Reddit mentions of Synology 2 bay NAS DiskStation DS216se (Diskless)

On Synology, using PhotoStation, you can tag: Location, People, and generic tags. So, outside of the location and people in that photo, you can tag specific qualities of the photo (landscape, car, dog, animal, black and white, birthday, etc etc)

You also have the option to share the photo or add the photo to a shared album so you can share multiple photos at once.

At the top of the linked page, you can click a link for a live demo of DiskStation Manager, of which PhotoStation is a part of. And you can explore it on your own. They don't give you a username and password, but I was automatically logged in after I waited a short while. Once logged in, click the set of four squares in the upper left and select PhotoStation. Play around with it and see if that's what you want.

Keep in mind the the 2-bay Synology's don't come with hard drives, so that'll be a separate expense:

• $150USD - https://smile.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS216se-Diskless/dp/B014SKVQR8/
  
• $84USD (x2) - https://smile.amazon.com/Red-2TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B008JJLZ7G/
  
• $318USD - Subtotal (doesn't include tax)
  
  I linked to a WD Red HDD because those are rated and designed for use in NAS systems, it's a drive I'm familiar with, and a brand I trust. But, in the end, you can go with whatever drive you want. For what it's worth, the 2TB Seagate IronWolf, another HDD made for NAS systems, is only $79USD, bringing the subtotal down to $308USD.
  
  I'm going to assume you have minimal knowledge of NAS systems so I'll add some additional info. You also may need more than 2TB drives, depending on how you set up the volume, RAID1 or RAID0, you'll have 2TB and 4TB of space respectively. I’m not saying you’ll need 3 drives but if 2TB or 4TB isn’t enough space, you’ll n Ed to purchase larger drives. But, that should be plenty of space.
  
  RAID1 will mirror the drives, so all the data is both drives. So if one drive fails, all the data is still available. Just put in another 2TB drive and the system will copy the data over to the new drive. RAID1 has redundancy and you're protected against a drive failure.
  
  RAID0 will combine the drive space. So, two 2TB drives is now 4TB of space. However, if one of those drives fails, you lose all the data. RAID0 is particularly useful for speed, and for program scratch discs. I would never keep important stuff, like photos of my family and vacations, on a RAID0 NAS system.
  
  Of course, RAID is not a backup. Just because there is redundancy doesn't mean your data is safe. I'm not sure if it's the same in Canada but if you have Amazon Prime, you can back up all your photos to Amazons Cloud Drive. Depending on how/where PhotoStation stores your photos, you may be able to set up a backup task to copy the photos on the NAS to Amazon Cloud for you. That way, should the RAID1 array fail, and you need to replace both drives, your photos are still secure & safe and you'll be able to download them off Amazon.

Synology Disk Station 2-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (DS216se) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014SKVQR8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_qyOFxbTYA6WA5

I'd use this with hard wired cameras. This NVR will offer expandability and it's a wonderful product.

perhaps a DS216se?

I don't think you can do much better for the money spent.

Well do you want premade or diy

Also if you have a single drive, the checksumming won't help you. It will only tell you if its corrupted, it can't fit anything.

Premade, btrfs is rare, but this is what id get https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Station-Diskless-Attached-DS216se/dp/B014SKVQR8/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1481059736&sr=1-4&keywords=synology+2+bay

For diy Here is what id get. Id personally run fedora server as its very new, and btrfs has changed a lot in the las 3-4 years, unlike xfs and most other filesystems.

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RDynyf
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RDynyf/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD 2650 1.45GHz Dual-Core Processor ($27.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock AM1B-ITX Mini ITX AM1 Motherboard ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($33.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 2TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 2TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.95 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $275.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-06 16:34 EST-0500

The 212 is a 2 bay NAS, not 4 bay. And it comes with a tiny CPU, so I wouldn't expect the performances to be impressive.

I'm Canadian, but I haven't shopped for NAS for a while now.

Just looking on Amazon.ca, I find stuff for cheaper :

A Sinology for $216, a Buffalo for $140 and a Startech for $110. No idea how the specs compare, but it seems the Netgear is priced quite high.

I'd recommend a basic Synology enclosure. You can get a one-bay (DS115j) for about $100, or a 2-bay (DS216se) for about $150.

Pop in a 3TB WD Red HDD and you're good to go. If you get the 2-bay unit, you can eventually add a 2nd HDD for additional space or redundancy.

What you're looking for is called a NAS or Network Attached Storage. These can be as simple as plugging a external HDD with a SATA to USB cable into a USB port in your router, to buying a multi HDD enclosure, to a diy NAS with some parts you may have laying around.

I started out with a cheap 2hdd Dlink enclosure similar to the one above but I now have a diy 6-disk 16Tb home server running FreeNAS as the operating system.