As the first floodlight camera designed exclusively for HomeKit Secure Video, Eve Outdoor Cam perfectly represents Eve's values: Thanks to Apple's technology, it represents the state of the art in terms of functionality, privacy and security. And it is enriched with important additional features through the Eve app – naturally without registration, cloud connection, tracking or profiling.  

The hardware itself, which has won the Red Dot and iF Design Awards, also meets the highest standards. It is characterized by a slim, one-piece housing with a metal frame, a compact base, and a three-axis joint. This means you can install and adjust Eve Outdoor Cam flexibly. Its appearance is always striking – but without looking out of place. 

In this article, you'll learn about Eve Outdoor Cam and get tips on placement, setup, automation, and troubleshooting.

Launch the Eve app, open the settings, tap "Add Device" and scan the HomeKit setup code of your Eve Outdoor Cam (it's stuck on the wall plate and manual, please keep it safe). Once you’ve added your Eve Cam, you then configure the basic settings of the camera that HomeKit will associate with the location of your iPhone and the devices of the people you invite. Select the monitoring level for the options When Home and When Away:

Off: the camera can’t record, stream live images, send motion-detection notifications or trigger any automations. If people, animals or vehicles move within the field of view, the floodlight will remain off. 

Detect activity: the camera detects motion and can activate the floodlight, trigger automations and send notifications based on this.  

Stream: aside from automations and notifications, this mode also allows you and invited people to access the live stream.

Allow streaming & recording: the camera provides a live stream and can create recordings – either based on any motion that’s detected or motion that’s been caused by people, animals, packages and/or vehicles.

During setup, you can also configure whether invited household members can only view the live stream or also browse recordings.

Eve displays the infrared sensor and floodlight as independent devices in Eve Outdoor Cam' detailed view. The floodlight can be switched on and off and its brightness can be adjusted up to the boost function (caution: do not look into the light when it is activated). Eve displays the currently set automatic mode of the Motion Light via a corresponding icon next to the ON/OFF switch. Just like the camera’s companion product Eve Motion, the motion sensor displays detected motion on a timeline, reports the current status (Motion or Clear) and the time elapsed since motion was last detected. 

Tip: in the room view, icons below the name of your Eve Outdoor Cam show the status of the individual components, i.e. whether motion has just been detected, what status the LED shows, whether the floodlight is active and how the Motion Light is configured. 

A double tap in the stream or snapshot window of the detailed view opens the live screen with the Eve exclusive push-to-talk feature. If you press and hold the microphone button, the microphone on your iPhone will be activated and the camera speaker will be turned on. Let the button go, and the iPhone microphone and camera speaker will be muted, allowing the person you can see to respond.

The gear icon lets you adjust the level of the camera speaker and microphone, the movie icon takes you quickly to the Home app and your camera recordings. Buttons for floodlight and boost help to illuminate the situation in front of the camera brightly or extremely brightly.

In Eve > Settings > [Eve Outdoor Cam], customize the behaviour of your camera to suit your needs. Select a sensitivity level for the motion sensor that is appropriate for the location and, if necessary, readjust after a few days if notifications seem to be missing for relevant events or too much unimportant content is reported.

The duration of the motion is especially important for automations, where e.g. switching from active to inactive triggers a scene. If set accordingly, it can also determine the number and frequency of notifications if the detected event lasts longer, such as children playing ball in the driveway. 

As the front line of defense, Motion Light is an elementary security feature of Eve Outdoor Cam. It is based on autonomous automation running on the device, so it works independently of HomeKit and the Wi-Fi or Internet connection. This way, the Motion Light also responds to any movement, even if HomeKit Secure Video notifications or recordings are only for specific originators.

It does, however, take into account the motion sensor's sensitivity setting, and in Eve > Settings > Eve Outdoor Cam > Motion Light, you can adjust the brightness at which you want your floodlight to illuminate activity – all the way up to Boost.  Select Auto Mode > Night to include the ambient light sensor and illuminate the field of view only when it's dark. The Duration setting determines if and how long the floodlight should remain active beyond the general duration of detected motion.

HomeKit is not aware of your floodlight's brightness boost, but the Eve app lets you create scenes with this powerful function. This makes it possible, for example, to connect additional motion sensors and thus areas outside the area monitored by Eve Outdoor Cam. Someone's approaching the back of the garden shed? On comes the floodlight, and with a Boost!

Please note: the brightness boost causes increased heat generation in the passively cooled housing and therefore switches off again after 20 seconds. However, you can reactivate it after a few seconds of cool-down time. 

Troubleshooting

The reset button on the underside of the camera housing is easily accessible by means of a bent paper clip. It allows the camera's WLAN settings to be reset or the factory settings to be restored if the network SSID and/or password are changed.

To perform a Wi-Fi reset, push and hold the reset button on the bottom of the camera with a paper clip for 5 seconds until the LED starts blinking blue. Release the reset button as soon as the LED starts blinking blue and open the Home app to add Eve Outdoor Cam to the Wi-Fi network your iPhone is currently connected to. Factory reset: to reset all settings of Eve Outdoor Cam, including the HomeKit pairing, push and hold the reset button on the bottom of the camera with a paper clip for 10 seconds until the LED starts blinking red.

All FAQs