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Homam indoor security camera review: high quality build and no on-going charges
Homam indoor security camera
pros and cons
- No on-going costs
- Simple app interface
- High build quality
- Expensive
- Limited features in app
The Homam security camera breaks the mould for privacy-first cameras. Unlike most security cameras, the Homam indoor security camera has no monthly fees and no cloud storage.
It was developed by Zorachka, a Belarusian team of scientists and researchers who have been working on, developing cameras with total privacy.
It is a nice looking camera made from anodised aluminium, and has an innovative magnetic base. It is compact too, standing at only 83mm high and weighing 267g on its stand. it is powered through its USB-C connection.
The Homam has embedded storage up to 256GB eMMC and the video is secured using AES/RSA encryption. Access keys are stored on the phone.
The seven lens system has a low distortion fisheye lens with a horizontal field of view of 134 degrees and a vertical field of view of 75 degrees. Its resolution is 5MP.
A Sony STARVIS sensor with 1920 x 1080 delivers a wide dynamic range and a frame rate of 60fps. It operates in infrared mode too from its 8 infra red diodes and can capture images in the dark at up to 20 meters away. It also has up to 16x zoom capability.
The Homam is managed through its app which is easy to install, and connect to the camera.
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You can scroll through the timeline and see a highlight preview bubble in the timeline window.
When the camera is initially paired, encryption keys are generated which are exchanged with the users' mobile device using Bluetooth.
You do not need to create a user account if you do not want to.
The intensity of the camera activity appears as a wave at the bottom of the timeline, so scrolling thorough can easily highlight the information captured.
The fish eye also gives a panoramic view of the whole space monitored.
In use, the video streams well on the app – even when I am some distance from my WiFi access point.
The camera also uses a 'multi-IP' system which will look for the shortest path between the phone and the camera to connect directly to the local network.
This means you can view data from anywhere in the world – as long as you can get an internet connection.
Image quality is excellent - even in the dark, and sound quality from its on-board microphone is good, so you can use the app to chat to people in another room.
The app looks good – but has really basic features.
You can not set any zones to limit the cameras field of view, and there is no person/animal detection feature as the camera records continually.
However, I am not sure that all the bells and whistles used in other apps are needed for this camera as this indoor camera delivers a complete recording of its entire field of view.
At just under $500 the Homam seems like an expensive security camera – but when you take into consideration you will never need to pay any extra service fees at all, the Homam seems like excellent value for your money