Blink XT Cameras

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.

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.

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.

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 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.