Google - Nest Cam IQ Indoor Full HD Wi-Fi Home Security Camera

INTRODUCTION: I bought 4) Nest Cam IQ Cameras from Best Buy to replace 4) Drop Cam Pro cameras with annual subscriptions. This was no easy decision, as the Drop Cam Pros were working perfectly. The advanced performance of the new IQ is stunning!! So stunning that I just pre-ordered 6) Outdoor Nest Cam IQ that Best Buy sells discounted in 2-packs to join these Indoor cams. IMPROVEMENTS OVER PREVIOUS CAMERA: 1- 8K resolution sensor delivers a MUCH sharper image 2- Lower light sensitivity produces a much brighter image in low light 3- Higher quality lens adds to the sharper image 4- Auto Zoom feature is amazing. Camera sees & tracks motion beautifully 5- Facial recognition / Familiar Face Detection works great most of the time. It even recognizes the difference between our 2) orange Tabby cats & identifies the cats by name! 6- Speaker is much more powerful 7- 3) levels of video compression are user settable in the App for each Nest IQ Camera you own. This is extremely useful for cameras that are located a great distance from your WiFi router; increasing the video compression rate on that camera will reduce or eliminate the delay (seen as a spinning wheel with a delay in showing the image on your phone or tablet) in transmitting a clear photo. Cameras located in stronger Wi-Fi signal areas can be set to the highest quality / lowest video compression. This will deliver a video in stunning quality. 8- User adjustable on / off front indicator light is very useful. 9- Ask Amazon Echo Show to "Show me the Deck" (or any room in which it is located) and you instantly receive a live video feed from Nest Cam IQ 10- Select Push notifications for Only People / Motion / Sound / Combination 11- IR is much more powerful with more emitters for a much brighter & therefore offer sharper & clearer night vision WHAT IS LEFT TO IMPROVE? The Familiar Face Recognition will occasionally identify my wife or me as a new face if we go by the camera quickly, or are seen through a glass door at an angle that distorts our image. It asks: "Do you know this person?" & "What is their Name?" I type in my wife's or my own name. At that point, the app should combine the picture with the many pictures already captured with the same name identified, but it does not. Unfortunately, it creates a new file with my wife's or my name & the picture just captured. So I have several Familiar Face files with her or my name that cannot be combined. I have already eliminated several files with our same names. Again, facial recognition / familiar face works most of the time & is a great tool. CONCLUSION: The Nest Cam IQ Camera is an amazing engineering accomplishment & it easily earns my Highest Recommendation!!

NEST Cam IQ raises the bar for indoor security cameras in so many ways: 1- Built-in Google Home by free firmware update. Ask the camera what is the forecast, for example. It does only limited Google Home functions, but has a high quality microphone & speaker & is very clear to understand. 2- Facial recognition works GREAT! Nest just dropped monitoring cost by 50%, offering a 5-day option for $5.00/month. Monitoring is required for Facial Recognition & Familiar Face Detection. 3- Familiar Face Detection is amazing. Sends a message, which I get with a snapshot on my Apple Watch with the name of the person! 4- Perfect tie in with Google Hello Doorbell. A good reason to buy a Nest Hello Doorbell: Keep the cameras & doorbell in the same Google Nest family & they work together beautifully. The indoor Cam IQ's announce who is at the door. 5- All Nest devices are on the same app: Thermostat, Cameras, Doorbell, Smoke / CO2 Detectors, etc. 6- 8K Sensor for SHARP Video!! You can see every blade of grass!! 7- 12X Zoom while maintaining clarity. 8- Low light optics maintain pristine quality in low light situations. 9- Auto IR does not blast the red that inferior cameras do. You can barely see the red IR, if at all, but it is super powerful & effective. 10- Adjustable video resolution & compression: this is a big deal! If you are in a weak Wi-Fi area: lower the resolution & you get fast response with reduced quality & minimize the bandwidth needed. If you are in a fast Wi-Fi area, set to Highest setting & WOW!! The video is tack sharp!

