ask for this, but I have been using Camect as the "camera hub" for my home, and i love it. I wanted something i can mix-match different cameras, and could essentially use an IP camera on an internal network, but still have "AI" capabilities.

Give it a look in case it's something you'd need.

As for Wyze, WYZE has "dafang hacks" and also "official firmware" that converts the camera to an RTSP.

Reolink!

They perform quite well even in direct sunlight(47C temperature) and rain. Low light performance is not super great but I can't blame the camera for that.

The only thing missing is the lack of IPv6. I like everything else about it. I have the 510A, 810A and duo 2 poe

Take a look at https://openipc.org/ and choose a camera from their supported list.

Not exactly the ask, but a user friendly alternative is HomeKit cameras with a HomePod mini as a hub for local processing. Some can be paired without any app, and once paired you can block internet access at the router level. You can access them through the local network. If you trust apples e2e encryption you can access remotely through the homepod.

I recently bought two Amcrest cameras (4k[1] and 1080p[2]) and did not need to download an app or make an account to set them up. Both just plugged in to a PoE cable and I was able to access them individually on my WAN by typing in their IPs as well as use them on NVR software.

1: https://a.co/d/8k1BWBY 2: https://a.co/d/4a0xnPP

I don't know if it's supported anymore but some Wyze cameras have an official but unsupported alternative firmware you can flash that exposes them as a local network video stream. They work great and anything on your network can ingest the video. I don't think they made this firmware for their fancier cameras that have motorized pan/tilt etc though.

I bought a couple Amcrests just a week ago, and they still operate identically to ones I purchased back in 2017. They have apparently been re-branding Dahua's software, since the HTTP APIs are identical, and there are still lots of "Dauha" strings in the configs[0].

I think a lot of the problems with IP cams aren't with the cameras themselves, but the poor state of open-source media players. Getting mplayer, ffplay, or vlc to play nicely with any ipcam has been a Labor of Hercules. If you're using the versions in repos--which are usually quite stale--all bets are off. I've had much better luck using the latest installers, direct from the project websites. So far, VLC seems to work best for me[1].

[0] https://github.com/BourgeoisBear/amdacli

[1] https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

I'm not sure if this is specifically what you're looking for, but some folks have developed software for the budget "Yi" cameras. It complements (doesn't replace) existing firmware, but you can bypass account creation and disable the manufacturer's cloud. I use mine only occasionally so I don't know how it stands up to frequent use.

There are different maintainers for different models, but as far as I can tell they're all pretty similar: https://github.com/search?q=yi%20hack&type=repositories

Edit to add they work pretty well with Home Assistant with this HACS integration: https://github.com/roleoroleo/yi-hack_ha_integration

Had great experience with Mobotix cameras in internal non-internet-connected networks. There are also models that can write on SD-Cards and such. But I didn't really shop around and compare, don't know how that supplier was picked.

Nice to see this because I was mulling posting basically the same question. My quest is to find cameras that don't depend on a cloud service, because in my experience such services are always flaky and end up being EoL'ed.

My current setup is Samsung cameras (bought at Costco years ago) which are now suffering from the aforementioned problem. Before that I used RPi with OTS USB cameras and OSS webcam s/w. The RPi burned through their memory cards in short order however. It does appear from the posts here that Axis has the market still.

Reolink NVR kits do not require apps, and you can configure them on no-internet vlans as well.

There is a max number of cameras though.

You could spin up your own ShinobiCCTV if NVRs are your problem.

I have similar needs, but aldo need them to be outdoor/waterproof and PoE capable.

I looked at DIY with Raspberry Pi high quality cameras, but the outdoor requirements mean I really need a manufactured housing. (Camera will be in an area very hard to reach for servicing.)

I wonder if there is any project to hack the generic chinese camera makes and install custom firmware?

Dahua and Hikvision are the largest manufactures, with most companies rebranding them.

Even if you don't use Synology, this is a handy list. https://www.synology.com/en-us/compatibility/camera

One trick is to look at whatever camera FRC (high school robotics competition) is using in their kits, since those are requirements for putting the camera on a robot, and they've got to put out a new kit each year, so there will always be a current model.

