Canary The Canary/ Netatmo Welcome

Two security-camera systems to keep an eye on your home when you can’t

Internet-connected home-security cameras have been around for years, and the current trend is to offer a single easy-to-use box rather than a complex ‘system’. The Canary simplifies things even further by using an app (iphone, ipad or Android) to set things up. You can’t do it via a PC or web browser. The advantage is that setup is ea easy and fast: we had ou our Canary up and ru running in minutes. Ba Based on the location of your phone, it kn knows when you’ve left the house and will th then activate recording if iit detects motion, send sending you an alert so yo you can start mo monitoring. While you’ you’re in, you can choose whether it still records any motion (without alerting you) or doesn’t record at all.

We found this worked pretty well, but occasionally it disarmed itself, thinking we’d returned home, when we hadn’t. Like some other homemonitoring devices, the Canary also measures air quality by detecting certain compounds. We’re not convinced that this data is particularly useful, however.

The app is the only way to watch recordings back, and shows them conveniently in reverse chronological order. The Full HD video (sharper than the battery-powered Netgear Arlo – see our review, Issue 454) looks clear, but faces on the far side of a room appear quite small. Sound is recorded too, but was rather muffled. Although you can use the Canary without a subscription, you can only keep footage for 12 hours and download five clips, and you don’t get the ability to ‘bookmark’ significant moments. Plans range from $5 to $30 (about £3.50 to £21) per month.