Half doorbell, half security camera, the door cameras let you see who’s at your door when you aren’t home. Many have two-way radio so that guests can communicate directly with you on your phone via smartphone app and know when you will be home.
Unlike other video doorbells we tried, this one has a 180-degree field of view and a camera that will record the area where people are standing — great for putting a stop to porch pirats!
Motion Detection
Motion detectors catch people on the verge of your home and can do everything from dim the lights to call the security company. They’re also commonly used in smart lights, which can be used to save energy and turn lights on only when you are there – both saving energy and saving energy too!
Doorbell cameras are becoming a popular home security system and are a great option for tracking guests, avoiding break-ins, and snooping on couriers. They’re activated when someone rings your doorbell or activates your motion detector; when turned on they notify you via your mobile phone to view and talk with visitors live.
For the best door cameras, you can expect more than just face recognition or head-to-toe for getting a better idea of who is at the door. Privacy masks can be enabled in the camera menu to disable unwanted notifications (eg, traffic passing by). You even get a lot of them with in-built storage and 5GHz connection so you don’t need to subscribe for the monthly charges!
Two-Way Talk
Using 2-way talking you can speak to anyone who is outside your doorbell camera. It’s great for sending to food delivery drivers so they know to drop off orders on the porch rather than driving right inside and calling your kids back in from the park.
You can speak directly to someone who’s in front of a camera on your phone by clicking its thumbnail on the home screen and tapping its microphone button. Make sure you have your volume on high, notifications ring unmuted, and no more than one user may speak at a time.
The audio you hear from cameras can also be listened to on mobile devices by tapping the speaker icon. If you have a streaming audio set from one of your cameras turned on, a green frame will pop up to tell you so. Just re-press microphone button to mute them – noise cancellation may improve audio quality if it’s included in your camera model.
Cloud Storage
Store door camera footage locally, there’s no subscription cost and you might be able to offer some extra protection from tampering attempts as well as homeowners can download their videos without concern of the data being stolen in case an online service goes down.
Try to pick a model that offers a lot of storage and expandable options if you expect you’ll be storing more in the future. High definition video is also something to take into account — with resolutions like 2K, it shows more detail, so you’re easier to recognise faces, license plates and so on. Alternatively, pick one that has night vision which employs invisible infrared light to record black and white video in dim rooms; some models even have color night vision for identifying individuals and vehicles more easily in low light conditions.
Security
Door cameras offer homeowners a very useful piece of security. Whether a Girl Scout offering cookies or a tree-dead removal company trying to con you out of a bunch of money, if you have a video camera at your fingertips, you know who’s coming before opening your front door or not.
There are even more security features for video doorbells like two-way audio. This allows you to talk to your visitors through the app and ask them to leave packages where they want or ask them to come without unlocking your door. A few cameras even have infrared technology so you can view them at night.
The majority of models even have remote control, so if you have an internet connection you can view its live feed from anywhere. Some of them even have cloud storage built in, to archive the videos. Whichever camera you choose, be sure the data in it is encrypted and requires two-factor authentication login so hackers can’t read it and break in. This will prevent them from breaking in!
