Orion 1080p HD Grid Connect Smart SC078HA

Excellent value for money – These Orion brand cameras are a relative newcomer to the security market in Australia and are exclusive to Bunnings. I bought 2 of these particular cameras and their doorbell camera initially. I was so impressed I went out and bought another camera today. The cameras are USB rechargeable and there is a solar charging panel option which currently retails for $43. I bought one with the new camera today since I have mounted it higher up on a front wall and don't want the inconvenience of having to get a ladder out to recharge it. The solar panel to my mind is exceptional value, being a 5W glass/aluminium unit and is a lot larger than I assumed viewing it on the Bunnings website. The items are both very easy to install with a few supplied screws provided you have the basics such as a drill and screwdriver. There is an app available to install on your phone, which gives you full control over the cameras, as well as alarms so you can be notified when movement is detected and change a myriad of settings. There is an 'edit' option within the gridconnect app to rename the cameras such as 'carport', 'driveway', etc so you know which camera you are looking at via the app and to differentiate which camera is sending the various alerts. For the price these cameras, in my opinion, are excellent value for money. There are settings within the app such as record video, send SMS, playback and so on as well as automation rules to switch Orion brand lights on or off if certain camera conditions are set. There is also the main general settings area which allows you to change settings that affect all devices and then a settings option within each camera itself. I purchased a 32gb micro-SD card for each of the cameras for $15 from Officeworks. The downside is the help and faq information. For example, there is a setting in the app that allows you to enable or disable 'human filtering' and its sensitivity. There is absolutely no help guide to explain what this is or how it works, or even a suggestion as to the best setting (nb: I have since found out enabling this option will cause the camera NOT to record or alert the user to activity, which commonly may be something we DON'T want to enable). So some of the settings come down to "trial and error". The cameras can also take a while to connect to your phone should you be remote and receive an alert. On the upside it takes and stores very good 2MP quality photos of anyone walking into proximity of the camera. If you are running several cameras they can all be accessed and viewed at the same time through the small camera icon top right within the app. There are also night mode options. You can also enable sound and speaker options on the cameras so for example you could listen to a conversation of someone within close proximity to the device and even speak to the person via the app. This can all also be done remotely (while at work miles away for example). Overall I am very happy with this device, its variants (eg doorbell) and its optional extras. I am hoping future firmware upgrades will remove some of the minor bugs and questions, and that a more comprehensive help guide will be supplied at a future date. For example, I entered the words 'human' and 'filtering' within the help section of the app and it found nothing even though its a setting within the app lol. Their website was also of no help. Overall these cameras represent excellent value for money in my opinion, comparative to other brand security camera options on the market and I recommend them for anyone on a budget. From what I have read elsewhere they are actually better than some other brand cameras costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars more.

Great little bit of security – Purchased unit due to increase in break-ins at adjacent area. So easy too install but I do recommend watching installation process on YouTube..much easier to follow than instructions. You do need wifi connection for this to work, once link is established through phone app you're all set. The down side is it does take some minutes for the notification to come through that someone I loitering around but a bonus is there is microphone and speaker as part of the unit so you can tell them to skedaddle. The battery lasts about 3 months, however you can hook it up to a solar panel which is an extra $40 which is what I did. I've had the unit since July 2023 and find it a great security entry level purchase