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The Eve Outdoor Cam features a modern design and is tailored for use with HomeKit, equipped with a built-in LED floodlight that is perfect for illuminating your driveway at night. I’ve been impressed with the Eve Indoor Camera and feel similarly about the Outdoor Cam. With significant enhancements to the user interface of the Apple Home app in iOS 16, HomeKit cameras have reached new heights.
Additionally, with HomeKit Secure Video, your clips are securely stored in your iCloud account through end-to-end encryption. The best part is that this setup doesn’t necessitate any ongoing subscription fees, as long as you subscribe to some iCloud storage. So, how does the Eve Outdoor Cam perform alongside HomeKit Secure Video? Generally very well…
Eve Outdoor Cam Hardware Design
The Eve Outdoor Cam showcases sturdiness and quality craftsmanship. During installation, even the person helping me noticed the superior build quality of its components. The overall construction of the unit is impressive.
Its simple black and white plastic aesthetic harmonizes with the majority of home exteriors. While it isn’t designed to be discreet, it effectively serves as both a camera and an outdoor light. The majority of the front face is dedicated to the light window, although the physical LEDs are positioned just above the black camera bezel.
A small status light is located above the camera; it glows blue when the camera is active and red when recording. I found this subtle light somewhat distracting to the otherwise clean design of the unit. Fortunately, you can disable the status light in the accessory settings without much hassle.
Simple Hardwired Installation and Software Setup
The Eve Outdoor Camera connects via Wi-Fi and is powered through hardwiring. This is beneficial because it ensures a dedicated network connection, eliminating the need for battery-saving modes and removing concerns about battery replacements every few months.
The complexity of installation depends on your specific situation. I was able to replace an existing motion-activated light by simply rewiring the camera in its location. If you’re not comfortable with wiring, hiring an electrician will likely be a quick solution, provided there’s a light fixture already installed. If you lack wiring in the wall, the installation process could become considerably more complex.
Once installed, setup is remarkably simple. Just open the Home app, scan the HomeKit QR code on the provided sticker, and the camera will be automatically discovered, added to your network, and incorporated into your home setup. Keep in mind that you’ll need a HomeKit hub (like an Apple TV or HomePod) to access the camera outside of your home network and to utilize HomeKit Secure Video features.
The camera’s mount allows for significant adjustment, including swivel and tilt. Although it looks best positioned directly on, most people will likely need to make minor adjustments. Given the camera lens’s wide field of view, you should feel confident finding an optimal placement, ideally at or above door height.
If you want to test the placement before making the purchase, hold up an iPhone where you plan to install the camera and take a picture. The iPhone’s 0.5x lens gives a similar field of view to the Eve Outdoor Cam. (Don’t forget to ensure there’s a stable 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi signal in that area as well.)
Floodlight: A Convenient Two-in-One Feature
The dual-functionality of this device is a significant appeal factor. If you’re already wiring a camera, it only makes sense for it to perform additional functions. As mentioned, I replaced a nighttime outdoor light with the Eve Outdoor Cam.
I haven’t compromised on lighting efficiency either; the LED floodlight is superior to my previous lighting solution. It is much more illuminated, covers a larger area, and allows for custom settings thanks to its network connectivity.
You can configure the motion-activated light to operate during the day, only at night, or to remain deactivated through the Eve app.
You can also adjust the duration the light stays on and its motion sensitivity level. I altered the sensitivity from medium to high to avoid false triggers from passing traffic. Such customizable options are rarely found in conventional outdoor lighting solutions. One slight peculiarity is that Eve presents a 0-100 brightness slider and a ‘boost mode’ for the light. Personally, I didn’t observe much distinction between minimum and maximum brightness — it was either fully on or off.
Since the Eve Camera light is treated as its own accessory within HomeKit, you can manually turn it on and off through the Home app, use Siri voice commands, and incorporate it into scenes and automations just like any smart light.
Quality of the Eve Outdoor Camera
The camera records at a resolution of 1080p, aligning with all HomeKit Secure Video cameras. While the detail of the image doesn’t appear exceptionally crisp — the stream is compressed and can become blurry when zoomed in — it’s more than adequate for surveillance purposes. The wide-angle lens enables a large coverage area, ensuring comprehensive monitoring of my front porch and driveway. Additionally, the automatic exposure function adjusts effectively across varying lighting conditions, from dawn to dusk. Although the frame rate may occasionally lag, resulting in missed moments, the footage remains usable.
The night vision features are impressive, allowing functionality even in total darkness. The night vision range is extensive, enabling visual detection of people or animals anywhere within the frame. Although it’s not ideal for prolonged conversations through the integrated speaker and mic, the audio quality is acceptable for brief exchanges with someone at the door.
The microphone is sensitive enough to capture footsteps or engine noises well before they enter the camera’s view, which can be both advantageous and disadvantageous, depending on the context.
