The media could not be loaded.
BACKGROUND
I bought these because we recently bought a house and the local area has a high population of poor. Where this is the case, crime and desperation are unfortunately common to that culture. Since moving in, have had my car broken into and someone stole a package off my porch (which, by the way, is very hard to prove).
THE PRODUCT
Decided to try this system, because the ring just didn't seem like a value compared to this system. Some of the reviews for this product, however, warned that it had terrible range or wouldn't link. My experience so far is that this product works very well. One of the pictures above gives an idea of how far apart the synk module was from the wifi, and how far the cameras are from the module. The cameras maintain a good link with the module. The one that is 50 ft from the module sometimes takes a while to upload its videos and provide an alert due to a lower connection strength, but it has been faithfully connected so far. Instillation was pretty easy and setting up the system was one of the more painless electronics installs I've had to do. The app allows you to monitor your cameras from wherever you are, even if you are miles away. Frankly, I do not understand reviews with people saying connection does not work well or that they had to keep the synk module right next to the wifi. They must live in a bunker or some other reinforced structure! There are 3 walls between the front camera and the synk module, and it has 4 to 5 bars consistently. There are 2 walls and 30 ft or so between the synk module and the wifi unit, and it has not lost connection once.
PROS
-Easy to set up
-Comparatively cheap for the initial system
-A lot of great options in the app, including a GREAT beta testing element that lets you select which areas of the camera view will respond to motion, so, for example, if the camera includes part of a road, you can configure the camera to ignore motion on the road while monitoring motion in the rest of the field. Cool, huh?!
-Pretty clear video
-night vision that can be adjusted in sensitivity. At full sensitivity, the camera in the back lot was activating in response to motion that was at least 100 ft away.
-Signal strength is pretty stable between camera and the synk.
-New cameras can be added to the system at any time after you've got it set up.
-You can set up multiple zones if you have more than one synk module. So...for example, if you have your own business, you could have one synk module monitoring your business and one that is monitoring your home, and control both from the app.
-Amazon is backing this company, and that is a good thing. Amazon tends to maintain competitive standards for the products that they support.
CONS
-Price of peripherals is ridiculous. The yard sign, which is apparently of poor quality, is sold separately and is 30 dollars! Each additional camera is 95 dollars. I want to add 3 more cameras to this system before all is as I wish it to be.
-If the signal is weak for a camera, it will take a while for the video to upload, and they system will not alert you to movement until that upload is done.
-I have noticed that motion detection works better with daylight shots than it does with night vision shots. They will probably iron this out as development moves forward for this product.
-I think the app for this should include an emergency call button that you can hit within the app to immediately contact the local law enforcement. Should you see something in your camera that needs police involvement, you will need to exit the app and call up the local police, and, in an emergency, every second counts.
-Similarly, there is no option for door or window triggers other than motion detection. It would be great if BlINK added support to the synk module for actual alarm system features, so that you can add them in later if you wish. If they are smart, they will add this option on down the road.
-This only comes with one security protection sticker and no yard sign. See above for the con of that.
Neither Pro nor Con, but useful to know:
-This product is clearly still in development, offering beta testing for new features. This is potentially a con, because it means there may be bugs that still need worked out. This is a pro because it means anything you don't like will probably get fixed if it is a problem for other users.
-The two most important features in the app are sensitivity adjustment (you may need different sensitivity depending on what is in the view of the camera), and the zoning off of areas that you don't want the camera to detect motion within. Using these two features, this camera can be set up for just about any situation you need it for.
-The cameras will pick up motion within 40 ft, but the motion sensor is very directional, and must be pointed towards the area that is important to monitor. As I stated, though it is officially within 40ft, at the highest sensitivity, my camera was picking up movement 100 ft away, and the movement that triggered it was a change in the lighting of that area, with car lights moving across that street.
Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase, and I'm hoping to build my system up to 5 cameras. I recommend this product, and the cons I've listed are all things that will probably be addressed by the company as they continue development. I will update this review if there is more to add to my review, or if I feel the star rating needs to be changed, but, at this time, I'm very pleased and give this product 5 stars.
