8 Best Floodlight Cameras of 2022 - Reviewed

2022-07-29 21:59:44 By : Ms. Vicky Lee

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Eufy's Cam Pro 2 is a 360-degree smart home security floodlight camera that's bright and full of compelling features. Read More

A value-packed floodlight camera with customizable features that puts out up to 2600 lumens of brightness and supports up to two Wyze V3 cameras. Read More

Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Pro is a capable, Alexa-friendly smart security device that offers 1080p HDR resolution. Read More

Google’s Nest Cam with Floodlight justifies a large price tag with good features and great performance, but faces increasingly tough competition. Read More

The Eve Outdoor Cam relies heavily on its exceptional HomeKit integration to win the hearts of iOS-based smart home enthusiasts. Read More

Like video doorbells and outdoor security cameras, floodlight cameras are one of the first lines of defense when it comes to home security. Floodlight cameras can record motion events near your home, notify you as that motion occurs in real-time, and illuminate your space with lots of bright light in the process.

After hands-on testing, we’re confident the best floodlight camera is the Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro (available at Amazon) . This premium smart floodlight camera is loaded with phenomenal features that set it apart from the rest of a competitive group of floodlights, including a 360-degree view and free local storage.

For something cheaper, the Wyze Cam Floodlight (available on Amazon) blends stellar features and ease-of-use together, offering plenty of bang for your buck. However, there are plenty of great smart floodlight cameras on the market to choose from.

Here are the best floodlight cameras we tested, ranked in order:

The Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro is the best floodlight camera you can buy right now.

The Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro is full of features and powerful performance. It offers impressive recording capabilities, an outstanding collection of customizable traits, and versatile smart assistant support among other useful features.

The Cam 2 Pro is equipped with powerful human detection functionality, as well as an IP65 weather resistance rating and compatibility with both Alexa and Google Assistant (but not Siri).

The floodlight has a 100dB emergency siren, 8GB of internal storage, and the ability to add other storage solutions like cloud storage or a NAS.

Beyond the features, the Cam 2 Pro is just darn good at being a smart floodlight. It can record detailed, 2K-quality video often illuminated by lights that offer 3000 lumens of brightness. The Cam 2 Pro can also rotate 360 degrees, allowing users to completely survey their surroundings if need be.

The only downside to the Cam 2 Pro is its limited installation options. Those who invest in the Cam 2 Pro will be forced to perform a hardwired installation, whereas some competitors offer a battery-powered option to make setting up the floodlight more of a universal experience.

Still, even with the lack of installation options, the Cam 2 Pro possesses a combination of high-end features and top-notch performance that’s undoubtedly hard to beat.

Read our full review of the Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro

The Wyze Cam Floodlight is one of the best floodlight cameras for the money, packing in optimum smarts and value.

As the resident, sub-$100 smart floodlight on this list, the Wyze Cam Floodlight was all but a shoo-in for best value. It also helps that the centerpiece of the system itself is the Wyze Cam Outdoor, which is one of the best outdoor security cameras you can buy.

It earned that honor thanks to its stellar performance, range of customizable features and simple app interface, and the floodlight version of this standout product is no different.

The Wyze Cam Floodlight doesn’t deliver the best performance on the market, but it doesn’t really have to. It just needs to be competitive and reliable. You can check off competition, thanks to its 1080p resolution, up to 2,600 lumens of brightness, a built-in microphone with 90 decibel speaker, and the ability to add a second Wyze Cam into the mix for an expanded field of view.

As well as reliable, the floodlight proved to be accurate and responsive. Plus, with an IP65 weather resistance rating, the floodlight seems built to last despite its cheap price tag.

The Wyze app is simple but effective, offering straightforward options like “Sound”, “Record,” “Speak,” and “Take Photos,” when tapping into the camera’s live feed. Beyond that, you have the ability to customize your floodlight experience to taste.

The app’s Rules tab lets you set schedules and create location triggers to facilitate actions from other Wyze smart devices upon your arrival home. Elsewhere, predetermined motion zones are available to help with controlling the floodlight’s surprisingly bright lights.

Both cloud and local storage options are available with the Wyze Cam Floodlight, the latter coming by way of a micro SD card slot. The floodlight starts you off with 14 days worth of cloud video storage. To unlock features like unlimited event video length, back-to-back recordings, and advanced detection features, a $1.99 per month Wyze Cam Plus subscription is required.

Even with a paid subscription, the Wyze Cam Floodlight offers the most bang for your buck.

Read our full review of the Wyze Cam Floodlight

Some features require paid plan

Hi, I’m Nick Woodard, a California-based tech freelance writer who covers smart home and AV for Reviewed. I’ve reviewed everything from smart sprinkler controllers to smart garage door controllers and Dolby Atmos soundbars. Recently, I reviewed my way into being a resident expert on smart floodlights.

To find the top products, we originally researched the market and purchased and tested some of the top floodlights available. As the floodlight space continued to grow, we retested our top picks and introduced several new floodlights into the mix to see how they stacked up to each other. We installed each floodlight, making notes about the installation procedures, in-app setup process, and reliability.