Cameras Managed in the Home App
The visibility of cameras in the Home app has improved significantly with iOS 16. You can view your favorite cameras at a glance in a neatly arranged panel. Thumbnails display static images from each camera and refresh approximately every fifteen seconds. You can either view all cameras with larger thumbnails or tap on a specific camera to maximize. The full-screen mode activates the live feed and includes a timeline for scrolling through past recordings.
HomeKit Secure Video Recordings
HomeKit Secure Video allows the Eve Outdoor Camera to continuously stream video to a HomeKit hub, such as an Apple TV or HomePod, where processing occurs. You can individually enable or disable recordings based on your location. If you prefer the camera not to activate or record while at home, you have that option.
The HomeKit system manages motion-triggered clip saving and notifications. For those committed to security, maintaining a 24/7 recording stream isn’t supported by HomeKit Secure Video, so you’ll need another solution for that.
For most home purposes, capturing clips of activity is generally more desirable since hours of footage with no events are typically ineffective. HomeKit camera recordings are stored in iCloud for up to ten days. The Home app allows for exporting clips for long-term storage or sharing with others. A paid iCloud subscription is required for cloud recordings, but they do not count against your storage limit.
Informative and Actionable Camera Notifications
The Home app provides notifications for any detected motion, as well as recognizing specific motion subjects; it can distinguish between people, animals, vehicles, and packages. You can set alerts for when someone is at the door while ignoring other motion, such as a passing cat. Furthermore, with face recognition capabilities, HomeKit can identify individuals in the video based on People categories in your Photos library, allowing you to mute notifications for certain recognized individuals. I personally utilize this feature to avoid notifications when I arrive home.
This level of intelligence results in very detailed notifications. Some examples include:
- The ‘Entrance Cam’ has detected a person.
- The ‘Entrance Cam’ has detected an animal.
- The ‘Entrance Cam’ has detected a person and a package.
- The ‘Entrance Cam’ has detected a person who may be [name].
The notifications feature brief video clips of the incident, a button to view the live feed inline, and shortcuts to nearby accessories in the same zone as the camera (such as the floodlight).
The cross-device functionality of the Home app ensures you receive alerts on all your devices. A particularly cool feature is that on Apple TV, notifications pop up as a Picture-in-Picture (PIP) window while you’re watching something else. These integrations are where Apple excels, and where non-HomeKit solutions may lack. The universal availability of the Home app on all Apple devices is a major advantage; I can conveniently monitor my cameras on my Mac or even my watch whenever desired. How many third-party security systems can provide an app across devices beyond just the iPhone?
Notification Controls Need Improvement
While there are various notification customization options available, the Home app could still benefit from additional features. This is outside of Eve’s control since all HomeKit management is handled by Apple software. We can only hope for future OS updates to introduce enhancements in this area.
One frustration of mine is that the people detection system cannot differentiate between those facing toward or away from the camera. With the Eve Outdoor Cam positioned to view the driveway, it detects individuals approaching but also those leaving. Consequently, I receive notifications almost every time anyone exits my home, as HomeKit identifies someone in the view but cannot recognize their face if they are facing away. Although this might seem minor, receiving notifications for every person leaving quickly becomes tiresome.
Another issue I have is that the system doesn’t allow for silencing repeated alerts for the same individual. For example, on trash night, if I’m going in and out multiple times, I receive an alert each time. It would be great to have an option that pauses notifications for a short time when the same individual is detected again.
Additionally, there is no way to manage the activity detection status with automations. For instance, I could imagine using a motion sensor that disables camera notifications when triggered, thus minimizing false alerts for those exiting the house. Unfortunately, this capability is not facilitated since the camera’s operational status isn’t exposed as a target for automation (with the Eve Outdoor Camera’s light being automatable, but not the camera itself).
Eve Outdoor Cam Exclusively Works With HomeKit
A common concern with HomeKit and smart home technology is reliability. A quick search online reveals many users faced with HomeKit issues. While I know geofencing rules can sometimes behave unpredictably and automations in iOS 16 may not activate as expected for some, my experience has been satisfactory overall.
I do encounter an occasional bug where the Home app indicates the camera’s live feed is in use by another device (only one device can view it at a time), even when no device is active. I’ve traced this problem to a glitch in the Home app on Mac; by monitoring system activity and terminating the homed processes, I can restore camera functionality.
Eve’s reliance on HomeKit is beneficial since it eliminates the need for additional accounts, extra cloud fees, and often provides superior performance compared to competitors that only dabble with HomeKit. However, note that if you ever drift away from HomeKit, the camera will become non-functional with other systems. If you have any Android users in your household, they will be out of luck.
Conclusion
Considering its exclusivity to the Apple ecosystem, I can confidently endorse the Eve Outdoor Cam. While smart home cameras can be a luxury investment, the Eve camera certainly delivers quality; the comfort of monitoring my driveway remotely and receiving alerts when someone approaches provides invaluable peace of mind. Additionally, the ability to communicate with someone at the door in real-time functions as a digital smart doorbell. The combination of a hassle-free security camera alongside a motion-activated floodlight makes for a compelling all-in-one solution.
You can purchase the Eve Outdoor Cam for $249. This review evaluated the black variant; a white version is also available.
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