Google - Nest Cam Indoor Security Camera - Black

This camera was "OK" when I was in the free promotional period for the Nest Aware service. However once that period is over, you either have to pay $30 or $40 per month for it, or you can just use the camera with motion capture stills that are stored for up to like 6 hours. Here are the problems: 1.) This cam sometimes just "shuts off" for 30 minutes to an hour. I THINK it's updating the software or something. Either way, it's annoying because you get a notification that your camera is offline. This was very frequent for the first year or so, but lately has been a lot less often. 2.) Sometimes the history just disappears. Both with the nest aware service AND without it, sometimes when I access the history using the app, it's all just gone. I don't know if it's just a disconnect from the cloud where the data might be stored, but this happens all the time. I'll go back to look at stills from 1 or 2 hours ago (not using Nest Aware) and it's all gone. Major annoyance/problem for me. 3.) The "stills" that are captured (not using the nest aware service) are almost useless. 99% of the time, the capture is almost 1 to 2 seconds after the initial motion is detected. In other words, it will catch the "end" of the over all "activity." So if my dog walks from the kitchen through the living room and heads around the corner out of frame, the only still that will be captured is the back half of his body and tail leaving the frame. They are often times very blurry... Almost like it's taking a panorama picture where something is moving. So it inconveniently blurs the one thing you would need to see, someones face or clothes... 4.) When watching the camera "live" using the app or an online browser and when it first recognizes and starts "recording" the motion still, there is buffering moment that occurs and causes the camera to freeze for about 2 seconds, all the way up to about 20 to 30 seconds (depending on the amount of motion). So often times when I'm trying to watch something happen in live action, it's almost useless because you miss about 80% of it from the "buffering" data send "freeze"... ***On a side note to the above #4, when a notification comes through, the app and connection to the cameras is very slow. Most of the time when a notification comes through, you can't open the app and view the camera fast enough to catch most the action. 5.) When using the advertised "two way audio" don't be mistaken. Yes, you can hear what's going on and yes, you can speak through the camera too. However, when using the microphone/speak function, you cannot also hear the audio at the same time. I understand why that is (so you don't hear a sound loop), but the problem is that often times there is a 2-10 second delay before the audio turns back on after mic use. This makes it, 1. almost impossible to have a conversation, and 2. very hard to keep track of what's going on especially combined with the "buffering freeze" mentioned above. Various small issues: Often times there is motion that goes undetected. The zoom in feature is nice, but very poor quality (naturally). Sometimes the Notification system is bugged and I won't get any notifications even though they are on and there is a lot of motion taking place. The camera picks up some sort of annoying static sound, it's not excessive, but I'm not sure where it comes from... Now for the issues that I probably should have known or recognized before I made the purchase: 1.) These only work if there is a Wifi connection. The poorer the connection, the less useful they are. So imagine the "buffering freeze" that I mention above on a camera that struggles to get an average quality of connection. If I had done more reading, I'm sure I would've figured it out, but I just assumed there would be some sort of internal storage for instances where the Wifi unexpectedly can't be reached. 2.) These camera's are almost useless in terms of home security. The only way I would use these for home security would be to monitor manually on my phone, and once a notification comes through, view and examine the threat. From there I'd trigger my home security system manually (if it's not already going off) and call the police myself. (using the camera without nest aware) 3.) The camera's are tough to position. Need for power outlets, high placement to capture spaces in full frame, and general mobility of unit. Now, some notes about me. I'm not a "security system" or "camera" pro. This was my first time buying a "security camera" and I ended up buying 2. I mainly use this system to keep an eye on my dog and to act as my own personal security monitoring individual. I'm an normal person with an above average knowledge of technology and overall "handyman-ness" (if that makes sense). I am aware that some of these issues are situational and would not be the case for others, but this is my personal experience. In hindsight: -I would invest my money in a better overall system that can run/record without Wifi and still has the capability to watch 'live'. -Nest Aware is not worth the subscription. It would be easier and cheaper for me to purchase and pay for monthly monitoring and the security camera package offered by the company that I use for the rest of our security system (doors, windows, glass break, carbon monoxide/smoke detectors, etc.). -Reliability would be a priority for me (as these are not very reliable). Feel free to respond with questions (if that's even possible) because I am on BestBuy daily and will respond if I can. I hope this review helps someone out there.

