this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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I am all for local however my biggest issues with video doorbells tends to be the field of view, image quality and operating temperature ranges.
I live in a climate where +30C and -20C will happen at least for a few days a year and quite often I have seen doorbells just go offline below when it gets cold outside or physically degrade in the heat.
I want a highly durable device. These ESPCam devices kinda have crap optics, I want to clearly identify people in the dark.
A camera platform small enough to fit a standard door frame isn't going to be able to hold serious optics. The sensor sizes are going to be too small for good night vision, if nothing else.
The temperature issue is probably an issue of economics. Most people don't need such a wide range, so off the shelf products don't support the application, as it would incur additional cost.
Both of these are solvable issues however if you're willing to use a standard security camera mounted over the door instead. There are many cameras that you could pick with large sensors, heating elements, and more.
I think a mobile phone camera is vastly superior to these, although might not be great at night vision for the reasons you said, but is it entirely crazy to not just use a spare phone? It has built in backup power, can store videos locally if there is an internet outage, and can use its own data connection if wifi is not available.