When it comes to home security cameras I have pretty much standardized on Google’s Nest Cams. However, the one thing that is not likely to appear in any Nest products is HomeKit support. HomeKit is the standard that Apple created for home automation and is supported in iOS, Siri, Apple TV, and the Home App that’s now built-in to iOS 10. So that means that you either buy accessories that work with HomeKit or competing platforms. Since until now there were no shipping HomeKit enabled security cameras, it really didn’t matter which platform you went with. However, that has just changed now that D-Link has shipped the Omna 180 Cam.
The 1st shipping HomeKit enabled security cam is lacking features that other cams have…
Now that we have a HomeKit enabled security cam there’s a choice that will integrate nicely with your other smart home HomeKit enabled gear. For example, I can now see my new security cam not only in the Home app on my iPhone and iPad, but I can even see the live feed in the Home app on my Apple Watch. Cool! This sounds great until you actually look beyond the HomeKit integration. Let’s start with the good stuff first…
The easiest setup I’ve ever seen.
Basically you download the Omna app from the App Store. Then just plug in the supplied micro USB cable/power supply. Once the camera boots up it will show up in the Omna App and you can begin the setup process.
Tap on the camera in the App and then you’ll be asked to scan the HomeKit I.D. on the back of the camera. Once you scan it the camera will be up and running a few moments later. That’s it!
No subscription required!
This is probably the biggest plus of this camera. Unlike the Nest Cam there is no need to subscribe to a cloud service to store your cam’s footage. There’s a microSD slot in the bottom of the camera to record motion events onto. That’s definitely a win as Google’s Nest Aware service is relatively expensive: A subscription that covers 10 days of continuously recorded video costs $10 a month or $100 a year for the first camera. Each additional camera costs $5 a month or $50 a year. A 30 day history costs $30 a month for the first camera, or $300 for the year.
The downside to not having a cloud service is that if someone breaks in and steals your camera, they’ve also got the footage too.
1080p resolution at a 180° field of view and audio support
The image quality is GREAT! Nest Cam’s view is only 130°. The Omna 180 Cam has both a microphone and speaker. This means that you can not only see what’s going on in the room, but you can also talk to anyone in the room as your voice will play through the built-in speaker.
Night Vision and Motion Detection
Motion detection setup is basic. By default the entire viewing area is covered by motion detection. However, you can clear it and then tap on the grid for the areas that you want to cover. There is no ability to draw your own custom shaped zones. They are all rectangular.
This cam also has a really good night vision as well. However, there doesn’t appear to be a way to turn it off. This makes it hard to point it outside via a window as the night vision usually doesn’t play well with the glass in window panes.
Sounds great! What’s wrong with it?
After having used security cameras from Nest (formally Dropcam) and Panasonic, this new D-Link feels very lacking when it comes to features. While there isn’t anything wrong with the D-Link Omna 180 cam, it feels very bare bones. Sure I can bring it up and view a live feed in on my iOS and Apple Watch devices, but that’s it. It has no web support. Nest recently released an Apple TV app, which is nice for being able to view all of my cameras on the big screen. Without an iOS/Apple Watch device you’re pretty much out of luck. Let’s move on. The next and probably most shocking missing feature is that there is no way to pinch and zoom into the image. I was simply stunned that I can’t zoom into the live feed. It’s not possible to zoom in via the Home App or the Omna app. WTH.
There are status indicator lights. However, there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn them off to make the cam less conspicuous.
There no real mounting options either. This camera was designed to sit on a table or shelf. As long as you don’t need to mount it directly to a wall you should be fine. This is an indoor only solution. That’s not really a problem. However, Nest recently introduced the Nest Outdoor Cam
The Bottom Line
If having a HomeKit enabled security cam with no required subscription is what’s most important to you, then look no further. The Omna 180 cam works as advertised and is very easy to setup and use. However, if you want more features then you might want to look at the Nest Cam or Nest Outdoor Cam. While they won’t show up in the Home app, the Nest app works just fine. I also use the web view on a regular basis. Luckily this is only the 1st HomeKit enabled security cam to ship. It will be good to see the others that are slated to ship this year. One last thing to note is that if you want to access your HomeKit enabled devices from outside your home WiFi network, you will need an Apple TV. Apple uses the Apple TV as a hub for HomeKit devices to be accessed outside the home.
You can get the D-Link Omna 180 Cam here.
You can get the Nest Cam here
You can get the Nest Outdoor Cam here
Looks like a good enough cam to me, except for the footage storage. You’re saying there is no way to just store the footage on iCloud or Dropbox?
I want to be able to store my footage there, with a max of x GB. Nice that they don’t have a subscription service!
Hi, nope there is no other option to automatically sync your footage to any other drive/service. You either use a MicroSD card or you don’t have saved footage.
Thanks Terry. I only want an outside camera though. I’ll have to keep waiting it seems. No way will I pay goog what they want! I have been hoping SimpliSafe will make an outside camera, but no. I want to see the jerk BEFORE he breaks in!!! Record the knucklehead, yell at him while overseas, etc. GET AWAY, OR I’LL REMOTELY SHOOT YOU!! Jerk. That’s what I want.
Have you looked at the Canary? It also has an outdoor cam as well. No subs required for 24hr storage, though you can get one for longer storage. No AppleTV required. It can send images to my AppleWatch, but not a live stream.
Canary looks good, but it doesn’t look much different than Nest. Nest Cam also offers 24 hours for free. However, at least Canary does send images to Apple Watch and Nest does not.
Don’t know anything about the Nest cam, but the Canary does a couple other neat things, it also gives you temperature, humidity and air quality measurements, and will alert you if any of those go out or range, that you set. That’s good, if for example, you are away from home and the furnace stops working, then the temps drop, and the Canary will alert you. You can also figure out how the humidity sensor and air quality sensor would do similar things. If the basement floods, and the humidity shoots up, you’ll get a warning. Or, if the exhaust vent gets clogged, then exhausts into the house, it’ll give you a warning.
I got it because I need something to watch my home in Maine. In the old days, I had one of those special outlet switches that turned on when it’s below 50 degrees. My neighbor would call me if the light connected to the switch would turn on, to let me know my furnace needs attention.
Later I got a webcam and placed a thermostat in front of it, then I could check once a day to see the temp. Now, I have a Canary.
Not a word about HomeKit security and encryption nor privacy the later why you won’t see HomeKit devices from google who has made it a business to sell devices that gather data wrapped in word game privacy policies that are meaningless. Carry on!
Nest, huh ?? Having used over fifty different IP cams on the mac for years at multiple remote locations, this article’s exclusive focus on Nest reads nonsense to me. It’s like a reviewer of sandwiches who mentions only Macs-house-of-beef as a standard. Look up Security spy, Amcrest, Dahua, HikVision and all the others like it that do not have subscription fees. The Nest does not come anywhere near those cams price/performance and Nest has a higher total cost of ownership than most or all of its lesser known (not google owned) competitors. In two words: Think different.
Open letter to Nest
https://jmmxtech.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/dear-nest/
If you want to see whats going on and don’t have your iphone near you, you may look at cameras live feed with a web-browser by using http://ip-of-your-cam/video.cgi
The username is “admin” and the password ist the home-kit device ID
Very impressive information