Blink XT Cameras

PreCocious

Currently on Amazon UK for half price ,( single camera, one camera set and two camera set) if you've prime. There is a newer model (XT2) coming soon but half price is savage.

jamesd

Have you used them , reviews are not the best so interested if anyone here has used them.

garion

jamesd wrote: »

Have you used them , reviews are not the best so interested if anyone here has used them.

I've 4 of them around my house for the last 2 years. Very happy with them.

Spocker

jamesd wrote: »

Have you used them , reviews are not the best so interested if anyone here has used them.

I have a 5 camera set (and and XT2 on the way) and very happy with it. My little fella even managed to knock one off with a sliotar and it still works grand. I have to external XTs and 3 internals.

It's a great system for me (being wireless) and never any issues with the app

fergiesfolly

Thanks OP.
This'll be my third Blink.
One each internal and external.
Very happy with them. Very easy to set up and use and picture quality is very good.
I have mine linked to my Google Home hub and use voice commands to turn on and off. Really handy if you don't want to use the app or have a set schedule.

Rock Paper Scissors

For those of you who have the blink cameras, how do you find the battery life? Do they really last 2 years?

I went ahead and ordered the twin pack anyway.

If they are no good, I'll send them back

Cheers OP

Xodar

Read on the Amazon review that tgere was a security concern. Has anyone experienced this?

Also the motion sensor - reports that there was serious lag between motion detected and recording.

The battery life would interest me too.

mad m

FYI

https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/10/18659588/blink-xt2-smart-camera-amazon-halts-sales-mixed-reviews

ILikeBoats

Had my eye on these for a while.

Will test them now that they're half price

Thanks OP

jim salter

Ordered a single camera to try them out. Thanks OP

harr

Ordered one to see how it compares to my ring cam, does anyone know if they come with a mounting bracket?

Xodar

harr wrote: »

Ordered one to see how it compares to my ring cam, does anyone know if they come with a mounting bracket?

From the questions it appears the bracket is included

PreCocious

jamesd wrote: »

Have you used them , reviews are not the best so interested if anyone here has used them.

I haven't used them but I was humming and hawing last week about getting them as an addition to my Arlo cams (which are fairly pricey). Luckily I waited. With the price drop they're well worth investigating.

EKRIUQ

I have 2 of these and I think there great but don't think that they are a CCTV system, there is no continuous recording and there is a lag before the recording function starts. There is no SD card facility to watch your recording and you are depending on their cloud feature.

At that price they're great value probably better than the newer XT2 which when launched in the US got really bad reviews and were pulled of the Amazon US store and are now unavailable.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/10/18659588/blink-xt2-smart-camera-amazon-halts-sales-mixed-reviews

fergiesfolly

I have mine six months and no battery issues.
I've tested both my cameras and found the lag to be negligible and they ping to my phone in under a minute.
The cloud stores footage for several months and you can download footage from it onto your phone/tablet.

davo2001

Anyone got a link?

ILikeBoats

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blink-Home-Security-Detection-Included/dp/B075RQCZW3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KM0WKAJRS7YO&keywords=blink&qid=1562063816&s=amazon-devices&smid=AR3ZLPJGUO0WE&sprefix=blink%2Camazon-devices%2C148&sr=1-1

Páid

Just grabbed the two pack, thanks OP.

yoshimitsu

Thanks OP, I bought a 2-camera pack and an add-on camera. In the past the 2 main factors that had kept me away from buying a set of IP security cameras were cost, need to subscribe to a monthly plan and the need to run a power cable to the unit. It looks like this product addresses all 3 quite well. The price is attractive enough to give it a try and see if some of the limitation are relevant for my use cases. I don’t mind a few seconds delay between the motion sensor activation and the start of recording as I intend to install one at my front door (just to see who shows up when I’m not there) and 2 on the ground floor of the house, so in both cases people (unlike moving vehicles) would likely stay “in-frame” for more than just a few seconds. I’ll try the IFTTT integration to see if it can trigger my Philips Hue lights, both inside the house as well as on the one on top of my front door. If this works well then it would make the night vision feature largely redundant which is another one of the draw backs.

