Best security camera for a shed [UK]: top shed cctv cameras

Let me tell you about the Ring Floodlight Cam – no question the best security camera for a shed, and probably the best outdoor security camera for your home as well. My sister recommended it after her successful install. Being the thrifty type I am the price tag initially put me off but when I saw the quality, resolution, and all the cool features all my research amounted to nothing – Was totally sold on this kit.

My experience was really very straight forward with the one hiccup almost all people with a big home face – connectivity to the internet due to the distance from the router. So what I did was bought a couple of wifi repeaters and these cameras sprang into life. That is literally the only drawback I had with this system.

I unboxed them and got up the ladder installing them to the wall where I wanted – I did this because I didn’t want to pay an electrician to do it being the thrifty so and so I am 🙂 I paid an electrician half a day to run me the two sets of cables from my RCD along the walls. I didn’t need to worry about how tidy the cables are or where they go as I am going to clad the house in the summer. You should pay far more attention to neatly running the cables. It took my electrician literally a couple of hours and wiring up to the camera itself was no more than a five minute job. If you are handy then feel free. I am a gardener by trade with a carpentry background. I don’t mind getting stuck in but the electrics are not for me. You can’t circumnavigate this by charging batteries – this must be hardwired, unlike the Ring door bell I also bought as part of this setup. Here’s a picture of the cameras installed:

Pic of cameras installed

Once the power was run and hooked up, as I mentioned I had trouble with the wifi. I didn’t panic because the doorbell which was right next to the router sprang into life so I instantly knew the problem was with the internet range. Annoyingly I ran up to Argos for a couple of wifi repeaters which I duly connected to the home internet. This was a couple of hours lost – I highly highly recommend buying a repeater if your router is a fair distance from the intended security camera location – that goes for all models. This will save you a major headache as you’ll be pretty excited to hook this up and see it in action if you’re anything like me 😀

So with the wifi connected you’ll head to your smartphone and install the Ring app. Then you’ll add the camera and give it a name. In my case I called them garden and garden side, shed view would have been smarter… 😀 There’s a little arrow in the top corner and then you’ll see these options – select the security cams option:

Next you’ll scan the QR Code on the back of the box, the security camera is programmed to respond to this barcode specifically. For this reason I decided to keep the boxes in case anything went wrong. I’m sure there’s a way around this but I didn’t want any problems down the line. Here’s where the QR Code can be found on your packaging:

Now you’ll simply connect to the camera with a few questions noting the colour of the lights and that will tell you if they are ready to connect. It’s very straightforward from this point as its a simple case of following the setup. A couple of minutes later the cameras sprang to life.

What I have to tell you is just how superbly impressed I am by the cameras. You can choose motion notifications – if you have many family members wandering around the garden or shed then turn off the notifications. It’ll be buzzing every five minutes and will send you up the wall 🙂 Also, definitely sign up to the cloud plan to save all motions. This is a bargain at £80 a year and worth every penny. I can go back months to check what happened and where…

The cameras themselves have sirens you can activate as well as speakers so you can shout at an intruder if you so wish.

The picture quality is really good even from 15 metres. You can just about make out the shape of faces from this distance. What will impress you the most though is night vision. The lights will turn on if they detect motion and recording begins. Here’s a look at the video quality zoomed in from 15 metes away at night. As you can see it’s sensitive enough at 15 metres away too pickup a stealthy cat 🙂

Video at night of cat for those on mobile 🙂

Daytime camera quality is obviously even better. Here’s a video of the camera running during the day. I have to say I am over the moon with this kit!

Vid in day

You can also choose to turn the lights on and off as well as listen into the camera – yes its two way listen and talk. The sound is very sharp too. You can hear a conversation easily – exactly word for word assuming the conversation is in ear shot.

Overall no question in my mind, the Ring Floodlight Cam is the best security camera for a shed and as outdoor cctv for the home goes, I doubt it’s easily beaten.

