The Ultimate Guide to Buying the Perfect Spy Camera
With so many different spy cameras available, which hidden spy camera is right for YOU?
The Ultimate Guide to Buying the Perfect Spy Camera is here to help with two simple questions!
Part One – Discovering Your Perfect Spy Camera
When you need a spy camera or a nanny camera, you need it fast. But with all the options, it can be very confusing and overwhelming!
Two simple questions (covered in detail further down) are the easiest way to discover the hidden spy camera that is perfect for you:
- Where will you use your new spy cameras?
- How will you view the recordings?
Before discussing these questions, let’s dig into the options.
Technology that used to be available only to the FBI and the CIA is available to us normal people! Now, we can buy high performance, high quality, ultra small hidden spy cameras that fit in some very unusual places and give great images.
Nearly everyone thinks of a teddy bear nanny cam when they think of a nanny cam. This might be from seeing nanny cams in movies. However, if you’ve thought of this, then your nanny or babysitter might also think to be careful around a teddy bear sitting on a shelf. Nanny cams are small, and they can be hidden in virtually any physical object large enough to hold a camera along with its control and battery pack.
Advances in technology have recently greatly expanded the options available to you. Some of the most incredible improvements to available spy cameras are:
- Enhanced resolution up to 4K
- Mini spy cameras allowing very hidden placements
- And most importantly – live streaming capabilities.
Available Technology
Nearly everyone has seen spy movies or action movies where hidden spy cameras were used. You may have even seen pictures from spy museums of the technology that a few years ago was highly advanced: lighters, packages of gum, or other objects with mini spy cameras with super tiny film rolls. Well . . . it’s different now! Technology has advanced both in the spy world and in consumer electronics.
4K High Definition Resolution
Many people have upgraded to higher resolution 4K TVs from the previous HD resolution of 1080. Spy cameras have also upgraded to 4K, although you can still buy high definition spy cameras limited to 1080. Sometimes this makes sense, because 4K recordings use lots more storage space than 1080 or lower resolution. So if you need to be careful with storage space (such as when you use a memory card in the camera and don’t want to check it a lot), then lower recording resolutions sometimes still make sense.
Night Vision
Most tiny spy cameras don’t work in the low light of a dark room or outside at night. Look for cameras which clearly state that they provide night vision capabilities if you need to be able to monitor at night or in low light.
Off the shelf baby monitors almost always have night vision capability. Obviously, this is important for baby nurseries because you want to see your baby in their crib in their darkened room. However, not every spy camera or nanny camera needs night vision; if you want to monitor a nanny or baby sitter while playing in a living room or outside, why pay for the extra night vision feature in the spy camera?
On the other hand, if you are monitoring a dark area such as outside your home or after hours in an office or warehouse, night vision capabilities are probably very important.
The problem with using a baby monitor and most security cameras as a spy camera is that they aren’t hidden very well! The night vision capability of baby monitors uses “active” night vision. This means that in a dark room, you can easily see several glowing red lamps in a ring around the baby monitor/security camera’s lens. These glowing red lights are what give the baby monitor/security camera the night vision capability.
Spy cameras are far better than baby monitors/security cameras because they use either “passive” night vision or hide the glowing red lamps much better. However, this is a more expensive technology.
Wifi Enabled
An amazing current technological advance is the wifi-enabled spy camera. This means that you can live stream whatever the spy camera sees to an app on your cell phone! You can monitor what the spy camera sees from virtually anywhere in the world that you can get an internet data connection on your cell phone. In some cases, this also means that live streamed recordings can be stored in the cloud for days or weeks! (Cloud storage nearly always requires a subscription of some kind.)
If you pair a wi-fi enabled spy camera with a cellular hot spot, the possibilities are even bigger. If you can get a cell signal on the hot spot, and you can connect a battery charger to a power outlet for both the spy camera and the cellular hot spot, you can pretty much leave a wifi spy camera anywhere and monitor from anywhere as long as the devices are on and connected.
Memory Card
Some of the most covert spy cameras use micro-sd memory cards to store recordings. However, viewing these recordings means that you have to physically access the spy camera, remove the memory card, and place into a computer to view or save the recordings.
You can place a spy camera in such a great hidden location that the camera is pretty hard to get to. For example, you probably don’t want to climb a chair or a ladder every few days to remove a memory card from a spy camera hidden in a smoke detector in the ceiling. In locations like the ceiling, a live stream, possibly backed up by cloud storage, may be the best bet for easy viewing of recordings.
Alternatively, some spy cameras are so easy to access that it doesn’t make sense to use anything but a hidden memory card in the camera. For example, a spy camera hidden in the lid of a disposable coffee cup assumes that you are sipping coffee from the cup while using it; it’s not much more effort to remove the memory card from the lid in order to access the recordings.
Most of the time, where you hide spy cameras give you a lot more flexibility for accessing recordings. When the spy camera is in a small desktop fan or in a clock on the mantle, access is easy; you just walk up to the spy camera, open it up, and remove the memory card.
Weather Resistance – Indoors Only or Indoor / Outdoor
Although most mini spy cameras are not weatherproof and are made for indoor use only, sometimes, you need a small spy camera that can handle the rain. Look for “weather resistant” or “weather proof” or “rain resistant” or “rain proof” for spy cameras which be used outdoors, such as your backyard or driveway.
For backyard patios or pools, a great weather resistant option is a Bluetooth speaker with a hidden camera.
For backyards and commercial areas, a spy camera hidden inside a weather resistant dummy cable tv box can be mounted on the side of a house to keep an eye on things.
For backyards and entertaining areas, a spy camera installed in an outdoor extension cord might just do the trick!
Battery or Power Cord
Most hidden spy cameras are battery powered. Batteries allow incredible flexibility in hiding a spy camera, such as inside a cereal box in the pantry to inside a tv remote to inside a computer mouse.
