Traditional outdoor floodlights, known for their ability to broadcast intense light with a wide beam, are ideal for lighting up driveways, pools, and every other part of your property. Most floodlight fixtures use a motion sensor to automatically turn the lights on when they detect motion, but if you want to see who or what triggered your lights, you need a smart floodlight camera.

A smart floodlight camera combines an outdoor floodlight and an outdoor security camera into a single fixture. These devices use Wi-Fi to connect to your home network and allow you to control them with your phone, and in some cases, your voice. Most sport durable designs that can handle any type of weather.

However, not all floodlight cams offer the same features. For example, some pricier models have smart detection and recognition capabilities. Others offer broad support for third-party smart home devices and platforms. We cover everything you need to know about choosing a smart floodlight camera below, but make sure to check out our reviews for more specific information on each option.

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Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro

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Light at Any Time of Day (or Night)

Most smart floodlight cameras use dual-LED lamps to light the way, although there are some single-spotlight models we also like. A typical bulb in a smart floodlight puts out anywhere from about 500 to 3,000 lumens; the combined brightness of the two bulbs in dual-LED configurations typically outshines single-bulb models. For context, a 3,000-lumen LED bulb is roughly equivalent to a 200-watt incandescent bulb.

Typically smart floodlight cameras don’t use replaceable bulbs, but you can expect them to last anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 hours of usage.

Any model worth its salt can respond to motion and sound events, but some fixtures even let you dim the lights and/or create custom lighting effects. If you use Alexa, Google, or Siri voice commands to control your smart home devices, make sure your floodlight cam supports independent voice controls for the lights and camera. You should also ensure that it is capable of streaming video feeds to an indoor smart display such as an Amazon Echo Show or a Google Nest Hub.

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See Your Surroundings

The camera component of a smart floodlight is just as important as the light, enabling you to see what’s going on outside. Many offer the same features that you get with standalone outdoor security cameras, including the ability to respond to motion detection events by turning on the lights, sending an alert, or recording the event.

The cameras typically house Wi-Fi or Bluetooth radios that you can use to connect the fixture to your home network, and feature weather-resistant enclosures that protect them from the elements. If you have a lot of smart devices on your network, consider choosing a dual-band camera that can connect to either the widely used 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band or the less-crowded 5GHz band.

Wyze Cam Floodlight

Most floodlight cameras record 1080p video, but a handful can go up to 2K. While you get a sharper image from a 2K camera, streaming video smoothly at that resolution requires a strong network connection. Moreover, higher-resolution video requires more storage space and may result …….

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-floodlight-cameras