Belkin NetCam HD
A camera built for home automation.
About as vanilla as IP cameras get, the NetCam HD offers a just-the-basics HD solution, with its prime virtue being its integration with Belkin’s WeMo home automation products.
It does offer a relatively seamless consumer experience, with nicely tuned mobile software and a web interface that’s easy to use. We had no issues setting it up with only the mobile app. It doesn’t have local storage — if you’re willing to subscribe to Belkin’s Cloud+ services (the camera comes with one month free), it will upload recorded clips and captured images to the cloud.
There were shortcomings, however. In particular, the limited sensitivity and movement detection options would often result in way too many notifications, to the point where you’d likely just start ignoring them.
The hardware is also limited. There’s no wired option, and the design of the camera limits your positioning and facing options. It’s designed to sit on a shelf, with the camera rotating around a post for positioning.
The sensor is capable of 720p recording at 25fps, with the option to take 2MP stills. We found the quality of the image okay — colours were a little washed, and the night vision a little blurry — but it’s good enough for most security applications.
With the aforementioned WeMo home automation system, you can use triggers from the camera to control other WeMo-connected appliances, like turning a light or appliance on. It’s a nice system, letting people set up simple home automation systems without great expense or required expertise.