Pass the: Google Nest Camera

Watch your pets when you are out, or capture a burglar, with Google Nest cameras.

Google Nest Cam

Do you need 24/7 security surveillance at home? That’s what Google Nest cameras offer. By continuously taking video, Nest’s cameras are out to ensure you get the vision you need.

It’s no good capturing video if the camera is too slow to detect motion by an unauthorised person. It’s no good just getting video of the rear of the burglar’s car disappearing into the distance, after the camera missed the main action. You want video of the burglar’s face, and the robbery.

That means purchasing both Nest cameras and a subscription to Nest Aware, which stores a continuous 10 or 30 days of vision in the cloud.

Nest is selling three camera models in Australia: Nest Cam Outdoor, Nest Cam Indoor and Nest Cam IQ Indoor. The IQ model has an 8-megapixel, 4K image sensor with 12x digital zoom and can follow a person’s movements.

These features allow the camera to distinguish a person from a moving object, such as a swaying tree branch, and alert you. All let you listen to activity at home and even talk through your phone to people visible on the camera. All three cameras offer HD live streaming to your phone.

You can scrub through video to find the action you want to watch more carefully. You can create activity zones of areas you need to watch intently, and receive alerts of unexpected action.

You can also watch security camera vision at home through Google video-enabled home assistants: the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max.

Indoor and outdoor cameras currently cost $199 each and the IQ model is $479 at JB Hi-Fi. You can shop around to check different prices.

Google also sells a Nest Hello Video Doorbell and Google Nest Protect, which detects smoke and carbon monoxide and can send alerts to your phone. Nest Aware subscription can be costly. It’s $14 a month per camera for 10 days’ cloud storage and $30 a month per camera for 30 days’ storage.

The big downside is the dependency on mains power. You’re cactus if the burglar is savvy enough to switch off the mains power. There are many digital home security systems; Arlo, Swann, Uniden and Ring are others with similar home security ecosystems and are available locally.

Chris Griffith