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A friend of mine has a summer cabin in the mountains of Colorado and he wants to set up two or three webcams so he can visit his cabin during the off season when the un-winterized cabin is not habitable even if the roads to it were open, which they often aren't. He has found several package systems such as DropCam that are relatively inexpensive, easy to install (in his case that is a very important factor), and provide simple internet access as well as automatic recording (for an additional fee). But there is a catch. While these systems may be weatherized, they are limited to operation in temperatures above freezing. That pretty well limits their use, even indoors, to the times my friend could be in residence and outdoors not even many nights are above the requisite temperature level. I consider myself reasonably competent technically but this is outside of my realm of experience, so I am hoping some of you can come to our aid and offer advice as well as the benefit of your experience.

EXISTING SETUP:

• Reasonably reliable year around power
• Reasonably reliable and fast DSL broadband with UPS backup
• Late 2012 Mac-mini available to act as server if needed, also with UPS backup
• Relaible WiFi through Airport Express (also on the UPS)
• He has a relatively primitive web site that the contact could be routed through if necessary.

FIRM REQUIREMENTS:

• Two to four fully weatherized/winterized cameras
• IR night lighting for the cameras (doesn't want the light to scare the elk or bears away)
• Simple connection to the internet that can be managed by a marginally technical individual.
• Minimal wiring required, WiFi or ethernet over power connection preferred. (We aren't getting younger and those long Cat 5 runs can be a pain — literally)
• Low to moderate initial cost and ongoing cost
• Reset/configure cameras via internet

NICE TO HAVE — BUT NOT ESSENTIAL:

• iPhone/iPad app access and control
• Automatic recording either on site or on a network host
• Remote and/or automatic camera scanning
• Access control for viewing

In other words a fully loaded Mercedes Benz system at a Smart for Two price.

At that, I will turn this over to you all for any suggestions, ideas, experience, things to look out for, etc.

based on recent experiences with Zmodo make sure that:

1) you can access the cameras on your platform. zmodo uses active-x, and can only be viewed from internet exploder on windows, OR using an ios camera viewing app. You cannot use firefox, chrome, or safari etc. There are both free and small paid apps available for android and ios. discuss options with your vendor before purchasing.

2) these companies seem to take great liberties with "weatherproof" My cameras were advertised as such. They started flipping at between 20 and 38 degrees F. I called them and they said they were only good at 35-95 degrees. Avoid "extreme cold" (I live in IOWA, below freezing ain't extreme) and also avoid direct sun. then they got rained on and the mounts started rusting. No warranty for that either. So, "weather" does not include precipitation, heat, or cold. So I guess "weatherproof" that means they're windproof? Oh ya that's right, we get tornadoes all the time too. But I'll give them that one, that is extreme.

3) image quality varies drastically between different kinds of sensors. I'm not going to go into it here, you need to do research. You will get what you pay for.

4) IR only works in black and white at night. just an fyi. range is surprisingly good even with low intensity IR lights in the cameras. You won't need any super bright IR lighted camera, you won't be able to see that much detail in the image to be useful at that range.

5) pan/tilt, heaters, and zoom each double the cost of the camera. each time. so good cameras can get very expensive very fast. You will probably want to get several cheap cameras, and one or two high quality cameras that are remote controllable.

6) stuff can get on lenses/covers. The Iowa Eagle Cam got pooped on by an eaglette and put one of their cameras down for about a month till it got rained on several times. Protect them physically if possible.

Could they be mounted inside, looking out windows?

That is what he first attempted, but during the winter the temperature in the un-winterized cabin falls well below what the camera will tolerate and the windows frost/freeze over blocking the view to the outside. He is more interested in the outside view than the inside.

Ah. Well, good luck!

you'll need to make sure to get a heated camera then. may as well just get one, with pan/tilt/zoom also, rather than shelling out for several that are just heated.

I have found cameras that are supposedly good over a range of −10℉ to 122℉ with WiFi and built in Linux server software. But nowhere is there any mention of their being heated. When I call to ask technical questions, it is pretty obvious the persons I am talking to are sales representatives with little technical knowledge other than what is in the brochure.

At this point, my friend has realized that the system he has already purchased was, at best, misrepresented and will not provide the functionality he wants. However he waited too long after purchase to install the system and realize its deficiencies. So he is going to live with what he has for the summer and perhaps try again next year — hopefully after his wife has forgotten what he spent on the system this year. In the meantime I am going to keep looking for a viable year around system for him.