Last week I looked at the state of HomeKit Secure Video. While I agree that it will take a lot of work to meet user needs in 2024, I also agree that it is still the best way for privacy-minded people to use smart home cameras. The Eve Cam is one of the best cameras on the market for HomeKit Secure video. HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything related to Apple's smart home framework. Why do we love the Eve Cam? Explaining the why of a review is, in my opinion, the most critical aspect of a review. For HomeKit Secure Video cameras, I think it's critical to be able to say that this company doesn't operate its own cloud service. Want to pay Eve instead of Apple to store footage? Sorry, they don't offer that service. Eve is all in with Apple for smart home cameras, and I love it. The TL; DR of this article is that the Eve Cam is the standard for indoor-only HomeKit cameras. If you stop reading here, that's enough to know. Is this the cheapest HomeKit camera for indoors? No, but Eve is a vendor that is as close to Apple as possible and releases first-party HomeKit products. Unpacking the camera only takes a minute, but there are a few parts to assemble. The camera is separate, so you need to choose your country-specific AC adapter and connect the supplied USB cable. It's helpful to disconnect the USB cable from the camera because you can swap it out for a longer (or shorter) cord in the future, or replace it if the end becomes damaged. The biggest disadvantage of this product is that you need electricity. Depending on how your home is laid out, you may need to install an additional electrical outlet or run wires into your home. On the plus side, you never have to worry about charging a battery. Unfortunately, we can't combine the convenience of a battery with the convenience of wired (maybe someday?!?). Like other Eve products, it's purpose-built for HomeKit, so you don't need another app when setting up the camera. You only need to download the Eve app if you want to upgrade the firmware. The only step you need to take to set up the camera is to scan the included QR code in the Home app, add it to a room, and then set your recording preferences. All cameras with HomeKit Secure Video support have recording capabilities to meet all desired security levels. When you are home or away, they can be set to: Full Off Sensor Only (for HomeKit automations) Stream Only Stream and Record I place this camera on my covered porch, so I will set it to always stream and record Motion is detected (cmon 2/47 recording!). The Eve cam has a magnetic base so you can easily stack it on something metal and hold itself in place. A few years ago, Eve updated the Eve app to allow for a flipped orientation, which also inverts it in the Home app. This feature is useful if you want to mount the camera under a shelf or on the ceiling. HomeKit Secure Video Apple's basic 50GB iCloud+ plan lets you use one HomeKit Secure Video camera. Step up to the 200GB package and you're good for up to five cameras. Go all out with the 2TB plan and you'll watch unlimited HomeKit cameras at no extra cost on top of your regular iCloud plan. HomeKit Secure Video keeps a 10-day event history so you can rewind and check it if necessary. One benefit of the way Apple structures the service is that the recording sizes don't take up your iCloud storage space; Apple only uses storage tiers to limit how many cameras you can have at once. If you have the free iCloud plan, you won't be able to record, but you can still stream live and get real-time motion notifications. Learn more about HomeKit Secure Video. Wrapping up Would I like to see a 2024 version of the Eve camera? You bet I would. I'd like to see Eve come back with an upgraded model with high-quality video, a better microphone, Thread, and maybe even a battery-powered option, but this camera is still great. It was one of the first cameras I bought that supported HomeKit Secure Video, and it's still a camera I recommend for indoor use. Eve is HomeKit and HomeKit is Eve. This camera should be in all HomeKit homes. Any frustrations I have with the Eve Cam are actually frustrations with HomeKit Secure Video. You can buy the Eve Cam on Amazon and directly from the Eve store. FTC: We use monetized auto-affiliate links. More.