Google - Nest Cam IQ Outdoor Security Camera (2-Pack) - White
Model: NC4200US
SKU: 6113204
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Customers express satisfaction with the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor Security Camera's superior camera quality, ease of use, and effective facial recognition and night vision capabilities. Many also found installation straightforward. However, some customers cited the high price as a drawback, along with concerns about battery life and cord length. A few users also reported connectivity issues.
Bought 4 of these. 2 packs are cheaper, but expensive. Proprietary cord. I had to cut mine to make 2 of them longer. The cord has 3 conductors inside, positive, negative, and a tiny little yellow “signal” wire. My house was hard wired with RG 6 wire that had a Siamese 2 wire power conductor attached. For a run less than 75 feet, I was able to use the center conductor of the RG6 And soldered the signal wire at both ends of the splice, and used the Siamese power for positive and negative. Past 75 feet I think the signal wire had too large of capacitance and shut the camera down, or gave inconsistent results, but below about 75 feet it worked. What I don’t understand is why they would have a signal wire that must communicate with the power supply, so that means the cord that comes with this thing can’t be custom installed, and leaves the average joe a big chunk of extra wire to deal with, or a wire that’s too short? The wall wart is rather large, and if installed in a covered outside box takes up the entire outlet. Data hog, check with your internet provider to see how they will handle charges for data upload. I can’t quote the numbers, but the monthly data upload per camera is huge. That being said, I get 400 download, and 40 upload. I have a total of 4 cameras, and the doorbell, and a Speedtest reveals about a 5 Mbps hit on upload speeds only with all cameras at highest res, so that’s not really an issue for me. As for the nest as a system, not once has something happened at a camera or doorbell when the lag time actually allowed me to have a conversation with the system. For example, the ups or mail guy rings the button, by the time you get the notification that someone is there. They are long gone. The exception to this is that the google home screen I have sitting in the kitchen interfaces through my own Wi-Fi, and it is much faster without the system lag. But using a phone or iPad, there is too much lag. So I can only see things that already happened. The notifications give all sorts of false events, and the face/person identification only works at short range. I have a camera on my patio and another on my driveway that we’re giving me hundreds of notifications of “your camera sees a person” per day. Well yes, my wife was watering plants, or returning from the grocery store. I also get “your camera sees a face it doesn’t recognize” at 3am, which will freak you out when you live in the country, only to find out it was another spider building his web over the IR of the camera (they are constantly doing that). So, what is good? Wi-Fi range is outstanding, camera picture quality is great in good light, but becomes very laggy and lots of ghost pixels when there is motion in darkness. Additionally, that I don’t have to maintain and manage a DVR with the system, I find the monthly data fee for the cameras is reasonable. I subscribe to 5 days, figure by then anything that happens I will have had time to store to my camera roll. It’s also easy to send video clips to your device, so you can post stuff to the web easily (salesman lurking, weird car in cul de sac, etc). The microphones and speakers on the cameras are excellent. One of my cameras is mounted in a birdhouse up in a tree overlooking my cul de sac. You can have a casual conversation with someone in the street (my neighborhood is quiet) because both the speaker and mike are excellent. But with the leg reported earlier, you would have to be physically watching your device to se that person coming, otherwise they are already gone. I did yell at a guy that was letting his dog crap on my lawn, and it scared the crap out of him when my deep voice magically appeared 25 feet up in a tree. (Might add the Wi-Fi signal in that tree is traveling about 150 feet from my router inside my house made of concrete, so yes, that part of the camera is pretty impressive) I might suggest you would have better facial and motion performance if you don’t mount these too high, but at the same time I don’t want then down low where they can be accessed without a ladder. Hope this helps.
Posted by Mark
This is an amazing security video camera. I originally purchased the Ring battery-operated camera for my front porch, but I live in the city and it constantly picked up folks walking their dogs or my neighbor’s on their front porch. Even though the Ring only calls for one battery, I purchased an additional one. I’m the period of one day, I had so many notifications that one battery had used 35%. I think the Ring would work better in a suburban or country setting. The main reason I purchased the Nest IQ was because, with a $6 a month subscription to Nest Aware, you set up “Activity Zones,” where you are only notify when a person is in them. The IQ also has the ability to distinguish be tween a dog barking, people talking, a human being, loud sounds, and other motions. It works in algorithms, and when someone approaches and steps on my porch - zooms in and follows them. Even though the camera perpetually tracks other things, I only get the notifications I want - a person on my my porch. It is expensive ($400 pretax), but I think every penny; especially for folks who live in high-traffic and pedestrian areas. It’s night vision is remarkable. The most-challenging aspect about installation is it has to be plugged in to an interior socket. So, in my case, I had to drill a hole through my exterior brick wall, cut a channel in one of my interior walls, drywall, mud, and paint. But again, I think it’s worth it. Finally, it took me a minute to understand how to operate it. The FAQs and instructions online were a bit confusing and not easy for to me understand on a pretty sophisticated product. However, when I contacted Nest support, they spoke to me over the phone and answered all my questions.
This review is from Google - Nest Cam IQ Outdoor Security Camera - White
Posted by BaltimoreJack
Easy to set up and I am very happy with this purchase. These cameras were a little bigger then others that I have seen but the quality will not disappoint. I am so happy with my Nest cameras and the quality as these cameras are no cheep but worth every penny. I was lucky to purchase them on sale at Best Buy. For me being able to plug them into a outlet (no battery) and letting me have 24 / 7 recording is just what I wanted. You will have to pay for storage / playback options as without them your options are very limited.
Posted by Retired
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