First of all, I highly recommend having the HomeBase 3 for this camera, however, it also runs as a stand alone. The picture quality is very good, with clear images and videos even in the dark. The spotlight really enhances this feature, as well as the tracking. My biggest complaint, however, is that the FOV (field of view) seems to be not as wide as I would prefer, however the pan and tilt feature help make up for this, so long as you have the camera positioned in a spot that it can pick up things in the area you want.