If you’d rather take advantage of some or all of these check out our buying guide for our top picks.Click here to visit the latest Hard Disk Sentinel website (2021) and use the coupon code HDSP-H1-GA79612 for 40% off the professional version. But outdoor security cameras now offer many sophisticated and useful features, including facial detection, motion tracking, and up to 4K resolution. If don’t want complexity or the ongoing expense of a cloud subscription, it will serve you well. The Defender Guard sticks to the most basic security features and is priced accordingly at $100 (it’s available at Amazon, but TechHive readers can get a 30-percent discount buying direct and using the discounit code TECHHIVE30 at checkout. The app also makes it easy to download or share any video clip during playback. You can play event-triggered video by scrubbing though the feed’s timeline or opening individual clips stored in your library. Camera controls are laid out under the live feed and allow you to manage the Defender Guard’s resolution, audio, and video stream as well as record video and take screenshots. The Defender Guard app is fairly basic and easy to learn. Each alert includes a thumbnail of the captured activity tapping on it takes you to the camera’s live feed so you can see what’s going on. You can also schedule when you want to receive alerts, to cut down on the amount you receive. The camera provides standard motion detection with alerts, which you can fine-tune by adjusting the detection sensitivity and setting activity zones. The Defender Guard app provides basic camera controls and plenty of motion detection customization. The supplied 16GB microSD card will fill up fast when you’re recording in max resolution, so it’s a good idea to swap it out for a card with the max supported 128GB of storage.
In night-vision mode, the camera illuminates up to 100 feet in the dark.
That sharpness is maintained even when using the optical zoom, allowing you to get usable close-up footage of faces, license plates, and other distinguishing details. Not surprisingly, the Defender Guard delivers an excellent level of clarity.
This will complicate the logistics of your installation-you’ll need to find a mounting spot adjacent to an indoor outlet and your router, plus you’ll need to scare up an ethernet cable since Defender doesn’t provide one. If you can’t get a strong wireless signal, you can connect the camera to your router via ethernet. Once you create a Defender account, the app guides you through this process. Defender Guard must be connected to an AC power source to operate, so unless you have easy access to an outdoor electrical outlet, you’ll need to drill a hole through an external wall to provide a path to an indoor outlet.īefore you start your masonry, though, you should test the strength of the Wi-Fi signal to the spot you’ve chosen for the camera by connecting the camera to the Defender Guard app and viewing its live stream.