I was told about this product by the CEO of the company that supplies them technology that allows for extremely low energy consumptions (the tech is called SOI, Silicon on Insulator for the nerds out there). I had checked the product on Amazon a few weeks ago but was put off by some of the negative reviews. At this price the risk/reward is far more attractive and as other have said, I can just return it if it doesn’t work properly. I’ve seen reviews were people returned the product to amazon several months after having bought it so I think this is a relatively low risk purchase.

iggy

Anyone know if these are better than the yi home cameras?

I have a yi home facing out the window onto the driveway but I'm liking the look of this blink camera. My WiFi will be strong for where I'm putting it.

Thanks

jamesd

garion wrote: »

I've 4 of them around my house for the last 2 years. Very happy with them.

I've ordered a pack of 2, thanks all.

davo2001

iggy wrote: »

Anyone know if these are better than the yi home cameras?

I have a yi home facing out the window onto the driveway but I'm liking the look of this blink camera. My WiFi will be strong for where I'm putting it.

Thanks

From the description:

Please Note
Does not work through glass

Pique

I'm tempted considering the price. Anyone knw what the wifi connectivity is like and battery life? Amazon reviews differ on battery life. Some say months, others say weeks and manufacturer says 2 years. I presume that further from router would hurt battery life.

I'd be putting them in the fascia of a 2-storey house and don't fancy clambering up a ladder every couple of weeks (or even every couple of months) to replace batteries.

harr

Pique wrote: »

I'm tempted considering the price. Anyone knw what the wifi connectivity is like and battery life? Amazon reviews differ on battery life. Some say months, others say weeks and manufacturer says 2 years. I presume that further from router would hurt battery life.

I'd be putting them in the fascia of a 2-storey house and don't fancy clambering up a ladder every couple of weeks (or even every couple of months) to replace batteries.

Not sure about these but take the official battery life with a pinch of salt I have a ring cam and it was meant to have a 6 month battery life but even from the get go I was lucky to get 4 and it’s now down to one month.
Plus it all depends on how busy the area is and how often the camera will be triggered.
On another note where you are putting the camera is not the best position because all you will see is the top of people’s heads and if someone is wearing a hat or hood up you will see feck all... try put it some where lower down.

garion

Pique wrote: »

I'm tempted considering the price. Anyone knw what the wifi connectivity is like and battery life? Amazon reviews differ on battery life. Some say months, others say weeks and manufacturer says 2 years. I presume that further from router would hurt battery life.

I'd be putting them in the fascia of a 2-storey house and don't fancy clambering up a ladder every couple of weeks (or even every couple of months) to replace batteries.

I've had 2 years battery on the supplied batteries on all 4 of my camera. I just purchased new lithium AA batteries today for them. I just have mine on a nightly schedule of 10pm - 7am. Probably 2-3 activations a week, usually rabbits, birds or the odd spider that crawls across the lense! Picks up people without issue.

Krusty_Clown

I've had a pair of XT cameras for 6 months now. They work great. Far more reliable (battery and Wifi) than the Ring doorbell they replaced. Just be aware, the mount is extremely flimsy and someone could easily pluck the camera off the mount, if they wanted to. No PC access, just via mobile apps.

garion

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I've had a pair of XT cameras for 6 months now. They work great. Far more reliable (battery and Wifi) than the Ring doorbell they replaced. Just be aware, the mount is extremely flimsy and someone could easily pluck the camera off the mount, if they wanted to. No PC access, just via mobile apps.

It won't make it any more secure but there are 3rd party mounts available like this that'll add additional flexibility with placement and angles.
I have mine mounted high so will be harder to remove if anyone tried. No theft issues in the 2 years I've had mine thankfully.

thejaguar

Just ordered one - going to see how it works instead of a ring doorbell.

Krusty_Clown

thejaguar wrote: »

Just ordered one - going to see how it works instead of a ring doorbell.