Last I knew, they were using Axis cameras, but that was a few years ago.

Past what's being offered here, IP Cam Talk forum is a great resource. Whatever I've asked, they've got an answer. https://ipcamtalk.com/forums/

Just because there's an app available doesn't necessarily mean it's required. It might be that other solutions just haven't been typed out in their docs.

I've recently worked with some of D-Links consumer IP cameras, DCS-8302LH and DCS-8000LHV2. They offer an app and optionally cloud storage but they ship with ONVIF support. No web interface afaik, but what I found was that I just needed to start interacting through ONVIF to get going with a local-only setup (this would automatically disconnect the camera from the app as well).

These cameras are some of the cheapest available, but they have been solid.

After managing ZoneMinder for years I finally went with Reolink and I've been very happy with their cameras and NVR. Now it "just works" and I never think about it. I use their app sometimes to view the streams but via holes I punched in my network (you could also VPN) and I don't use any of their "cloud" features. If you wanted you could hook up your own client to the streams off the NVR, I have HomeAssistant grabbing those feeds and that's how I view my cameras 90% of the time.

Currently using some canon cr-c300s for remote production from a music festival this weekend. They seem to do the job, depends whether you're happy with ndi-hx or not (we're actually taking the SDI out and putting them into Magewells with speedhq)

Probably not the price range you're thinking of. PTZ control and preview is via a normal webpage.

https://www.canon.co.uk/ptz-cameras/cr-x300/

Which Amcrest cameras did you buy?

I noticed the "consumer" ones that are targeted at the non-techy have that issue.

But last I saw the 60$ PTZ model didn't require an app at all (admittedly a little bit ago)?

Axis supports ONVIF as do HikVision and Dahua (if you are OK with Chinese brands). I've yet to find an ONVIF compatible camera with reasonable quality that didn't cost $$$.

What a really want is a IP camera with open source firmware. It's odd that no one is offering that, think of the money you'd save not writing software

I buy very cheap PoE cameras that are direct from China, and block the living daylights out of them at the firewalls so they can't leak to the internet.

I have 4x of these and they work great. They meet all your requirements. They have their own web server on each of them for managing their connections, although I have them all streaming via RTSP into Frigate to do computer vision detection on them.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S47VXGY

I own two Reolink cameras. These are very cheap, like 50 EUR or so, and come with wireless and ethernet connectivity. They speak RTSP and have a web UI. You can set them up entirely locally through that web UI.

I cannot attest whether they phone home or not as I run them on an isolated network, but they work fairly well and the web UI exposes all the features the camera has.

i use yi home camera (4 pack on amazon for $72 currently) which runs over wifi and firmware via https://github.com/roleoroleo/yi-hack-Allwinner-v2. this bypasses the app and internet connection entirely. you will need some microSD cards to flash and run the cameras.

this exposes RTSP/ONVIF and also allows for local motion detection and recording capabilities.

i also use https://www.scrypted.app/ to handle MQTT for motion detection events from the camera and restream to apple home to take advantage of notifications on my phone, remote streaming, etc.

this works fairly well, the downsides are that the install process is probably more involved than it should be, and the stand it comes with is just /ok/ but the mounting bracket is such that you can 3d print your own fairly easily. 1080 stream quality is good enough tho i'm sure there are better quality cameras on the market.

I’ve used Dericam.

TS Mpeg stream to a home NAS

I had to wrap the microphone cable in aluminium foil and expand the plastic microphone hole to get decent sound capture. But they’re cost effective and stay in the LAN

http://www.dericam.com/index.php?s=/List/index/cid/9.html

I just purchased an Amcrest IP4M-1041B and IP4M-1041W (Different colors of the same model) and they have a functional web interface.

They are available on Amazon.

One helpful tip to avoid most of the sketchy cheap cameras that try to send your data to China: Look for "NDAA compliant" cameras that are approved for use by the US government.

