Background
We’ve fiddled on and off with some IP cameras over the years with varying levels of luck. The previous attempt was using a bunch of Foscam Pan & Tilt cameras. Viewing, pan/tilt, etc worked well but controlling them remotely left a lot to be desired. This was mainly due to not spending enough time with ZoneMinder to make it work properly. Regardless, I wanted to try something else.
Enter the Dropcam
My wife recently saw a post of someone catching a burglar via a motion detecting camera and it opened this realm of discussion again. We did a little research and it looked to be a Dropcam, so we decided to try one. Ordered on a Sunday, shipped on Monday, got it Wednesday, finally had time to set it up on a Friday.
The setup was about as simple as it could be:
- Open the box
- Plug the Dropcam into your computer using the provided USB<–>micro-USB cable
- Run the setup program
- Create a new Dropcam account
- Tell the camera which WiFi network to join and provide a password
- Unplug the camera from your computer and place it where you want it
- Wait for it to connect and view your camera
The web-based viewer didn’t work for me in Safari because I don’t have the Flash plugin installed. Using Chrome worked without a hitch and allowed me to view the camera, any clips, and modify my alerting / motion detection settings. I walked in front of the camera and got an e-mail alert within about 20-30 seconds with a link to the video in question. The quality was acceptable to pretty good depending on the lighting and definitely met my requirements.
Next up comes the iPhone app. Downloaded from the AppStore, logged in, and our camera appeared. Live camera views worked perfectly and had about a 7-10 second delay. Portrait / Landscape view works as expected. I then left my phone in the office and walked in front of the camera again, then returned to the office to check for a push notification on the phone. Nothing. I realized I had the app open already so no push, but the event was available. Closed the app completely, tried again, and within 20 seconds we had our push notification.
Motion Detection
One of the features I’ve been worried about is the motion detection algorithm. Our previous attempts have resulted in too many alerts / recordings to validate what actually happened. These were often due to a cat running by, and sometimes even minor changes in lighting as the day went on. Using something like ZoneMinder, we had hundreds or even thousands of short clips to try to decipher. No such problem (at least not yet) using the Dropcam. My wife and I could walk through and the detection picks up everytime in daylight, and most of the time using the night vision mode. When a cat runs through, the algorithm seems to ignore the small level of change. We’ve yet to try it with the dogs but it could be 50/50 depending on the amount of movement. Overall, I’m pleased with this part of the setup.
Other Features
The Dropcam appears to include a two week trial of the DVR service. If there’s anything about the service I’m a little iffy on, it’s the whole cloud-based nature of the product. I’m typically not a fan of something that relies entirely on a cloud configuration to run, especially not something like camera data. That said, there are distinct advantages to the cloud component (automatic recordings, auto storage management, easy access from anywhere) so I’m trying to give it a fair shot. So far I like the feature set and things work as expected (though I would like to delete some clips from the app.) It does use a bit more bandwidth than I’d like, but that’s more an issue with my slowish upload speeds rather than the Dropcam itself.
The sound / microphone leave a little to be desired but this isn’t a huge issue for me. We were able to get the audio working properly from a phone to the speaker on the camera, but not vice-versa. I’m not sure if there’s a setting for this yet (Audio is enabled) but it should work fine for our purposes (perhaps confusing the cats / etc.)
Another feature I’m interested in is the scheduling component. I haven’t had time yet to configure and test this but I could see wanting to disable both the camera and the alerts at certain times of day. Another very interesting feature is disabling the camera based on the location of our phones (ie, don’t record or alert when I’m home.)
Conclusion
Pros
- Incredibly easy setup (15 min, including creating an account)
- App / Website work as expected and provide a pretty good UI
- DVR service works as advertised
- Scheduling options appear well thought out
- Quality is acceptable to good depending on lighting
Cons
- Price is a little higher than I’d initially like ($150) though this is likely me being a bit cheap. Mixed with the DVR charge, this could get expensive depending on the number of cameras.
- No method to tweak sensitivity (again though, this is a double-edged sword.)
- No option for local storage
- No API / Webhook interface (I’d love to have the camera do a bit more than email / push notify me depending on its use. This could also ease the need for local storage options if an auto-download was available.)
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the Dropcam and am impressed with the package as a whole. My cons list is mostly a nit-pick and I would definitely recommend this solution for any non-techie over a DIY setup. Time will tell whether we buy more of these but I could see a couple more arriving soon.