I wasn’t sure where to best set the Guardzilla 360 in my office because placing it on my desk (as you see it here) caused it to have a few blind spots. Guardzilla recommends that you place the camera somewhere where traffic will likely pass from side to side and not straight on. The recommend that the camera be 3 – 5 feet off the floor, and not next to anything that might obstruct it.
With the camera placed here, even though there is a speaker obstructing it’s view a bit on the side, I get views from inside my office and outside my windows (which is near our back door — I can even see our back door with it!). I love that the 360º view shown by the Guardzilla allows me to basically see everything in and around my office from anywhere in the world.
I’m currently in New York City for the holidays, but I can check and see what’s going on in my office at any time; I’ve also received a push notification the one time there was a loud noise in there, and I know it will let me know if there is a motion that triggers the 360. I do not have it set up to play the 100-decibel siren, but that’s always an option should I feel it’s needed.
The Guardzilla 360 doesn’t require any extra fees or storage plans if you don’t want to pay for them, but if you want more than the included 8-second video clips that are retained for free for two days, there you have a couple of choices.
- 7 Day Plan – Capture motion detection events for 7 days (day 8 records over day 1) for $4.99 per month (or save with our $49.99 annual plan).
- 30 Day Plan – Capture motion detection events for 30 days (day 31 records over day 1) for $8.99 per month (or save with our $89.99 annual plan).
So far, I have found the Guardzilla 360 to be effective, and the picture quality is good both at night and during the day. I can think of several uses for the Guardzilla beyond making sure that your home is safe; you could:
- Set it up in your child’s nursery as a video baby monitor
- Set it up in the living room and use it to peek on your kids when they are home after school alone
- Check in on the babysitter when he or she is supposed to be alone, but you’re worried they might be inviting their girlfriend or boyfriend over after the kids are asleep
- See if your kids are coming home when they are supposed to
- See if the housekeeper is in your home for as long as you are paying the service for them to be there
- Place on in your garage to see what goes on in there
Obviously, the uses that you come up with will only be limited by the needs you might have — but even if you are only using it as a central home monitoring system, you will be quite pleased with how well the Guardzilla 360 does. I like that it is versatile and customizable and that it doesn’t require any subscriptions to be useful.
The Guardzilla 360 HD Security Camera retails for $229.99, and it is available from Best Buy and from other retailers.
Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample
What I Like: Easy setup; Very featured app that allows all kinds of controls; Easy to operate; Two-way communication; 100db siren; Ability to subscribe to inexpensive cloud-storage; Panoramic, 360º live views; Small footprint; Easy to add more devices to the system; Great for large spaces where you need to see every nook and cranny
What Needs Improvement: Might be a bit more degrees of coverage than you need (if you are used to wall-based solutions, but it’s cool that you can set it in the middle of a room and get it all
