D-Link DCS-2803KT OMNA Wire-Free Indoor/Outdoor Camera Kit - 3 Pack, $577 ($776+ elsewhere) @ Harvey Norman

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Wakrak on 02/09/2020 - 06:39 harveynorman.co.nz (371 clicks)
Last edited 03/09/2020 - 13:28 by 1 other user

D-Link DCS-2803KT

Available from;
Mighty Ape for $776 +
PB Tech for $948.99
Heathcotes for $999
Elive for $1222.30

• Reviews at both PB Tech and Harvey

Looks like Harvey Norman are having a D-link sale.
- DCS-2804KT 4 pack $698 (PB Tech $1138.99)
- DCS-2800LH for $149 (PB Tech $278)
- COVR-C1203 AC1200 Wifi System $238 (NL $399)
- DCS-8300LH $99 (PB Tech $188.99)
- DSP-W118 Mini Wi-Fi Smart Plug $35 (PB Tech $44)
- DIR-1960 AC1900 Mesh Wi-Fi Router $218 (PB $299)
- DCS-8600LH $177 (PB Tech $299)

Limit 2 per customer. Personal shoppers only. Trade not supplied. Available from Tuesday 1st September 2020 until midnight Wednesday 30th September 2020.

Related Stores

Harvey Norman NZ

• 

  frugaljo on 02/09/2020 - 12:39

  Is this NAS compatible?

  • 

    Wakrak on 02/09/2020 - 12:57

    The D-Link sites reckons their security cameras have "several recording options, you can choose to connect to an ONVIF-compatible NAS/NVR or other storage device for continuous 24/7 local recording, or a microSD card, your phone, or the cloud for event recording."

    Link to site

• 

  Wakrak on 02/09/2020 - 13:38

  PB Tech have started changing their prices now.
  - DCS-8300LH now $95.99
  - DSP-W118 Mini Wi-Fi Smart Plug now $34.99
  - DCS-8600LH now $177

• 

  NovaAlpha on 02/09/2020 - 16:21

  +2

  I would recommend staying away from wireless cameras. Based on my experiences with them, the limitations are:

  • Battery life. Doesn't matter how great the "advertised" battery life is, you'll be constantly dealing with taking them down and charging them and mounting them back on. It's a painful and unnecessary process. The typical places where you'd want to mount security cameras, especially wireless ones, is somewhere high up. Otherwise, someone could easily steal them or knock them down. Do you really want to get a laddar to climb up just so you could take them down to charge?

  • Again, battery life. Do you honestly think that a camera can record at a high resolution with all settings / features maxed out and not drain its battery life quickly? Most of these cameras will advertise that they support XYZ setting, but in reality you'd have to turn most of them off in order to have decent battery life. Some basic features, such as PIR, may even be restricted in the app settings itself. I would recommend looking up forums dedicated to these camera models and look at what the common complaints are.

  • Price. Even at this price, it's still more expensive than alternatives out there. My outdoor camera system only cost like $250 and I haven't had any issues with them. All my cameras are set to record continously after a certain time at night. However, during the day, they are set to record only when motion is detected. I don't have to worry about storage or battery life. I get email notifications with snapshots. I can access them remotely. It's just a one-time setup and forget. My indoor cameras only cost like $50 and it's able to pan and track the motion of whatever it has detected (WyzeCam). Good quality cameras don't need to be expensive and Dlink is one of those expensive ones. That being said, I did own a Dlink indoor camera at some point and it was good, didn't have any issues with it. But yeah, stay away from ANY wireless cameras.

  • 

    Wakrak on 02/09/2020 - 16:50

    I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to Security camera systems. What brands do you recommend.

    • 

      NovaAlpha on 02/09/2020 - 18:43

      +4

      It really depends on what you're looking for…

      If you're just looking for an indoor camera, then it doesn't really matter whether it's wireless or wired. For a wireless camera, you wouldn't need to mount it too high inside the house. I mean, the reason you'd want to mouse cameras high up in the first place is so they are not easily reachable and therefore can't be taken down or stolen easily. However, this really only applies to outdoor cameras in my opinion. If someone were to successfully break inside your house, the last thing I'd care about is whether my indoor camera is mounted high up or not. Anyway, having a wireless indoor camera could probably work for some people, assuming that you don't mind taking them down to recharge them every now and then. It'd be a lot more manageable at least. .

      In terms of features, there are a lot of things to consider. Do you want the camera to be able to store recordings to a microSD card? Do you want to be able to use an app to talk to the camera and vice versa? E.g. if you get an alert telling you that someone broke into your house just now, you could use an app to talk to the camera and let the person hear it. Do you want the camera to be able to send you an email notification, with a snapshot of the detected motion? Do you want the camera to be able to save recordings to a FTP server, a NAS or on a cloud storage? Etc….

      For someone who just wants an indoor camera that is cheap in price but good quality and bang for your buck with loads of features, I'd recommend looking at WyzeCam. They have great reviews online, regular firmware/software updates and an active forum that takes a lot of feedback and suggestions. The camera quality is great considering the price. I purchased these a few years ago before NZ introduced GST on low-value imported goods. I used NZ Youshop to ship them from USA to NZ and the total cost (including shipping) was around $45 for me. I did share the shipping cost with some friends though, so I recommend doing that. Basically, the camera provides you with a free AWS storage account (which you don't need to set up). Your recordings are saved on the AWS cloud storage for 14 days and the oldest recording gets deleted automatically. It's a rolling storage essentially. You get a microSD slot on the camera and you can easily daisy-chain the cameras via USB cable, meaning that you'd only need just one power source connected to the main camera and the rest of the cameras can get their power from the main camera via USB. The motion/PIR detection on this camera is awesome, much better than some expensive $400+ cameras I've used and it's really accurate. You can pair this with the tinyCam app and even set up Google App Script to send email attachments to your email or save the data to your Google Drive storage, etc. For the price, I honestly can't find or recommend anything else that's less than $100.

