Can anyone recommend a weatherproof network camera that doesn’t rely on any third party servers or a proprietary app? Bonus points if it can easily be attached to a bird feeder.
My main concerns are privacy, being able to use it when the company goes out of business, and looking at birds. Recording short clips and photos automatically when it detects a bird or motion is a plus.
I’m very technically inclined, but this would be for a nontechnical family member, so I could host Frigate (or similar) for them if necessary, but something that just connects directly to an open source app would be great.
My camera solutions are basically raspberry pi + usb camera + outdoor junction box. Software is Raspberry Pi OS + motion. When motion is detected, script is run to send the image to cloud and to notify user through telegram, signal, MQTT etc.
Setup is too power hungry to run on batteries and solar, but it’s easiest to setup with loads of flexibility
For battery+solar solutions I’d check for ESP32 based camera chips. However software can be a real bitch for uninitiated, even if vibe coding.