HomeKit Homekit camera that saves to Mac?

[golfgirlgolf]

I'm looking for recommendations of beginner/inexpensive level wireless monitoring (A/C powered is OK we just won't run ethernet cables). Since we're just getting into this, testing the waters with less expensive toys (but not crap) is a good way to get started.

Something without required subscription - but records direct to a folder on a Mac, would be ideal. I've seen some that record to an on board SD card which might be OK, but had questions - do those cards sync over the network to HDD - do those cards write over themselves when they hit the space limit??

As you can tell we don't know much about this. We may only want 1-2 cameras. One inside looking out to the front porch - and one covering the back.

It doesn't even have to be Homekit really but though it would be nice to integrate as we have 2 Macs, 6 iOS devices and 2 Apple TVs.

Reolink Argus Pro is one that came up....but looks like it needs battery changing frequently. :-/

 

[waw74]

can't really recommend a certain model of camera, but to expand your window, look at homebridge.
It makes a lot of non-homekit stuff into homekit devices. and can run on your Mac.
if you search for homebridge and your camera model, chances are there's a plugin.

I've got a unifi and a y-cam camera both working in my home app.
The unifi is nice, and has a "server" app on your computer that handles recording from multiple cameras, but it's POE, so you need ethernet, although you should be able to rig a wi-fi / powerline networking extender and their power injector together to make it work wirelessly.

and the y-cam is really unreliable, (I just use it to check up on the cat, so not too concerned)
it's an older model, but locks up and has to stay unplugged for a while before it will start working again.