We are going to compare Wired Wi-Fi camera vs battery powered camera-which is better. One is the wired camera better to protect your home and is a battery-powered one really convenient in the long run or is it a hassle to change or charge the batteries let’s find out
Here I am going to talk about the differences between a Wired Wi-Fi camera vs a battery-powered camera. Here the main distinguishing issue is complete wireless Wi-Fi cameras with a plugged or wired versions. In both cases have their advantages and disadvantages but at the end of the day, the wired or plugged-in Wi-Fi cameras are always better than battery-powered ones. A big percentage of security Wi-Fi cameras on review in this channel are battery-powered companies that will usually have more battery versions of cameras in their product lineup. Some will only have battery versions as their product.
The main and probably the only reason why people are wanting battery-powered Wi-Fi cameras are for convenience because it can be easily installed and can be installed anywhere. If there is a Wi-Fi connection with plugged-in or wired versions you need to know where to route your wires or where the nearest outlet will be there is also a perception. Especially in outdoor applications that a wired camera can be easily rendered useless by cutting the true power cord but you can easily hide or protect the power cable if you need to so. If you’re planning on purchasing a Wi-Fi camera and leaning on getting a wireless battery-powered system.
Please take note Wi-Fi cameras that are battery powered are different from true plugged-in cameras and not just on how they’re powered but also in how they detect and record motion plugging in your battery camera doesn’t make it have the features of a wired one. Exception for a few cameras like the Arlo Pro 2 and 3 and ultras and recently by an update the 3rd gen ring stick up cam. They have the firmware that will turn the camera to have wired features as long as they are plugged in with a battery-powered camera. They use a sensor to detect motion and I just have to throw it out there battery-powered cameras will only record when it detects motion.
It is not designed it will not be able to record 24/7. All battery-powered cameras use a sensor because it barely uses any power and it is pretty decent in detecting motion. This sensor detects heat movement there are some downsides though its detection range maxes out around 30 feet in detecting people and you can only do this by cranking the sensitivity to the max which will usually cause a lot of false motion alerts. If you have motion zones that some brands offer like the UV blink and Arlo it will still be limited to the 30-foot detection range of the sensor. So if the zone that you want to monitor is more than 30 feet then you might want to get a wired or plugged-in camera.
Another limitation of a sensor is that it is only reliable in detecting motion if it is going across the sensor and not that reliable if the motion is going towards or away from it. These cameras will only start to record when the sensor detects motion which most of the time depending on the speed of the motion. The footage will start with the person already leaving the field of view of the camera. If the motion is going towards the camera the recording will start when the person is already out of the camera’s view. So the flexibility of where you can install battery-powered cameras gets limited because you also need to find an angle of the camera. So that you will be able in detecting and also minimize the false motion recording.
In wired cameras, they usually use the camera’s field of view or pixel-based detection which needs the camera to be on all the time not necessarily recording but monitoring and if there are any changes in the pixels of the camera’s view it will trigger a motion alert and start recording. camera-based detection doesn’t have arranged limitation like a sensor though as long as the change is in the view of the camera and is enough to trigger the alert and depending on the sensitivity you set it can be set a hundred feet away and you will still get detected but you will also definitely get alerts to minimize that a lot of camera companies now integrate some type of algorithm that will use artificial intelligence to determine if the movement is caused by a person, animal or cars.
This will help prevent false notifications also because the detection is based on the camera’s view you can literally draw out your motion zones this will further make the motion detection and alert notification of wired or plug-in cameras more reliable as compared to the battery-powered ones and another big advantage of a plugged in-camera is that most of them will have a pre-recording feature. Because these cameras are always on it can buffer a few seconds of recording which is usually three seconds. So when the camera detects motion it will trigger the recording but will start the footage three seconds before the motion has been detected. So you’ll be sure that you will get the whole motion event and most of the time even before the motion appears on the camera’s view.
Battery cameras will not be able to do this because they are usually off until it gets triggered by the motion sensor and this is the only time it will start to record a battery-powered camera cannot have a pixel-based or camera-based detection because it requires the camera to be on which will drain the battery pretty quick and this is another limitation of these cameras battery life depending on what the battery life your camera have you will need to swap out and change batteries or you need to remove the camera from the mount and bring them inside your house to charge them so there is definitely maintenance required on these cameras and you need to do this once every two or three months or six months to a year.
Cameras that have built-in rechargeable batteries that you don’t need to remove from the mount you still have to get a ladder to get to the camera. If you live in colder climates any battery-powered device is going to have issues batteries and cold temperature don’t mix well together when it is cold the battery will not have enough juice to power up the camera so I don’t recommend any battery-powered Wi-Fi cameras in colder climates and if you have days that are below zero degrees F then it is better to stick to wired cameras which are always on and already generating heat and because they don’t have any batteries they can tolerate colder climates way better than battery-powered ones.
Another disadvantage of battery-powered cameras is recording length and cool off periods and this is also has something to do with the sensor. Companies design these cameras to save battery life and most of them limit the recording event if you use the automated settings they also set cool-off periods which the camera will not record even if the movement persists sensor detects heat movement.
So if I get into the sensor’s view it will detect that movement but if I stop and just hang around the camera will think that movement has stopped. So pretty soon the recording will also stop even if I am still in the camera’s view so you will not get the whole motion event wired cameras will have a longer buffer in recording length usually a minute and will continue to record if the motion persists and no cool off in the recording you will usually get the full motion event with wired cameras.
In a comparison of Wired Wi-Fi camera vs battery-powered camera, my recommendation if you can get power to the area you will be monitoring choose a wired camera first you can always use conduits or cable covers to protect the wires, and once installed you will have more options to dial down the settings like more flexibility and motion zones will have three or more seconds of pre-recording and will record the whole motion event. Also, most wide cameras that usually had an option to record to a micro SD card will have an option for 24/7 recording.
Now if battery power is the only option then you need to do a little bit more planning on where to install it avoid pointing the camera to heat sources make sure that the motion. you’re trying to track will be going across the camera and not towards or away from it make sure that you can easily access the camera to switch batteries or charge it and if not then you might need to invest in a solar panel to top off the camera’s battery also just keep in mind the limitations that you’ll get with the battery cameras like it might start recording late and have short recordings and might not record the whole motion.
