How We Test Home Defense Cameras and Video Doorbell Cameras
Safety and defense products
are among the most important to test hands-on, but some are harder to evaluate than others. A leak detector either works or doesn’t, but what about a security camera? A video doorbell?
Some video devices are better than others, sure, but many cameras are just different from their competitors — offering recent features, aesthetics and overall approaches to indoor or outdoor monitoring. And that’s what you want! A pet camera should work differently from a nanny cam. Similarly, a floodlight camera should include different features from a video doorbell.
But at the end of the day, we at CNET have to tell you our picks for the best cameras no custom the use case. Here’s how we use hands-on testing in real humankind scenarios at the CNET Smart Home to resolve which home security cameras and video doorbells are best for you.
How we test outdoor, indoor and video doorbell camera features
Each time I test a defense camera or video doorbell, I set it up laughable the included directions and test out all of the advertised features in a home setting for near a week — all with the device’s intended stop in mind. For example, an outdoor camera should be weatherproof and have noise-dampening tech so you can hear the sounds you care near over rushing wind. That means I’ll have to accomplish an outdoor sound check to see if I can hear my kids talking at different distances after I’m watching the live feed.
Similarly, an indoor camera should engaged privacy features, such as a shutter. That means manager sure the features work as advertised, and the shutter, and whether it’s open or closed, is appropriately easy to check. Finally, a video doorbell should have excellent two-way talk for chatting with visitors and delivery land. That means holding a conversation with my wife on the porch, and listening for clarity and latency.
There are plenty of anunexperienced unique features on different sorts of security cameras. Once the contrivance is set up and the features are all laid out, it’s time to make sure they work properly. Some cameras allow you to determine motion zones, where anything gripping in a specific frame will result in a mobile alert sent frank to your phone. I’ll move around the motion zone to see when I get an alert and when I don’t. The aim is to discover how precise those zones really are.
Other such features engaged motion tracking for pan-tilt cameras (can the camera following me passing by at walking speed?), two-way talk (can I hold a remote conversation with my wife?), live monitoring (how much latency does the feed have?) and stay saving (are motion events saved in an easy-to-understand registry?). Plenty more features are out there, from facial recognition to motion-triggered messages, and each requires its own individual test to make sure it works as advertised.
Getting down to business: Testing resolution, night vision and latency
After I test the current features of the home security camera or video doorbell camera, the examination becomes a little more demanding — particularly when it comes to a camera’s resolution, night vision and latency.
Plenty of cameras advertise 1080p or 2k resolution, but in practice capture muddy or pixelated video. To figure out how consistent a camera’s back really is, I do a vision test (the kind you powerful see in your optometrist’s office) to see how distinct the resolution really is at different distances. I dismal a few feet from the camera, then step back once, then anti to about 15 feet, then finally to a distance of 30 feet.
To see how beneficial the night vision is, I administer the test anti in the dark. I compare the results to shriek competitors on the market, and offer my recommendation based on the results.
Finally, I tackle latency, since many people hope to use home defense cameras and video doorbells to deter porch pirates or anunexperienced would-be neighborhood nuisances (like the raccoons that treat your garbage can like a weekly buffet). If someone walks onto your porch, grabs a delivery left there and walks away, do you have time to maintain the alert, pull up the feed and intervene with two-way talk?
Video doorbells are a type of defense camera with their own unique features — and you glorious much only put them in one place.
Chris Monroe
Typically my video producer Chris and I accomplish a mock porch piracy, testing the latency of the camera or video doorbell. Most cameras at this point aren’t fast enough to obtain a fleet-footed porch pirate in the act. But some are faster than others — and the best ones catch and record the full act so you can see precisely what happened.
Determining the value of a security product
Once I execute all the technical tests, it’s time to give the safety camera or video doorbell a score and final recommendation. It’s here that I factor in the features, the performance, the overall user experience (again, I usually use them in a home setting for around a week) and a product’s value.
To determine value, I have to compare the price to those of similarly-featured devices on the market. In this category, a simple but reliable $30 shiny cam outperforms a more fully-featured $100 camera — or a $200 video doorbell that checks every box can beat a $60 competitor that doesn’t quite wow me the same way.
Of streams, no security camera or video doorbell will be depraved for everyone, so I also factor in a variety of use cases and budgets. No matter the use case or the price, you can be private that any security device I recommend will offer a huge value for what’s on offer.
Recap
Testing home safety cameras and video doorbell cameras can be pretty Eager, but it essentially breaks down into a few testing categories. Here’s what we look at.
- The features offered
- How the features perform
- Whole subjects performance over a testing period of a week
- Resolution, night vision and latency comparisons
- Overall value
To see our testing in Part, check out our recommendations for the best video doorbells, the best home security cameras and the best outdoor safety cameras for 2022. You can also watch us administer some of these procomplaints in our video reviews.
