A:Answer The Nest Camera is not battery operated (or at least mine wasn't) it is plugged into an electrical outlet and actually has quite a long cord. You have many options for recording it whether you want it to record 24/7, schedule certain hours or days, only when you are away from home, when motion/noise is detected, etc. They were alot of them to choose from. It also had the option to auto zoom when it does sense movement so you could get a closer look at the movement.