However, some spy cameras are integrated into devices that use a power cord (such as a clock or a fan or a power plug adaptor). This allows an even more convenient spy camera package, because you never have to change the battery pack.
Motion Sensor
Many high quality spy cameras use what is called a passive infrared sensor (“PIR”) to activate recording. This allows the camera to be in a “sleep” state until someone approaches, saving on both battery life and recording size. The “passive” part of the motion sensor doesn’t require red lights that give away their location at night, and infrared means that your body’s heat turns the camera on. This technology is similar to how a pit viper finds its prey.
Recording Quality – High Definition or 4K
Most spy cameras are high definition, not 4K resolution. However, many older “high definition” are actually 720 pixels, not the 1080 resolution that we’ve come to expect with “high definition” label. Only the very newest spy cameras can provide 4K resolution. A limitation on some less expensive 4K spy cameras is that they store recordings on the older micro-sd memory cards which are limited to 32 gigabytes of storage space, which severely limits the length of recordings that you can store because 4K recordings take so much more space than 1080 high definition spy cameras. Therefore, look for newer 4K spy cameras which use live streaming/cloud storage or the newer version of sd cards with the much higher limitations greater than 32 gigabytes.
How to View the Recordings
Alternatively, some covert spy cameras offer live streaming of their recordings so that you can monitor remotely – even on your iOS or Android cell phone.
Live streamed video can be combined with cloud storage for the ultimate in convenience –video can be saved for days or weeks or even months for later review depending on the storage plan selected.
Networked or “Off the Grid”
An incredible recent development is live streaming by wi-fi enabled spy cameras. Now, you can remotely monitor and/or use cloud storage of recordings. These spy cameras contain powerful electronics to continuously transmit what they see when activated. However, with certain equipment, it is possible to discover these wi-fi transmissions. Therefore, sometimes “old school” storage of recordings to an internal memory card “off the grid” can be the best solution for security and privacy.
Many miniature spy cameras still save recordings to memory cards in order to maintain fully covert surveillance.
In order to live stream, you need a network connection of some kind: wifi, wired, or a cellular connection such as from a hotspot to maintain the highest privacy. Look for a spy camera with a hidden or random network identifier so that a guest connecting to your wifi or wired network won’t see “USB Spy Camera” or “teddy bear spy camera” as one of the other connected device names.
Live streaming spy cameras usually can be viewed directly through a free app on your cell phone – whether you are around the world serving on a deployment or you’re working remotely at a coffee shop around the corner from home. Just remember that a cellular connection will probably have a lower quality than a live stream uploaded over a hard-wired or wi-fi network connection.
Quality of Construction
Obviously, the point of a spy camera is so that no one knows it’s there. However, some very inexpensive spy cameras sold at big name online stores literally squeal on themselves and give out their location to anyone with normal hearing in a quiet room. The internal electronics, such as capacitors, are of such low quality that you can hear a super high-pitched squeal. Follow your ears, and the sound leads you straight to the cheap spy camera. Online reviews never seem to mention this problem on these sites!
Wireless Spy Cameras
Wireless spy cameras are amazing inventions – only in the past few years have reliable, consistent recordings been even possible. No power cords and no internet cables tell tales. They are truly hidden and portable. One fantastic option, which due to popular movies has become almost a stereotype and therefore not so hidden, is the teddy bear spy camera. This can be put into a child’s nursery or room or stroller or play area, and few people will know that you are monitoring your child’s safety. Most wireless spy cameras use memory cards in order to save battery life. A wi-fi or cellular version requires significantly more power in order to transmit imagery to your router or a cell tower, which requires a bigger battery and therefore may not fit in as many small hiding areas.
A fully wireless spy camera requires a battery pack. The smallest sizes use a small battery pack, although higher capacity battery packs are sometimes available. How often you need to recharge or exchange the battery pack depends on how frequently the wireless spy camera records, which depends on how busy the area is. Most spy cameras allow you to set them up to be motion activated. A super busy area like a house’s kitchen or a nursing home room could fill a small memory card up and exhaust the battery pack in less than a day, while a remote area such as a backyard shed or the back of a warehouse might take a week or two to fill up the memory card and exhaust the battery.
Mini Spy Cameras with Audio
Many buyers are shocked to discover that not all hidden spy cameras have audio! While this might seem like a problem, there are two reasons why you might not want audio in your small spy camera:
- Legal reasons. Federal wiretapping laws and State laws make it a crime to record conversations in some situations. Some states are “two party,” generally requiring both parties involved in the conversation to agree to the recording. Other states are “single party,” typically allowing you to record conversations where you actively participate. Making things even more complicated, if you are an employer or an employee, you have even different rights. Some journalists have even been prosecuted for secretly recording conversations, even when it is legal in a state.
- Storage space. Recording sound with the video can balloon the size of the recording, meaning that you can record a much smaller number of hours on a similar sized memory card. If audio isn’t needed and you want to maximize the hours of recording, why pay for the extra feature?
This is further discussed here: https://thespycamerastore.com/do-you-really-want-a-spy-camera-with-audio/
Part Two – Where Will You Use Your New Spy Camera?
Spy Cameras can provide amazing peace of mind. Because you can monitor a situation even when you’re not physically present, a piece of advanced technology enables you to focus on other priorities.
Family or Business
Many hidden spy cameras work great in a home, senior care facility, or in an office environment. However, some work best in only very specific areas.
Child’s Nursery or Playroom
A spy camera hidden inside a teddy bear is the ultimate nanny cam. Watching over a baby’s bed or play area, this will never look out of place.
Senior Care
Living Room / Kitchen / Other Rooms
Outside the Home
Backyard / Front Yard / Side Yard / Pool / Shed
