This post brought to you by Dropcam. All opinions are 100% mine.
It's been three long years since we spent any serious time with the good ol' Dropcam. It's seen a couple at least one iteration before now. That was the Dropcam HD. Now the company has a new personal eye for you to remotely keep tabs on anything that needs monitoring. Dubbed Dropcam Pro, this low-foot print video camera is great for remotely staying in the know and monitoring your pets, business, home security or monitoring the precious new born in the next room.
The new Dropcam Pro features double the zoom capabilities with a wide angle lens that shirks the need for any sort of pan/tilt functionality. Yet how great can she really be, ringing in at a pauper-friendly couple 100 bucks? Nonbeliever, prepare to be converted.
The Dropcam sports a no-nonsense design. The bulk of the unit resembles a widened exclamation point with a hinge at the bottom where it connect to the flat circular stand. It weighs a mere 5.7 ounces and ships with the main camera, 12ft miniUSB charging/data cable, 5V DC, 2.0A wall adapter and a single setup card. It's an elegant minimalist design that lends itself to numerous placement options including both accentuating an existing setup or to easily conceal the Dropcam completely from sight.
Getting it up and cranking is super simple, for Mac, Windows PCs, Android and iOS devices. We're connecting via Windows 7 64-bit. Use the included USB cable to connect your laptop or desktop computer to the Dropcam. The Dropcam signature Launch icon will appear in My Computer. Launch from here and follow the onscreen instructions.
These kick up your browser. For me, a setup page was created in Google Chrome. You're then asked to connect to your home network
Setup only takes a few very short minutes. After which, the Dropcam is ready to film live, or save recordings to the cloud. You can easily switch between the two right on the UI, which works in the browser or through an iOS or Android app. The Dropcam is replete with several cool features, such as location awareness. Set the camera to turn off or on based on where you are. You make your footage public or share it with select friends. You can also set a schedule for the Drop, where it can turn on/off based on the day of the week. Optional cloud storage allows you to view footage from up to a month in the past.
The Dropcam has a 130 degree field of view, negating the need for panning and rotating. It's also endowed with 8x zoom. That's twice the zoom of the previous Dropcam. You can also customize alert notifications. When movement or detectable noises are picked up over the Dropcam's mic, markers are added to the viewable timeline so such can identified easily. To keep you video safe, the Dropcam uses the same encrypted security technology that banks employ to monitor financial data.
Simply put, the Dropcam is amazing! The ease of use for such a powerful device refreshing and empowering. The peace of mind it brings to home monitor far exceeds the price tag. Remember, outdoor use is mostly a no-no. But filming what's outside while the Dropcam is places safe n' cozy inside, is completely doable.
This post is sponsored by Dropcam
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