Ring Spotlight Cam – Brilliant Spotlight Camera Wired

We added one of these to complete a Ring Pro ringtone that we installed recently. Like other Ring products, they provide plenty of installation extras, including tools, and the instructions were pretty good. It was easy to add the device to my existing Ring app, make firmware updates, etc. However, there are some limitations that we found frustrating.

• Connect your Ring camera with Alexa then enable announcements to be alerted when motion is detected. Talk to visitors through compatible Echo devices by saying “Alexa, talk to the front door”.
• Lets you see, hear and speak to visitors from your phone, tablet and PC
• With a Ring Protect Plan (subscription sold separately), record all your videos, review what you missed for up to 60 days, and share videos and photos.
• Sends alerts as soon as motion is detected
• Plugs into standard power outlets for non-stop power
• Monitors your home in 1080HD video with infrared night vision and Live View
• Includes built-in LED light strips and a siren

Pro:
Excellent instructions
– Good user setup experience (although we struggled with the Ring Pro, so maybe we benefited from the knowledge gained through that painful process)
– You don’t have to worry about batteries dying with the plug-in model
– Easy-to-set/edit motion capture settings
– With your subscription, stored video captures are often very useful

Against:
– There is no wired Ethernet option -this is a security camera – why only WiFi?
– No 5 GHz WiFi support (great monitoring)
– LEDs activated by the “spotlight” movement kill the night vision of the camera, so as soon as the movement is detected, the lights come on and the camera can’t see how far in the dark. Calculate that the visible distance is reduced by 60% when LEDs are turned on. There is no way to disable the “spotlight” LEDs that come in response to the movement, although the application suggests it can.
– There is no model to replace infrared LEDs with white LEDs. I’d rather have a camera that doesn’t generate any visible light, but can see a lot more at night than an expensive motion-activated luminary.
– The camera support must be installed with the cable facing down. Despite having a turn lock connector that suggests that different rotations are possible, attempting any other alignment will damage the power pins. The instructions don’t warn against this.

The plug can’t be removed from the cable. If you want to pass the cable through a wall to make the installation cleaner, you need to cut the cable plug and cancel the warranty.Photo:Ring

Summary – this is an OK camera, but it lacks some features that would have made it much better. You will need strong, clear 2.4 GHz WiFi where you plan to install this. Be prepared to pay for your subscription if you buy this.