I couldn’t find a post in this community about cameras so I figured I’d make one. Key points:
- No “sign up” required to record video
- Video is stored locally
- Video is in a non-propriatary format
- Can work offline
- Discuss: can wireless connectivity be hardware disabled
- Discuss: can auto-update be disabled
- Discuss: does the device try to “phone home” if it is connected to wifi
- Disk encryption would be nice but I doubt that’ll be an option for anything other than self-hosted stuff
I’ve seen some cameras, like Lorex, that seem more privacy centered, but they still have streaming data. So it’s not clear how actually private it is. They might ping home about security updates, and without some real effort it’s hard to tell the difference between uploading user analytics and pinging for a security update. Infinitely better than ring doorbells, but still I’d like to know what options are out there.
I’m highly technical, so feel free to mention self hosted raspberry pi soltuions as well.
Your options will depend on how much effort you are willing to put in and what other services you have access to (or are willing to run).
For example, do you have a Network Video Recorder (NVR) or something like Home Assistant that can consume a Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) or Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) video feed? Can you modify your network to block all internet traffic to/from the doorbell? Are you comfortable using a closed source, proprietary app to setup the doorbell? Is creating your own doorbell feasible?
I’m not aware of a doorbell that you can buy which meets all of your requirements without at least one of the items I mentioned above. Additionally, I believe the only doorbell that meets all your requirements is building your own doorbell. However, some other brands that will get close to meeting your requirements are Reolink and Amcrest.