Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Jimmy wouldn't gyms preview her I bought the Dropcam last year as a baby monitor and today it still works great but I wanted to revisit what's on the market now since several other manufacturers have joined in on the competition with various price points of course now although Belkin does make several different tiers of network cameras I'll be using their cheaper model priced at just $99 as of this video just see what a lower end product just in general may offer I will also review a mid tier model the d-link pan and tilt priced at 169 as of this video and you can find that as well on that website so without further ado i'm here to help you make a purchase decision welcome everyone to jim's review the Belkin net cam is very simple offering the camera itself the power adapter and some wall mounting screws that's practically it it's very light with an adjustable base and adjustable neck offering a full 360 degree rotation and a full 180 degrees in tilt now finding the right location and angle wouldn't be an issue overall the neck can be tightened down and because the camera is so light the camera stays fixed in its arrangement now on the back of the camera you have your power input and the Ethernet port if you decide not to go wireless but speaking about its connection here its strength has been quite impressive leaving this downstairs and on the other side of the house from where my router is it never disconnected or shown any horrible skipped frames now I'm sure everyone's experience will be a little bit different but if you have a good router with good signal strength I think you should be fine so overall the physical build is quite simple and it's very straightforward and I can say it's the same with setting up the device it's actually similar to what I experienced with Dropcam very fluid download the app which works on but with Apple and Android powered devices plug in the camera then set up a Belkin I D or an account and that's practically it it connects automatically once you sign in now this is where I start noticing the budget price tag being reflected not saying it's a bad thing but if you're shopping for a camera here are some things that you should consider now right off the bat their resolution on this one here and many budget models goes up to a maximum of 640 by 480 that's basically standard resolution some people may be fine with it and that basically fits their needs into the attaced for standard resolution it's if you're not comparing to any other competitor out there it looks fine during the day but me being jim's reviewer here here's a quick comparison first is Belkin of course second is the mid grade d-link that shows a 720p resolution and last year is the almighty drop cam that started this all this also comes in only 720p as well now all three models were at the same distance from the router and what I noticed first besides the resolution here is the wideness of the lens it's a bit more narrow showing 64 degrees of horizontal viewing now keep in mind the resolution stated earlier is also a 4 by 3 aspect ratio it's not widescreen now second here with the more expensive models both the d-link and Dropcam you can pinch and pull to zoom in and out now of course this being standard definition zooming in would make the image quality more pixelated but keep that in mind if this is something that you'd need to consider but if you're utilizing this maybe for a warehouse or maybe someplace that High Definition isn't really needed the video you see doesn't look too bad again for a standard definition now also as important is the audio how clear can it pick up sounds now from my testing is not as sensitive as I'd like you can still hear faint noises but it's faint at best it's not as clear or amplified as the other brands that I've tested and each time you start a video feed to hear the video footage now you have to click on this speaker button it's not automated each time you open the app but while we're down here on the screen the left button allows you to snap a quick photo of what's being viewed and it saves it right on to your phone now as for a video I wish Dropcam offered this but Belkin allows you to record your current video with the tap of that metal button no sadly and likely $200 drop cam pro it doesn't come with a built-in SD card slot to record footage right on the camera itself all that would very much come in handy when motion is detected and utilizing that feature now Belkin on the other hand offer cloud recording basically storing photos and video off sites on Belkin and its third-party servers but if you ever read the fine print only video recording is reserved for the HD models for this standard definition model only photos are backed up and similar to many other brands the cloud recording is not free and is considered a premium service now the last several features before showing off the night vision test the net cam offers motion detection as stated earlier as soon as someone or something walks into the field of view of the camera the net cam does alert you via email but not through a push notification like drop cam is not too bad since you're receiving an email alerts but a push notification would have been a bit simpler push notifications is only available if you sign up for the again cloud recording now let's look at the night vision performance now placing this in a pitch-black room just like the drop cam I'm shocked by the performance it allows you to see all the way across the room while some other competitors only work up to a certain distance and I'll omit the image is a bit darker than some others but you can be the judge and determine that this is enough for you or not so overall for the price of $99 it's seriously on the lower end of things and giving credit for being a low-end device it still performs what it claims to do and still offered from my experience excellent connection in smooth video now I do admit the audio is lacking but if that's not your concern and if you're understanding the resolution is not high definition it's not a bad consideration so hope this video helped you in some way if you like my work be sure to add me gyms review room onto Facebook Twitter or Instagram you can see what items I'm working on behind the scenes before I put them on the website again this is Jimmy with Jim's review room you guys take care and I'll see you in the next one bye you