At the risk of rehashing old grievances, night vision was pretty weak in my hands-on Blink Outdoor camera experience. In an outdoor camera, this is a bit of a letdown.

Blink Smart Camera - HelloTech How to Set Up and Install a Blink Smart Camera - HelloTech

Then insert two AA batteries. To make your smart cameras last as long as possible, it is best to use lithium-ion batteries. Another option if you prefer a wireless configuration is the Blink Outdoor floodlight mount. This one uses the Blink Outdoor for the camera part, while the mount itself provides two bright battery-powered floodlights. Smart Home Limitations From here, you can set up motion “Zones” to disable motion detection alerts in certain areas. You can also scroll down to change other settings, such as your camera’s motion sensitivity, how long it takes your camera to send you an alert after it just detected motion, and more. You’ll find better night vision in one of the Ezviz cameras I reviewed recently, but generally, a camera with exceptional night vision needs some integrated lighting feature to do its best work. (Visit my Reolink Argus 3 Pro review for a really stellar night vision experience.)

Our Final Verdict on Blink Cameras

The Blink Outdoor uses the Blink Home Monitor mobile app for Android, Fire OS, and iOS devices. It opens to a home screen with panels for each installed camera. Each panel contains a still image of the camera’s field of view and has a button for taking a snapshot and a button for launching a live stream. You can view the live stream in full-screen mode by turning your phone sideways, and initiate two-way talk by pressing the Talk button. A motion icon appears in the upper right corner when motion detection is enabled, and next to that is a settings button. On that note, Blink does have other options if you prefer brighter and better night vision. One is the newly released Blink Floodlight Cam Wired, which comes with powerful floodlights, hence the name. It offers much of the same features as the Blink Outdoor, but it needs to be wired to an outdoor junction box to work.

Blink Smart Security Blink Smart Security

These extra features offer plenty of different ways to tweak things to your liking. The most basic thing you can and should do is rename the camera itself to something like ‘garden’, which also makes it easier when asking your Echo Show device to bring up a live feed. You can also play around with the activity zones for motion detection, selecting rectangular segments from a grid overlay where motion will be ignored. This is particularly useful for ignoring notification from, for example, a swaying tree, or the area where your cat prefers to nap out and stretch. The only cameras I can recall that had an easier setup were from Wyze Cams. If you’re into simple wireless tech, you’ll appreciate Blink and Wyze. Not only do they resemble each other somewhat in appearance, the cameras also cost less than much of the competition. You can find much more on Wyze in my hands-on Wyze Cam review. To view the videos recorded by your Blink cameras, open the Blink Home Monitor app and tap the Clip Roll icon at the bottom of your screen. Then select a clip that you want to watch.The Blink Outdoor provides Full HD colour video which serves up a crisp, clear picture, with more than enough detail to clearly identify individuals. Things automatically switch to infrared vision in low light, which obviously provides a monochrome picture that’s less clear than that found in daylight. Then wait for your camera to update and tap Next. You will see this appear in the top-right corner of your screen when your camera is finished updating. Then verify your phone number. First, enter your phone number and then enter the verification code in the text message you receive. You can also receive a code over the phone if you tap the Voice Call option. That said, if a wide-angle lens camera sounds appealing to you, take a peek at my Amcrest camera review, where you’ll learn about a pair of solid devices with wider viewing angles, and better night vision, too. Managing Recordings With Blink Indoor Okay, maybe that’s oversimplifying it, but the setup process doesn’t really require much expertise. All instructions were provided by the app – even my teenager could do it. Overall, it took me less than 10 minutes to get each camera up and running. That’s 30 minutes of my lazy Tuesday afternoon well spent, don’t you think?