Home outdoor security / game cameras - your thoughts

My search-fu may have missed if there was already a thread with this same subject, but I did get tons of "matches", but likely on just any of the individual words I searched for.

So...

I am looking for your thoughts on brands of outside home security/game cameras. My interest isn't so much for human intruders, but rather to have a camera or two monitoring our chicken coop area, and also our bird feeder. About every other night, something comes along at night and eats / empties the feeder. This is getting $$$$$$ to keep it full so the actual birds can get their fill, and we can watch and enjoy them doing so.

Never had any sort of camera system before, so I am a newb. What I think I want would be:
* WiFi capable so we can get alerts, watch the video/pictures on our smartphones and don't have to manually extract a flash card and download pictures to see who came along the night before.
* Solar powered would be nice, but we can replace batteries now and then if needed.
* Good night vision and quality imaging capability, since we are primarily concerned with "visitors" during the night.
* No monthly cloud subscription needed/wanted

Many thanks

 

I have a couple of Wyze, and they work for me. They do have to be plugged in to a cable, though. No batteries, they are powered by a USB cable.

 

I have wyze too. They have sd card for local storage and cloud storage is reasonable cost.

U can run them on external battery pack and solar.

I have mine plugged into the christmas lights outlet.

interface is decent.

 

Post up some pictures .

Evil bushy tailed Rodents enjoying the bird seed buffet .

raccoons are another pest.

My research into this was to long ago to be any benefit.

Like anything electronic the prices really come down after a few years .

I cheated I used a wireless back up camera adapted for my needs . It was free the best price.

 

Happy owner of a Lorex system from Costco. Has been running maybe 5-6 years zero issues. POE.

 

Right now we have some el cheapo Chinese game / trail cameras. One on the chicken coop out back, the other on the bird feeder outside the kitchen window. I think the chicken coop camera flash card that had the Racoon and Fox (different nights) has been over written by now. The bird feeder camera just doesn't capture anything. All you see is the feeder, but no eyes reflecting back, and no outlines of any animals. But the feeder is drained the next morning.

These are low end cameras, no WiFi, so you have to manually pull the flash card to see what pictures they took. We would like to get a newer set up that is WiFi enabled, and we can get real time alerts to our smartphones.

 

This was taken a couple months ago, it shows the bird feeder right outside the kitchen window. We've never seen Deer eating out of the feeder, but squirrels do all the time.