Obvious, but they don't operate like a doorbell and don't look like a doorbell, so I don't have mine placed on my front door. I replaced my sh1tty doorbell with... a doorbell. These cameras are now in my backgarden, mostly monitoring my cat, neighbours cats, some terrifying radioactive spiders (infrared), magpies, and the occasional up-close of a bumblebee.

almee

Just bought the 2 pack, thanks OP.
Was looking at getting the nest iq camera, this is working out an awful lot cheaper, if it does the basics well.....

harr

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Obvious, but they don't operate like a doorbell and don't look like a doorbell, so I don't have mine placed on my front door. I replaced my sh1tty doorbell with... a doorbell. These cameras are now in my backgarden, mostly monitoring my cat, neighbours cats, some terrifying radioactive spiders (infrared), magpies, and the occasional up-close of a bumblebee.

You can set these to work with an echo so if you place it at front door your echo will alert you.
I have a ring cam not a ring doorbell and have it connected to a chime so works just like a doorbell.

thejaguar

I have a doorbell, I just want something to show who's at the door. If it doesn't work the way I want it to it may end up similar to your own watching little critters going about their lives!

Genghis

Might be a very stupid question, only asking as I see 'add-on' cameras for sale at £89.99 (each), that being the same price as this deal but for one camera.

Suppose I want 4 cameras, should I just buy 2x the deal and discard one of the Blink Sync Modules?

Presume this kit is fully modular etc? Is there any better way to buy a 4 camera Blink system?

garion

Genghis wrote: »

Might be a very stupid question, only asking as I see 'add-on' cameras for sale at £89.99 (each), that being the same price as this deal but for one camera.

Suppose I want 4 cameras, should I just buy 2x the deal and discard one of the Blink Sync Modules?

Presume this kit is fully modular etc? Is there any better way to buy a 4 camera Blink system?

That's what I did. Bought two 2-packs and only used 1 sync module. Each camera needs to be within ~30 foot of the sync module though for that to work. If you've a large house you might need to setup 2 systems using both sync modules. In that case you choose between each system from the app. Works fine, you just don't have all your cameras listed in one place. Drop down at the top to switch between systems and then you see the cameras linked to that system.

Genghis

Thanks garion. Ordered 2 and will see if I need 1 or 2 sync modules when they arrive. Speaking of when they arrive I notice that even though you need Prime to get the discount, these are not delivered within Prime delivery timeframe (standard delivery).

jimmynokia

I've the blink and XT never had a problem.

tusk

Picked up two today and an echo show 5 for viewing

clevtrev

can you get a live view with these cameras or do you just get to view of recorded activity?

tusk

clevtrev wrote: »

can you get a live view with these cameras or do you just get to view of recorded activity?

You can get live view from what I read

garion

tusk wrote: »

You can get live view from what I read

Yep live view on any camera. After 20 seconds or so it asks if you continue, presumably to save battery life. Handy when you're placing the cameras initially.

Here's my dashboard view for 3 of my cameras and then my live view from my front one.

Rushden

Two pack gone?

cuculainn

Looks like it. Just ready to pull the trigger and they are gone out of my basket..... procrastination is the thief of time 🀣

clevtrev

Rushden wrote: »

Two pack gone?

sounds like a case of blink and its gone:)

tusk

clevtrev wrote: »

sounds like a case of blink and its gone:)

Very clever Trevor!

dan786

How much was the 2 pack?

ILikeBoats

£89.99

harr

Got mine today and have it up. Very easy set up. Video quality is good and sound also very good. WiFi to camera is only ok. I have good broadband and have no problem normally with devices in the garden. Twice already the camera has lost connection with the modular even though they are only 10 feet apart.
Its probably worth what I paid but in my opinion its definitely inferior to my ring Devices especially the custom abilities for the motion detection and zones.

tusk

harr wrote: »

Got mine today and have it up. Very easy set up. Video quality is good and sound also very good. WiFi to camera is only ok. I have good broadband and have no problem normally with devices in the garden. Twice already the camera has lost connection with the modular even though they are only 10 feet apart.
Its probably worth what I paid but in my opinion its definitely inferior to my ring Devices especially the custom abilities for the motion detection and zones.

Are you viewing only on the app?

harr

tusk wrote: »

Are you viewing only on the app?

Yes only on the iPhone

tusk

Anyone using echo show with theirs? Mine's coming tomorrow. Hoping it works well and easy, as it's for the mother in law.

Basq

My kingdom for a camera that will work with 5GHz WiFi!