- February 10, 2021
- Posted by: igtasecurity
- Category: Blog
Don’t give an outsider some excuse to snoop in your house. Crimes such as theft can effectively be deterred by ensuring that all areas of your property are checked by a secure CCTV camera that keeps an eye out for you. So we’re going to share with you the 5 best outdoor security cameras for 2021. If you have got a package taken from your porch or a vehicle broken in when you were parked in your street, there’s a fair possibility that the thief was gone a long time until you even figured out that you had been victimized.
There’s a far better possibility you’re never going to discover who committed the deed. If that sounds familiar, it may be time to invest in an outdoor surveillance camera. These sturdy smart home gadgets, built to endure fog, rain and extreme weather conditions, usually link to your home Wi-Fi network and allow you to access live video recordings of events outside your home. They can also send a warning to your phone anytime someone or something is out there, film the incident footage, and, based on the functionality, let you speak to the person on your house, without really having to open the door.
How Do Outdoor Security Cameras Work?
Many smart outdoor surveillance cameras use Wi-Fi to connect to your local network, enabling you to view them from anywhere via a smartphone app.
However, there are also versions that can use wired Ethernet, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, or innovative wireless technologies to connect to a smartphone app or a designated server. Wi-Fi cameras are simpler to install than their wired counterparts because they do not need to be placed by an Ethernet port and do not need wiring. Battery-powered Wi-Fi cameras are the simplest to mount so you can position them anywhere (as long as they can connect to your wireless connection) without having to bring an extremely long power cord into your house to connect to the socket.
Usually, these types of cameras use rechargeable batteries that can be easily retrieved and bring indoors for charging with a USB cable but appear to drain quickly in colder climates. Look for an outdoor CCTV Camera that can attach to either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio bands to minimize network congestion.
If you have trouble having a decent signal outdoors, consider turning it up with a wireless range extender. Bluetooth cameras are also easy to mount, but you need to keep within 40 feet or so to connect to your smartphone.
5 Best Outdoor Security Cameras for 2021
Here’s a quick summary of our list of the best outdoor security cameras for 2021. We advise reading the detailed review for each CCTV camera to find out what’s best for your unique needs.
- Best Professional Monitoring – Blue by ADT Outdoor Camera
- Best Wireless Camera – Ring Stick Up Cam
- Best for Security Systems – Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro
- Best Budget Security Camera – Blink Outdoor
- Best Overall Security Camera – Arlo Pro 4
Best Professional Monitoring – Blue by ADT Outdoor Camera
If you have ever heard of a single security device before, it would be ADT. In the home protection business, it is the best-known name. But home surveillance solutions at ADT are costly, and their cameras aren’t the best. The Blue by ADT Outdoor Camera is wire-free and battery-powered, like many of our other favourite devices. Without needing to put the whole camera inside, you can cut the battery pack to charge it. The Blue by ADT Outdoor Camera also has capabilities that real ADT cameras have skipped, including facial recognition and human identification. The camera will identify recognizable persons, but if the person is standing less than 10 feet from the camera, it works better.
Best Wireless Camera – Ring Stick Up Cam
The Ring Stick Up Cam Battery is fully wire-free, so where you put it, you have a lot of versatility. And it costs just $100, making it one of the most accessible indoor as well as outdoor surveillance cameras you can use. We’ve seen records of poor battery life on Ring devices (some say it lasts only a month), and it’s a boring operation to recharge the Stick Up Cam because you have to remove the battery every time.
Although this camera has a wired option-Stick Up Cam Plug-In, you lose the freedom to mount it anywhere. For individuals who need a wireless outdoor camera on a budget, we think the Stick Up Cam Battery is ideal. Ring now has one of the market’s most affordable cloud-storage contracts, costing 60 days of storage for just $3 a month.
For an Alexa smart home, it’s an ideal wireless camera, but we’d like it better if it backed Google Assistant and HomeKit as Arlo does. You can buy an accessory for the solar panel, so you don’t need to remove the battery as much, so it’s going to cost you more.
Best for Security Systems – Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro
Most home surveillance services treat cameras like a lonely afterthought. Yet Vivint is doing it differently. The Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro is one of the best outdoor cams on the market, and it has some special theft-deterrence features that we haven’t seen on other devices.
If the camera sees a stranger in your yard, it will shine its LED light and make a whistling sound that lets the person know they’re being observed. The vibration normally makes the attacker look up as well, which means that they look right into the watchful eye of the camera and give you a clear glimpse of their profile.
Best Budget Security Camera – Blink Outdoor
Blink Outdoor brings a long battery life and high-quality footage into an affordable device.
With just $99.99 for the starter package and $89.99 for the add-on camera, the Blink Outdoor is an inexpensive camera with an exceptional value.
A lot of cheap CCTV cameras compromise features to make up for the cost, but the Blink Outdoor offers you decent video quality, adjustable settings, and extra-long battery life at a price everyone can afford.
Best Overall Security Camera – Arlo Pro 4
Since it does not require a power cord and yet manages to outperform the competition, the Arlo Pro 4 is our choice for the best wireless CCTV camera. Arlo, which works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings, also has some of the best smart home compatibility.
Arlo 4 addresses the main downside of Arlo Pro 3 by no longer having a base station that was only usable when two or more cameras were bought. It’s still more pricey than the average wireless camera, this makes it a more practical option.
For a battery-powered camera, we think the Arlo Pro 4 is an excellent option, particularly if you want a fast setup, multiple cameras, and excellent video quality. Owing to infrared night vision and a built-in flashlight, the 2K video captures more clarity than 1080p landscape cameras and records clear imagery at any time of day.
How to choose the best home security camera
The first thing you would need to remember while looking for a home surveillance camera is whether you intend on installing the camera indoors or outdoors. It is necessary to position only certain cameras on the outside of your house that are built to withstand the elements.
And, you will have to consider whether you want a battery-operated model or one that needs to be plugged in with outdoor cameras. The former is easier to install, but every few months, you’ll have to recharge or replace your batteries. The latter will require you to add an outlet or drill holes in your wall, but afterwards, you may not have to think about it.
The resolution of most home CCTV cameras is 1080p, but that doesn’t mean they all offer the same output. Cheaper cameras appear to have smaller image sensors and processors that are less effective, so the face of a person may be more blurred, particularly if they are running or at night you are recording footage.
In terms of video storage, you also want to think of what each home surveillance camera provides. Some would encourage you to store videos in the cloud, but in order to do so, many need you to pay a subscription. There are a few memory card slots on a few cameras, so you can store footage locally; but if anyone takes the camera, you destroy the videos with it.
