Blink Outdoor (3rd Gen) - wireless, weather-resistant HD security camera, two-year battery life, motion detection, set up in minutes – 1 camera system

Invested in the Blink Outdoor camera system over the holiday and here are my thoughts after 45 days of usage.PROS:1. Super easy to set up and install. It pretty much installs itself.2. User friendly cell phone application. My only complaint is the inability to share access to the app with other household members. I'm not the only one who needs to access footage or receive alerts. You should have an admin user + other standard household users.3. Image quality is decent as long as there is sufficient lighting.4. Two way radio. Speaker is not great but microphone picks up even faint sounds. I could clearly hear someone talking on his phone while sitting in a car in front of my house.5. From the app,. you can turn on/off the blue/red LEDs on the cameras to make them more or less noticeable depending on your needs.6. App will show you battery life. Each camera can have it's onw settings including sensitivity, clip length, privacy zones, etc.CONS1. Night vision is not impressive at all, especially when the subject is 10+ fit away. I work around the issue by keeping my outdoor lighting on. Image #1 is at night with outdoor lighting.2. Motion sensor feature is finicky. It detects motion BEFORE the subject enters the field of view. Motion sensor works best when subject travels across field of vision (left to right, right to left), especially if subject originates from outside of the camera's field of view. To get the best results, camera should be positioned in such a way that potential subjects travel L or R or R to L (not walking toward/away from camera)3. Activity zones do not work as they should. I don't want my camera triggered by movement in my neighbors' yard but even when graying out that area, camera still picks up movement there.Overall, I am satisfied with this system. I now have 4 cameras installed on my townhouse and I feel like the system met all my needs.

The Blink was purposed for a specific task and is a stand alone in my outdoor camera array. Reviews of the product are all over the place so I wasn't sure what to expect either from a performance or reliability standpoint. I'll start by saying the video quality while HD is closer to 720p though it's not a huge issue if the goal is general surveillance. Resolution is good to very good in the monitored area, a narrow dimly lit space about 30' in length. The Blink app is straightforward and the interface uncluttered with quick access to the settings menu, video archive, and live stream feature. Camera settings menu is intuitive utilizing buttons and sliders making basic adjustments to Motion Detection, notifications option, Night Vision, and audio (speaker volume) pretty easy. You don't get the AI features standard with higher end cameras such as Arlo Pro but if the basics is adequate then Blink will meet your needs very well. The unit is powered by two supplied AA Lithium batteries and while product description claims of up to 2 year between changes I believe that to be highly unlikely but only time will tell. My camera has been in place and operating for about 3 months and during that time has functioned normally without interruption or degradation in image quality doing so in very cold Midwest winter temperatures that range from the upper thirties down to single digits at night. WiFi communication between the sync unit, camera, and my Mesh router has been top notch, a consistent strong connection and up to this point anyway not one dropped signal. Be advised that Amazon charges fees for cloud storage related to this camera model. After 30 days if you want immediate access to clips and live views you will be charged $3 monthly for a single camera or $10 for an unlimited number of devices. The $0 cost option is a USB thumb device plugged into the sync module where video and photo capture images are stored for retrieval off line. Overall at around $100, a multi camera bundle will save you money, the Blink is a good value packed with features and simply does what it should do.