Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This choice is hard to beat for the average consumer at the seemingly low price $30 USD, but you can expect to spend more money than just that. First the good stuff. The camera is small and inconspicuous, and has a very clear image quality, even in the dark. It's easy to set up; just plug it into a standard power outlet and install the app on your phone. Whatever the camera currently sees, you can see through your phone. By default, it begins actually recording footage whenever it senses motion. The recordings are stored online in the cloud (not in the camera). These recordings are also viewed from your phone, and the camera sends your phone a notification whenever it has sensed motion and recorded something. It can sense motion from pretty far away. It can also capture audio, though the quality is hit and miss and usually very quiet. Now the sketchy parts. The camera's night-vision is only "color" if your definition of "color" is restricted to white, black, and grey. If the camera is looking through a window at night, it's infrared will reflect off the glass and back into the lens, making night-time recording a bust. Better put the camera outside. It also will not function without a wifi signal. When placed outside your house, the camera's wifi reception can be wonky depending on a host of factors. The camera's power cord is a rectangular USB which is a pain in the ass to fit through a drill-hole unless you feel like drilling a hole into your wall that's an inch in diameter. The cord itself is also quite short; maybe 7 feet long at best. Now the biggest buggaboo: you pretty much need to buy their security plan, which is $20 per camera per year. Why? Without said plan, you cannot adjust the criteria for triggering the camera's motion-sensor (and thus recorded events and motion-triggered notifications). This means you will get a notification on your phone every single time so much as a fart blows past this thing, and even then it will only record for 30 seconds. After that it won't record anything for another 5 minutes. This helpful cooldown timer means you'll get the cool 30 seconds of the thief trying to break into your house, but not the the next 5 minutes of him actually doing so and walking away with all your gold-bricks. The security plan lifts the (totally unnecessary) 5 minute cooldown timer, and allows you to set the camera's recording trigger to person, vehicles, package, pet, smoke alarm sounds, and a range of other criteria. It's actually quite good at differentiating between these things. That means you can have it notify you only when it sees people and vehicles, for example. There is also an SD card add-on that is highly suggested. Without the SD card, you'll have no physical copy of the footage. The SD card also allows the camera to record continuously even without a wifi signal. The card has enough capacity for about 4-5 days of continuous footage, and it automatically overwrites the oldest footage once it's reached capacity. The card plugs directly into the camera, which means it is vulnerable in the event that the camera itself is damaged or stolen. Overall, you should expect to spend a total of $45 up front for the camera with the SD card upgrade, plus a recurring payment of $20 a year per camera for as long as you intend to use the thing. This is still favorable for the average joe to other security cameras, which often range into the hundreds of dollars and have much more complicated installation. It's a great choice for home security, or maybe even a small business. You just have to overcome some shady business tactics and pay extra to avoid planned obsolescence.