I have a list of features I prefer in an indoor camera: discreet sizing, long cords, the ability to turn off indicator lights, remote pan-and-tilt functionality, decent night vision, and zoom. There are a few brands that are already doing this pretty decently: Blink, which has a relatively well-priced indoor pan and tilt at $39.99; Wyze, which has the best performing pan and tilt at $31.90 (if you can get past the security issues); and even PetCube, which has a 360 cam for $10.49. A new indoor camera would need to raise the bar set by those cameras, and I don’t think the new myQ Smart Indoor Security Camera ($39.99) from Chamberlain, who are known for their garage door openers, does. While it functions just fine, you can get better functionality from other cameras for the price. Even if you have myQ products and want to stay in the ecosystem, Chamberlain has enough integrations with hubs to make that a pretty seamless process with cameras from other brands.
Be aware of subscription costs
The Indoor Security Camera is a lightweight stationary one-piece camera with a four-by-four-inch camera face. It’s also a hard camera to disguise, and it won’t blend into the background. Setup was easy enough: The camera paired easily through Bluetooth via the myQ app.
The myQ app allows you to set the same options you’d see in most cameras—zones to ignore, sensitivity levels, notifications. The video delivered is as good as any other 1080p camera I’ve tried, but does require a subscription after your 30 day free trial ends if you want to save any of those videos—plans started at $3.99 a month, which isn’t bad compared to competitors, but Eufy offers an almost identical camera for $28.97 that you can add to your Eufy Homebase drive, so you don’t need a subscription at all. Blink cameras have an option to use local storage, as well.
Static camera means lots of areas are out of field
This camera made me realize how much I used pan-and-tilt options remotely to adjust the view. The camera has a 130-degree field of view, which isn’t as wide as some others in this category. Unless you plant the myQ in a ceiling corner, it’s highly unlikely you’ll get a full view of the room, and you’ll likely want to zoom in and scan the space when you look at live video. My Wyze camera, for instance, actually follows activity on its own, rotating to always have activity in focus. I frequently brought up live video of the myQ and whatever I wanted to look at was out of range, but I couldn’t do anything about it, remotely.
Annoying software update glitches
My second issue was the clicking. The myQ cameras update at night, precisely at 11pm. I know, because my camera began clicking, with the lights flashing, every night at 11pm, and would not stop. The app would tell me the camera was updating, but it never ended. I eventually unplugged the camera out of annoyance. MyQ even sent me a new camera, which experienced the same exact problem. Unplugging and power cycling the cameras a few times does eventually solve the problem, but that’s more work than I’m willing to commit to.
There are better cameras for the price
In every scenario I tried to imagine this large, stationary camera, I just couldn’t come up with a reason that a smaller pan-and-tilt wouldn’t be better. A 360-degree camera could capture everything in the room.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article contained an incorrect product name and description. It was edited on June 4, 2024 to reflect the correct information.
