Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera - See the Whole Picture

It's hard to believe Ring video doorbells have only been around for ten years. It seems like as long as there have been front doors, deliveries and Wi-Fi, Ring has been there to keep an eye on your packages and perhaps even more importantly, alert you that someone is at your door in the first place.

Over the last decade, the various Ring doorbells haven't changed all that dramatically, making gradual improvements in video quality and extending the range of what can be detected in a growing number of innovative ways.

Depending on which model you choose, you can now trace any visitors to your property from a birds-eye-view, or record them before they even ring the bell.

Once Ring doorbells became successful, it wasn't long before we saw a range of Ring security cameras follow suit - both indoor and outdoor models, not to mention associated floodlights and door chimes.

Now ring is back with one of its most versatile indoor cams yet.

If nothing else, the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is great value, at an RRP of just NZ$129.00. That's not a lot for a camera with all the features I'm about to detail.

Firstly, there are any number of ways to install the Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera. This is because it's extremely compact and as usual, Ring has included a heap of hardware in the box to help you install it pretty much anywhere you want. There's a mounting plate, a wall mounting bracket, screws and wall anchors so if you don't want to just sit it on a shelf (like I have) you can secure it to the wall or even the ceiling.

It also comes with a pretty long power cable, which is just a standard USB-A to USB-C, so you can easily thread it behind or through furniture and small openings or holes.

Another distinctive feature is the physical privacy shutter - a no-nonsense cover that extends the whole length of the camera, leaving no doubt the camera has been totally disabled when swiveled into place. This cover can also removed completely if you don't think you'll be using it.

Annoyingly, there's a bright LED that shines from just above the lens when the Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is powered up and there doesn't seem to be any way to deactivate it. I get this is probably another privacy consideration - to let anyone in line of sight know they're being observed and/or recorded - but it's super annoying, especially if the camera is operating in an otherwise dark room.

Nothing a small piece of black insulation tape can't solve... which then poses the question, what was the point of it in the first place? I hate silly little lights.

Speaking of the dark, the Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera works almost as well at night as in the daylight - even providing colour footage. Like Ring's doorbells, you also have the ability to talk and listen through the camera in real time, set up customisable motion zones and obviously you can receive those motion alerts wherever you are via the Ring app.

Should you see something (or someone) out of place, you can fire off a siren which is surprisingly loud and will definitely get any intruders' attention, hopefully dissuading them from intruding any further.

The Ring website claims I'll be able to, "Smoothly pan left to right..." which was overselling things a little. I used the live pan and tilt controls on an iPhone and yes, it was pretty responsive. However, things weren't as consistent when accessing the camera using the Android version of the app. I tried this with two different, high-end Android devices and one worked fine but on the other, the response was often quite jerky and delayed. 

Always hard to say who's at fault in these situations; Is Ring responsible for testing its app and connected hardware with every phone on the market or is the onus on each handset manufacturer to make sure their device works with Ring? See? It's a curly one.

However, for the most part, I've found the combination of the wide-angle lens with the ability to tilt 169° and pan a full 360° provides me with total coverage of my living room, dining and kitchen areas, so I can keep an eye on my dog when I'm not home.

But if you want to use the Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera for security as well as live streaming, you'll come up against my usual Ring pet-peeve pretty quickly; the dreaded subscription.

Ring Protect Basic will set you back NZ$4.95 a month and covers a single device. You'll get advanced features like the Pre-Roll recording I mentioned earlier and here's the rub, you'll need this subscription to save any recordings - a must if you're using the camera as a security device.

Now, I don't want to come across as a cheapskate and even I admit five bucks a month isn't the end of the world. (Especially with the discount for an annual sub) The trouble is, if you have more than one camera, or a Ring doorbell as well, you'll need to jump up to the Protect Plus pan for NZ$15 a month (or $150 for the year). That's not nothing and I've always been of the opinion if you're buying a camera that can record, you should be able to access those recordings as part of the purchase price. By all means, Ring can charge what it wants for cloud storage but I still believe users should always have the option to record to a locally connected storage device instead. 

In fact, I'd be happy to pay a bit more for the device as part of the purchase price if it had a free, local storage option.

Unfortunately, Ring has always set things up this way and I've always complained about it, so nothing is likely to change any time soon.

In the meantime, this is a reasonably-priced, versatile little camera that can be mounted pretty much anywhere. Using the remote controls in the app, you can survey just about every corner of the room it's installed in and there's even a special setting if you want to point it out your front window to monitor a path, driveway or gate.

There's no denying it, Ring makes great security cameras and they've been doing it for over ten years now.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera.