I hate to say it, but video doorbell makers need to start thinking like the Kardashians No, they don't need their own reality show, but they need to start doing more vertical video

Since the first Rings appeared on Shark Tank, video doorbells have gotten progressively better They now shoot video at higher resolutions, can identify people, vehicles, animals, and packages, and can be seen in the dark

But there is one thing most of the best video doorbells cannot do This is where someone is most likely to leave a package Thankfully, the major video doorbell companies finally seem to be addressing this problem

Since the pandemic began, I have been receiving many packages In the course of my work, I have tested many video doorbells With a few exceptions, most cameras capture images in a horizontal orientation This orientation is good for watching movies and TV, but not for security cameras

That's because the bottom of the frame is several feet away from the front of the door, leaving several feet of dead space And if your delivery driver is anything like mine, that is where they will put their packages

Unless you have a Nest Hello or Arlo Essential video doorbell installed, there is little way to know if your package has been delivered

As for other drawbacks, this is one thing the now-discontinued August doorbell cam got right Its vertical camera was able to show more of what was closer to the door than the others

The Arlo Video Doorbell is slightly better with a square view, and the Logitech Circle View Doorbell has a 3:4 aspect ratio The upcoming Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 has a 1536 x 1536 square camera, which incidentally has the same ratio and resolution as the August Doorbell Cam

This is nice, but not as comprehensive as the Maximus Dual View video doorbell

What these companies should do is rotate the video doorbell camera 90 degrees We don't want visitors doing TikToks at our doorstep, but if we think of the video doorbell as a stationary selfie camera, it would be much more useful You can get a better view of the person (and more importantly, the front of the door) and see less of what is around him or her

The wide-angle view of most video doorbells is great if the porch is wide enough, but most of it is superfluous for what I really want to see What I want to see is a head-to-foot view of everything, including the packages in front of the door