The price is right on Ion's new Wi-Fi security camera

Ion began selling action cameras in 2012 -- you know, the GoPro kind that you tether to yourself or to your gear to capture first-person footage. But after a couple years of helping folks record daring stunts, the company decided to expand into home security. That's where the $130 Ion the Home Wi-Fi camera comes in.

This entry-level DIY camera will be available at Walmart and on Ion's online store from October 31. While I'm just starting to test this thing, there's at least one feature that's already making an impression: free cloud storage.

Most of the cameras we've reviewed have fee-based cloud storage that starts around $10 per month. The $200 Dropcam Pro champions this system: you can pay Dropcam $10 per month for 7 days of continuous footage or $30 per month for 30 days. Even Ion the Home's identically priced competitor, the $130 Belkin NetCam HD+, charges $10 per month for its basic cloud service.

Arcsoft's $150 Simplicam, has a lower, $5 per month storage option, but few are ever free.

Icontrol's $200 Piper and Foscam's $220 FI9826p are two exceptions; Icontrol will save 1,000 clips and Foscam will save 30 clips or 100 photos for free.

Ion appears to be following suit with its base-level storage option: free, rolling 24-hour cloud service. That is, after storing 24 hours of footage, the first hour will be deleted to make space for new video clips. And, if the 24-hour video storage isn't enough, Ion will also offer payment tiers identical to Dropcam's $10 per month for 7 days and $30 per month for 30 days.

Here's a chart comparing Ion the Home to some of its competitors:

Aside from the free cloud storage, Ion the Home strikes me as a pretty standard Wi-Fi security camera. The Ion the Home app is already available for Android users and there's an iOS version en route. I originally tried out the app on a first-gen Nexus 7, only to find out that it wasn't compatible with tablets. I switched to a Samsung Galaxy S5 and had it set up in no time.

Ion the Home also has night vision, 720p and two-way talk with push notifications, email alerts and a Web app in the works. I'll continue to test it and report back with more details as soon as Ion launches its full suite of features.

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The price is right on Ion's new Wi-Fi security camera