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

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 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 April 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 ...
iphone 17 dummies sonny dickson

iPhone 17 Air Almost as Thin as Its Buttons, New Images Show

Thursday April 24, 2025 2:14 am PDT by
If you missed the video showing dummy models of Apple's all-new super thin iPhone 17 Air that's expected later this year, Sonny Dickson this morning shared some further images of the device in close alignment with the other dummy models in the iPhone 17 lineup, indicating just how thin it is likely to be in comparison. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be around 5.5mm thick – with a thicker ...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Air Launching Later This Year With These 16 New Features

Thursday April 24, 2025 8:24 am PDT by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the ultra-thin device. Overall, the iPhone 17 Air sounds like a mixed bag. While the device is expected to have an impressively thin and light design, rumors indicate it will have some compromises compared to iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, a...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 17 air dummy unbox therapy

iPhone 17 Air's Extreme Thinness Demoed in New Video

Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
Global Close Your Rings Day Pin

Apple Stores Giving Away a Limited-Edition Pin For Free Today

Thursday April 24, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Starting today, April 24, Apple Stores around the world are giving away a special pin for free to customers who request one, while supplies last. Photo Credit: Filip Chudzinski The enamel pin's design is inspired by the Global Close Your Rings Day award in the Activity app, which Apple Watch users can receive by closing all three Activity rings today. The limited-edition pin is the physical...
Apple Logo Spotlight Blue

White House Hits Back at Apple's Massive EU Fine

Thursday April 24, 2025 5:57 am PDT by
Apple's $570 million fine from the EU has triggered a sharp rebuke from the White House, which called the fine a form of economic extortion, Reuters reports. The fine was announced on Wednesday by the European Commission, following a formal investigation into Apple's compliance with the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of legislation aimed at curbing the market dominance of ...
ipad air magic keyboard feature

iPadOS 19 Rumored to Show Mac-Like Menu Bar When Connected to Magic Keyboard

Thursday April 24, 2025 12:09 pm PDT by
When an iPad running iPadOS 19 is connected to a Magic Keyboard, a macOS-like menu bar will appear on the screen, according to the leaker Majin Bu. This change would further blur the lines between the iPad and the Mac. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously claimed that iPadOS 19 will be "more like macOS," with unspecified improvements to productivity, multitasking, and app window management,...