Sure, when you're comparing DIY and professional firm camera setups, the DIY route is likely to cost less overall, but there haven't been many cameras that are a true bargain. And others, like the Samsung SmartCam HD Pro, ArcSoft Simplicam, Homeboy, Netgear Arlo (the two-camera kit we reviewed costs over $300, but you can buy one camera and the hub for just $180) and new Kodak Video Monitor CFH-V20 are all within $50 of that now-standard retail figure. One quick tour of our own camera coverage shows that Nest Cam (and its Dropcam Pro predecessor), Flir FX, Logi Circle, Netatmo Welcome and Piper (the original model, not the night-vision-equipped version ), all cost 200 bucks. $200 is the norm when it comes to buying do-it-yourself high-definition security and webcams these days. Then, I responded by disabling the notifications altogether, assuming that most of the alerts I would receive (that particular night, at least) were due to shadows and perhaps the particular spot where it was installed.Īfter that, I moved the camera to various other locations and never experienced this issue to the same extent, but I still received the occasional phantom alert, which makes its reliability as a security notification device questionable. Shadows and other non-security-related movement occasionally sent it into a frenzy - one night I woke up to alerts popping up on my phone every few minutes - only to check the saved video clips and realize that no significant motion had taken place.
This will likely vary by user depending on your install location, but the motion sensor is very sensitive in general. The Mini sent me a lot of phantom alerts. And, you can manually adjust between basic, standard and HD video quality, depending on your bandwidth limitations.īut, there's one issue.
The 720p live streaming video is crisp in both regular and night vision mode and you can set it to either portrait or landscape view (and even monitor up to four cameras simultaneously in "quad" view if you happen to have more than one Mini installed).