      Now, if you were looking to get an outdoor security camera, that's a different story. Most outdoor security cameras suck. They often don't cope well with false positives. Let's say you get a lot of sunlight or movements around your house. Maybe it's sunny today and the trees or whatever around you cause a lot of moving shadows. Or let's say there are a lot of movements from cars or cats or whatever moving around. You wouldn't want to constantly receive notifications for any detected motions. Unfortunately, most security cameras can't deal well with them. A lot of them will advertised "PIR" and claim to deal with false positives, but generally they aren't accurate. A lot of them have crap support and poor quality firmware updates (I'm looking at you, Swann) and you'd most likely have a lot of pain tweaking them so that they are decent enough to be used.

      For an outdoor security camera, the main thing you should look for is whether they can record in 4K. You see, I live in a pretty rich neighbourhood and this means that my area is an attraction spot for burglars. My neighbours drive exotic cars and they would often have their car stolen or parts stolen and windows broken into. This usually happens around 2am in the dead of the night. A few of my cameras are pointing at the street and I can clearly see the number plates of the cars that drove past and can report them to the police. Whereas previously, I was just using a 1080p camera system and couldn't see anything on the street clearly, except for the areas that are closer to my house surroundings. You'd probably be OK with a 1080p camera if you just want to record things happening around e.g. your garden or your front lawn or front door or whatever. But if you can, spend the little bit extra and get the 4K to future-proof yourself.

      Most outdoor cameras are expensive. I'd stay away from those cheap Aliexpress non-brand ones, because those require you to setup DVR software using e.g. BlueIris or iSpy or whatever and their apps are crappy as well. I don't know whether Xiaomi makes any outdoor cameras, but their indoor ones are pretty good and generally their products are great, so you could look into them. WyzeCam recently came out with an outdoor camera, but it's wireless so it's a MEH for me. Some people have actually bought a WyzeCam V2 (indoor camera) and used a outdoor mounting case to waterproof it and make it work as an outdoor camera, so you could try that. I currently have a Swann outdoor system that records in 4K and I just set it to continuous recording throughout the night, as the motion detection at night is crappy and their firmware and support team suck. The only reason I bought it is because I got it at a huge discount and that it comes with a DVR system that has lots of storage, meaning it's a pretty quick plug-n-go. I've used Arlo as well (wireless ones) and the features are limited when your battery life drop below a certain % and of course those are the things they don't tell you about.

      Some outdoor cameras come with a home base/hub that can also produce alarm sound (a bit of a gimmick to be honest, it's not that loud). So it really depends on what you're looking for. But I think generally, if you can find something that is cheap that can record in 4K and there's a brand to it, good reviews, then go for it. I think there were some discounts on Ubiquiti cameras at PBTech a while ago. If you know how how to set up Ubiquiti, go for them as they are pretty decent.

      Always do your research online first. Check forums for any commonly reported issues. Stay away from firmware updates unless people have reported it to be safe to upgrade to. Check the quality of the recorded videos by checking Youtube reviews/demos. Stay away from wireless cameras if you are getting an outdoor cam.

      Oh and one last thing. Wireless cameras rely on wifi to save the recordings to the DVR, or the home base system or whatever. It's gotta save to somewhere. If your wifi drops, or if there's some sort of connectivity issue, then your precious recordings will fail as well. Just don't deal with all this stress of mangaging the battery on the wireless cameras and all these other limitations and issues. A wired camera can still record and work regardless if you have a network issue or not.

  • 

    Gatkins on 02/09/2020 - 17:37

    Hi. What is your system?

    • 

      NovaAlpha on 02/09/2020 - 18:44

      Check my comment above.

• 

  Gatkins on 02/09/2020 - 17:48

  +1

  Hi all. I actually bought the 2 camera system for this today (is also on special and so is the four camera system).

  Have to say initial impressions aren't great, and I would say avoid. Will update if my opinion changes.

  Pros:
  - Camera quality is fine
  - senses movement and takes video okay (within 1 or 2 seconds of movement).
  - cheap/free on line storage

  Cons:
  - Range is not good. It connects to its own base, not your mesh system. And if your too far, you'll get flaky connections and delayed/bad video
  - Not all clips are uploaded to the cloud - in these cases the movement event is recorded, but no clip is available
  - Sometimes very slow to connect to live view, or doesn't connect at all
  - Firmware update isn't working - tried a heap of times. Doesn't give an error, just simply prompts to update continuously.

  • 

    NovaAlpha on 02/09/2020 - 18:49

    You could probably still return them and get your money back. Stay away from wireless cameras.

• 

  pdevonporf on 02/09/2020 - 21:59

  I have an Arlo security system with UPS on my router and Arlo Bridge and Google mesh as well as Hardwired wireless cameras and all recording to a cloud .The Arlo cameras are mounted in trees in the orchard to keep an eye on the animals while we are away and Arlo cameras for security around the house .My Arlo wireless cameras easily last two months, the trick is to set them up properly having 15 second recording and set them up so they don't have false recordings as in moving branches and birds.I found the system useful, alerting you to a visitor or intruder (which I haven't had yet) but are also handy just for checking around your house from anywhere in the world.Having said all that I only use the battery powered cameras when I'm away for awhile, I think hardwired wireless cameras are the way to go as batteries could be a bit of a hassle keeping them charged and they deplete their capacity quite quickly.

• 

  el-cheapo on 03/09/2020 - 11:07

  I have Eufy wireless cams coz sparky quoted over $700 labour to install 4 wired cams. I'm happy with them so far, been unning for about 2 months and might last another 2 before needing to recharge.