Testing included evaluating video quality, audio quality, responsiveness, network reliability, and app usability on a numerical scale.

Floodlights are different from the standard outdoor security camera in that they are essentially two products in one.

With that in mind, we extensively tested both the camera and the actual floodlight with each product, comparing everything from the time it took to load a live stream to the brightness and accuracy of the floodlight as soon as motion was detected at night.

A paid subscription plan is becoming commonplace with almost any smart home security gadget like a smart doorbell, and a smart floodlight is no different. The home security space has transformed into a pay-to-protect environment in this regard. If you want access to the best features like continuous surveillance and special detection alerts for people, cars, animals, and packages, then subscribing to a paid plan is the way to go.

As an alternative, some floodlights do offer built-in storage or the option to add a microSD card to record events without uploading to a cloud. But most of the time, a paid plan unlocks an entirely new set of features and capabilities that can help add an extra layer of protection to your home.

Floodlight cameras are great for watching over garages, sheds, and the sides of your home.

One of the most fundamental things to consider when shopping for smart floodlights is installation. Some floodlights are hardwired, others are battery-powered, and others still plug into a wall outlet. Based on the resources you have at home, you’ll want to pick a floodlight that matches the installation style that you’re best suited for.

For instance, if you have an existing floodlight above your garage, you likely have the existing wiring necessary to swap it out for a smart alternative. If you don't, a battery-powered option might be ideal, since you won’t have to deal with tapping into a nearby junction box to find the appropriate wiring. Or, if you have an outdoor outlet handy, the plug-and-play floodlights of the world represent the least intensive install. That said, they are often the least aesthetically pleasing, since they by nature have an exposed cable attached directly to them.

There are great options in every category. It just comes down to choosing the installation type that works best for your home.

Features like two-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and the option for local storage are all things to consider before investing in a smart floodlight.

Two-factor authentication, which sends a code to your mobile device to verify it’s really you, is available on several floodlights and is absolutely something to seek out and activate to help keep your smart home safe and secure. That way, if someone tries to hack into your account, you will receive an alert and can quickly take care of the problem.

Make sure you create a strong password that’s unique to your floodlight’s app. Data breaches feel like the norm as of late, making it all the more important not to reuse passwords across multiple websites and apps.

Finally, when using these devices with smart assistants like Alexa, Google, and Siri, you can help protect your privacy by regularly deleting your voice recordings and muting the speaker’s mic when it’s not in use.

Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Pro represents an incredibly capable smart security blanket for your home. Between its 1080p HDR resolution, up to 2,000 lumens of brightness, and advanced control options, it’s an easy option for anyone familiar with Ring products to consider mounting above their garage.

Easy doesn’t necessarily mean best, of course. While Ring’s floodlight offers solid performance across the board, it has a few weaknesses when juxtaposed against its competitors.

The specs fall short when it comes to viewing angles, and there are no free video storage options (a Ring Protect Plan, which includes up to 60 days of cloud storage, starts at $3 per month). It also doesn't work with Google Home or Apple HomeKit.

Ring does work exceptionally well with Amazon’s smart devices, making it a great choice if you’ve got Alexa-enabled hockey pucks or displays littered across your home.

Furthermore, when Eufy’s Floodlight Cam 2 Pro enters the conversation, most of the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro’s specs fall just short of the (slightly) more expensive Eufy alternative.

Still, the Ring Floodlight comes with a slew of strong features like 3D Motion Detection for creating customized motion zones, color night vision, and two-way talk with advanced noise reduction.

Plus, the floodlight has a compact, stealthy footprint as well as an app that is jam packed with options and settings to help you completely customize your security camera.

Even though Ring’s Floodlight Cam Wired Pro doesn’t quite stack up to the competition on paper, its performance speaks for itself. For current Ring owners and Amazon smart home aficionados, this floodlight is an ideal addition to help keep a watchful eye on your home’s surroundings.

Read our full review of the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro

Google’s Nest Cam with Floodlight has some good things going for it, including quick and simple set up, impressive overall performance, and detailed security features. The floodlight camera runs through the Google Home app (not the Nest app), which has a straightforward interface that's easy to use.

It also comes with reliable, security-focused features at no cost like a three-hour event history and free intelligent alerts that can differentiate between people, animals, vehicles, and packages.

It records in 1080p resolution, has a 130-degree field of view, and features two adjustable floodlights at up to 2400 lumens, which is right in the middle of the pack. It works well with Google Assistant and you can view the live stream on Nest smart displays.

However, as we’d expect from a Google product, it is not compatible with Alexa or Siri, which cuts back on its versatility.

If you already have an existing Google Nest smart home setup (or are interested in setting one up), the Nest Cam with Floodlight is a great home security supplement. But if you only need one or two smart floodlight cameras, there are other options in our guide that offer more flexibility.

