Blink XT Home Security Camera System - Add-on Camera for existing Blink customers - 1st Gen

The media could not be loaded. So, reviews can just be misleading. Let's say that up front. However, I am not bias and I do not have an agenda, so consider this a reliable one.BACKGROUNDI bought these because we recently bought a house and the local area has a high population of poor. Where this is the case, crime and desperation are unfortunately common to that culture. Since moving in, have had my car broken into and someone stole a package off my porch (which, by the way, is very hard to prove).THE PRODUCTDecided to try this system, because the ring just didn't seem like a value compared to this system. Some of the reviews for this product, however, warned that it had terrible range or wouldn't link. My experience so far is that this product works very well. One of the pictures above gives an idea of how far apart the synk module was from the wifi, and how far the cameras are from the module. The cameras maintain a good link with the module. The one that is 50 ft from the module sometimes takes a while to upload its videos and provide an alert due to a lower connection strength, but it has been faithfully connected so far. Instillation was pretty easy and setting up the system was one of the more painless electronics installs I've had to do. The app allows you to monitor your cameras from wherever you are, even if you are miles away. Frankly, I do not understand reviews with people saying connection does not work well or that they had to keep the synk module right next to the wifi. They must live in a bunker or some other reinforced structure! There are 3 walls between the front camera and the synk module, and it has 4 to 5 bars consistently. There are 2 walls and 30 ft or so between the synk module and the wifi unit, and it has not lost connection once.PROS-Easy to set up-Comparatively cheap for the initial system-A lot of great options in the app, including a GREAT beta testing element that lets you select which areas of the camera view will respond to motion, so, for example, if the camera includes part of a road, you can configure the camera to ignore motion on the road while monitoring motion in the rest of the field. Cool, huh?!-Pretty clear video-night vision that can be adjusted in sensitivity. At full sensitivity, the camera in the back lot was activating in response to motion that was at least 100 ft away.-Signal strength is pretty stable between camera and the synk.-New cameras can be added to the system at any time after you've got it set up.-You can set up multiple zones if you have more than one synk module. So...for example, if you have your own business, you could have one synk module monitoring your business and one that is monitoring your home, and control both from the app.-Amazon is backing this company, and that is a good thing. Amazon tends to maintain competitive standards for the products that they support.CONS-Price of peripherals is ridiculous. The yard sign, which is apparently of poor quality, is sold separately and is 30 dollars! Each additional camera is 95 dollars. I want to add 3 more cameras to this system before all is as I wish it to be.-If the signal is weak for a camera, it will take a while for the video to upload, and they system will not alert you to movement until that upload is done.-I have noticed that motion detection works better with daylight shots than it does with night vision shots. They will probably iron this out as development moves forward for this product.-I think the app for this should include an emergency call button that you can hit within the app to immediately contact the local law enforcement. Should you see something in your camera that needs police involvement, you will need to exit the app and call up the local police, and, in an emergency, every second counts.-Similarly, there is no option for door or window triggers other than motion detection. It would be great if BlINK added support to the synk module for actual alarm system features, so that you can add them in later if you wish. If they are smart, they will add this option on down the road.-This only comes with one security protection sticker and no yard sign. See above for the con of that.Neither Pro nor Con, but useful to know:-This product is clearly still in development, offering beta testing for new features. This is potentially a con, because it means there may be bugs that still need worked out. This is a pro because it means anything you don't like will probably get fixed if it is a problem for other users.-The two most important features in the app are sensitivity adjustment (you may need different sensitivity depending on what is in the view of the camera), and the zoning off of areas that you don't want the camera to detect motion within. Using these two features, this camera can be set up for just about any situation you need it for.-The cameras will pick up motion within 40 ft, but the motion sensor is very directional, and must be pointed towards the area that is important to monitor. As I stated, though it is officially within 40ft, at the highest sensitivity, my camera was picking up movement 100 ft away, and the movement that triggered it was a change in the lighting of that area, with car lights moving across that street.Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase, and I'm hoping to build my system up to 5 cameras. I recommend this product, and the cons I've listed are all things that will probably be addressed by the company as they continue development. I will update this review if there is more to add to my review, or if I feel the star rating needs to be changed, but, at this time, I'm very pleased and give this product 5 stars.

For two years I've been researching and wanting a surveillance system. I've looked at wired vs. wireless and was going to go with Arlo but then Blink came along. My mom has the Arlo system and even though these are very similar the only difference that I see is the battery life. I'm sure there are many differences but that's the only one I can think of off hand.I bought the two camera set up and installed the cameras by the front door and the back door. I own an in ground pool and for obvious reasons really wanted to be sure I was keeping an eye on the pool while I'm not at home. The set up of the module and the cameras was very simple and super easy. Download the app, plug in the module, create an account, set up each camera and done. Probably all together about 20mins maybe. The hardest part is finding a good spot for the camera. I did the installation at night in the dark and by myself. So with my phone close by I positioned and re-positioned the cameras until I felt like they had the view that I wanted and used the screws provided to install. I'm going to say that it was probably a good thing that the installation was at night due to the fact that where you have the camera and what is close to the camera will greatly effect the night vision. My front door is offset in the house with vinyl siding on both sides for about 18inches, if I installed the camera it was picking up light from the reflection of the siding from the street lights and all you could see was the siding. I had to install it on the outside of that offset and all was good. I can see my stairs and part of the driveway and even part of the street and intersection from my house. As for the pool it was just getting the entire pool in view with part of a gate close by and one corner of the house. I thought that I would want them closer to the door because if you walk up to each door (back and front) you are out of view. My solution is to install a camera on the inside of the house that could view those doors. For the most part all I wanted was a view to see if someone was where they could be at a time they shouldn't be.As for the camera settings I think that the sensitivity is going to be an issue because the next morning I was testing that and as soon as I enabled notifications I got several from the pool probably due to the water movement. I turned the sensitivity down to a 2 and so far it doesn't give me false alarms and with a test of me walking around it will detect motion. The views during the day are clear and crisp the night vision is also very good. Overall this was a great purchase and plan to add cameras as needed. One thing I would like to see is if they had some sort of skin to place over the camera to give it a little more camouflage. These are black camera on a lighter siding so to me they stand out. But they are very small in size and obviously serve their purpose. Also for the money this seems to be one of the best options compared to other systems. I will update the review as time passes but for now I'm very happy with this purchase and would highly recommend it.Update 6-13-18:Yesterday I was at the mall and when I enabled the motion sensors about two hours later I received a notification from the front door camera. After reviewing the footage it was as I expected, the UPS driver was delivering a package to my door. About 30mins later another notification and another carrier was delivering a package. This was a big reason why I went ahead with this purchase. We had normally had our packages sent to a business where my father-in-law worked and he just retired. So we had to start sending our packages to the house to which both me and my wife work during the day. This gives us the opportunity to see that we have a package and on any given day we are close enough to the house that we could run home and put the package away. The pool was a given reason but the package delivery is another good reason and will be the more useful reason for the purchase. One minor issue I couldn't get one of cameras to respond when asked to show footage, it would say camera is busy, after a few minutes it did work but at the time it was frustrating. I also saw that they did have some vinyl skins for the cameras were I ordered two of their desert camouflage. This will help them blend in to the their background and not stick out so much.