The price tag puts the Spotlight Cam at the top-end of the smart camera market, so it’ll really have to offer something unique to best the likes of the Reolink Argus 2 and Logi Circle 2. The Spotlight Cam comes in black and white, which should help it blend relatively easy into both light and dark environments, and features an integrated mounting base with an adjustable ball joint. The video, in general, is clear and crisp, and the night vision is capable of illuminating a decent-sized area – around 20-30ft (aka the size of our garden) in our experience. The lights are motion-activated by default, although this can be disabled and manually controlled via the Ring app for iOS, Android, Mac and PC. While it was once presented in a clunky list format, a fairly recent update to the app now provides a more intuitive timeline view. While we haven’t had a chance to test it out for ourselves, logic dictates that it’d be a worthy purchase unless you’re planning on installing the Spotlight Cam somewhere that rarely sees movement. It’s compact, easy to install and boasts a range of smart security features including motion-activated LED strips, a 110db siren, two-way talk and night vision. The Ring app is well designed too, and a recent update to the UI makes it easier than ever to view past motion events.
But while the technology is strong, it’s let down by the fact that rain and wet weather can cause moisture on the inside of the camera that can completely obscure the view.
Ring Spotlight Cam Review
Improved software, too, provides greater control over recording and reduces the number of notifications you receive. A slightly fiddly app interface makes finding old recordings a little tricky – but, otherwise, the Ring Spotlight Cam is an excellent camera.
Ring has built up an impressive array of security devices that are designed to protect your home inside and out.
With the Ring Spotlight Cam, the company is adding to its range of dual-purpose cameras with security lights built in.
Improved software and a decent price make this a handy utility camera, particularly for those who already have a Ring subscription. As an outdoor camera, the Ring Spotlight Cam is designed to be mounted on a wall or fence post. There’s space inside the unit itself for a second battery pack, to extend run-time, with the added advantage that you can have one cell charging while the other is operating your camera. If you don’t want to bother with charging at all, you can buy the solar panel pack to keep your camera’s battery topped up.
As with Ring’s other battery-powered cameras, the Spotlight Cam features a large PIR sensor that’s used to detect motion. The main issue with this kind of product is that any motion will trigger the camera to wake and start recording, and you can’t draw activity zones.
Even so, if you face the camera towards a busy street then you’ll find it’s triggered often, thus impacting battery life . To further limit being bombarded with notifications, the Spotlight Cam lets you set up a motion schedule, defining when you do and don’t want to receive alerts.
Trying to find one event, even using the filters to choose the type of recording (motion, triggered by live view, or favourites) is still cumbersome. Amazon Alexa support is available via a skill, which lets you view the camera’s feed on a screen-enabled Echo. In my experience, it’s worth turning on the camera’s HDR feature, even if this does slightly reduce battery life. HDR smooths out the image and makes it easier for the camera to cope with varied lighting as a result of changes in the sun during the day. However, since the Ring Spotlight Cam has two bright LEDs on the side, which light up the surrounding area, the camera is able to capture footage in full colour. The result is that night-time images are almost as good as those captured during the day, presenting in full colour and displaying plenty of detail and sharpness.
If you have other Ring cameras already, then adding this into the mix lets you get cloud storage for one monthly subscription, saving you money. Specs ‹ UK RRP Manufacturer Size (Dimensions) Voice Assistant Battery Length Smart assistants View Field Night vision Light Power source Ring Spotlight Cam £199 Bionaire 69.1 x 75.9 x 126 MM Alexa 4380 hrs Yes 140 degrees Yes Yes Battery ›
Ring Spotlight Cam Wired Review: A Great, Affordable Security Camera
It enhances home security by combining a motion detector and a high-definition, 1080p video camera with powerful LED spotlights (rather than 3K floodlights on its predecessor) plus a 110-decibel siren for scaring-off would-be intruders. On paper, the Ring Spotlight Cam certainly appears to offer greater intruder detection and protection than its Video Doorbell, but it’s also up against stiff competition. At the bottom of the market, a barrage of budget cameras offer bargain-basement prices (and performance to boot), but smart home stalwarts like the Nest Cam Outdoor and Netgear Arlo Pro 2 are more serious contenders. Available in black or white, the Ring Spotlight Cam Wired has a well-built, sturdy construction, which is what you’d expect from a device that’ll be exposed to the elements.
No-one’s going to be swooning over its form, but its upright, rectangular shape and curved corners differentiate it from traditional cameras, giving the Spotlight Cam a clean, modern look. But with no need for large, overhanging lamps, the Spotlight Cam is far more compact overall and competes well with Nest and Arlo on dimensions, considering the additional kit crammed inside.
Pro Tip: Don’t look directly at the front of the camera when you first plug it in – the spotlights fire up really quickly, and you’ll be seeing stars for the rest of the day. Ring’s installation kit includes a mounting bracket (with integrated spirit level) that screws into the supplied wall anchors.
