Installed two Nest Cam IQ cams yesterday
I’ll get pictures of the install tomorrow but thought I’d point out that I’m sort of loving all products Nest. I may have drank the Google Kool Aid however.
Purely to get this out of the way – I bought these, and although I talk about Google and Nest a lot, Pocketables is small potatoes and we’re not on getting that level of product. If you buy one from my link there’s a chance that some day the commission from Best Buy and other affiliates will reach $100 and I’ll get a check. If you happen to be Google and want to bribe me, go ahead.
I’ve tested security cameras in the past, I’ve purchased many for work. These were the second set I purchased for myself (I have an old Foscam and am borrowing an Amcrest from work).
Having been the victims of a fair amount of property theft, and the owners of two small children, I wanted something that could be operated with my existing ecosystem by the kids and was not susceptible to getting taken out by a random Windows update on my computer, or perhaps by someone stealing my computer.
It should be noted that the Nest products are a subscription. I’m paying for them because every time something happens in our neighborhood I spend half and hour to an hour looking through video triggered by squirrels, car headlights, etc.
Just attempting to prove my kid came home with a coat has been an ordeal some times. Any time something happens in the neighborhood I’m also searching through hours of footage to see if I see anyone walking off with a lawnmower. Lerdy…
But I recently got the Nest Doorbell that sold me. That fast forward and rewind through time is just about everything I’ve wasted several hours on.
Here’s the list of things I don’t like so far – these are outdoor WiFi cameras, it would be nice if they had an outdoor power plug option. Like my backyard, their 20-25″ USB C cable is not long enough.
Secondly, it’s not made abundantly clear that the video you’re saving is set to the lowest quality on install. Lowest quality on the Nest IQ Cams claims it will use about 100GB a month, highest quality maybe 400GB. Lot of gigs, make sure you’re unlimited.
The next is there’s no quality indicators I can find. I know that signal strength is not indicative of speed, but sure would be nice to know that if I move the camera four inches higher that I’m no longer being blocked by a metal bar.
Physical install was a breeze
Once you’ve got where you want them, you screw in the metal backplate, run the cable, plug it in and you’re done. For my brick house I ran the cable out a window and screwed the back plate into the window frame (wood covered by vinyl).
Guess who forgot to take pictures of the installed cams? Sorry, it was 34 degrees and I was attempting to get everything installed before the 3yo and mom got home.
After that, click the camera in, bam. I defined a few zones of interest and now get some useful alerts. Movement detected, person detected, and where.
I can ask my Lenovo Smart Display to look at the front yard. I can talk to people at my doorbell on my Google Hub or phone. I can sit and watch the neighbor’s cat hanging out in my front yard while I’m working.
Should you be interested in doing so, you can also embed the cameras into a web page. Sharing the backyard camera at the moment as it’s most likely not going to reveal anything interesting about me other than that I have two tire swings that are on their way out.
Meh, I’ll have more of a write up on these soon. Just if you’re considering getting one, they’re damn useful.
Currently the yearly fee nest cam setups are
5-Day recording
Doorbell – $50
Nest Cam IQ #1 – $30
Nest Cam IQ #2 – $30
10-Day recording
Doorbell – $100
Nest Cam IQ #1 – $50
Nest Cam IQ #2 – $50
30-Day recording
Doorbell – $300
Nest Cam IQ #1 – $250
Nest Cam IQ #2 – $250
Or you can simply skip it and have snapshots and generic monitoring. As I’m pretty much home at least once a week I’m not really the type who needs the multiple week monitoring.
Nest Cam IQ two pack at best Buy
Nest Cam IQ one pack
