Defender Guard Professional Assessment: A Nice Finances Safety Digital camera

Most inexpensive out of doors safety cameras I’ve examined have one evident challenge, or the producer prioritized superfluous options over the fundamentals. Who cares about Alexa help if the video feed is uneven? Is it actually a discount if I’ve to join a month-to-month subscription simply to view my clips?

It’s not excellent, however the Defender Guard Professional is a refreshingly easy out of doors safety digicam that delivers clear video and helps fundamental options most folk need—all at an reasonably priced value. Video clips are saved regionally, there aren’t any hidden additional charges—it even comes with a MicroSD card—and it labored reliably for me (after just a little tweaking).

Shaky Setup

Let me get the unhealthy stuff out of the best way. The worst a part of my expertise with the Defender Guard Professional was the setup. There are two causes for this, and also you’ll wish to think about them before you purchase this digicam. 

First, the Defender Guard Professional solely helps the two.4-GHz Wi-Fi band, which is frequent for safety cameras, however it will probably current issues throughout setup in case your telephone will not be linked to the two.4-GHz band in your Wi-Fi community. Some routers allow you to change bands through the app, or you’ll be able to create a visitor community that often operates on the two.4-GHz band. I downloaded the Defender Guard app, signed up for an account (I used to be happy to see two-factor authentication), and scanned the QR code on the digicam, nevertheless it took a number of makes an attempt so as to add due to this challenge.

Second, the Defender Guard Professional is a tethered digicam that wants an influence outlet. You get a prolonged energy cable (10 toes) with an non-compulsory extension (25 toes), however the cable will not be waterproof. The digicam is designed to be wall-mounted on the outside of your own home (screws are equipped), and you will need to drill a gap to feed the cable by—solely a brief part of the ability cable on the finish is waterproof. This digicam helps power-over-Ethernet, so you can too use an Ethernet cable, although this isn’t supplied. The digicam itself is IP67-rated for water and dirt resistance and has braved wet Scotland with none issues.

A 32-gigabyte MicroSD card comes within the field with the Defender Guard Professional, however you can too purchase it with a 128-GB or 256-GB card (or insert your individual). For those who plan to show steady recording on, it’s in all probability value snagging a higher-capacity card, however for recording occasions, 32 GB is a lot.

Clear View

With a max 2,560 x 1,440-pixel decision, the Defender Guard Professional affords pleasingly clear and easy video at 30 frames per second. You possibly can pinch to zoom in (as much as 16X digital zoom) and nonetheless see an affordable stage of element. You can too change to a decrease decision in case your Wi-Fi’s vary is proscribed, however video high quality inevitably suffers. The principle weak point is the dearth of HDR, so brilliant areas can seem blown out (keep away from putting in the digicam in a spot that will get direct solar).

Screenshot: Defender Guard through Simon Hill