Upon enabling the live feed, we were a little concerned to see some condensation misting up the camera lens, but this cleared within a couple of minutes to unveil a crisp, high-definition (1080p) view of the premises. A 140-degree field of view ensures you can survey all but the largest driveways and gardens – while there’s a definite fish-eye effect in-play, distortion isn’t too distracting. The app also includes manual controls of camera lights and activation of the 110-decibel alarm, which is certainly loud enough to scare intruders and wake up your neighbors in case of an emergency. You can disable areas to the left and right, or directly in front if required, with a slider reducing detection distance and a dropdown menu dictating how long the lights remain illuminated post-activation.
If we were being tough, we’d say that there’s nothing unique here in terms of functionality, but few competitors incorporate such a wide array of security features in a single device. The Ring Spotlight Cam supports live video streaming but has no local storage for on-board recording.
If you want the ability to record, you’ll need to subscribe to one of Ring’s monthly service plans, which include cloud storage and playback.
Ring recently color night vision for all its wired devices, allowing for clearer, better visibility for both live view and recorded motion.
However, we did notice that the Ring app was very slow to respond when attempting to change the Motion Zone, with a delay of almost a minute when accessing the menu. Outside of these core features, we were also pleased to see that the Ring app includes helpful tools like Wi-Fi signal strength monitoring and testing, device health and system status reports, and more.
While it takes a little extra work to install than a battery-powered device, its integrated spotlight provides a significant deterrent to opportunistic burglars, and it’s super simple to get along with, thanks to clear, high-definition video output, night vision, and responsive motion detection. While the $150 Nest Outdoor Cam and $200 Netgear Arlo Pro offer strong competition (and arguably, better value), Ring’s integrated spotlight and siren provide effective, additional deterrents that give this device the edge.
Ring Spotlight Cam review
The Ring Spotlight Cam is a great option if you want to deter intruders but don’t have power nearby to hook up a mains-operated security camera? As soon as motion is detected, it will automatically record footage in full HD video and activate both bright lights and a loud siren should you choose. Simple to use, you will need to subscribe to Ring Protect for $3 / £2.50 / AU$4 per month to view the footage after it’s been recorded, and the camera is bulky and slightly tricky to install.
The Ring Spotlight Cam is a great option if you want to deter intruders but don’t have power nearby to hook up a mains-operated security camera?
As soon as motion is detected, it will automatically record footage in full HD video and activate both bright lights and a loud siren should you choose. Simple to use, you will need to subscribe to Ring Protect for $3 / £2.50 / AU$4 per month to view the footage after it’s been recorded, and the camera is bulky and slightly tricky to install.
Also on board is an extremely loud siren, which when coupled with the lights is ideal for scaring off unwanted intruders. These include ‘customizable motion zones’ so you can, for example, tailor the areas where you want the Spotlight Cam to detect movement and ‘people only’ mode so it doesn’t capture unwanted footage of birds flying across the sky or squirrels climbing the fence.
The Spotlight Cam is a versatile outdoor camera ideal for monitoring your property, and while it is a few years old now, the device’s software has been updated considerably to give you all the options you need to use as part of a comprehensive home security setup.
As we’ve already mentioned, if you want to review video after the camera has recorded it, you’ll need to subscribe to Ring Protect. A chunky, rectangular-shaped outdoor camera, measuring 4.96 x 2.72 x 2.99 inches / 12.6 x 6.91 x 7.59 cm ( h x w x) and available in black or white, it’s fair to say the Ring Spotlight Cam is not a thing of beauty. However, what it lacks in looks it makes up for in terms of versatility, with a large two-way speaker underneath the main lens and two bright spotlights either side and one below.
Ring claims installation time is around five minutes but, in reality, it took us closer to an hour once it was angled properly. During the day, the full HD footage was clear and detailed, although after dark the images weren’t the clearest we’ve seen. However, the two-way audio was very loud and clear (the Spotlight Cam has one of the best speakers we’ve seen on a security camera) and the lights powerful enough to illuminate the entire garden. Perhaps it’s the influence of Amazon, which bought Ring in 2018, but the user interface is extremely intuitive with clear options you can toggle on and off.
As with most home security devices, the easiest way to set up the app is to scan the QR code inside the battery compartment. Other useful options include power setting so you can see how much charge your battery has before it needs recharging and a new geofencing feature.
Ring Spotlight Camera Battery review: Shining a light on your security arrangements this Black Friday
It’s a product that’s not only designed to capture and record suspicious activity, but to ward off would-be burglars by casting a light on them as they approach your property as well. And it’s possible to tweak the motion sensitivity, so it’s not set off all the time by swaying bushes or people walking past your house on the pavement. As with the rivals mentioned above, the Ring Spotlight is designed to run on battery power, which is a boon to DIY smart-homers. There’s no need to connect an extra hub to your router, as with the Arlo or D-Link systems – simply pair it with your wireless network and you’re off and running. I was able to connect the camera to my wireless network and associate it with my existing Ring account in a matter of minutes. I mounted the camera on the outside of my garden office, some 30m and a brick wall away from my nearest mesh Wi-Fi node, and it was still able to maintain a strong enough signal.
