For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Flir to give away a Flir FX Wi-Fi Home Monitoring Camera and a weatherproof housing accessory that lets the Flir FX be used outdoors.

flirfx
Positioned as a competitor to products like the Nest Cam and the Logi Circle, the Flir FX is a compact home surveillance camera that's useful for keeping an eye on what's going on at home when you're not there. The Flir FX consists of a palm-sized wide-angle camera with a resolution of 1920 x 1080p, auto motion detection, Wi-Fi connectivity, and night vision.

Flir FX comes with a mount (and an optional outdoor housing) that lets it be positioned anywhere in the home -- I've got one on a desk that monitors my kitchen, front door, hallway, and a portion of my living room. It can run on battery four hours on the stand, so it can also move from room to room or work as a GoPro-style camera in a pinch, which is handy. Another neat feature: it can let you know the humidity and the temperature of the room it's in and alert you if there are significant changes.

flirfxpalm
While great for making sure a home is safe from intruders, the Flir FX is also useful for keeping an eye on pets and kids with its two-way microphone and automatic recording based on motion. Image quality is crisp overall, but low-light capture can be a bit dark at times. At night, the night vision feature records movement up to 30 feet away and gives a clear picture of activity.

Flir FX ships with an 8GB microSD card (upgradeable), so video can be captured and viewed locally, which is a major plus. There's also a Flir Cloud feature for viewing streaming video on the Flir FX iOS app when you're away from home. Basic connectivity, with two days of unlimited cloud storage, is free, but up to 30 days of storage is available for $19.95 per month, which is pretty pricy. I was mostly satisfied with the free tier because video can be exported and saved locally, but the more expensive tiers have perks that enhance some of the app abilities like daily recaps.

flirfxmain
With the Flir FX iOS app, there are some nifty things you can do with the camera. The Flir FX works by sensing motion, and in the app, you can set SmartZones for it to monitor. I don't want to get an alert every time someone moves in the living room, for example, but I do want to know when someone comes in the front door. Detailed settings for motion capture are also available, including sensitivity adjustments movement and noise, and there's an option to turn on continuous recording to the microSD card.

I'm not a huge fan of the Flir FX app's interface, its slow loading speed, or the occasional delayed movement notifications I get, but I do like what it can do. The Flir FX app takes quick one minute videos whenever motion is detected, and sends an alert. It can also take snapshots and it has a list of all the manual recordings I've created on the microSD card. My favorite feature, by far, is the "RapidRecap," which aggregates all of the movement captured during the day into a single video with timestamped overlapping objects. It's a neat way to go through a ton of footage and see everything that happened in a day.


The Flir FX can be purchased directly from Flir for $199, but one lucky MacRumors reader will get a camera and an outdoor housing as part of our giveaway. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

The contest will run from today (January 8) at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on January 15. The winner will be chosen randomly on January 15 and will be contacted by email. The winner has 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen. The prize will be shipped to the winner for free.

Top Rated Comments

Jimmy James Avatar
121 months ago
A flir camera without thermal imaging?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
/dev/toaster Avatar
121 months ago
I've been in the market for a home camera, mostly to be able to watch my cats remotely.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...