The new Nest Cam was purchased from Best Buy to supplement a Drop Cam that was purchased on ebay. The two cameras were placed side by side for testing (I was given no product or money for testing the Nest Cam). The Nest App operates the same for each camera. Each camera has identical image quality when set at 720p. The Nest Cam will operate at 1080p but there is only the slightest difference in image quality from 720p. When set at 1080p, the motion on the Nest Cam is slightly jumpy. The Drop Cam does not support 1080p. The set up for each camera is easy with only a 1 minute delay in the set up as the camera searches for a Wi-Fi signal. The camera can be completely set up with a cell phone or computer. Use the Nest App when setting up with a cell phone (I used an iPhone 5 for the set up). When setting up the Nest Cam, it is convenient to use the QR code. Be sure the Nest App in settings has your CAMERA ON to use the QR code for set up. The Nest App has had recent improvements that should significantly upgrade its ratings. When I first started using the Nest App about 4 months ago it was very unstable and often crashed. A few weeks ago there was an update that made it more stable but not perfect. Today I installed a second update and I can tell immediately that many of the stability issues that had not been fixed in the first update are now fixed. I am sure there is still room for improvement but the Nest App now seems much more acceptable. Here are the good points about the Nest Cam: Extremely easy set up. Great image quality. Easy to select specific areas to monitor without moving the camera. Very reliable detecting motion. Continuous recording 24 hours a day. Motion warnings can be sent to your cell phone. Great microphone and speaker. Easy to change settings from cell phone or computer. History clips can be quickly checked. After looking at a motion history event, it is easy to review what happened before or after the event. After a power loss, the camera automatically comes back on line when power is restored. The best customer service of any tech company I have ever called. Great response to issues. The Nest people listen to the customers and improve the product. This is very evident in the recent improvements of the Nest App. The Nest App runs multiple cameras and the Nest Thermostat. The Nest App and Computer Website are very easy to navigate. What can improve: Image quality is great, but it is always nice to have better quality. Fast forward and rewind is done by event or 30 second increments. I get impatient with the 30 second option. I would rather it be a real fast forward with a pause option. Motion warnings that are sent to cell phones are only sent 30 minutes after the previous event. This does not matter to me but could be an issue if you expect the camera to warn you about every motion event. The camera gets quite warm but this does not seem to affect performance. Live recording is free but history recording for 10 days of continuous recording costs $100 a year for the first camera and $50 a year for the second camera. I think $50 and $25 would make the camera attractive to many more people. Over all this is a great camera. I do not think you will find another camera anywhere for under $200 that gives the ease of set up, reliability, an quality images the Nest Cam gives.

Firstly, I purchased a three pack of these from Best Buy so, I have no idea why it's not showing up as a verified purchase. Anyway... around December I received a three pack as a Christmas gift from my brother. He was excited about them because he has them as well, said the image quality was great and very east to set up. He set up the three in my house in several minutes, and I was impressed with how easy it is to use the app and view them from my phone. I just purchased another three pack 2 weeks ago, as I needed a couple more cameras. This time I installed them myself, which was extremely user friendly. This included the mounting bracket, cable, and camera. Set up was probably 10-15 min per camera. The image quality is really good, and the app will alert you to any motion or activity. It actually sends me an alert when the lighting changes in the room, like when the sun goes down. I was impressed with that. This also means if someone walks past one of my glass doors or windows, that will send a motion alert. Viewing an area live is great, as you can hear audio also. The mic feature is kinda cool, if you need to communicate. I tried it with my dogs & it worked. The cons I would note are, the cameras are black and comes with this huge white cable... not a deal breaker but yeesh... I would have preferred a black one to match the cameras, which are supposed to blend in, not stick out. Also, the first 30 days include being able to view all history. After that, you will have to pay for that, per camera... and it's expensive in my opinion. Without that subscription, you can still view images related to motion, which is good enough for me. Again, not a deal breaker, but I would be interested to see how many people with multiple cameras chose this option. I admit I was disappointed with this at first, however what I do is, if I get an alert, I go to live view to see if there is any activity. One last thing, the cost is $199 per camera, seems expensive compared to others. I purchased a 3-pack which is $397. These are not my first cameras, but they work better than other brands have, which justified the price for me. In conclusion, I really like these cameras, I have 4 going at my house right now. They have a nice sleek look, are easy to set up and use, and images are great. Just do not have the additional subscription.

I purchased this camera to keep an eye on our cats while away on vacation. It has a large angle view (I think 130 degrees?) of the room you are monitoring. When the lights are on the camera provides full color views that are crisp and have good resolution. When at night (or the lights are out and it's a bit darker), the camera switches to infra-red mode and everything is black and white. So you can still monitor activity even at night. I liked the free 30 day trial of storing the history for any motion or sounds detected. I could go back and review what our cats were up to. Nest should be a bit clearer that there will be a monthly fee to keep 10 days of history in their cloud (higher monthly cost option to keep 30 days of history) after the trial period. So without buying the monthly plan, I still get notified about any motion and/or sound, but I can only view real-time events. I have found that the notifications come usually 2-3 minutes after an event, so unless you are on the monthly plan to store events, you will have to almost be watching live if you want to catch something happening out of the ordinary. One other cool note on the history: you can record a clip and share it through other media options like FB or save the file to your computer. So any special events can be archived separate from the Nest system. The final cool feature is that you can talk through the camera to anyone in the room where the camera is located. So we could talk to our cats and watch their reaction from the camera. I have also inadvertently scared my wife when I tried to talk to her through the camera and she agrees that if there was ever an intruder and we used the voice option to say something, we are certain it will scare them away. This is a reasonably priced, very good product. I would have given it 5 stars if I didn't need to pay an ongoing monthly subscription to keep 10 days of history events. I really only need maybe 24-48 hours of history to monitor with this camera, but that is not an option offered. So as long as you know the long-term cost requirements, the quality is very good and this single camera accomplished my needs to monitor our cats while away.

