Ring Security Cameras REVIEW – Burglar-proof

With borders opening, Covid requirements relaxing and Matariki, there’s never been a better time to head overseas. If you fancy heading somewhere with sunshine, a sea breeze that drifts through the palm trees, luxurious swimming pools and little umbrellas in your cocktails, consider this first.

Taking a break can be an open invitation to burglars, so what’s the best option for keeping things secure at home while you’re away?

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The easy answer is wireless security cameras. When choosing which cameras to test, I had a bunch of considerations to factor in. The beating heart of my smart home is Alexa. Any cameras I’d be dropping cash on must be Alexa-friendly. Secondly, as I was plunking the cameras in a host of locations around my home, they had to come with multiple mounting options. Flexible power options were a must too, so I wasn’t constantly recharging and replacing batteries (which gets boring very fast). Last (but not least), I needed Cloud-based video storage. Oh, and most important of all, they had to be affordable.

After trawling the web, it became apparent that the cameras that ticked most of these boxes came from Ring, an Amazon subsidiary.

Ring cameras and doorbells integrate with Alexa smart speakers and screens, extending their utility in any Amazon Echo-equipped smart home. This translates into me saying, “Alexa, show me [camera name]” to pull up a live video feed from whichever camera I asked to see. Even better, you can chat with the person outside using your Echo and the camera’s built-in mic and speaker. If the person is an intruder, you can fire up a loud siren, which should hopefully see them scarpering. Knowing if someone is creeping about outside the entrance of your home is easy, thanks to the Ring Chime, which will alert me if the cameras detect motion.

At the front of my home, I needed to mount a camera on a small eave. There was little space and no mains power, so the first camera I chose was the Ring Stickup camera. Alexa compatibility aside, its mounting and power systems are both very flexible. The camera can be set vertically or horizontally and is a doddle to install. The installation saw me using the bundled screwdriver (!!) and a power drill and screw bit. The total mounting time was mere minutes. By default, stickup cameras run off a rechargeable battery. They can also use an optional solar panel to reduce the time spent farting about with their batteries.

Their video performance is nothing to complain about. With video captured at 1080p across a 130° field of view, the odds of getting a clear recording of burglars are good. IR illumination gives a night vision range of around seven metres. They’ll capture colour video if the area the camera covers is illuminated. This is ample for me to identify and catch any perps should they decide to rob my home.

Getting set up first involved charging the bundled batteries. After installing the Ring app, I scanned a QR code, adding the camera to my home’s Wi-Fi network. Because there is no additional hub, getting set up is straightforward. The super slick ring app is the big selling point with the Ring Stickup cameras. It gives you a tonne of extra control over the cameras, allowing you to exclude parts of its field of view from generating motion detection alerts, managing notifications and so on. Add to this their near-seamless integration with the Amazon Echo, and there are lots to like.

Around the back of my home, I installed the Ring Floodlight Pro, which provides both video surveillance and illumination. As its name suggests, its camera is like the Stickups. It has two ultra-bright floodlights that’ll light up a large area if the camera detects motion. Unlike the stickup, the Floodlight pro uses mains power. While this means there’s no fiddling about with batteries, it is recommended that you use a qualified electrician to get it wired in.

The Floodlight Pro sports a 1080p HDR camera sensor with a 140-degree field of view. Like the Stickup cam, it has a speaker and microphone and can act as an intercom. You can also blast unwanted visitors with its 110dB siren. After the sun goes down, you have six infrared LEDs for mono night vision. With the floodlights on, the camera captures colour night vision.

So, are Ring cameras perfect? For me, they ticked all the right boxes, but minor downsides exist. The cameras can’t record video footage locally, so a subscription (which starts at $4.50 per month) to the Ring Protect video service is a must. Without a subscription, video isn’t recorded or stored. Instead, you just get live video, which is of little use when you are away on holiday when your home is robbed. Also, Ring cameras don’t play nice with Google Nest hub or Apple’s HomeKit.

For my situation, however, the Ring Stick up and Floodlight Pro cameras delivered easy-to-use, solid video. Both entrances to my home are now under constant video surveillance. Thanks to the easy-to-use Ring app, I can get real-time notifications no matter where I am if the cameras detect people at my home. If you’re an Amazon Echo user, a Ring camera is just what the witch doctor ordered.

https://ring.com/au/en/security-cameras