Home security cameras are everywhere, keeping an electronic eye on children, pets, and the elderly while you’re away, without the added wiring hassles of traditional CCTV solutions. Most offer local and cloud storage, as well as motion alerts to notify you on the phone.
The bigger challenge is finding plug-and-play home security cameras that can weather the elements when they’re installed outside the home to monitor a driveway, a garden, or a backyard. My search led me to the Philips Home Safety Camera (HSP3800), a weatherproof outdoor camera that is IP65 rated against rain, dust, and heat, one that needs only a power connection to latch onto your Wi-Fi network and stream footage directly to the Home Safety app on your Android or iPhone.
Pairing the camera to the home Wi-Fi is a simple enough affair, but you will need to confirm you have both network coverage and a power socket accessible within 1.5 metres of the device before you wall mount the camera. Once mounted, the camera can cover a wide area with 135° vertical and 350° horizontal coverage and the ability to pan, tilt and zoom into specific parts of your property, or automatically detect, track, and follow movement, be it a visitor or an intruder.
The Full HD resolution feed from the camera is clear during the daytime, and it switches to colour night vision with a motion-triggered 280 lumens spotlight. There’s even weather-protected two-way audio to communicate with the delivery person and a built-in siren to shoo off the cat that’s making an attempt at the milk packet!
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Interestingly, Philips secures the videos stored locally on the SD card with AES 128-bit encryption to ensure that others can’t access your footage data, even if the SD card is taken out of the camera. With a solid feature set and a weather-proof exterior backed by a two-year warranty, the HSP3800 has fast earned its spot in my backyard, with more to come as soon as I can get the outdoor power sockets in place.