Category: CCTV

Netatmo Smart Outdoor Camera (Presence) gets upgraded with Siren – Pre-order now for £319.99

by James Smythe | May 28, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation, News | 0

I reviewed the Netatmo Smart Outdoor Camera (formerly Netatmo Presence) just over a year ago, and it has been one of the best surveillance cameras I have reviewed, and I still use it today. Netatmo was one of, if not the first companies to offer AI object detection with their camera, the indoor one is smart enough to recognise peoples faces, while the outdoor one will recognise people in general, animals, cars and normal motion. This allows the camera to send far more accurate alerts to you while still recording general motion. It was also one of the first...

Ring Doorbell 3 Plus Review – Privacy concerns aside, Ring still dominate the battery-powered smart doorbell market

by James Smythe | May 6, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation, News, Reviews | 0

[Update 12/05/2020] Ring reached out to me to confirm some of the privacy aspects of their system. I have copied the full statement at the bottom of the review Smart home surveillance and smart doorbells have boomed in the past few years with dozens of options available on Amazon. However, if you are looking for a battery-powered doorbell, there are surprisingly few options from big brand names. There are not even that many options, including wired doorbells, which I find odd because I find a smart doorbell one of the simplest home security and smart home upgrades. I have...

Ring Video Doorbell 3 vs 3 Plus vs 2 vs Pro vs Eufy Doorbell – What has Ring improved? Which is the best alternative?

by James Smythe | May 4, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation, News | 0

There is no getting away from the awful PR Ring has had recently, it has been revealed that the company has some serious issues with privacy as well as agreements with law enforcement to share your data. They are trying to improve though; they claim to have locked down the privacy concerns enforcing mandatory 2FA on their web access as well as new privacy controls within the app. I'll be honest, I still love my Ring Doorbell 2, and apathy has meant I didn't worry too much about the privacy concerns. Ring has now launched the Doorbell 3, which...

Imou Ranger IQ Review – A PTZ human detecting camera compatible with NVRs

by James Smythe | Apr 3, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation, Reviews | 0

While I am not a huge fan of indoor cameras for my personal usage, I was quite excited to be offered to review the Imou Ranger Pro, which provides a wide range of impressive features including: PTZ with 355 degree pan and 90 degree tiltHuman detection – which can then smart track with PTZSony starves sensor with colour night vision (dependant on ambient light)Two way talkPrivacy maskWi-Fi and Ethernet connectivityMicroSD and cloud storage optionsONVIF compatibility for network video recording systems such as Blue Iris and Synology Surveillance station.Alexa, Google and IFTTT functionality. That is a whole lot of functionality...

eufyCam 2C vs Blink XT2 Compared – Which is the best budget wire-free security camera?

by James Smythe | Mar 17, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation | 0

The eufyCam 2C has been one of my favourite wire-free cameras in recent times, and what I continue to use personally. The original Blink XT was my long time favourite for a budget camera, and last year the Blink XT2 was launched offering superior battery life, and an improved mounting mechanism. So how do these two affordable options compare? Price Pricing jumps up and down for both products, and with the eufyCam 2C coming as a two-pack I will compare the two-pack of Blink XT2. Blink XT2 seems to have an RRP of £179.99, which is also it's current...

WD Purple vs Seagate SkyHawk Network Video Recorder Surveillance Hard Drive Comparison? And are Surveillance Drives Needed?

by James Smythe | Mar 2, 2020 | CCTV, Gift Guides & Shopping | 0

Over the past few months, I have upgraded my home surveillance, moving from cameras that recording motion only to microSD cards, to cheap Ezviz NVR and finally a BlueIris NVR with Sentry AI human detection. I have done everything as cheap as possible, and that includes re-using old desktop hard-drives. I had one of them fail on my in the Ezviz NVR, but the second one is still going strong, however with three cameras including a 4K Annke I need something larger than 1.5TB. So I have been looking into surveillance drives and wondering if they are worth it...

eufyCam vs Arlo – Which is best & is the Arlo Ultra or Pro3 worth it over the eufyCam 2 & 2C?

by James Smythe | Feb 29, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation, News | 0

Arlo, formerly owned by Netgear has long been the dominant company for wire-free security cameras, I would argue that they are the company responsible for the popularisation of the battery-powered wire-free outdoor surveillance camera. Since the launch of Arlo, many companies have come along replicating their features, many of them are inferior, plenty of them are more cost-efficient. In recent years one of the standout competitors has been Eufy, the sub-brand of Anker. Eufy focuses on smart home products and includes some excellent robotic vacuums as well as the range of eufyCam security cameras. The product range isn’t as...

BlueIris with Sentry AI Human Detection Review – How accurate is the AI for recognising people?

by James Smythe | Feb 24, 2020 | CCTV, Reviews | 0

BlueIris is an extremely popular piece of camera recording software allowing you to turn a Windows PC into powerful NVR that offer vastly superior features to most affordable network video recorders. I recently replaced my Ezviz NVR with a self-built system based on the Ryzen AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, it is not the most powerful system but I am able to run three cameras from it with direct recording. With BlueIris set up, there is an AI human detection feature call Sentry AI which can be enabled per camera withing the settings. In the UK, BlueIris costs £70.67 if...

eufyCam 2C Review – Is it better than the ANKER eufyCam E & Arlo HD?

by James Smythe | Feb 11, 2020 | CCTV, Home Automation, Reviews | 0

I reviewed the eufyCam E almost a year ago, and I was extremely impressed with it, to the point that I still use it to this day. The claims of 365-day battery life are probably not far off, I have only charged one of the cameras since my review, and that was because I had a kitchen extension done so the builders were triggering recordings constantly for 6 weeks. Since then Anker/Eufy has launched the 2nd generation of cameras with the eufyCam 2 and the eufyCam 2C. While all of them are similar, there are some important differences between...

H.View Colour Night Vision Outdoor POE IP Camera Review

by James Smythe | Feb 9, 2020 | CCTV, Reviews | 0

On my quest to improve my home security, but not spend a fortune, I came across the H.View Colour Night Vision POE camera. At £99.99 it is not the cheapest option out there, but I managed to get it for just £76.79 back in October. The appeal of this, and the reason to spend more, is the colour night vision. Most cameras I have used offer excellent day time performance, and to be honest night time is good too. But black and white lose a lot of details if you want to identify someone in the event of criminal...

The best network video recorders (NVR) for CCTV home surveillance cameras including 4K, ONVIF, POE

by James Smythe | Feb 5, 2020 | CCTV, Gift Guides & Shopping, Home Automation | 0

I am a big fan of outdoor IP home surveillance cameras; I personally think they are one of the best deterrents for thieves and criminal behaviour on your property, and in the event of something happening, you have some video footage to show the police or insurance companies. Many of the wire-free surveillance cameras I have reviewed use cloud recording or record to microSD, but if you want the best solution recording to a network video recorder is by far the best option. Some Wi-Fi cameras can do this, both Ezviz and Reolink have options for it, but you...

The Best Colour Night Vision Home Surveillance Security Cameras for 2020 – Starlight CCTV cameras

by James Smythe | Jan 28, 2020 | CCTV, Gift Guides & Shopping | 0

In recent years, one of the big improvements in home surveillance is the availability of cameras that can record video at night in full colour Starlight Vs Darkfighter Darkfighter is specific to Hikvision cameras and these are able to provide full-colour images up to 0.002 lux, and black and white up to 0.0002. Starlight is a term that has been adopted by many other brands to indicate colour night vision, in these cases, they are nearly always using the Sony Starvis range of sensors. The quality of these sensors varies so starlight cameras can fit multiple budgets. H.VIEW Security...