Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is my first surveillance setup. I have to say the setup was fairly easy. The only difficult part is drilling holes for the power cords to go through to power up the cameras themselves. Connection to the hub or base is wireless which is connected directly to your router or model, whichever you use. The build quality of these is very nice, doesn't feel cheep at all so I don't think I'll have to worry much about the weather damaging these. One thing this model lacks is the capability to speak and hear through the cameras themselves to someone who might be outside in front of them. The app that can be downloaded to use while away from home is well put together and has adequate functions to keep you posted with alert notifications. Over all very nice kit for me. Not to extravagant. Just enough for my needs. Would recommend to other buyers

This Defender Wireless Security Camera System will fit the needs of a lot of people. The install of the hardware was pretty straight forward. The length of the power cords and their plug-in are not exactly generous though. The cameras provide a really good picture, especially at night. The included 1 TB of physical storage is a nice change of pace to all the cloud based systems that charge you monthly fees. This also could be beneficial for those very security conscious people that fear their internet going down or don't like relying on interweb storage. The range that the cameras can be away from the base is quite impressive also. Everything about the hardware components was really impressive to me in performance and quality. The interface and phone app is down right rough, however. After initial setup, which was pretty smooth, I kept stumbling through the app, eventually finding what I was looking for, then having errors keep my from accomplish anything. Amazingly frustrating. I went in to the interface and attempted to change the names of my cameras from their generic names to the areas they covered, like "Front Door". One would change, the other would keep its generic name, no matter what I tried. I attempted to set up activity zones. Went through the trouble of designating the areas I wanted for the zones. As soon as I click save...ERROR. No way around it. ERROR every time. I own my own security company that I run when not at my primary job. Both the company and my primary job allows me to interact with a lot of camera systems. This system is far from the worst I have tried and has a lot of good features. But if it wants to stick at this price point for a two camera system, Defender really needs to get its app on point. The end user needs to feel comfortable operating the system, otherwise the chance of the system being used to its potential is minimal and frustrating for anyone trying to recover footage of a malicious act. Good news: The building blocks of a great system are there Bad News: The app and interface keeps you from putting those blocks to work. But its fixable.

The system arrived with the main control box, power cords, HDMI cable and cat 5 cables, so it was nice not needing to purchase anything to get this set up. The installation was pretty simple and straight forward. Overall, it works well. The two cameras came with mounting hardware to make them easy to mount. I was surprised that both had to be powered with electrical adapters. I own other products that have a very long last battery for them and I would have liked to have seen this for this product. The mobile phone application works well and alerts anytime movement is detected. It also sends notifications to an Apple watch if you have an iOs ecosystem. The mobile application also provides for playback when motion is detected, which is a very nice feature. The system comes with a mouse for data entry to set the system up. It's fairly compact for a 1 TB system. There is some slight latency when viewing live motion on the screen. Overall, the resolution is very good and it works well indoors with fairly dim lighting.

Very easy setup - took me roughly 45 minutes to set up and test everything. Unlike most do it yourself DVR/security systems, this one doesn't require monthly fees as it stores everything locally on the hard drive. The resolution is 2k, which is the modern equivalent of 720p - it's the baseline and you shouldnt buy anything lower than it. Very happy with the unit - a welcome upgrade from the old wired security camera system that I used to run!

There are a lot of cameras on the market and I believe several years ago this would have been a great product. It is physically well made and the cameras are heavy and mostly metal. The base unit is the size of a large network router with three large antennas. Most modern network cameras connect using a mobile application and walk you step by step with the installation process. Defender has to be connected by HDMI cable to your TV for the initial setup. Instructions included are very basic and give little information other than the physical connections. Input to the base is via a small wired mouse. Setup input can be tedious with a touch and click on screen keyboard. After initial setup on screen you get to a on screen barcode to activate the mobile application. The mobile application can be confusing and takes a while to learn the settings. Connecting the cameras is through the on screen menu and not the mobile application. Instructions a vague, but can be figured out once clicking on the camera icon. Once you test the connection, the cameras are ready to be mounted. The positive is that the power cable is very long and gives flexiability in mounting near an outlet. The negative is that the optional Ethernet connection in not needed when connecting wireless, as most everyone would use. The Ethernet connection is a short cable coming off the power cable. It cannot be removed and and an open connection that will be exposed to the weather. I put a cap on the end of mine to keep water out. Also, the mounting base cannot be removed and makes mounting the cameras a challenge. The three screw holes can be difficult to get to if mounted at certain angles. Once mounted there is an adjustment screw that allows vertical adjustments, but limited horizontal. You need to make sure you have the camera positioned somewhat before mounting. There is a tiny antenna that you need to save a space to screw on. No instructions are included, but there is a red cap that is removed to attach the antenna. Once setup, the cameras look professional and provide security just from their quality look. Picture quality on the 2K cameras is great on your TV and the mobile application. There is little camera lag compared to other wireless cameras. They do not have a microphone to pick up sound which is found in most new cameras. Night vision is great under low light. When only viewing both cameras at once on a monitor, you cannot hide the viewing boxes for the two optional cameras. This is irritating, but you can make each individual camera full view. In summary, this is a good quality camera system, but there are many other wireless camera options that are much easier to setup. If you don’t mind DYI, this can be a good system once installed.

The picture quality is decent. You can make objects, people, or animals out at night. The power cord for the cameras themselves is fairly short, less than fifteen feet. The set up does not take too long, but I’ve had to change the time on them multiple times. The app is simple to use and the user interface is fairly simple as well. This isn’t a very high tech system, this a very basic system. The overall reason for the three star rating is the fact it’s not 100% wireless, the power cord was very short compared to my other system that came with 40’ cords, and the app is very basic.

Easy setup, intuitive operation, excellent video quality, but noisy fan. My Defender HD 4-camera Wireless system runs totally quiet, no fan noise at all. Disappointed the Defender 2K was so noisy. Returned it for a refund the day I tried it out and heard the fan noise.

The Defender Camera setup only took me about 30 minutes to get up and going and so far it is great! I love the app, and plan on upgrading to 4 cameras very soon.