A clever housewife.Netatmo Presence outer camera - review

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So one of the three safety cameras available in the Netatmo offer.

The first of them, Welcome, is dedicated to internal use.He recognizes not only that someone appeared in her field of view, but also who appeared.So we can get a notification on the phone not so much that someone has entered the house, but for example.about the fact that our child, wife or husband entered the house.

The second camera is a video intercom of compatible homekit, which can be placed, for example.On the gate at the door to the house.

The third element of the safety system from Netatmo is the Presence camera tested, which came to me some time ago for tests.Unlike Welcome, we can successfully use it outside.Unlike the intercom, we can mount it in almost anywhere outside.

Let's start with technical data.

The key information is that Netatmo Presence is a camera with rather large dimensions, measuring 50 x 200 x 110 mm.So this is not an overly discreet camera that can be easily hidden, but on the other hand - it is not as obvious as some external competition cameras.Plus - although it is of course a subjective assessment - Presence looks good enough that it can be mounted on any building and will not be disfigured.It's hard to say about standard safety cameras.

Partly for the dimensions of the Netatmo camera, the fact is that the right size LED (12 W), reacting to movement and activating when someone or something appears in the monitored area is built into it..

Below him (or above, but about it soon) there is a camera lens with a 100 degree viewing angle and 4 megapixel resolution.The maximum resolution of the downloaded video materials is 1920x1080.In night conditions, registered images are effectively illuminated by IR diodes (range up to 15 m).

The specification is complemented by a microSD memory card socket with a capacity of up to 32 GB (8 GB) and WiFi connectivity.Unfortunately, when it comes to connecting to the Netatmo network, it forces us to use 2.4 GHz - 5 GHz networks are not supported.

The whole camera is of course water and dustproof, and it withstands temperatures from -20 to 50 degrees.In such extreme conditions, she did not have the opportunity to work with me, but it easily survived the cool winter, recent heat, and did not give in to multi -day rainfall.So you can safely assume that the manufacturer did not make a mistake in his promises.

Netatmo Presence - how to mount it?

If in the place where we want to mount, we already have a source of lighting, the whole installation will be absolutely banal.All the more so if the outer lamp that we want to replace onto the camera is mounted to the can.

In this case, the whole procedure will take a maximum of a few, maybe several minutes and you can do it yourself, of course, observing all safety recommendations for communing with the current (read: Let's disconnect the current and get to the installation).

The only thing we have to take care of is that the camera is within the range of WiFi, and - of course - to cover the area that interests us.

And here I have two small reservations.First of all - unless I am a fan of connecting a cable to the network, in the case of an external camera it would definitely not be a bad solution.I have a sensible WiFi router, but Netatmo is still on the edge of the range, which means that it can sporadically (but still) it can fall out of this range and report disconnection.

The second reservation is even more prosaic.Netatmo Presence is not a camera for a plug, but for cables, fastened directly in the forest (or without a can).It is therefore difficult to pre -estimate where it should be located to perfectly monitor the area that we are interested in.

Of course, Netatmo gives us a wide set of camera adjustment after assembly - we can move it vertically, horizontally, and even turn the entire camera module upside down.However, it should be remembered that after turning the camera, the lens remains in exactly the same place, so if we set it too high, we only have to change the connection point.

What I was afraid of in the case of regulation was the minimum angle that you can hug Netatmo Presence to the wall.Fortunately, it is selected so that at a 100-degree angle of view it is possible to catch a tiny piece of wall.So exactly as it is necessary.

What if we don't have a ready electrical point to connect the camera?In this case, well, we just have to do it or ask someone to do it (I chose the latter option).

PS.Netatmo Presence does not require any subscription to function.Nice.

PS.For me - contrary to what the electrician assembling the camera was afraid - no additional fastenings or stiffening were needed.The camera holds the can easily pressed into foamed polystyrene.

How it's working?So the Security and Homekit application.

After connecting the camera to the power supply and the Internet.

The first, universal, is the Netatmo Security application, available to Android and iOS.The second is Homekit and Siri.However, if someone has an iPhone and his whole house works based on homekit, let him not think that he can ignore the Netatmo application.It is worth having it for at least a few reasons.

The basic is that it is from its level that we manage the vast majority of settings.In it, we decide when the headlight is to light, which zones are to be monitored and which are to be ignored, what types of detected activity are to be recorded, which ignored, and which recorded with notification (and at what hours we want to receive these notifications).We also choose here who we want to share the image from our camera, how long recordings are to be stored and where - apart from the microSD card - they hit.You can choose either dropboks or our own FTP server.

Directly with Netatmo we can also view the history of notifications and saved films, delete them or download them to the device's memory.

And finally, it is here that the recognition of objects that appeared in the camera's field of view..Presence can recognize with quite good effectiveness whether a cat has just run after our lawn or driveway, a car drove, or whether a man passed.What for?If, for example,.We have a joyful bunch of cats running loose in the garden, we can turn off registration and animal notifications.

And even if we don't do it, we don't have to rewind the whole video from the full day.On the time line, it is properly marked what type of object has been detected by the camera, thanks to which the data that we do not interest us at the moment, we can quickly ignore.The option of the time -lapse film is also available from all content registered during a given day.

If that was not enough, the recognition system may also function separately for the reflector.So, for example, if someone appears in front of the house - the headlight lights up to full power.However, if a cat passes in front of the house, the reflector will be turned off.

So what is homekit here?

Yes, 90 percent.Presence settings and functions are operated from the Netatmo application.But there are elements that can be found only in Homekit.

