The Best Floodlight Security Cameras
Floodlight security cameras are a great way to light up your property. Shady areas around your home can make life easier for would-be burglars, and make it harder for you to plug in the car or take out the trash. Motion-triggered lighting is an essential minimum, but with a floodlight security camera, you get that and a videofeed. Floodlight cameras are also far more configurable and reliable than lights; they let you check in on your property from the office or bed, and they can alert you to intruders.
While this guide covers floodlight security cameras, we also have guides to the Best Outdoor Security Cameras, Best Indoor Security Cameras, and Best Video Doorbells.
Should I Buy a Floodlight Camera?
The short answer is yes. A floodlight security camera is a great way to add light and video surveillance to your property, and they work extremely well for dark areas. They can serve like motion-activated lights when you or your family are taking out the trash, adding safety and convenience to your property. The addition of a security camera enables you to receive alerts about intruders, record video events that you can review later, and drop in and check on the videofeed whenever you like from wherever you are. Most have two-way audio and siren functions to deter intruders. Smart alerts and AI detection enable you to filter for people, vehicles, and packages, though some features can require a subscription.
While it may be a hassle to install (some folks will prefer to hire an electrician for this), you don’t need to worry about charging a hardwired floodlight security camera, and they can generally get brighter than battery-powered cameras.
How Bright Can Floodlight Cameras Get?
Our recommended floodlight security cameras go from 800 lumens up to 3,000 lumens. To give you an idea, 800 lumens is about what you’d expect from a 60-watt bulb. While 800 to 1,500 lumens should be enough for a side path, enclosed area, or small yard, you’ll likely want between 2,000 and 3,000 lumens to illuminate a driveway, front, or backyard. Most floodlight cameras have a couple of panels that can be angled for your needs, and you should be able to adjust the brightness in the app. A few, such as the Reolink recommended below, allow you to tweak the color temperature as well, so you can select cool or warm light. With brighter floodlights, it’s also important to consider your neighbors, so think about placement carefully.
Should I Hire an Electrician?
The best floodlight security cameras are hardwired. Wired security cameras tend to outperform battery cameras because they don’t have to conserve power. This is particularly important for busy spots or if you want continuous recording. Wired floodlight cameras also tend to have brighter light panels for the same reason.
The wiring is not especially complicated, so if you have an existing outdoor light and you are confident about isolating and turning off the power to it, an experienced DIYer can easily install a floodlight camera. That said, it is always safer to hire an electrician, and it should be a relatively quick and affordable job.
How We Test Security Cameras
I test every security camera for at least two weeks, but often far longer. I run through the installation process and note any issues. I check that alerts come through correctly to my phone when I am home, connected to Wi-Fi, or when I'm away and connected to a cellular network. I usually place two or more cameras in the same spot to compare picture quality, motion detection, and other features. I consider the image resolution, frame rate, and audio quality of videos and the live feed. I also check for lag with the live feed. I test the performance during the day and see how it copes with the sun facing the lens, and how it performs in the dark at night (testing both floodlight and night vision). I check how long the live feed and recorded videos take to load at different times of the day.
I play around with the settings in the app to try every mode and feature. I test any smart-detection features to see if they can correctly identify people. I test the two-way audio for a short conversation and try the siren where applicable. I also test local storage and cloud storage options for recording videos. If there are any smart-home integrations, I set them up and check how quickly the feed loads on a smart display. I only recommend cameras that support 2FA and always test any additional security or privacy features.
Best Floodlight Camera
With two adjustable light panels capable of putting out up to 2,000 lumens, this floodlight camera is the best option for most folks. It can be wall- or ceiling-mounted, making it ideal for tucking under eaves, and it has an IP65 rating, so it can operate in all sorts of weather. This dual-lens camera combines a 3K wide-angle lens with a 2K telephoto lens, and it can pan 360 degrees and tilt 120 degrees to track subjects. The telephoto lens supports up to 8X zoom to capture details up to 50 feet away. To record locally, you can insert a microSD card up to 128 GB or connect to an Eufy HomeBase 3 ($150). There’s support for continuous recording, and also optional cloud storage from $4 per month for a single camera for a 30-day event history.