There's a Taiwanese brand Vivotek that makes some relatively affordable NDAA cameras. I'm hoping to try them out myself, but unfortunately haven't had time yet.

I have an Axis cam that I purchased used, quite cheap. It basically runs Linux, a web server, something that serves RTSP, and maybe other things too. It has a neat web UI for administration, online manuals, and easy endpoints where you can get camera output and metadata easily. I can highly recommend.

OP didn't mention, but is this purchase for personal or resale/client purposes? I ask because there are NDAA/FAR purchasing requirements that the client may be under. Axis and Geovision both have NDAA compliant equipment.

Dahua and Hikvision are cheap but they're like E.T. - they phone "home".

You can build out a UniFi system without giving them any information. The entire system can be run local-only.

I really like my "IN-9008 Full HD" from https://www.instar.com - I think it matches all the requirements. (They ship to the US an all cloud services they offer are optional)

as long as we are talking about security cameras, i have a related question.

i have a bunch of power-over-ethernet cameras installed in my home. all the ethernet cables route back to a server box, which has a hard drive for saving the video for about a week. it also has a mobile app that lets me view the feeds in realtime. so far, so good.

now, what can i do to also route the video footage to, say, AWS or some other cloud storage option, and have it deleted after a week or so, the same as my camera hub server currently does?

i figure this will require me to buy a new server hub box, and that is fine with me. the one i have now is adequate, at best. i'd rather have a better one.

The gear from SCW can be used without any internet connection at all. https://getscw.com

I am not affiliated with them, other than that I've bought equipment from them in the past.

As far as I know, you can also add Hikvision cameras to the list of LAN-only, no-app devices.

In general, you probably want to look more towards the commercial CCTV market, even at the cheap end, rather than at any cameras aimed directly at home consumers.

Disappointing to hear about Amcrest. I was hoping to go that route as my single IP8M-T2669EW-AI has worked so well for me. I guess this means it's going with Axis which is only disappointing from a cost perspective.

Reolink cameras are the go-to on many home improvement YouTube channels that I watch - they support ONVIF and RTSP. Unifi is mentioned by other comments: I use it and it does require an app to set up.

Xiaomi yi with replacement firmware https://github.com/alienatedsec/yi-hack-v5

Are you sure you are not stuck at their "easy setup wizards"? To me it seems unlikely that there won't be a webUI access. Which models specifically are you using?

IP cams are an interesting animal. On one side, very versatile but on the other side a huge waist:

Most IP cameras use 3W just creating a RTSP stream. add another 5W for IR LEDs that come on in the evening.

If i was shopping, i'd look for sensors with very high sensitivity that don't need 5W of IR to get good night images.

I have a few where i've physically disconnected the IR array and the shutter will adapt and still get very good static images and a little bit of smearing when something moves. It all depends of your use case though.

Hikvision ONVIF cameras are my professional recommendation. They can be had on eBay for about ~$120.

We recently setup Ring, but without a subscription they don't save/record anything, and of course are (creepily) cloud dependant.

Is there any similar hardware that (a) Can run local only? (b) Is "non-tech partner-proof"? (ie, looks decent on a house, works reliably, wifi/24vac or PoE)

Are there any self-hosted apps/servers that can replace the Ring software?

Which Amcrest one did you buy? I recently got their cheaper PoE one and it worked without an app.

Hikvision cameras does not require any app and work without internet and without account

Anyone have experience with Hanwha Techwin? I've been debating between them an Axis.

Loryta 5442. There are whole forums for this topic - check out the ipcamtalk site.

I have some Amcrest IP5M-T1179E that didn’t require any external apps for setup.

TP-Link works with web UI & App. Allows rtsp too.

Search RTSP on shodan and check out the device models.

Axis cameras

i have a camera that requires app, my wifi account , cloud connectivity etc .. possibility is that 1.they may watch us live 2.sell the data to thief , or a hacker would hack it and sell it to thief 3.spam our mails 4.push ads , suuckk our data , may run crypto/ads mining

Ubiquiti.

Maybe just buy a webcam.

reolink

Amcrest