When I bought the Ring cam system the Arlo setup was very close. With recharging possible on these cameras, and all the other fancy options like night vision, motion detection, sirens (if you have a base station like Alexa), and sound they are pretty much the same on paper. What gave me the edge on Ring was the fact I had to pay for an electrician which means I never have to worry about charging. Climbing up the step ladders to charge the battery every three months would now be really bothering me! I know this because I didn’t wire in the door bell properly and even opening up the door to remove the battery is an annoying pain!

The other reason I went with Ring was a couple of unfortunate situations whereby the Arlo completely missed a break in. Now I will say, sometimes Ring can miss movement, but I’ve never wandered around my car or vans and been missed so fingers crossed that doesn’t happen. This is very much an isolated incident but it still left me with that kind of feeling I just shouldn’t do it.

With all this said, the recharge option is superb for anyone that can’t or doesn’t want to spend on an electrician and the picture quality is superb. You only need 1mb internet to run full camera resolution too so you’ll almost certainly have enough internet to power this setup. If not for the Ring, I would have bought Arlo, no question on that. It’s a great system and is certainly that bit cheaper than Ring too.

If I was looking for the best cheap outdoor cctv options then the ieGeek Security Outdoor Camera 1080P Waterproof Home Security CCTV would be my choice. For a fraction of the money Ring is charging you get great resolution. There are two apps to chose from and the setup is pretty straight forward. If you don’t have wifi range you can hardwire these with an ethernet cable. This will give you ultra sharp imagery just when you need it. Talking of which, get the motion sensors right – do a bit of tinkering as too low and it won’t pickup much, too high and it won’t stop alerting you. Finding the balance here is the key.

I’d probably use a 128gb card with this. I would expect depending on the amount of time recording that you’ll get a week or two of data before overwriting occurs. This would be plenty to have a hard copy if something goes wrong. The app will allow you to watch what’s going on live just like the more expensive models. In general this is a great bit of kit on a budget and if you aren’t into spending hundreds, if not thousands, but want a reliable solution then I would definitely go with ieGeek. I like the fact you aren’t forced into plans either, and you can upload videos to an ftp client – a server could be your home computer or a web server – you have the freedom of both.

There’s a few complaints about the software but with a bit of time you’ll get there and it’s always improving and evolving. For the money this cctv setup is a steal.

The Netvue Outdoor Security Camera its very very similar to ieGeek. It works off a 2.4Ghz frequency and can be connected with wifi or an ethernet cable. Obviously the ethernet connection is far more stable and a must if there’s any distance between your internet and thee camera.

For a cheaper system it has the siren alarm to try to deter unwanted intruders, two way audio, night vision, and even works with Alexa as well. There are often reports the setup can be tricky and this is not really much different from all the models we’ve reviewed today but once going, it’s pretty stable. There are also comments about the motion detector being overly sensitive – I don’t mind that at all myself as it’s far more important to me that the system actually catches an intruder in the act than misses as one of the products on this review has had happen!

When you want to speak into the camera you’ll do so from the app – this centrally controls your system exactly the same as Ring. I wouldn’t write this off as cheap, the picture quality is pretty impressive quite frankly and all of the 1080px claimed. Another great buy from China with surprisingly good support.

Another great blow cost camera solution. This one is again 1080px and the quality of picture is astonishingly good for the money. Setup is a five minute job and you can connect with wifi or ethernet as usual. The system can backup to sd card or cloud and the camera runs on rechargeable batteries but that might be my only concern with this unit – the length of battery. If you’re camera is going off thirty or forty times a day as it might with the kids in the back garden (the whole point of having CCTV is to keep an eye on them for me, then the battery will be out in no time.

I’d opt for a hardwired power cable and what you have is a very sophisticated system for a fraction of the Ring setup. You’ll be absolutely impressed by the night vision camera and then the daytime is obviously that much better. It has the two way audio and a 160 degree view, better than some competitors on this review! All in all, another excellent choice on a budget for the best security camera for a shed.