Eufy’s alerts are swift and fairly accurate (it sometimes flags my big cat as a human), with onboard AI capable of detecting humans, pets, and vehicles. The live feed is usually quick to load, but can take a few seconds. Extras include activity and privacy zones, black-and-white night vision, two-way audio, and a 95-decibel siren. The options to pick preset positions for the camera to patrol, and schedule and tweak the intensity of the warm (4,000K) light are very welcome. The AI tracking is competent at following subjects, and the camera returns to your preferred position when subjects leave the frame. The main weakness is the frame rate (15 frames per second), which means fast-moving subjects can sometimes appear blurry.
Specs Video Quality: Up to 3K and 2K, 15 fps Recording: Local microSD card (up to 128 GB), HomeBase S380, or cloud Audio: Two-way audio, siren Smart Home: Amazon Alexa, Google Home Floodlight: 2 panels, up to 2,000 lumens Brightest Floodlight Camera
While this is ostensibly very similar to our top pick, there are a few reasons you may want to spend a little more for Reolink’s TrackFlex Floodlight camera. The dual floodlight panels can put out up to 3,000 lumens, and you can adjust not only the brightness but also the temperature, from a cool 3,000K all the way up to 6,500K. The camera is very good at automatically tracking subjects and can pan through 355 degrees and tilt 50 degrees. It also has three passive infrared (PIR) sensors for 270-degree out-of-field motion detection. The main lens boasts up to 4K resolution, and the second lens offers a 1080p, 6X hybrid zoom view of whatever it is tracking. Throw in a 110-decibel alarm, dual-band Wi-Fi 6, and a host of local recording options, and this camera looks more and more attractive.
The TrackFlex performed well in my tests, alerting accurately, and the live feed was very quick to load. The onboard AI is good at identifying people, slightly less so for pets, vehicles, and packages, but it is included without the need for a subscription. That also extends to AI video search, so you can ask for footage of the “man in the red shirt.” I don’t love the Reolink app, but you can avoid the upselling tabs, and it loads camera feeds comparatively quickly. If you don’t care about pan-and-tilt, you can get the same excellent floodlight with a fixed dual-lens 180-degree view camera (see the Elite Floodlight below).
Specs Video Quality: Up to 4K and 1080p, 20 fps Recording: Local microSD card (up to 512 GB), Reolink NVR, Home Hub, FTP, NAS, or cloud Audio: Two-way audio, siren Smart Home: Google Home Floodlight: 2 panels, up to 3,000 lumens
Best Budget Floodlight Camera
For tighter budgets or spots where it’s tricky to run a cable, TP-Link’s Tapo C615F is a convenient package. The video quality is solid, you can record locally on a microSD card (sold separately), and this is an IP65-rated, pan-and-tilt camera that can cover 360 degrees horizontally and 130 degrees vertically. It also has a 10,400-mAh battery inside, and a wee solar panel to keep it topped off. The panel can be mounted on top or situated in a better spot for sun with the included 13-foot cable. The siren is 97 decibels, and the two-way audio is passable. It’s an impressive combo for the money, but there are compromises.
The single 800-lumen floodlight won’t fully illuminate a large area, and it’s not very adjustable, though it should be fine for enclosed passages or small yards. The AI detection doesn’t require a subscription and can mostly correctly identify people, pets, and vehicles, but the camera occasionally missed a few events, and sometimes recording kicked in with subjects already in frame. While the app worked well to speedily load the live feed, it occasionally took up to 10 seconds. There was also some lag on the video, pan and tilt controls, and two-way audio.
