Top best outdoor 720p WiFi security camera

Why should we choose outdoor cameras?

Typically, a complete camera surveillance system includes both indoor and outdoor cameras. However, many users don't want to spend much money on a complete system, especially for residential users. So, many of them choose to install one or two IP cameras which can also effectively protect property with minimum investment. In terms of security, outdoor is the priority. An outdoor camera can capture the potential criminals in perimeter area before they enter into your property. It also provides much details for further investigation when crime happens, these details including how they break-in, and how they escape from crime scene. Certainly, compared with indoor cameras, outdoor cameras offer you some unique benefits including:

• Suitable for both indoors and outdoors
• Much flexible on installation, because the outdoor camera comes with 3-axis swivel bracket
• Vandal-proof and weatherproof, an outdoor camera utilizes metal and sealed housing design
• Long range night vision, an outdoor camera can provide much longer night vision
• Good heat-dissipation for reliable performance

Disadvantages of outdoor camera

• Typically, the outdoor camera price is higher than price of indoor camera
• Installation requires drilling holes
• No built-in microphone and speaker
• A little difficult to take out microSD/TF card
• Intrusive design, can't blend into indoor decorations

How to install an outdoor camera?

Unlike indoor cameras which allow users to place them in anywhere. Outdoor cameras have to be mounted either on wall or ceiling. Because the outdoor camera is pretty heavy, double sticker can't be used for installation, users have to prepare a Drill motor to drill holes for fixing the bracket. To install outdoor camera, you may need to pay attention to following things.

• Don't place the camera where rain or snow will hit the lens directly.
• Avoiding pointing the camera at the direct light (Sun, Infrared Illuminators, Lights).
• A correct power supply that can provide sufficient power to camera. Typically, outdoor camera consumes much more power than indoor camera, especially at night.
• If choose WiFi connection, making sure the installation location is within WiFi coverage.
• If choose PoE, making sure the length of cable is within rated threshold.
• Qualified waterproofing installation
• Ideally, using surge protector

Deal with extreme low/high temperature

As long as outdoor cameras utilize IP67 or IP68 rated weatherproof design, dealing with rain and dust is pretty easy. Winter season is approaching, a regular outdoor camera only can work in the temperature range of -10 Celsius degree to + 50 Celsius degree. Some high quality network cameras have built-in heater and temperature maintaining design which are a great option for those who live or work in areas of the country that get extremely cold. Alternatively, you can put the outdoor camera inside a weatherproof CCTV housing.

Choosing right way for video recording

There are many methods to save video footage, especially for network cameras.

• Cloud storage, video footage will upload to remote server. Nowadays, many HD cameras come with cloud storage option, users can choose either 7 days video storage plan or one month video storage plan. Since remote server uses redundant data storage, your video data is secure, no need to worry about losing data. However, you need to subscribe the plan, and pay monthly fee. It's the expensive way for video recording to your HD cameras. To retrieve video data, you may need to login another website to download.
• On-board storage or using microSDHC/TF card for video storage, the video footage will store in built-in microSDHC/TF card. Once the card is full, the new video data will overwrite the old data to continue recording. Retrieving data is pretty easy, you can even playback video clips in microSDHC card from your smartphone, the speed of data transmission is super fast, can reach up to 48MB/s. Since 32GB and 64GB microSDHC cards are cheap, this is the cost-effective way to record video data.
• Computer or smartphone, install an ONVIF compliant video management software (VMS) on your computer, it will become a powerful video recorder. We don't recommend you to use office computer for video recording, since the video recording will slow down your computer, also involve continuous data writing on HDD. You can turn an old desktop computer to a dedicated network video recorder.
• Network video recorder, both cloud storage and microSDHC Card are suitable for the situation that you only have one or two network cameras. If you want to record video footage for multiple cameras, NVR is your the perfect choice. NVR is a Linux based computer which is dedicated for video recording and playback. Typically, it can connect more than one SATA HDDs for offering large video storage capacity. Today, NVR is very cheap, you can get a 4 channel network video recorder with around 40 bucks. NVR is a standalone system, it can connect to monitors for displaying, a USB mouse for operation, and can be accessed from anywhere.

Unifore, a best-in-class security networking hardware brand, recently launched the D1400, which is an outdoor 720p HD WiFi IR network camera. Sporting a fully waterproof and completely wireless design, the new compact camera is suitable for both indoor and outdoor installation, the IP67 rated weatherproof grade design, allows camera to provide reliable performance although working in extreme weather conditions. Included with 4-axis swivel installation bracket, you can easily attach the device to a wall or ceiling. 

Need to keep an eye on your primeter from anywhere? Unifore's new D1400 features integrated 2.4GHz wireless N networking, designed for installations that requires no wired Ethernet cable. The camera's compact size and lack of visible wires make it well-suited for nearly any outdoor home or business environment. Different from conventional network cameras, D1400 adopts P2P technology, it's easy to set up, can stream CIF/VGA/720p video to your smartphone, tablet or PC; 

Three-step install, seriously, only three steps.

• Install and run CoT Pro App in your smartphone
• Using smartlink to setup WiFi connection
• Place the camera on the wall or ceiling

This is a High Definition equipped IP camera captures superior quality recordings at resolution of 720p. The camera utilizes dual stream technology which can deliver video streams with different resolutions (LD, SD, HD), no matter you use 3G/4G or WiFi connection, the camera can deliver smooth video on your smartphone.

Unifore's new outdoor bullet camera features a 3.6mm F1.4 fixed lens to provide you approximate 78 degree field of view (FoV), it's ideal to monitor a wide and near area. Moreover, it features powerful Infrared illuminators, this enables camera to capture images in complete darkness for up to 100 feet. Built-in smart IR and digital wide dynamic range technology helps optimize night visibility and video quality respectively. Built for extreme weather conditions, the D1400 has an operating temperature range of -22°F to 140 °F and an IP66 outdoor weather rating.

The camera also has built-in microSD/TF slot for video storage up to 128 GB (sold separately). The maximum recording time of 64GB microSD/TF Card is 142 hours (about 6 days) with the 1280x720 resolution. The recording time of 128GB microSD/TF Card is about 12 days.

All Unifore smart cameras come with complimentary professional center monitoring software to manage up to 64 smart cameras. The software allows users to preview multiple network cameras simultaneously, and record video on computer, playback video clips, as well as remote config cameras, plus many other pro-grade features. Additionally, Unifore offers demonstration device allows users to get familiar with products, and check the image quality.

No cloud storage, no monthly recurring fee. This network camera complies ONVIF standard, users can use any ONVIF compliant PC software and Smartphone App to locally access the camera. Certainly, this camera work with network video recorders for professional video recording and storage. Additionally, this network camera support Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), users can use VLC and Quicktime players to play video streams on both Windows and Mac OS.

The RTSP URL
rtsp://ipaddr:554/onvif1 

Compared with conventional network cameras, We regularly update the firmware to fix firmware bugs. Upgrading the firmware of this camera is pretty easy. Click "Check firmware" on your smartphone App, the camera can automatically check the available updates, then download the latest firmware from remote server. This ensures the stability of network cameras, also eliminate the hassle to upgrade the firmware.