First, the Security application does not give us (or I can't find it) access to functions related to geolocation.For example, I am able to set from homekita to receive camera notifications only when I am not at home.After all, when I am in it, the chances that someone will try to break into me, they are rather small.

Secondly - it is from Homekita that we can fully use the potential of the relationship between individual elements of our smart home.For example, in my case, Netatmo Presence is fastened in Homekit with LED Osram Smart+ Flex Outdoor tape, suspended along the approach to the home.This tape shines for most of the night with minimal intensity (15 percent.), while when Presence detects movement, the tape lights up 100 percent.for the next few minutes.

In this way, Presence directly illuminates the entrance to the house, while Osram Smart+ Flex - the way to this entrance.

There may be more such combinations.Nobody will forbid us to set up homekita so that after detecting traffic outside at certain hours, the lamp in our living room or home office lights up red, warning us about an uninvited presence.Or that the motion sensor should turn on the washer in the garden to chase away the intruder - whether human or animal.Or that when opening the entrance gate, lighting is started in Presence.Who prefers and/or who has.

There are probably thousands of options or more - it all depends on what we assume as an action for a camera motion sensor.

PS.Of course, you can also issue a Presence camera command (or more precisely - a lamp built into it), but until Siri is in Polish, it is difficult to consider it a great advantage.

Ps 2.Netatmo Presence can also be operated from the Bot level in Messenger.

And how does it work in practice?

Good, and even very good.

When it comes to recognizing traffic itself, I can't have absolutely any objections.The camera does not activate without sense, e.g..for the movement of trees (and I have a little on the garden), without covering memory cards with unnecessary recordings, but the phone - false alarm.If, however, a man, animal or car appears within her sight - he recognizes him quickly.

It doesn't matter if Presence will see the whole man or, for example.only his legs - the classification is always carried out correctly.It is similar with animals - I suddenly discovered that my garden for some reason is a route of night wandering a lot of cats.And that I did not close the gate once and a stranger is spinning in my area (the case was quickly resolved).Of course, in the case of animals, the camera is not infallible and can classify a dog or cat shadow as a living object, but this situation happened to me only twice and only on the occasion of another, properly detected movement.

It is almost as good with cars, but on one condition.Presence must see more than the wheel itself.Initially, I had monitoring zones set so that they covered a fragment of the street - large enough to see the wheels of passing cars, and so small that...There was nothing more.And for some reason Presence interpreted rims with tires as people.However, if I was entering the driveway, the identification was fine.

The speed of sending notifications is also flawless - they go to our phone almost immediately.The minimum delay is also when redirecting information to Homekita and activating the next, assigned actions.

As for the monitoring zones themselves, I have one attention.Yes, it's nice that the observed area can be divided into attention zones and ignored zones, but first of all - they have a limited minimum size, so in my case they could not be arranged perfectly as I would like (Alb would require a lot of work).Secondly - they must always have a regular form of a rectangle, which at the wide angle of the camera and the freedom of assembly sometimes misses the goal.

And how is the quality of the video?

Definitely more than satisfying when it comes to a camera for protective applications.I am easily able to find out on the basis of video material not only who entered my area, but even to recognize which cat has passed through my fence.And not only during the day, but also at night.

However, there is nothing to expect cinema quality, especially in the latter case.A bit like with riding webcams - we don't treat them as an alternative to GoPro.Are to fulfill a specific function.And Netatmo Presence meets it as much as possible, regardless of weather conditions.

Is it worth it?

Given the price of PLN 1250-1400 - a difficult question.Actually, the answer is actually difficult, because there are several of them.

Yes - when our whole smart house is based on homekit.Our choice is then limited only to Netatmo Presence and Logitech Circle 2.Yes, the latter product is clearly cheaper (ok.PLN 880 at the Apple Store), and it is smaller and has a wider field of view (180 degrees).On the other hand, it is - at least for me - simply ugly, requires subscription, if we want to have access to our materials longer than 24 hours, there is no additional lighting (only IR LEDs) and does not recognize objects, which slightly hinders browsing registered movies.

Possible - if you like all the Netatmo Presence functions, its appearance, you have at least part of the home based on homekit, and the price does not knock you off your feet.Even if the use of e.g.. z Fibaro, to kamera Netatmo może znaleźć w waszym smart domu zastosowanie (choć nie jest to raczej plug&play).

Not really - if you are just looking for something that will allow you from time to time to look at what is happening in front of the house, and you see no reason to pay over PLN 1,200 for a camera that will hang on the wall.Cheap IP camera (for short circuit.with fibaro) Full HD (e.g..from yi) you can buy for less than PLN 400.It is a little harder to install, it will not recognize objects that appear in your area, will not illuminate the path or driveway, but will detect traffic and register what you need.So absolutely basic functions will be fulfilled.

However, if I were to buy an external camera at this point, I would probably somehow get the price of Presence and go to the store for her.Initially, I was convinced that recognition of objects is only an additional gadget.However, when I checked on the time axis how many unnecessary materials with random cats, I came to the conclusion that I would probably go crazy if I got notifications with a regular camera every time such a cat runs through the yard.In Presence, this problem is eliminated by switching one simple option.The same with the lighting of the driveway - I do not want the headlight to make a disco in the middle of the night, because there are cats or other jeans.And again - I can turn it off in the options.

I couldn't give up additional lighting anymore (I don't feel like rolling the walls for another lamp anymore) and integration with homekite.Like this simple layout with LED tape I created, it's just a minor convenience, but when a man gets used to it, it's hard to give up...

(But before buying I can make a facade and a home path to the end)

On the plus side:

On the downside: