In the case of Ring’s lineup of home security cameras, there’s actually no shortage of models to pick from. Whether you’re desirous about adding surveillance to a couple of rooms in your property or need to create a cohesive net of Wi-Fi-powered monitoring for each room, together with a couple of outdoor locations, there’s a Ring camera that may get the job done.
Like many DIY home security solutions, it might be a bit daunting to sift through the various kinds of cameras and other security peripherals that Ring offers, but that’s where we are available in. We’ve been writing about and testing Ring products for years, so in the case of adding a Ring camera to your property, we all know exactly what we’re talking about.
To show you how to pick one, two, or eight Ring cameras to your domicile and adjoined acreage, we’ve gone ahead and created this Ring security camera buying guide, covering each of the seven major Ring cameras. Read on to learn in regards to the company’s impressive tech, and don’t forget to envision out the FAQ at the top.
Ring Highlight Cam Pro
Versions:
Key features: 1080p HDR, Color Night Vision, 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View
Field of view: 180 degrees (horizontal), 80 degrees (vertical)
Available colours: Black and white
Best for: Property owners that want one of the best lens, recording, and motion-tracking capabilities for monitoring outdoor environments.
The Highlight Cam Pro is considered one of Ring’s newest outdoor camera releases, and it’s the corporate’s most advanced camera thus far. Featuring 1080p HDR (High Dynamic Range) recording and live footage, never has the footage from a Ring camera of any kind looked so good, which is significant in the case of maintaining a tally of your property, especially when nighttime rolls around.
The HDR angle is nothing to shake a stick at either. This picture standard might be found on every little thing from TVs and cameras to one of the best streaming devices in the marketplace, allowing for brighter and more colourful imagery. And in the case of home security, nothing is more vital than getting as much clarity out of your camera(s) as possible.
Features like 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye View also go a good distance in ensuring peace of mind for your property and surrounding acreage, with the previous add-on using radar technology to permit the Highlight Pro to initiate a recording once a subject is inside range of your property. The latter feature uses that very same radar tech to create a bird’s eye “breadcrumb” trail of a subject’s pathway onto and off of your property, with each 3D Motion Detection and Bird’s Eye working in unison with whatever customizable motion zones you create to maintain things under lock and key.
That’s on top of two powerful LED spotlights, Color Night Vision, two-way talk, and dual-band connectivity for bandwidth-starved Wi-Fi networks.
Ring Highlight Cam Plus
Versions:
Key features: 1080p HD Video, Color Night Vision, Advanced Motion Detection
Field of view: 140 degrees (horizontal)
Available colours: Black and white
Best for: Homeowners that need a solid HD outdoor camera but don’t need to splurge on a full floodlight model.
Equipped with lots of the same features as the exceptional Highlight Cam Pro, in the event you don’t want the extra-laborious job of mounting and installing considered one of the Floodlight Cam variants, the Highlight Cam Plus is a superb alternative for properties that require outdoor monitoring.
Available in black and white finishes, the Highlight Cam Plus is available in wired, battery, and solar configurations, allowing you to decide on the Cam Plus that’s best to your security needs. Mounting the camera in a location where external wiring isn’t available? Either the battery or solar versions often is the most suitable choice(s). Have access to in-home wiring and would fairly skip having to recharge a battery once in a blue moon? Go for the wired unit.
With its 140-degree horizontal field of view, the Highlight Plus utilizes 1080p HD recording and live views to deliver crystal-clear footage from the camera to the Ring app. Other great add-ons include two-way talk, color night vision, a siren, and two motion-triggered LED lights.
Unlike the Highlight Cam Pro though, the Highlight Plus is barely compatible with 2.4GHz network bands and doesn’t include 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View, or colorized Pre-Roll footage.
Ring Floodlight Cam Pro
Versions:
Key features: 1080p HDR, Color Night Vision, 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View
Field of view: 140 degrees (horizontal), 80 degrees (vertical)
Available colours: Black, white, graphite, dark bronze
Best for: Those in need of a strong floodlight system that may effectively light the best way from the automobile to the door while providing top-notch home security measures.
Erika Rawes/Digital Trends
When you’re in search of Ring’s most heavy-duty outdoor camera, look no further than the formidable Floodlight Cam Pro. Available in each wired and plug-in configurations, in addition to 4 different color options, the Floodlight Pro utilizes several of the identical must-have features of the aforementioned Highlight Pro model, but ups the ante in the case of LED power.
Two 2,000-lumen floodlights are a part of a sophisticated motion-triggered system, making the Floodlight Pro ideal for mounting near light-starved driveways and other outdoor areas of the house that would do with slightly extra illumination. And once motion is detected, the Floodlight Pro goes to work with its 1080p HDR camera that delivers sharp and arresting footage, day or night.
Other great add-ons include 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View, and the flexibility to hook up with either a 2.4GHz or 5GHz network band. You’ll also give you the chance to make use of two-way talk through the Ring app, and the onboard 115-decibel siren is sufficient to scare away intruders inside any distance of your property.
Do be mindful that each the Floodlight Pro and the following model on our list, the Floodlight Plus, require slightly more in the best way of installation, as each of those models require some sort of in-home power, whether that’s existing wiring or an AC outlet (no battery or solar options here).
Ring Floodlight Cam Plus
Versions:
Key features: 1080p HD Video, Color Night Vision, 105 decibel siren, Advanced Motion Detection
Field of view: 140 degrees (horizontal), 80 degrees (vertical)
Available colours: Black and white
Best for: Folks that want the facility and reliability of a Ring floodlight array but want to avoid wasting a couple of dollars on the entire price.
Serving because the “runner-up” to Ring’s Floodlight Cam Pro, the Plus iteration of this outdoor system delivers lots of the same features because the Pro version, with a few missing add-ons leading to a lower cost.
Available in wired and plug-in configurations, together with black and white color options, the Floodlight Plus captures 1080p HD footage for each recordings and live views and covers a 140-degree field of view, with 80 degrees of vertical adjustment. The Floodlight Plus also features two-way audio with noise cancellation, two 2,000-watt LED lights, and a loud and proud 105-decibel siren. And like many Ring cameras, the Floodlight Plus is compatible with Alexa, letting you employ devices just like the Echo Show to view real-time footage out of your outdoor cam.
Much like what’s missing on the Highlight Pro versus the Highlight Plus, the Floodlight Plus doesn’t include HDR recording, 3D Motion Detection, Bird’s Eye View, or dual-band connectivity options.
Ring Stick Up Cam
Versions:
Key features: 1080p HD Video, Night Vision
Field of view: 130 degrees (diagonal), 110 degrees (horizontal), 57 degrees (vertical)
Available colours: Black and white
Best for: Those in need of an indoor/outdoor camera, whether to observe pets, children, the rooms of the house that include heirlooms and other valuables, or something outside.
One among Ring’s most versatile camera options is the Ring Stick Up Cam. Able to being placed on a flat surface or wall-mounted, the Stick Up Cam is offered in plug-in, battery, and solar configurations, and comes with a lot of tried and true Ring features.
Chief amongst the accolades is 1080p HD recording and live views, together with two-way chat options for conferring with whoever is standing on the front stoop. Other must-haves include Color Night Vision and customizable motion zones for adjusting the radius around your property that the Stick Up will react to, which is very convenient in the event you’re mounting the camera outdoors.
Speaking of which, Color Night Vision is a significant selling point with this model, because the Stick Up Cam doesn’t feature any sort of onboard LED lighting and may only be connected to a 2.4GHz network band. That being said, though, in the event you’re in search of a bite-sized and inexpensive Ring camera that may function rain or shine, the Stick Up Cam is an important alternative.
Ring Stick Up Cam Elite
Versions:
Key features: 1080p HD Video, Night Vision, two-way talk with noise cancellation
Field of view: 150 degrees (horizontal), 85 degrees (vertical)
Available colours: Black and white
Best for: Homeowners that want consistent power for his or her Ring camera(s).
A less conventional Ring camera that chances are you’ll not hear about as much is the Ring Stick Up Cam Elite. Designed with similar lens and recording capabilities as the normal Stick Up Cam, the Elite iteration receives power using either a Power over Ethernet (PoE) adapter, or an indoor/outdoor power adapter. If the previous is what you’ll be using, you’ll have to make certain the Elite is situated near a router so which you could run Ethernet to and from the camera, networking peripherals, and the included PoE adapter.
Outside of the unique power requirements, the Stick Up Cam costs quite a bit greater than the normal Stick Up Cam but adds slightly extra lens-sight to the vertical axis (85 degrees, in comparison with 57 degrees with the regular Stick Up Cam), in addition to dual-band connectivity in the event you plan on adding the Elite to your Wi-Fi network.
Ring Indoor Cam
Key features: 1080p HD Video, Night Vision, two-way talk with noise cancellation
Field of view: 140 degrees (diagonal), 115 degrees (horizontal), 60 degrees (vertical)
Available colours: Black and white
Best for: Homeowners that need an inexpensive but powerful Ring camera for monitoring indoor locations.
John Velasco / Digital Trends
Last but not least, now we have the Ring Indoor Cam. It’s essentially the most basic Ring camera of the lineup, but don’t let “basic” turn you away. You’re still getting 1080p HD recordings and live footage, two-way chat, and the flexibility to either mount the camera on a wall or place it on a flat surface. You’ll also give you the chance to drag up real-time footage from the Indoor Cam using an Alexa-powered smart display, and features like Color Night Vision and customizable motion zones can be found with this model, too.
By way of connectivity, the Indoor Cam is essentially the most limited in its power and networking capabilities, requiring an AC outlet for power and a Wi-Fi network to pair up with (2.4GHz only). But in the event you’re in search of a cost-efficient method to monitor multiple rooms in your property, the Ring Indoor Cam is the corporate’s least expensive option and might be purchased in two- three- or four-packs.
Continuously asked questions
Do I would like a Ring subscription to make use of Ring cameras?
No, although you’ll be quite limited in what you’ll actually give you the chance to do together with your Ring cameras. A Ring Protect Plan means that you can make the most of the motion-triggered recordings of your Ring cams, supplying you with access to a cloud database with as much as 180 days of video history, person alerts and wealthy notifications, in addition to the flexibility to download as much as 50 videos through Ring.com directly. Ring Protect Plus also adds prolonged warranties for all of your Ring devices, and the Protect Pro tier adds 24/7 skilled monitoring, cellular data backup, and Alexa Guard Plus add-ons, too.
Without some sort of Ring Protect Plan subscription, you possibly can still use your Ring cameras for live footage, in addition to use motion alerts and two-way chat, but you won’t give you the chance to view recorded footage.
Can my Ring cameras be hacked?
Yes, but most Web-connected hardware is liable to hacking of some kind. That being said, to effectively deter hackers from jumping onto your network, it’s at all times a superb idea to vary your Wi-Fi password on a somewhat regular basis. Investing in a solid VPN is one other great method to safeguard your property’s Web connection.
Will Ring cameras work without Wi-Fi?
No. While your Ring camera can literally be powered so long as there’s power around, so as to capture footage and transmit video to your phone, tablet, or smart display, Ring cameras require some sort of Web connection, whether wired or wireless.
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