Reolink is easy to DIY, has sane privacy policies if you want to use their web services, and they support self-hosting your own streaming + recordings if you don’t.

They’re the usual rec in these threads, and with good reason.

If you want 100% control and keep everything local FrigateNVR and the POE cameras of your choice. You can find used hardware online and pick and choose where you want to spend more cash. To save space for recordings a gpu or tpu/npu can be used for object detection.

https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted is a good place to search for some information and help.

Look for random no-name cameras that support "ONVIF" and keep them firewalled away from the Internet.

Respect other peoples privacy. Make sure the camera only covers your own property, and not the public street or sidewalk.

I’ve been using the Eufy Security ecosystem, which stores video locally, usually on MicroSD cards or a hub device with built-in storage. And there are zero monthly fees. It has a pretty good app for accessing everything remotely. The devices aren’t super cheap but the prices aren’t crazy either, I think they’re good products for the money.

Eufy, they have local storage too

Would a camera stop someone from trespassing on your property?

I use the cheap ones on Amazon that require no subscription and use an app called CloudEdge. They're limited, but they take video and send notifications on motion quite reliably and you can get a live look through them anytime anywhere. They're like $30 and I've already had two for over two years without issues. App bugs you to upgrade/AI, but is easy to ignore. Might be sending secret info to the Chinese government about how often the post arrives, but I only use them outside anyway.

If you have an old PC or laptop and are willing to take time figuring things out, a basic Frigate installation is free. I run it with Home Assistant and it provides completely customizable notifications to my cell phone with no cloud storage or servers required outside of some kind of SMS or push notification account.

Lots of cameras are compatible, but for a truly cheap option, TPLink cameras ($20) can be mounted inside your windows (with a very minor modification) as long as you have dim exterior lighting at night. I have 3 of these installed and they work fine the vast majority of the time.

I've heard good things about Flock.