How We Test Home Security Cameras and Video Doorbell Cameras

Security and safety merchandise are among the many most vital to check hands-on, however some are tougher to judge than others. A leak detector both works or would not, however what about a safety digital camera? A video doorbell?

Some video units are higher than others, positive, however many cameras are simply totally different from their rivals — providing distinctive options, aesthetics and general approaches to indoor or out of doors monitoring. And that is what you need! A pet digital camera ought to work otherwise from a nanny cam. Equally, a floodlight digital camera ought to embrace totally different options from a video doorbell.

However on the finish of the day, we at CNET need to inform you our picks for the perfect cameras regardless of the use case. This is how we use hands-on testing in actual world eventualities on the CNET Good House to find out which residence safety cameras and video doorbells are finest for you.

How we take a look at out of doors, indoor and video doorbell digital camera options

Every time I take a look at a safety digital camera or video doorbell, I set it up utilizing the included instructions and take a look at out the entire marketed options in a house setting for a couple of week — all with the machine’s meant goal in thoughts. For instance, an outside digital camera ought to be weatherproof and have noise-dampening tech so you possibly can hear the sounds you care about over dashing wind. Which means I am going to need to carry out an outside sound verify to see if I can hear my children speaking at totally different distances whereas I am watching the reside feed.

Equally, an indoor digital camera ought to embrace privateness options, equivalent to a shutter. Which means ensuring the options work as marketed, and the shutter, and whether or not it is open or closed, is appropriately straightforward to verify. Lastly, a video doorbell ought to have glorious two-way speak for chatting with guests and supply individuals. Which means holding a dialog with my spouse on the porch, and listening for readability and latency.

There are many different distinctive options on differing types of safety cameras. As soon as the machine is about up and the options are all laid out, it is time to verify they work correctly. Some cameras let you decide movement zones, the place something transferring in a particular body will lead to a cell alert despatched on to your telephone. I am going to transfer across the movement zone to see once I get an alert and once I do not. The purpose is to find how exact these zones actually are.

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Other such features include motion tracking for pan-tilt cameras (can the camera follow me passing by at walking speed?), two-way talk (can I hold a remote conversation with my wife?), live monitoring (how much latency does the feed have?) and event saving (are motion events saved in an easy-to-understand registry?). Plenty more features are out there, from facial recognition to motion-triggered messages, and each requires its own individual test to make sure it works as advertised.

Getting down to business: Testing resolution, night vision and latency

After I test the unique features of the home security camera or video doorbell camera, the examination becomes a little more demanding — particularly when it comes to a camera’s resolution, night vision and latency.

Plenty of cameras advertise 1080p or 2k resolution, but in practice capture muddy or pixelated video. To figure out how consistent a camera’s vision really is, I do a vision test (the kind you might see in your optometrist’s office) to see how clear the resolution really is at different distances. I stand a few feet from the camera, then step back once, then again to about 15 feet, then finally to a distance of 30 feet.

To see how reliable the night vision is, I administer the test again in the dark. I compare the results to direct competitors on the market, and offer my recommendation based on the results.

Finally, I tackle latency, since many people hope to use home security cameras and video doorbells to deter porch pirates or other would-be neighborhood nuisances (like the raccoons that treat your garbage can like a weekly buffet). If someone walks onto your porch, grabs a delivery left there and walks away, do you have time to receive the alert, pull up the feed and intervene with two-way talk?

Typically my video producer Chris and I enact a mock porch piracy, testing the latency of the camera or video doorbell. Most cameras at this point aren’t fast enough to catch a fleet-footed porch pirate in the act. But some are faster than others — and the best ones capture and record the full act so you can see exactly what happened.

Determining the value of a security product

Once I finish all the technical tests, it’s time to give the security camera or video doorbell a score and final recommendation. It’s here that I factor in the features, the performance, the overall user experience (again, I usually use them in a home setting for about a week) and a product’s value.

To determine value, I have to compare the price to those of similarly-featured devices on the market. In this category, a simple but reliable $30 smart cam outperforms a more fully-featured $100 camera — or a $200 video doorbell that checks every box can beat a $60 competitor that doesn’t quite wow me the same way.

Of course, no security camera or video doorbell will be perfect for everyone, so I also factor in a variety of use cases and budgets. No matter the use case or the price, you can be confident that any security device I recommend will offer a great value for what’s on offer.

Recap

Testing home security cameras and video doorbell cameras can be pretty involved, but it essentially breaks down into a few testing categories. Here’s what we look at.

• The features offered
• How the features perform
• Whole product performance over a testing period of a week
• Resolution, night vision and latency comparisons
• Overall value

To see our testing in action, check out our recommendations for the best video doorbells, the best home security cameras and the best outdoor security cameras for 2022. You can also watch us administer some of these tests in our video reviews.