Camera recommendations?

Helping a friend that wants to put up a few outdoor cameras.  Their teenage son's car was keyed but they don't know who did it.
They aren't real tech savy so want something fairly simple.  They have apple PCs and phones while I am a linux/windows/android guy.  Remote access would be nice.  They have a Nest thermostat but I am not very familiar with nest stuff so don't know if that makes a difference.
 
I also thought maybe a car alarm was a better/other option.
 
Any suggestions welcome.  Thanks.

Probably a Costco (or big box) special with an NVR would work.  Typically these come with free mobile clients.
 
Here installed an end of the driveway camera facing the house and the driveway which worked well. (well two of them).
 
Utilized 6X6 posts buried 2 feet or so in the ground and hollowed out with a 1.5" drill bit to ground level.  Top of 6X6 post just had LV lighting.  Camera height just hollowed out enough space for a camera sort of building it in the post. (customized camera a bit).  You could trench along the driveway and use the chase for LV lighting too.
 
 
 
Another option which is easy would be utilizing driveway PIR illumination. 
 
Just lighting (garage driveway LED spotlights) going on in the middle of the night would be a good deterrent.
 
New automotive alarms are very sensitive to automobile motion but not sure how good this would work with keying a car.
 
Here my OEM alarms have interior PIR sensors such that I can leave the windows open and the alarm will trigger if you put your hands inside of the car.

I'd steer clear of the box products. There's a huge issue right now with the Dahua products and being compromised, although the "hack" is just malicious, it still displays the insecure nature of the product line.

FYI- Dahua is OEM for a TON of the box systems and even some low end relabeled NVR/DVR.

Yes; that is now with just about every non branded / branded el cheap NVR boxes offered up at any big box store or Amazon.  Just recently read about this stuff. 
 
Here continue to utilize ZM with whatever cameras.
 
Lorex ECO DVR Backdoor Account

Hard-coded password exposes up to 46,000 video surveillance DVRs to hacking

I downloaded the firmware for the NVR off the lorex site and pulled it apart with a program called binwalk. I found the root password embedded I one of the files that was extracted. I was quite shocked to find a pain text password buried inside one of the binaries. Last evening I logged into the NVR as root, both telnet and ftp services are running.
 
@Del what are your recommendations for an NVR combo setup?

The real question is whether or not it's going to be embedded or PC/server based. It's actually scary how cheap the embedded units are now with some pretty good features.
 
Analog is pretty much dead now, so it's not what I'd push for an install, so the next question is whether or not to go embedded with built in POE or to add an external cheap POE switch and build a basic network, so for a novice, I'd suggest looking at a embedded NVR with built in POE and the plug and play factor. Segregates cameras from the end users "production" network and exposes only the NVR to the outside, assuming appropriate security is done across the board on all the hardware.
 
While they're Chinese and have their own basic issues, HIK is a pretty good bang for the buck.

In that same vein, if you do a PC, there's also the approach of buying only one type of camera and using the vendor's own (often free) software with it, as opposed to some that can use any kind of IP (or even other) camera.

I've been pretty impressed with the RING Floodlight Cam.  https://ring.com/security-cams  So this installs outside with floodlights.  If you don't have power there, you can even use the solar option. The network connects via Wi-Fi so no wires there.  So the camera is a motion sensor, and you can define the motion area.  When there is motion, the light turns on, and the camera records video.  You are instantly notified with the iPhone app and Android app on phones, and with the PC or Mac app on computers. 
 
Optionally, for $30/year, you can subscribe which lets you recall any videos for 30 days.  You don't have to pay the $30/year, and you can still watch the live video, cut not recorded video. Videos are kept in the cloud.
 
You can remotely trigger a siren in the light, and you can even remotely speak though the light, again from phones or PC's or Macs. 
 
The only gotcha is you have to have Internet with 2Mbps UPLOAD speed for it to work.  I've played with a few of these types cameras, and I've been impressed with this one. Customer service even answers their phone pretty quickly. 
 
(I have NO connection what-so-ever to the RING company.)

They already have a Nest thermostat so considering Nest for the camera - it would be easy for them,  I can route the cable inside for power (but needs a 7/8" hole!).  The main negative is that the videos are only stored for 3 hours (iirc) unless you pay a monthly fee.  $10/month for 10 days or $30/month for 30 days.  That really adds up.  May just go for that without the monthly fee.  Need to figure out how to save video more permanently without subscription if that's possible.  They want to set something up while I am here which means I need to get the parts locally.

Looking at Arlo Pro instead.  Lower resolution but 7 days storage with no extra fees.

The Arlo Pro (and probably their other models) apparently use an IR sensor for motion rather than processing the image data.  This means that you can't block out areas like a nearby street that you don't want to use for motion detection.  You only get a sensitivity adjustment from 0 to 100.  This is a HUGE negative IMHO.

I have a few FI89xx Foscam cameras that have worked well for me for about five years now. One just dies and I replaced it with an upgraded R2 version of the same camera and the install is as easy as downloading an app to the Ios device and scanning the camera's QR code. Ther eis also an app called OWLR that makes for easy installation.
 
The apps do not do anything fancy but you can view the camera from an Iphone and get email alerts on motion and/or sound. I have one that I mounted on the second story of the garage that points down at the parking area through the glass window which made for easier wiring.
 
One big downfall of the R2 is that it does not work with Firefox or Chrome on my Windows 10 laptop. It does work with Internet Explorer.
 
Mike.

EDIT - The R2 also has a slot for a 128gb SD memory card.

does the FOSCAM include motion sensing?  It looks to have most of the features but I am not sure about a few things.  Do I access a web site or the camera?  If the camera then I think I would have to open a port on the router.  Can I set the parts of the image to use for motion sensing?  
 
If this was my own system I would likely use an IP camera (or maybe even a web cam for inside cams) and the program motion on a raspberry pi.  But for anothers system support is an issue.

JimS said:

does the FOSCAM include motion sensing? It looks to have most of the features but I am not sure about a few things.  Do I access a web site or the camera?  If the camera then I think I would have to open a port on the router.  Can I set the parts of the image to use for motion sensing?  
 
If this was my own system I would likely use an IP camera (or maybe even a web cam for inside cams) and the program motion on a raspberry pi.  But for anothers system support is an issue.

Click to expand...

 
does the FOSCAM include motion sensing?
Yes the Foscam R2 has both motion and audio sensing but the motion sensing does not work for me in my garage because it is triggered by the sun going behind a cloud.
 
Do I access a web site or the camera?
The camera can be accesses directly and there is also cloud support which I have not tried.
 
 
If the camera then I think I would have to open a port on the router.
Yes you will have to forward a port to the camera in your router.
 
Can I set the parts of the image to use for motion sensing? 
That would be a function of the software that you use to view the camera. The Foscam software is very basic and does not allow you to mask out portions of the image but you can view the camera with software like Blue Iris that will do that for you. That is true for for any IP camera.
 
Mike.

The Foscam R2 also has pan/tilt and digital zoom and is on sale for about $75.
 
I am not pushing the Foscam and I am planning to buy and test a HIKVISION camera soon just because so many here recommend them. My first (and only) IP cam was a Foscam and they have worked for me.
 
Mike.

I want to mention that I gave up on trying to use a camera to detect motion outdoors. I suppose that if you had a lot of storage space and set the cam to record on motion that you could review the video often but you would end up watching a lot of leaves falling and sun going behind clouds.
 
Mike.