Cameras as an alternative to doorbell cams. What do you suggest?

[sweet pelican]

There is no situation where someone has entered the view of my door, and I don't want some sort of alert. I don't need a doorbell to ring for a notification to be triggered that someone is at the door. I also feel like doorbells dont have the best camera quality.

To that end, I have been considering just using a normal camera, perhaps with zones, to be set up near the doorbell, and send alerts (probably using some ai integration to recognize people vs animals). I am looking for suggestions on which device might be best for this. Some constraints:

• PoE for easy and consistent data and power needs. Seems like there arent any poe cameras out here that can operate at winter temps
• would be placed around door bell level in order to capture faces. So it would need to be corner or otherwise mountable
• would be able to work with home assistant
• would be able to integrate 'zones' and ai human detection (perhaps this is possible through some home assistant add on).
• doesnt need to be expensive if home assistant can handle most of the heavy lifting related to processing.
• works in -30F outdoor conditions

Any suggestions on what my setup might look like, including camera hardware suggestions?

[upbeat bear]

Reolink PoE doorbell which has some built-in object detection (although I use Frigate for that, so I can't speak to the built-in object detection)

[sweet pelican]

i added that it has to sufficiently work outdoors, meaning -30F conditions. Im finding that poe cameras may not be able to operate at those temps, or there just arent any on the market. So perhaps i will drop poe constraints

[upbeat bear]

Oh damn, nvm then lol

[native breach]

https://empiretech01.com/products/empiretech-5mp-ai-ir-fixed-focal-dome-network-camera-ipc-e35ir-as-s2 should work well, it is what I use for my front door

[sweet pelican]

do you also use a door bell, or does this handle it all? Also, do you have it mounted such that you can see faces (doorbell level), or is it higher up/ceiling?

[native breach]

I have a basic button doorbell. I have the camera mounted at face height, in the corner next to the door

[sweet pelican]

thanks, but it seems like the links provided dont lead to a product, and instead lead to an error page. Is this part of their business line up or home line up?

[native breach]

link works fine for me, and it created a preview in discord so seems to work fine there. In any case can just google the model number IPC-E35IR-AS-S2 https://www.google.com/search?q=IPC-E35IR-AS-S2

[sweet pelican]

alright thnanks, and lastly, does this require any cloud or otherwise subscription?

[native breach]

No, EmpireTech (Dahua) are fully local