This screws to the wall via a circular plate and holds the camera via a stubby arm, angled slightly down, with a ball joint at the end to allow for fine-tuning the position. In the end, I settled on the compromise of positioning it just above door height on my garden office but even here the camera would lose sight of anyone getting too close.
This means, if you have a Spotlight Camera and a Ring doorbell, it’s going to cost you £50 per year, which is a lot for a two-camera system. The benchmark in this sector is the Nest IQ and Hello doorbell cameras, which capture far cleaner, clearer and sharper footage.
Traditional IP cameras allow users to draw boxes around areas to detect motion in, which would be a more effective system here. I was able to recognise the faces of people approaching it, day and night, and both email and app-based alerts were issued in a timely fashion.
It’s easy to install and setup, doesn’t require an extra hub to be attached to your router and is powered by an easy-to-charge lithium-ion battery. If you already have a Ring doorbell, it integrates nicely with the rest of the system, plus, the camera itself is very reasonably priced, especially as it also doubles as a security light and offers twin battery bays.
The caveat is that Ring’s subscription prices will hit you in the pocket harder than rivals, and especially if you want to run more than one camera.
Ring Spotlight Cam review
It’s packed with features to allow you to detect, be alerted to and scare off potential intruders with a built-in siren and two-way voice functionality. A 1080p camera offers a HD view of your driveway or garden and the accompanying app provides alerts with 30 second video clips of the incident. It’s not cheap but given the number of less useable and less reliable cameras on the market, this level of investment in a top-range security device is money well spent. The Ring Spotlight Cam is a HD motion-detecting 140 degree wide angle camera with two-way voice, siren and light. It comes in two different colours, and two versions: wireless, which runs off a rechargeable (supplied) battery, and wired in, which can be plugged into an outdoor mains socket. You will then have the option to view the live feed and, utilising Ring’s signature two-way talk feature, confront intruders remotely (or from the safety of the panic room) or set off a 110db siren.
Depending on your coverage you’re seeing the feed within a few seconds and then if you don’t like what you see, you’ve got two options: speak to them through the camera, or set off a piercing siren. Ultimately the success of these devices depends on how much they are used – a huge number of security systems are installed, prove impossible to control and end up acting as little more than an impotent deterrent. If you’re in the market for a new smart home security system, this isn’t the cheapest but its range of features, high build quality and, above all, instant seamless fit with your busy life make it probably the best one you can buy.
Ring Spotlight Cam review
(Pocket-lint) – Ring is best known for the Video Doorbell – and you don’t have to walk too far down any suburban street to spot one of its devices ready and waiting to greet you at the front door. The main unit sees a central camera with a wide-angle lens flanked by powerful LED illuminators down the sides. It’s a box shape with a ball-socket mount on the rear that clicks into the wall-mount and is held in place with a bracket that’s tightened with a hex screw. With that in mind you might want to mount it fairly high on the wall, so a passing opportunist can’t just take the battery out.
This can also be done retrospectively, so if you setup the Cam and then find it’s out of range, you can add in a Ring Chime Pro and move devices to that network instead. Once all connected, the app gives you various settings you can change, like the motion detection area, which is divided into thirds.
There’s also a desktop app for Mac or PC, so you can get those alerts when you’re working – which is great for those who might be wearing headphones and unable to hear the doorbell. Unlike the Ring Video Doorbell, there’s no physical trigger for the Spotlight Cam, i.e. no one walks up and presses a button.
The motion detection is sensitive and it uses two systems: there’s the PIR sensor for the light trigger on the bottom of the unit; and IR illuminators providing night vision for the camera, so you don’t have to have the lights fire up – it can capture video in night vision if you want. The Ring Spotlight Cam has a great wide-angle lens on the front that will give you 140-degrees horizontal and 78-degrees vertical capture, so it fits a lot into view.
The quality of the video that it captures is great: in daylight it’s clear and crisp with a realistic balance of colours. In IR-illuminated the video has that slightly ghostly appearance to it, but provides a method of capturing motion in the dark.
Protect your home with this wireless and wire-free outdoor rechargeable security camera By Pocket-lint Promotion · 29 November 2021 Verdict The Ring Spotlight Cam Battery is easy to install and setup, delivering decent video capture with illumination. squirrel_widget_143865 Netatmo Presence also offers 1080p video and has an LED illuminator, but this is a wired camera, so needs to be connected to the mains. Read the Netatmo Presence review squirrel_widget_167594 The Arlo Pro 3 offers an LED illuminator and video capture at 2K HDR resolution, as well as the two-way talking functions. The advantage over the Ring device is that you get 30-days of cloud storage free so there’s no subscription costs – unless you want advanced features like AR detection vehicles, people or animals.
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