I have used the Nest camera and doorbell for a year. The recording subscription seems to help the app work remotely much better and recently the price for multiple Nest devices is economical. For the most part I’m very pleased with them. But for me the downside of the Nest camera is that limited by the 15V power transformer and can’t be extended past 20 feet. So hiding the cord or running it to a data device cabinet can be difficult. However, using POE (Power Over Ethernet) adapter allows you to power your Nest camera over 300” via cat5. However it does require a 48V POE power injector, cat5 wire, a RJ45 to usbc adapter with 48V to 15V conversation and a usbc male-male cable. I used a iCreatin 48V POE injector, and a Coolgear 15V. I ran cat5 wire over 100’ in the attic from the ceiling mounted camera/adapter to my data cabinet. It works great and eliminates the obtrusive cord. I used a iCREATin POE 48V power inject wall in my data management cabinet which is about 100’ from the camera.

This camera is amazing. I had a cheaper off-brand and there was a 30 second latency. I use it to monitor my new born in her crib, This has only a 1 second delay. I stream it to my 70 Tv, or my google home max hub.

The best cam IQ is such a big improvement! The 4K sensor makes a big difference! Plus the video processor is so speedy there is no glitches in the video. It's all so smooth and fast. The 4K sensor is great for dark areas. I highly recommend the Nestcam IQ! A+

After my house got broken in, I was advised to buy this camera. So far, it’s works great.

GOOD NEWS: I previously have purchased several generations of this camera as "DROPCAM" branded cams, etc. Bought two of the standard NEST cams for my daughter last year. They all worked well. Loved the listen in and talk back features. This IQ cam is worth the money. Facial Recognition tells you who is in the house after you give the faces names. Clarity excellent. Zoom excellent. Email and push support excellent. Web site excellent. WOULD BE BETTER IF.......: 1) I watch a lot of news and the IQ Cam picks up faces on my TV (see pics below) and spams me. Sure I recognize Donald Trump, I just don't want to add him to my "recognized faces list". I did add Melania Trump though ! Setting up an "ignore the TV" zone did not work. Spent a couple hours with tech support to no avail. I am sure they will figure this out and send a software patch to fix it. 2) Come on guys ! At least pack this with a magnetic base wall mounting bracket like its less expensive cousins. NEST presumes you will mount this sitting on a table top or similar. My wall mount is rigged with tie wraps and some double faced tape. HEY NEST - please send me the NEST fix for this and I will update this review, promise. 3) Wish the software would ignore "ROOMBA" robot vacuums so that I don't get 4am notifications that my floor is being swept accompanied by a picture of an overgrown floor Frisbee buzzing around scaring the dog. 4) HEADS UP - Works best with GOOGLE Chrome (no surprise there since GOOGLE and NEST are affiliates) Had a hard time getting changes to the website "stick" with FireFox. Firefox interface needs tweaking. No big deal. Set it up with GOOGLE CHROME that's all. Going out this evening to buy another one for the garage. I have confidence that the NEST geeks will fix the above after this Best Buy review

I'm a totally Nested-out family: fire alarms, home security alarm, front door camera, etc. etc. There are pros and cons to this situation, and these cameras haven't changed the situation: • Nest products are really, really pricey. But the hardware is really solid / nice. You can tell when you pick this thing up: it's heavy-ish, made of metal, no flimsy plastic, good quality optics, etc. • Monthly fees are no joke. Each camera will set you back at least $5/mo if you want any sort of history / recording. Which, honestly, is the whole purpose of having the cameras? The thing is pretty useless IMHO without being able to roll back footage. • The Nest software, at least on iOS, is ok, but not great. Sometimes it's slow to load, and the ability to scroll back on footage is somewhat painful. These are minor annoyances, but if you're interacting with your Nest ecosystem every day it'll start to get under your skin. I'd recommend this camera and the Nest ecosystem to new users, particularly non-technical users, but there ARE potentially better options if you want to store the video yourself. It's really a trade-off either way.