Inside, there are fewer problems getting to a power socket, so mains-powered cameras make a lot of sense and you don’t have to worry about changing batteries.
That said, if you want to put cameras in some areas that are usually poorly covered by power sockets, such as hallways, then a battery powered model makes sense. Just be careful where you place a model like this, as pets walking around can drain the battery.
There’s little point in buying anything other than a 1080p model at the moment, as you’ll get sharp-enough footage to capture everything you need. Go for 2K or 4K footage if you want even more detailed footage.
You should turn indoor cameras off when you’re at home and off when you’re out or its night time, as this means that you won’t record yourself by accident when you’re walking around.
The best cameras have tools to make this easier, such as Ring cameras, which let you activate or deactivate cameras based on the Ring Alarm setting.
The advantage of cloud storage is that any footage is safe from theft; you can always download it and hand it over to the police. However, there’s a monthly cost associated with this. If you only want the odd bit of footage and don’t want to be tied to monthly plans, look for a camera that has local storage instead.
Cameras that you can remote control to pan and tilt around used to be very popular, giving you a way to look around to see what’s going on.
They’ve fallen out of favour for two reasons.
First, they’re expensive.
Secondly, if you move the camera’s field of view, you may not be covering the most important parts of your property.
And, motion zones don’t work with these cameras, as you can’t mark an area to watch if you may move the camera. Instead, we recommend buying a fixed camera and focussing in on the area that you want to monitor. If you need more coverage add an additional camera.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support is handy if you want to stream footage to your TV or screen-enabled smart speaker.
IFTTT can be useful, too, letting you control other devices when motion is detected, such as turning on a light automatically.
Nest cameras have Works With Nest automatic rules, so they can be turned on automatically when a smoke alarm goes off, for instance, or they can turn on your Hue lights automatically if suspicious activity is detected.
