Last week I looked at the state of HomeKit Secure Video. While I agree that a lot of work will be needed to meet user needs’ needs in 2024, I also agree that for privacy-conscious people, this is still the best way to use smart homecameras. Eve Cam is one of the best cameras on the market for HomeKit secure video.
HomeKit Weekly – This series focuses on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything related to the Apple smart home system.
Why do we love Eve Cam?
I believe that explaining the reasons for writing a review is the most important aspect of a review. I think it's really important for HomeKit rugged cameras to be able to say that this company doesn't have its own cloud service. Want to pay Eve instead of Apple to store your footage? Sorry, they don't offer such a service. Eva is all about Apple for her smart home camera photography and I love them for it.
The point of this article is that Eve Cam is the standard for HomeKit cameras intended for indoor use only. If you stop reading here, that's enough to know. Is this the cheapest HomeKit indoor camera? No, but Eve is the closest vendor to Apple, producing its own HomeKit products.
Unpacking the camera will only take a minute, but you will need to assemble a few parts. The camera is separate, so you need to select the AC adapter designed for your country and connect the included USB cable. Disconnecting the USB cable from the camera is a convenient feature because you can replace it with a longer (or shorter) cord in the future, or replace it if the end gets damaged. The main disadvantage of this product is that you will need power. Depending on the layout of your home, you may need to install an additional outlet or run wires back into the house. The upside is that you never have to worry about charging the battery. Unfortunately, we can't combine the convenience of a battery with the convenience of a wired connection (maybe someday?!?).
Like other Eve products, it's specifically built for HomeKit, so when setting up the camera you won't you will need another application. You will only need to download the Eve app if you want to update the firmware. The only step you need to take to set up the camera is to scan the included QR code in the Home app, add it to a room, and then set up recording settings. All HomeKit Secure Video-enabled cameras have recording options to suit all your desired security levels. When you're at home or away, you can set them to the following values:
- Completely off
- Sensor only (for HomeKit automation)
- Stream only
- Stream only
- Sensor only li>
- Streaming and recording
I'm putting this camera on my covered porch, so I'll set it to stream and record anytime when motion is detected (come on, recording 2/47!). The Eve camera has a magnetic base, so it can easily be placed on something metal and held in place. A few years ago, Eve updated the Eve app to allow flipped orientation, which also changes it inside the Home app. This feature is useful if you want to mount the camera under a shelf or on the ceiling.
HomeKit Secure Video
With Apple's 50GB iCloud+ Basic plan, you can use one HomeKit secure video camera. Buy the 200GB package and you can connect up to five cameras. Go all out by choosing the 2TB plan and you'll get unlimited HomeKit cameras at no extra cost on top of the regular iCloud plan. HomeKit Secure Video keeps a 10-day history of events, so you can rewind and check it if necessary. One of the benefits of Apple's service design is that post sizes don't take up iCloud storage space; Apple simply uses storage tiers to limit the number of cameras you can have at one time. If you're on the free iCloud plan, you can't record, but you can still stream live and get real-time motion alerts.
Learn more about HomeKit Secure Video.
Summary
Would I like to see a 2024 version of the Eve camera? I bet I would. I'd really like to see Eve come back with an updated model with higher quality video, a better microphone, Thread, and maybe even a battery-powered option, but this camera is still good. It was one of the first cameras I bought that supported HomeKit Secure Video, and I still recommend it for indoor use. Eve is HomeKit and HomeKit is Eve. This camera is a must-have for all HomeKit-enabled homes. Any disappointment I have with the Eve Cam is actually a disappointment with HomeKit Secure Video.
You can buy the Eve Cam on Amazon or directly from the Eve store.
