I have been using Ring cameras and doorbells around my house for a couple of years.
Then Amazon went and bought a little company called Blink who sells more affordable cameras and I got curious. Could they stand up or beat their Ring counterparts?
The Blink Outdoor 4
The Blink Outdoor 4 is a simple camera to install and use. To get up and running, you will pull out of the box the camera and the sync module. The camera gets installed outside somewhere using screws. There is heaps of movement with the camera on the base, so you can easily position it to the angle you need. The sync module you have inside somewhere which is needed to connect the camera to the internet, but also stores recording locally.
Then with the app, setting it up is easy as, It walks you through the steps super easily, so there is no need for me to go through this. The main thing when it comes to installation is making sure you have your distances thought through. The Blink Outdoor 4 camera has to be within 30m of the sync module. This is pretty far, but this is in ideal conditions. Anything from metal walls, to your microwave can reduce this. When I was testing around my house, it was pretty seamless, but there were a couple of spots where there wasn’t a large distance but was obstructed and it caused some issues with video quality.
One of the biggest things the Blink Outdoor 4 Camera offers is the insane battery life.
It runs from two AA batteries and promises to run for up to two years. Unfortunately, I haven’t been using the camera for two years so can’t say for sure how long it will last, but it’s still very full after a couple of months use.
The camera gives you 1080p quality video, and captures 143 degrees which is pretty damn solid. While the hub stores an offline copy of the videos, to get online storage, but to get features like people detection, you need to get the subscription.
That comes in at $5 (NZD) (NZD) a month for a camera, or $15 for as many as you have. I kinda wish this sub covered all Amazon cameras so you could mix and match, but it is what it is.
Blink Mini 2
Unlike the Blink Outdoor 4, the Blink Mini 2 is a cable only camera.
This one is pretty damn incredible for the price. It is an easy to install camera that can also be mounted to the wall, so long as you can run the cable to it.
Just like the Blink Outdoor 4 it offers 1080p video quality and 143 degrees which is really amazing given the size and price of the camera. Installing it is just as easy as the Blink Outdoor 4 as well, and adding it to the Blink app is a piece of cake. You will be up and streaming the content within minutes.The Blink Mini 2 also doesn’t require using the sync module, so it doesn;t come with one in the box. But if you want to store video recording locally you will need one.
The Blink Mini 2 itself is waterproof, but the cable it comes with in the box isn’t. This means that you can use it outside if you buy a Weather Resistant power adapter (more on that soon) but otherwise it’s an inside camera. This is kinda cool because if you plan to use it inside you can, and if you use it outside you can spend the extra moneys.
The Blink Mini 2 does offer something that the Blink Outdoor 4 doesn’t and that’s a little spotlight.
This LED spotlight is enough to light up a decent area giving you colour imagery at night. It’s really bloody cool. The biggest weakness is the motion capture. The Blink Outdoor 4 has way better motion detection, having said that, the motion detection on the Blink Mini 2 was fine and still grabbed the majority of movement.
Blink Weather Resistant 4m Power Adaptor
The Blink Weather Resistant Adapter is great. 4m is a great length to reach up high or far.
If you have an exterior power plug you can get one of your cameras within 4m of it. Thanks to a piece in the middle with screws it’s super easy to keep the cable nice and tight against a wall to help when you are installing it.
Best of all, it means your Blink Mini 2 becomes an external security camera, and your Blink Outdoor can be set up so you never have to worry about the battery. It’s a fantastic add on for $20 (NZD) that makes complete sense to be separated so you only buy one if you’ll use it.
Should you go Blink?
Blink makes a damn good argument for checking them out.
The Blink Mini 2 for $80 (NZD), and the Blink Outdoor 4 for $170 (NZD) are incredibly reasonably priced.
If you are just looking at getting your first cameras then these ones would do you well.
The Blink subscription to add things like people detection and online video storage comes in at $5 (NZD) a month for one camera, or $15 (NZD) for as many cameras as you want.
This is reasonable but it would be cool if it could be lumped together so you can mix and match for the one fee.