Impressive build quality and design, I love the mounting and flexibility. But then what is up with the cable? It is like a huge afterthought, it is unnecessarily thick (it should need only 3 wires max) it is not flexible and makes mounting cleanly impossible. For it to be of any use you need to pay the subscription, and it is a PER CAMERA subscription, which can get expensive fast. The mobile app has very limited functionality when it comes to history or alerts. I have yet to get an alert take me to the correct clip. Even viewing the clips on mobile is random at best. The alert "zones" are limited as they only work for particular situations. I.E. if you have a window as a zone, yet if someone walks in front, even many feet from the window, it will trigger. In the docs, web and video it leads you to believe it is smarter. It is not. Did I mention this camera gets VERY hot? The image quality is good, as is the night vision, but of course this is only if your network bandwidth is good. Also note that this camera is using your precious internet upload bandwidth all the time the camera is on. No local buffering here. I would like to see it just send video if motion or sound was triggered. Think if you have 10 of these. Hello Comcast throttling... I think it still needs a lot of work. Did I mention the huge afterthought of a cable? They don't use it for configuring, so they don't need a full USB cable, just a nice thin and flexible cable for power would be much better. Perhaps in black to match the rest of the camera.

I was researching security cameras to keep an eye on my newly adopted dog during the day. After all the positive reviews on the Dropcam, I was excited when they announced the release of the Nest Cam. I waited until it came out to have the latest and greatest version and have been completely disappointed. I plugged in the camera, followed the directions and added it to my nest app which already has my thermostat etc. It worked for about 3-5 minutes, I then heard an audible click from the camera and it went offline. The only way to get it back online was to unplug it and plug it back on and then re-add it to the app from scratch. This happened 3 times back to back so I called Nest support. Nest support informed me that I had acquired the product earlier than its release somehow, I bought this from Best Buy and picked it up in store mind you, and I needed to try to add it again in two days after the official release. I followed their instructions, re did everything two day later, same issues so I called in. I was told my issue had been escalated to two different departments and I would receive an answer on Monday via a telephone call. Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went and then Wednesday I gave up and returned it. I exchanged it for a Samsung Security Cam and am going to set it up shortly. Hopefully the Samsung works better than the Nest Cam. I wouldn't recommend this product after my experience.

I was going out of town for an extended period of time and wanted to add internal cameras to augment the external ones I already had. The units mount to wall or shelf, have excellent depth of field; produce superior video and still images and contain both speaker and microphone. The interface is a little nonintuitive, but in true Google form, easily learned with minimal effort. And of course, Google's excellent and knowledgeable customer service is only a phone call away, 24x7. Each camera sends video or still images whenever it perceives movement. Exactly what you want. Additionally you can peek in remotely and get video from (virtually) anywhere in the world, via the Nest app. Unfortunately, lights that turn on and off automatically, or passing car headlights will fire-off the camera. Better a false-positive than a false-negative, though. With each waking up of a camera because of percreived motion you get an email, and a text message. Then the app shows the video or still image of what spooked the camera. Now for the fine print. The first month of full motion video service is free but to get full video after the first month you have to subscribe to a Google service; for 3 cameras that's $110/year (or $11/month); for the past 5 days per month. (E.g., You check-in on the 20th of the month, you see video from the 16th). Worth the expense for sure. Without paying for the service, using the Nest app, you'll see the appropriate still image on the app, you'll be able to peek-in (video) using the app, and the speaker and microphone are still active.

I own eight DropCam/NestCams and have been using them for perhaps two years or so. Overall, I like these. They have great resolution, great night vision, continuous recording, some ability to zoom, activity zones, two way audio, etc. I don't like the iOS app. I liked the DropCam app much better than the new NestCam app. The old app had more functionality and a better user interface. I can't imagine why Nest dumbed it down and it exposes a proble with all of these cloud based products. The companies can change the product for the worse after you buy it based on previous functionality. You have no recourse. They can even shut it down and turn your purchased item into a worthless brick. But I digress... Though night vision is great, it is terrible through a window. Reflections make shooting through a window at night impossible with night vision enabled and there is no way to enable night vision without also enabling the infrared LEDs which cause the glare off the glass. Having independent control over the LEDs would vastly improve the utility of this product at night. This camera must be powered through USB and communicate wirelessly. There is no wired Ethernet version and therefore also no Power Over Ethernet option. Also there is no local storage option, so it is unusable unless you have Internet service. I started out as a strong advocate for DropCam, but I've cooled on it over the past year due to Nest taking it backward IMHO...and failing to truly advance the product features and model options. Unless they demonstrate some leadership soon, they are going to be left in the dust. That said. It is easy to set up, and reliable, though somewhat expensive in terms of recording plans. I'm also using Arlo cameras from Netgear and I'm more impressed with their innovation and variety of product offerings. I think Arlo is close to par with NestCam and offers a fully wireless version.