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The Blink Home Security Camera System ($159 as tested) is an affordable connected surveillance solution featuring battery-powered wireless security cameras you can place anywhere in your home. These diminutive 720p cameras offer motion detection, push alerts, and relatively good image quality, save for some pincushion distortion around the edges of images. You’ll pay a lot less for a Blink camera than you will for a wired camera like the Icontrol Networks Piper nv ($335.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) or the Zmodo Pivot ($179.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , but both the Piper nv and Pivot offer home automation capabilities and a better all-around 1080p picture.
Design and Features
Each Blink kit ($180.49 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) consists of one or more cameras, a Sync Module that can support up to 10 cameras, and a mounting kit for hanging each camera on a wall. A single-camera kit goes for $99, the two-camera kit (reviewed here) is $159, a three-camera kit is $219, and the five-camera kit is $339. Individual cameras go for $70 a pop, and individual Sync Modules are $50 each. The company says that an add-on siren accessory will be available later this year.
Measuring 2.7 by 2.7 by 1.0 inches (HWD) and weighing a little more than 3 ounces, the Blink camera is small and light enough to place just about anywhere (as long as it’s indoors; the cameras aren’t waterproof), and because it’s powered by two AA batteries, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near an electrical outlet. The white enclosure with clear trim houses a 720p camera with a 110-degree field of view, a 3x digital zoom, an IR LED for night vision up to 20 feet, motion and temperature sensors, a microphone, and a wireless power radio that communicates with the Sync module. On the front of the camera, you’ll find a lens enclosure, an LED indicator that glows blue when the camera is live, and a tiny microphone hole. The back panel is easily removed to gain access to the battery compartment and has a micro USB port that can be used to power the camera using an optional USB cable. It also has a small circular plug that can be removed for use with the wall mounting bracket.
At 2.3 by 2.3 by 0.7 inches, the white Sync module is slightly smaller than the camera. It has Wi-Fi and power indicators on the top, a micro USB power port and an Ethernet port on one side, and a full size USB port on the other side. Inside is a Wi-Fi radio that connects to your home network and a low power radio for communicating with the cameras. The USB port is reserved for a future update that will let you record event-triggered video directly to a USB storage device, and the LAN port is used for troubleshooting connectivity issues.
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Blink Home Security Camera System
The Blink camera will record a clip of up to 10 seconds when the system is armed and motion is detected, but there is no way to record video on demand. Up to 7,200 seconds (or 720 10-second clips) of event-triggered video can be stored in the cloud for free before the oldest clips are overwritten. You can download clips to your mobile device or delete them, and you can share them with friends via social media, email, text message, or Apple’s AirDrop in iOS. Although each camera contains a microphone, two-way audio is not supported like it is with the Yi Home Camera 2 ($102.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and the Nest Cam ($154.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . As of this writing the Blink cameras do not support IFTTT recipes, nor do they integrate with other connected home gear like smart lighting and door locks, but the company plans to add support for IFTTT in the future.
The cameras are accessed and managed using a free mobile app for Android or iOS (I tested with the latter). The app opens to a home screen that shows your installed cameras by name with a still photo image taken during setup. At the bottom of the screen is a button for arming and disarming motion alerts. Each camera has a Live View button and a Snapshot button that updates the current still image. When you press Live View, you see a live stream that lasts for around 15 seconds before the app asks you if you want to continue. If you tap Continue you get another 15 seconds before being prompted again.
A gear icon takes you to the Camera Settings screen, where you can enable motion detection, select a sensitivity level, check Camera-to-Wi-Fi signal strength, and view the current room temperature. Here you can also view the camera’s battery level and adjust the IR light level for more detailed night vision. At the top of the home screen is an icon that takes you to an Account Management screen where you can change passwords and manage the system. This is where you go to reconfigure the Sync module, if necessary, and create a schedule for arming and disarming motion detection. Tapping the Folder icon in the upper right corner takes you to a screen that displays all motion events with video thumbnails. Tap any thumbnail to view the clip, share it, or delete it.
Blink Home Security Camera System
Installation and Performance
Installing the Blink cameras couldn’t be easier. After downloading the app and creating an account I was prompted to setup the Sync Module. This is simply a matter of plugging the module into a wall outlet and waiting about 30 seconds for the LED light to start blinking blue. Once that happens, go to your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, select the Blink SSID, return to the app, and choose your home Wi-Fi network to use with the Sync Module. Hit the Connect To Wi-Fi button, name your Blink system, and tap the camera icon to add cameras. Next, remove the back cover of each camera and install the AA batteries (the camera will blink red). Enter the serial number, from inside the camera, when prompted and wait around 10 seconds for the camera to be discovered. At this point you can check the camera’s signal strength, see a live view, or press Continue to name the camera, and take a picture to use as an identifier on the main screen. If you have additional cameras, you can add them at this point, or do it later.
In my testing, the Blink cameras delivered a relatively sharp 720p picture with good color representation, but images suffered from pincushion distortion (rounded edges). Night vision footage was crisp and well-lit, and motion detection worked fairly well, with my cats frequently triggering recordings. Recorded clips, while brief, appeared just as sharp and colorful as live the video feed. The system was armed and disarmed according to the schedule I set in the app, and the system never failed to send a push alert when motion was detected.
Conclusions
If you’re looking for surveillance cameras you can place anywhere around the house without having to deal with power cords, the Blink Wireless Home Security Camera System is worth a look. These little 720p cameras deliver relatively good image detail and color quality. They do a good job of detecting motion and sending alerts, and you don’t have to pay for cloud storage for recorded video. There’s no local storage but a future firmware update promised by the company will let you record video directly to a USB thumb drive. That said, the Blink system lacks many of the features found on other connected cameras including two-way audio communication, on-demand recording, and integration with other home automation devices.
3.5
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The Blink Home Security Camera System is a reasonably priced modular surveillance system that lets you keep an eye on your home from your smartphone. It’s completely wireless and offers free storage for recorded video and motion alerts, but it’s short on features and suffers from pincushion distortion.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/blink-home-security-camera-system
