It makes perfect sense for consumers to buy a camera that comes with its own light so that it can see perfectly fine in dimly lit or dark areas. There are security cameras from Ring Inc. available that have their own bright light attached along with them that you can use in order to see in low-light conditions, thus the camera doubles as a lighting fixture for your home. To be honest, Ring has the market on security cameras with their own lighting cornered. They specifically offer two camera types — the Floodlight Camera and the Spotlight Camera.
This article will not merely take note that the Floodlight Cam has a brighter light than the Spotlight Cam. That’s obvious. Instead, this will be a head-to-head comparison that breaks down the differences between the two popular light fixture cameras of Ring Inc. This way, you can decide which camera is truly the best one for your needs.
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Ring Spotlight Camera
Obviously, the Ring Spotlight Camera is a type of camera that comes with a spotlight. It has a Full HD 1080p resolution to give you the clearest picture possible, unlike the olden magnetic videotape cameras of yore used in prisons and banks. You know, the ones used with closed-circuit television or CCTV. Furthermore, the spotlight cam is an outdoors only product. You can avail of it as wired-only or one with a rechargeable battery if you so wish. The light from the spotlight ranges from 300 to 375 lumens, which is workable. Its field of view is 140° horizontal and 78° vertical.
The Spotlight Camera is simple to install and offers solid performance thanks to its user-friendly app that makes it a fan fave among the outdoor security cam community. The app gives you total (remote) control using any smartphone you install the app with. It’s one of the best light fixtures and camera hybrids we’ve come across, although some people might not like to pay monthly to access saved video clips through the cloud. However, $30 annually is a fine enough price as any.
Ring Floodlight Camera
The Ring Floodlight Camera compares to the Spotlight Camera in this way. They both have a Full HD 1080p resolution and they’re both outdoor only light fixture cameras. They’re also wired only, but you can also avail of battery-powered counterparts. However, the light emitted from the Ring Floodlight Cam is way brighter. It’s about 1,800 lumens or far more lumens than just 300-375 lumens. Otherwise, they share a field of view of 140° horizontal and 78° vertical. That’s the distinguishing characteristic between a spotlight versus a floodlight—brightness.
In regards to the viability and usefulness of the Floodlight Cam, it’s yet another Ring product we recommend highly for outdoor security. You can also control it using your smartphone via an app, which is an advantage it shares with the Spotlight Cam. Regardless, as a standalone device, it records great quality videos from day to night. It even provides clear two-way communication a la intercom and the extra-bright floodlights serve as a deterrent and light source for better pictures.
Ring Spotlight vs. Floodlight Camera
With that in mind, which Ring product is the best among the two? If you’re a homeowner, would it be more practical to avail of a Spotlight Cam or a Floodlight Cam?
- Light Output and Brightness: Let’s cover the obvious. Ring Floodlight has a floodlight with 1,800 lumens versus the Spotlight’s 300-375 lumens. That’s bright enough for many a standard home projector that’s not used along with ambient light. Your home should have house lights and ambient light nearby in order to effectively use the Spotlight Camera. It can look quite dim and weak as a standalone light of a given garage or backyard. For a front yard lighting fixture that’s near a lamppost or your porch lights, it should work all right. Otherwise, get a Ring Floodlight. Other floodlight cameras have 3 settings to their light through—pulsating, flashing, and constant.
- Floodlight Brightness and Its Advantages: A picture is only as good as how bright it is. As long as there’s no glare, the more brightness the better. The Floodlight Cam is superior to the Spotlight Cam in terms of image quality exactly because it has a brighter floodlight that really brings out all the details of the picture with its light output. On top of that, the floodlight somewhat makes a better deterrent than the dimmer spotlight due to how it illuminates the ground and has light bounce off adjacent buildings, thus even at night all sorts of details become fully visible. Intruders can’t hide in the shadows when faced off with this much light.
- Day Video Quality versus Night Video Quality: We rate the performance of these cameras by three categories. Video during the day, video at night, and miscellaneous features (from two-way communication to battery longevity). In terms of day video quality, both are tied. The 1080p HD quality of both the Ring Spotlight and Ring Floodlight is quite similar during the day when their respective light sources aren’t required. In terms of video quality at night, obviously, it goes to the Ring Floodlight Cam. There are stark differences in brightness and picture quality without pixilation. The brighter light makes all the difference regarding on-screen image clarity that allows you to make out details.
- Battery Longevity Relative to Light Brightness: Funnily enough, aside from the hardwired or plug-in versions of the two devices, the Spotlight Cam wins out against the Floodlight Cam regarding battery longevity for obvious reasons. Because of how bright the light is for the Floodlight Cam, it will naturally burn through batteries like nobody’s business. The smallness of the spotlight Cam enables it to consume less energy compared to the power hog that is the Floodlight Cam. In electricity bill terms, the Floodlight Cam is also more expensive overall.
- Five Times Brighter: The light output of the Floodlight Cam is better than the Spotlight Cam by default since the latter uses small spotlights mounted on the camera itself. The Floodlight Cam involves a huge floodlight on each camera side to ensure maximum brightness. This explains the huge light output difference. To be more specific, the Floodlight Cam is about 5 times brighter than it Spotlight counterpart. So it’s 300 lumens or so versus 1,800 lumens or so. The good news is that Floodlight video quality is superior but it comes at the cost of battery longevity or electrical bill expensiveness. The wired version of the Spotlight Cam offers 375 lumens instead.
- Two-Way Audio Is Mostly Identical: The signature Ring Inc. two-way audio feature that turns your light fixture camera into an intercom to ward of intruders, communicate with delivery persons, or to talk to guests before they’re allowed to enter your abode works identically in both the Floodlight and Spotlight Cams. The brightness of the lights has zero bearings with the quality of their audio, unlike in the case of the HD video when night vision and nighttime footage is concerned. You can talk through the camera using the Ring app. Both of the devices also have a warning siren for good measure.
- The Ring App Works The Same on Both: It’s a tie in regards to how the Ring app works on both the Floodlight and Spotlight Cams. Regardless of which cameras you get, the Ring app should have the same features. The app can be accessed through Android smartphones and tablets with touchscreen interfaces. You’ll get a home screen that allows you to keep tabs on the battery life, health, alerts, two-way communication, and so forth of the cameras. You can even assign custom motion zones in case one area within view of your camera has the most suspicious activities than other areas.
- The Clear Winner in More Ways Than One: The Ring Floodlight Cam isn’t only a clear winner due to its brighter and better video quality during the nighttime. It also serves as one of the best outdoor security cameras you can ever get your hands on. Its recordings are in HD, the quality of the video remains high from day till night, and the two-way intercom communication isn’t just a throwaway gimmick. It really does feel like you have an intercom mixed with a security camera that has its own bright light. All these things combined ensures you’ll have an extra layer of defense for your home when push comes to shove.
The Bottom Line
Here’s the lowdown in regards to the ring spotlight vs floodlight camera debate. They’re practically the same product save for the brightness of their light at first glance. They share many similarities and they mostly differ in terms of light output and how it affects their night vision.
More to the point, it isn’t just about light brightness but how light brightness affects the other specs of the camera, from battery usage to video quality. They have nearly all the same specs as each other, from their HD quality 1080p video to their detailed footage that allows you to recognize intruders by their faces and whatnot. You can even distinguish small figures along with large ones with that many pixels contained in the picture. The picture quality of the cameras is indeed identical, but you’ll ultimately have to decide whether a sufficiently bright or super bright light is needed for your outdoor surveillance needs.
