Google Nest Cam with floodlight provides real peace of mind
Google Nest Cam with Floodlight. Pic: Google.
Peace of mind is worth everything and so many people are spending more time at home. This is one of the reasons homeowners are turning to security cameras as a way of keeping their property more secure. I’ve been testing the Google Nest Cam with Floodlight for this long-term review.
Nest have indoor, outdoor and doorbell cameras with a distinctive design that features matte white surfaces and minimalistic round shapes. I love the clean look design language which is understated and looks great in any location. The Nest Cam with Floodlight features a Nest Cam as well as two floodlights.
The camera is mounted to the floodlights via a strong magnet that allows for a large degree of flexibility and viewing angles. The floodlights are permanently fixed to the mount but have a fair amount of adjustability. In my installation, I was able to point one floodlight in one direction and then the other one in a slightly different direction to maximise the amount of area the lights flooded.
The Nest Cam can only be connected via wifi so there’s no way to connect an ethernet cable. The two floodlights are dimmable LED lights with a maximum brightness of 2,400-lumens and a 4,000K white colour temperature.
The Nest Cam has a built-in battery but is connected to the floodlighting mount with a short cable that connects to it with a magnetic port to power it. This connection is further secured with a small screw that keeps it in place but since the floodlights require 240v mains power to function the Nest Cam will only use battery power if there’s a power cut.
The Nest Cam can capture video at 1080p and 30fps with advanced HDR that enhances the image quality to provide better details in both highlight and shadows.
The lens has a 130-degree FOV with a 6X digital zoom and a 16:9 aspect ratio. There are six 850 nm infrared LEDs to allow the camera to see in the dark for up to 20 feet but this is extended further when the floodlights are on. The camera will capture video in colour at night with the floodlights but if you use the Nest Cam on its own, it will use the built-in infrared to record video in black and white.
The floodlight PIR sensor has four sensitivity settings — choosing a brighter setting will make the floodlight turn on earlier in the day. You can enable motion detection in the Google Home app and create activity zones. When the camera detects activity, it can capture video and send push notifications and store these video clips for the last three hours for free with no need for a subscription. The software is intelligent enough to recognise people, animals, and cars as well as faces. However, the latter is only available when you pay for a Nest Aware subscription.
The camera works with Google Assistant voice commands and other Google Nest Hub-connected devices, but it doesn't support Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or IFTTT. While it is nice to be able to call up a video stream from the camera to my Nest Hubs screen, I don’t see it as an essential feature. Most of the time all you want is to be able to call up the camera feed on your phone.
Installing the Nest Cam with Floodlight is fairly straightforward, especially if you’re replacing an existing floodlight but I’d suggest most people should get a professional electrician to do the installation. There’s just a live and a negative wire coming from the back of the mount that has to be connected to the mains but you also have to ensure everything is watertight but the camera and floodlights are IP54 weatherproof.
Setting up the software is the easiest part but you do need a Google account. The camera has a QR label on the front that you’ll need to scan in the setup process. This will connect your phone to the camera via Bluetooth initially, and then over your home wifi network for a permanent connection.
While some cameras allow you to store videos locally, the Nest Cam does not. While it’s great that you get the last three hours of video history for free a lot of users will need more than that. If you want 30 days of event video history, it will cost you €5 per month or €50 a year. €10 a month or €100 a year will get you 60 days of event video history plus 10 days of 24/7 video history and both plans will cover all the Nest cameras in your home.
You also get the face recognition feature along with things like alerts for breaking glass or from the sound of things like a smoke alarm going off.
The Nest Cam With Floodlight is capable of capturing excellent video during the day or at night. Thanks to the power of the floodlights, the videos recorded at night can capture lots of detail. I also found it was accurately able to detect the difference between pets and people and you and configure it to ignore animals and only record video and send you an alert when it detects people.
While the Nest Cam with Floodlight is expensive, it’s a solid performer in both floodlighting, image quality and features. While you don’t need to pay a subscription fee, I think €5 a month for Nest Aware is well worth it for the extra features especially if you own several Nest cameras.
€299 with free delivery at Google Store
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