Night OWL Solar Battery Camera Rating: No wires, no fees

Surveillance cameras in the past were an anger, with wires, batteries for exchange, to pay recordings and much more. The Night Owl Solar Battery Battery Camera ($ 99.99) is part of a growing product wave that promises to simplify all of this.

This camera is fully wireless, driven by the sun and has not included it in the payment of a subscription to save recordings in the cloud. This does it for anyone who wants to increase their home security without increasing another invoice or a weekend installation project.

Design and functions

The Night Owl Solar Battery Battery Camera has the clean, useful look that you would expect from a modern outdoor monitoring camera. It is a compact white unit with an integrated solar panel and a ball-and-socket holder with which you aim to where you need. The plastic housing feels solid enough to master the elements, although it no longer has premium models. Night OWL has not provided an IP code to evaluate your protection against the elements, but like most cameras in this price range, it is best installed under a baptist or overhang for protection.

The camera records in a resolution of 2K (2560 x 1440 pixels), which gives you a sharp picture with enough details to create faces and license plates, assuming adequate lighting and a clear line of vision. It is a step upwards from the 1080p film material that you get with many entry-level cameras.

The solar panel is the main draw here. It endures the inner batteries with regular sunlight and cuts off the need to recharge the camera for manually if it is often in the shade or after long run of cloudy days.

Night school

Like most intelligent cams, this two-way audio includes so that you can speak to deliverers or warn someone of their property. There is also a built -in siren that you can trigger from the app to deter intruders.

The camera uses motion detection to draw attention to activity and it can differentiate between humans and vehicles. This helps to reduce false alarms through wind -related branches or temporary pets. It also has Color Night vision and uses its spotlight to brighten the scene after dark. If there is not enough light, it falls back on black and white infrared.

There are two connectivity options: You can link the camera with your Home-Wi-Fi network or create a wireless point-to-point connection to a Night OWL hub, which is equipped with a 64 GB microSD card and has the option of performing a hard drive for additional memory. The second option adds a security level by keeping your film material away from the public internet, and this could appeal to people who have already invested in the night Ökosystem.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

Storage options are equally flexible. You can save film material locally on a microSD card on the camera yourself at this night school center, or you can choose a cloud storage plan. Night OWL offers two levels: $ 3.99/month for 15 GB 30-day memory on individual devices or 9.99 USD/month for 50 GB 30-day memory when using a safety center. The fact that the cloud storage is optional – not required – is a plus, especially for users who prefer to keep the costs low or to avoid uploading film material to the Internet.

Everything runs through the Night Owl Protect app, which offers you a live view, an event history and control over movement settings and notifications. It is available for iOS and Android and although it is not as polished as some competitors, it covers the basics well enough.

Setup and performance

The installation of the Night Owl Solar Battery Battery Camera is pretty easy. The camera is supplied with assembly hardware and a ball-joint bracket with which you can adapt the angle as soon as it is available. The biggest decision is the placement. You would like to have a place with decent sunlight to keep the solar panel and within reach of your Wi-Fi network or your night owl hub. The setup takes place by the night icon -app and only takes a few minutes.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

The camera has a few rechargeable lithium ion 18650 batteries and a USB-C charging cable. To install it, you have to unscrew a small plate at the bottom of the camera. As soon as the batteries are available, they are charged by the solar panel, but they can also use the supplied cable manually. The loading connection is behind a rubber tap next to the MicroSD card slot. The cable is about 5 feet long. So if you do not and outdoors you have to take the camera down. If the batteries have ever failed, you can buy a replacement rate for $ 24.99.

The app does the job, but it could use some polish. The navigation is not as intuitive as with apps of larger brands like Ring or Arlo, and the user interface feels somewhat outdated. That is, as soon as you learn out, it is functional. You can display live videos, rate recorded clips, optimize sensitivity to movement and speak through the camera – all basics are covered.

Movement warnings get through quickly, and the camera generally does good work to recognize people and vehicles and at the same time ignore other types of movement. During the tests, notifications came with a few false alarms within a few seconds after the discovery of movement movements.

Audio quality is excellent. Voices get through clearly and there is a warning in cans that you can trigger – “smile, you are taken up” – if you prefer not to interact directly with an intruder.

Michael Ansaldo/Foundry

The video quality is solid for a 2K camera in this price range. The daily material is clear and crisp, with precise color. The nightly performance depends on the surrounding lighting. With the headlight you get decent color details. Without them, infrared occurs and delivers a usable black and white picture.

The battery life depends heavily on the placement. In full sun, the solar panel does a good job to receive the indictment, even with a few movement events a day. In shaded areas or in cloudy weeks, the battery can drain off faster than it has to be loaded manually occasionally. In all cases, there is no experience with set-IT-and-IT-IT, but it comes close to the correct placement.

The camera integrates well into the Night OWL ecosystem and also supports Google Home, so that you can display film material on compatible intelligent displays. However, it does not work with Alexa or Apple Homekit, and a wider Smart -Home automation is limited.

Should you buy the Night Owl Solar Battery Battery Camera?

If you are looking for a simple, self -contained security solution, which you do not tackle with monthly fees, the Night OWL Solar Battery Camera makes a strong housing. It is particularly suitable for budget -conscious users who want a decent video quality, reliable movement warnings and basic intelligent functions without being involved in cords or being included in a subscription.

This review is part of the detailed reporting on the best home monitoring cameras.

That means it is not for everyone. If you live in a region with limited sunlight or need complete integration with Smart -Home platforms such as Alexa or Apple Home, you hit some walls. And the app is functional, but one step behind more polished platforms from larger brands.

Nevertheless, what it is-a non-subscription, solar-powered surveillance camera that plays well with the wired storage systems from Night OWL-it offers a solid value. If you are looking for it, this camera is worth a look.