Specs Video Quality: Up to 2K, 20 fps Recording: Local microSD card (up to 512 GB) or cloud Audio: Two-way audio, siren Smart Home: Amazon Alexa, Google Home Floodlight: 1 panel, up to 800 lumens
Consider These Floodlight Cameras
Reolink Elite Floodlight WiFi (Wired) for $230: Similar to our Reolink pick above, the difference with the Elite Floodlight is that it’s a fixed dual-lens camera designed to give you a wide 180-degree view (59 degrees vertically), rather than a pan-and-tilt camera. If you want a fixed camera to cover the entire side of a property, this could be a solid pick. It records up to 4K video at up to 20 frames per second, has a 105-decibel alarm, and supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6. The rest of the specs, including the two-panel, 3,000-lumen, adjustable temperature floodlight, match the TrackFlex above.
Google Nest Cam With Floodlight (Wired) for $280: This aging floodlight security camera might still be your best bet if you prefer Google Home and have a Nest doorbell. The limited 1080p resolution is mitigated by the high frame rate (30 fps), HDR, and decent 6X digital zoom. The two-panel floodlight can put out up to 2,400 lumens of warm (4,000K) light, and brightness is adjustable. Google’s AI detection is perhaps the smartest in the business, and this is a very reliable camera, but you must subscribe to make it worthwhile, as there’s no local recording option. Google Home Premium starts at $10 per month or $100 per year, but that covers all your devices. It might be best to wait, as Google recently released 2K Nest cameras, and there’s a decent chance it will update its floodlight camera soon.
Philips Hue Secure Camera for $130 and Discover Floodlight (Wired) for $160: Strictly speaking, these are two separate devices, but I used this setup at my old house, and it worked very well. If you’re invested in Hue lighting, the Discover Floodlight is one of my favorite outdoor lights and a versatile way to light up your space. It can put out 2,300 lumens, and you can tweak the temperature, color, and brightness easily in the Hue app, which also allows scheduling and animated scenes. Add a Philips Hue Secure Wired Camera and you can have it trigger the floodlight and any other Hue lights you have. It is only 1080p, but the wired camera worked well for me, triggering reliably, and Philips Hue now offers 24 hours of video history for free. But if you want the AI detection, back-to-back recording, activity zones, and 30 days of video history, you must subscribe for $40 a year for a single camera.
Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera (Battery) for $250: An obvious pick for folks with an Arlo system, this battery-powered camera allows for a wireless install, though you will need to charge it. It offers up to 2K footage with HDR and Arlo’s excellent app and alert system, though you need an Arlo Secure plan ($10 per month or $96 a year for a single camera, $20 per month or $216 a year for unlimited cameras). The floodlight is a single panel that flanks the face of the camera and delivers up to 2,000 lumens. You can boost the brightness to 3,000 lumens and eliminate event recording delays with the Arlo Outdoor Charging Cable ($50), though you’ll need to run it to an outlet. Arlo has a newer, wired floodlight camera that I plan to test soon.
Eve Outdoor Cam (Wired) for $249: This stylish floodlight camera can replace an outdoor light to give you a motion-activated light (up to 1,500 lumens), 1080p video (157-degree field of view), and two-way audio. As a HomeKit camera, you will need an Apple HomeKit hub (Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad) and an iCloud+ storage plan. Sadly, the video and sound quality are only average. This camera also only works on 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi, and there’s no Android support.
Floodlight Cameras We Don’t Recommend
Toucan Security Floodlight Camera (Wired) for $80: You can plug this camera into an outlet, and it comes with an 8-meter waterproof cable. It has a motion-activated light (1,200 lumens), records 1080p video, and supports two-way audio. I found the footage quite detailed, but it struggled with direct sunlight. You can record locally on a microSD card (sold separately) and get 24 hours of free cloud storage, but it has limitations. Plans start from $3 per month. Even with motion detection set to the lowest sensitivity, this camera triggered too often during testing, and there’s no way to filter for people, so I got frequent false positives (blowing leaves, moths, and birds all triggered alerts).
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