Haven't seen anyone mention https://frigate.video
They offer a list of compatible cameras, I'm currently using reolink with a bullet 3 along with a one other brand.
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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No internet and no cables but you want local access? Just get an IP camera and keep it local.
Sounds like you want a trail camera.
That was my first thought as well.
You just want an old-school NVR camera setup. These don't need to be connected to the internet, it just records to a hard drive on the NVR. I've hooked up dozens of these at small businesses. Schwann is a good brand. You can probably grab a 2nd-hand setup for cheap on your local marketplace app.
You could get a raspberry pi and a camera module. MotionEye can be installed as the OS. It requires a network connection to your LAN to set it up, but it can be disconnected afterwards. I believe it can be configured to store all files locally.
Edit: Fixed link
Those instructions will likely still work, but fwiw MotionEyeOS (a minimal Linux distro built on buildroot rather than Debian) appears to have ceased development in 2020.
The MotionEye web app that distro was built for is still being developed, however, as is Motion itself (which is packaged in Debian/Ubuntu/etc and is actually the only software you really need).
Thank you! Didn't realize it was broken. I've updated it.
Without wires you have no permanent power. Also, it sounds like you want it to be wireless transmission without a network. That's a challenge.
Lets Ignore the "no cables" part then. If you want this to be cheap, highly reliable, and non-networked... use wires. You can't go wrong.
You can get 4 camera systems with local storage from companies like Lorex for a reasonable price for good quality. I got mine at CostCo for $299. It might support cloud storage (maybe?) but I never enabled it. It just records locally. It's been running for years with no downtime or issues and the cameras still look great.
Second this, including buying from Costco. I don’t love the Lorex interface, but they’ve been around for a long time and can’t really compete on the modem Ring-style features so they’re now advertising the privacy benefits of their local storage.
PoE (Power over Ethernet) cameras are the way to go, connecting the camera wires directly to the NVR box, which doesn’t itself need to be connected to your network. The NVR box has a hard drive and an HDMI port. If you do optionally connect it to the network (but just don’t), then their app will facilitate connecting to your box either locally or over the internet so that you can stream your video directly from your hard drive, not their cloud.
If you want it protected against power outages, you just put the NVR on a UPS and you’re done.
Of course, if a burglar finds your NVR and takes it, then all of your footage is gone.
Isn't this a standard CCTV setup? I mean "no wires" is impossible unless you're talking battery operated trail cams.
Bet you could hack one of these together with a Raspberry Pi plus camera module. Not exactly a low effort project though.
CSI camera modules can be a pain; it's easier to use a normal USB webcam and have more options for positioning it.
Also, you don't need to limit yourself to a Raspberry Pi; you can use any single-board computer - hackerboards.com has a database of them.
There are probably semi ready ones. Apart from integration.
Amcrest model with an SD card slot. Plug into the Ethernet jack to configure it first, but after that it just needs power and thats it.
As you've probably seen you can buy semi dumb security cameras from Armcrest/Loryta/Empiretech/whatever that'll run off of a barrel jack and/or Ethernet cable. Most of them have the option to insert an SD card and they'll event log to that, at which point just don't plug in the Ethernet cable except to manually pull recordings.
One other thing to think about is maybe consider "Frigate NVR" running on a pi or something and connected to cameras on it's own wifi or Ethernet network that's isolated from the Internet and your LAN. It'll make local access easier because as with just about anything security related you'll want to periodically check to make sure it's actually working. You should be able to setup the pi to serve as the WiFi access point for all this.
Look into an ESP cam.