Our method

How We Pick the Cameras on This Site

Public data, four hard filters, honest cons - and the limits of our method.

The four filters every camera passesThe four-filter method

Data checked October 18, 2026 · refreshed monthly

Every camera on this site passes four filters, in order:

1. Real purchases. We track the public "bought last month" count on Amazon US listings. Our featured cameras sell from hundreds to 6,000+ units monthly. Sales data is the blunt instrument that catches what curated reviews miss - products people keep buying after the honeymoon.

2. No mandatory subscription. The camera must record fully with no plan: local storage on the device, a microSD card, or a base station. Optional cloud can exist; required cloud disqualifies.

3. Ratings that hold at scale. We look for 4.0+ stars across 1,000+ ratings. A 4.8 from fifty buyers is noise; a 4.2 from ten thousand is signal.

4. Honest value. Within each category we feature cameras that are the best buy at their price point. Commission rates differ per product and never decide placement.

The limits, stated plainly: we do not operate a lab, so we do not claim lab results. We do not measure lux levels or latency; we compare manufacturer specifications, public listing data, and brand track records. Prices, ratings and sales counts are Amazon public data checked October 18, 2026 and refreshed monthly - listings move daily, so the Check Price button always shows the live number. When a model has a known weakness, it appears in the "worth knowing" column.

Updates. Monthly: re-pull sales/ratings/prices, re-rank, and swap out picks that slip. Significant changes are reflected in the "Updated" stamp on every page.

The four questions every camera buyer answers
The same filters we apply, in the order a buyer meets them.
What skipping the subscription saves
Local storage is the quiet financial argument behind every pick.

Frequently asked questions

Do brands pay you to rank higher?

No. Commission rates differ per product and never decide placement - our highest-commission product is not our top pick. Rankings come from the four public-data filters above.

Why no lab testing claims?

Because we do not run a lab. We compare manufacturer specifications, public Amazon listing data and brand track records - and we say exactly that instead of borrowing credibility we have not earned.

What does "refreshed monthly" actually mean?

Every month we re-pull sales counts, ratings and prices for every featured camera, re-rank the boards, and drop picks that slip. The Updated stamp on each page reflects the latest pass.