Read our full review of the Nest Cam with Floodlight

The Eve Cam Outdoor is a great example of what can only be described as a “peak niche” product. Not only is it part of the relatively small (but quickly expanding) smart floodlight ecosystem, but the Eve Cam Outdoor is also one of the few in the space that is exclusively compatible with iOS products. (Android users, keep scrolling.)

To that end, though, it does excel at catering to its user base. The floodlight uses HomeKit Secure Video, which is an Apple feature that employs iCloud to stream and store video clips from applicable smart cameras and doorbells.

HomeKit Secure Video’s biggest selling point is security; any activity detected by the Eve floodlight is stored securely and fully encrypted in iCloud. Plus, live streams are accessed directly through an available base (be it an iPad, HomePod Mini, or Apple TV), averting the cloud entirely.

Outside of the Apple-centric features, the Eve Outdoor Cam does have a good specs sheet. That includes a 157-degree field of view, a 1080p resolution and an IP55 weather resistance rating.

However, it was the most difficult floodlight install we’ve had to date, mainly because the camera’s mounting hardware was too small to fit across a standard outdoor junction box.

When it was secured into place, though, the Eve Outdoor Cam presented a rather unique, refreshing design that sets it apart from other competing floodlights.

Read our full review of the Eve Outdoor Cam

The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is one of the only battery-powered floodlight cameras available. In addition to liberating home owners and tech reviewers from the constraints of hard wiring and junction box locations, the Pro 3 Floodlight boasts an impressive collection of features.

The Pro 3 Floodlight offers 2K, HDR video resolution with a 160-degree field of view. The floodlight is also capable of 2,000 lumens of brightness, with the possibility of stretching to 3,000 lumens by opting for Arlo’s outdoor magnetic charging cable.

Elsewhere, the camera employs a single microphone with noise and echo cancellation, and offers compatibility with smart home ecosystems like Apple HomeKit, Amazon Echo, and Google Home.

Off paper, the Pro 3 Floodlight’s performance isn’t quite as spectacular, though it is still exceptional. The picture quality is as good as advertised, albeit there being a noticeable delay before the live feed gets pulled up in the Arlo app.

The camera also had some initial issues with maintaining an internet connection, though those concerns quickly dissipated as it settled into its perch above the garage. Additionally, the Pro 3 Floodlight’s two-way talk was stellar, coming in second to perhaps only its Ring counterpart when it came to clarity on both ends of the communication.

To unlock features like person, package, vehicle and animal detection, activity zones, and smoke or CO alarm detection, Arlo does require an Arlo Secure subscription. The subscription also adds unlimited video cloud storage for 30 days and additional protection against theft of locally stored videos on your device into the mix.

Works with all Aleaxa, Siri, and Google Assistant

Subscription required to access best features

The Feit Electric floodlight security camera is living proof that sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be generic. The floodlight’s design is as nondescript as you can imagine, with no standout features when it comes to looks.

But it is one of the cleanest, easiest hardwired floodlight to install. It fit neatly over my existing junction box, and included a handy spacer that left plenty of, well, space to handle wiring. Overall, it was a simple set up to match a simple design.

The performance isn’t half bad either. It doesn’t stand up to the likes of Eufy, Ring or even Arlo, but Feit Electric does offer a respectable 1080p resolution and a whopping 3,000 lumens of brightness.

It has optional onboard storage thanks to an open SD card slot, and is compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri. In those respects, the Feit Electric floodlight is a bit of a bargain.

That’s sort of where the rubber meets the road for Feit Electric, though, as it doesn’t expand much beyond basic. There’s no available subscription plan or access to cloud storage to speak of. The Feit Electric floodlight security camera's accompanying app itself is strictly utilitarian; there’s no fun frills or extra features to tap into.

You have the ability to screenshot a live view, engage in two-way audio, record, and turn on or adjust the brightness or the floodlight.

That’s it, and for some, that’s exactly the kind of no-nonsense floodlight that they could get on board with.

Works with Alexa, Google, Siri

Toucan’s floodlight stands alone on this list as the only floodlight that plugs into an electrical outlet. Much like its hardwired counterparts, the nature of an outlet-powered light means that the Toucan is limited to being in close proximity (26 feet) to the source of power it requires.

The good news is that once you find an available outlet around the perimeter of your home, it’s as simple as mounting the floodlight hardware, plugging in, and letting the app guide the rest of the setup from there.

The Toucan floodlight meets most of the industry standards with 1080p resolution, an IP56 weather resistance rating, two-way audio and 24 hours of free video history. It’s not quite as bright as the other floodlights on the list, at around 1,200 lumens of brightness.

Plus, Toucan has a 110db speaker and siren that is all but guaranteed to startle any potential intruder.

You can set how long you want the floodlight to be on after it detects motion, how long you want the siren to go off for when you trigger it, and determine the sensitivity of the camera’s motion detection.

It may not have the most intuitive interface, but Toucan does offer plenty of options to help customize your floodlight experience to your personal taste.

Nick Woodard is a tech journalist specializing in all things related to home theater and A/V. His background includes a solid foundation as a sports writer for multiple daily newspapers, and he enjoys hiking and mountain biking in his spare time.

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