Netvue 1080p Vigil security camera hands-on: Superb image, motion detection with cloud storage option

The Netview 1080p Vigil security camera looks impressive straight out of the box. The first thing I noticed is the weight of the camera. It is well-built, probably from aluminium and, at just over a pound in weight, seems really solid.

Inside the box, there is a power adaptor for the camera with a 1m lead. The camera needs to have a mains supply power source for the adaptor. It is not battery-powered. There are also a variety of handy tools included in the box.

There is a hex key for adjusting the fixture of the camera and aligning it in the position you want. There are mounting screws and wall plugs to anchor the screws to the wall,

There is also a drill bit in case you do not have the correct sized bit to fix the camera mounting to the wall. The camera also comes with a weather-proof tube and an antenna.

The waterproof IP66 FHD 1080px camera is easy to fix and comes with a paper template showing where to drill the holes to make sure the camera is fitted the right way up. After drilling the holes for the camera, you also need to work out how to connect the camera to the internet.

There are three leads: One is a power port, another an Ethernet port, and there is a Wi-Fi configuration button on a lead. You will need to drill through the wall if you want these leads to terminate inside of the building.

I took the power port through the wall and left the other two leads hanging down outside of the building. There is no way to get a streamlined install outside with no trailing leads, unfortunately.

Underneath the camera, there is a microSD card slot, which will take up to 128GB cards. The card is not included with the camera so you must supply your own.

As soon as the storage card is inserted and the camera has power supplied, it will begin to record and store videos on the card. You can also use the AWS cloud to store your videos for up to 30 days.

You can ask Alexa to show you images from the Netvue camera if you prefer the voice-to-mobile phone app.

The app was simple to install using the QR code from the user guide. You can add additional cameras to the app by the QR code underneath each camera.

The camera bleeps to confirm a successful connection. These cameras, like many of the robot vacuums I have reviewed connect using only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.

The camera has a 100-degree field of view and a digital zoom of 8x. You can zoom in to get detailed clarity on an image.

Its three 850nm infrared sensors give good night vision and will let you see up to 65 feet (30 meters) in the dark. Using the Netvue app, you can change the night vision setting from always day, always night, or auto.

The Netvue Vigil also has a microphone, so it can be used as a remote doorbell. The sound quality from this is excellent and impressive.

Each camera shows a thumbnail view of the areas covered. Click and tap the area required. If there are any motion-detected events, the 24-second video is written to the SD card and accessed via the phone app. The video can be downloaded to your mobile phone.

Other settings are specific to each camera. You can set motion alerts and sensitivity, set the schedule required for monitoring, or can set 24-hour continuous recording.

You can blank out parts of the image where motion detection is not required — if, for example, you live near a busy road, you can turn parts of the image off.

I noticed that, for the first few nights, spiders spinning webs gave me alerts on the camera, as did motion from plants. I tweaked the sensitivity several times before I got it to a suitable level.

There is also an option to purchase AI recording and person detection for an extra charge or use the cloud service option, which will store videos on AWS cloud for up to 30 days for $19.90 per year. Netvue offers 14 days of free cloud service.

All in all, for under $50, the Netvue 1080p Vigil camera is is a really good waterproof outdoor camera with a nice app and a cloud storage option for videos. For peace of mind, it is certainly worth the outlay.

Article source: https://www.zdnet.com/product/netvue-vigil-1080p-security-camera/#ftag=RSSbaffb68