Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGreat Camera and Value, But With Flaws
Reviewed in Canada on January 10, 2024
First I must say that this is a great camera, especially for the money. But, there are some flaws/problems that may affect your use of it.
Pros:
- Amazing value for the money
- Great picture quality (for the money)
Cons:
- Video playback is lacking basic features
- Motion detection features have bugs
- Downward tilt angle very limited
- Camera randomly shuts itself down (goes into Privacy Mode) for no reason
- Software/firmware bugs/problems
- The Starlight and dual IR features may not be of any benefit
In general, the camera works better than expected for the cost - it is not a professional level camera, but it is by far the best quality camera I've ever had in this low price range. The image quality is very good (though not as good as a normal price same resolution security camera), both in day and dark, though the 'Starlight' mode they say makes this camera better isn't really as advertised. I found that, though you can get a colour image in very low light, the image is very dark and you see far more detail and distance if you put the camera into black and white IR mode instead. Also, the dual IR modes sound nice, in the software they list them as close and far modes, but the close more with the other IR light shows less detail and contrast, so I found that even for very close surveillance (e.g. 2m), the 'far' IR mode is superior. So the two special features of this camera really are of no benefit at all, though I suspect the image chip they used for starlight may possibly have more sensitivity even when used in black and white (I'm just guessing about that).
The downward tilt angle is very limited, so if you have it on a table/dresser, you will not be able to see the floor area anywhere near the camera; it would be best to mount the camera on the ceiling (upside down) if you need that view. Other features like alarm, and privacy mode, can be handy in some cases. The pan and tilt work very nice, smooth, quiet (relatively), and the preset positions also work very well, and are reliably repeatable (unlike many other cheap PTZ cameras). There is no zoom other than digital, but that works well too. The more advanced detection features (e.g. person, pet, etc) work very well from my limited playing with them, The camera also include line-crossing detection, and sound detection (baby crying, glass break, cat meow, dog bark) which I haven't tested, but could be very handy for some uses.
There software is fairly easy to use, but there are some big software/firmware bugs/problems. The main one for me is that, when you set the area (by a single rectangle only, so very limited this way) for motion detection, it still detects motion outside of that area, at least then the follow motion feature is used (which is a great feature and works really well). The motion detection sensitive is very good, and on its highest sensitivity setting works well if you are trying to detect smaller objects (e.g. mice) but only within a relatively close range. When viewing the live image, it also shuts down every 5 min unless you tell it to continue. The image and sound quality (both ways) is very good. The Home and Away modes, for indoor security use, do not work properly, they don't recall their settings properly when changing between them, and also mess up other general camera settings whenever they are changed, so once you setup the camera, don't ever touch/change the Home/Away mode.
I have mine setup with a memory card (installed in the camera) for saving recordings. I will auto record motion detection and does that really well. You can also have it record anything you are currently watching, or stake stills of either. When playing back a recording, the only control are play and pause and speed, you cannot jump to the middle of the video, or go back and forth as you are viewing. If you are not on the same WiFi network as the camera is when viewing a recording, you cannot download it, but you can watch it and record what you are watching, a rather unobvious and awkward way to save a recording.
The camera has also shut itself down a number of times in the weeks I've been using it, it has a 'Privacy Mode', which physically rotates the camera head into a covered space so it cannot see anything. There have been a number of times where I've gone to check the recording for the night only to find the camera has put itself into privacy more for no known reason, and there were no recordings of course, as the camera was basically disabled... so not very reliable for security or motion detection purposes because of that.
Overall the mechanical quality of this camera is by far the best in this price range that I've found. For many uses, this camera can't be beat. But for certain situations, the flaws mentioned above may make it unsuitable. I feel that if they fixed the software/firmware bugs/problems, this would be a camera suitable for most every use.
I would definitely recommend this camera, for many uses, but not if you really need to depend on it for security or motion detection (because of it going into privacy mode without any notice), or if you need to limit the motion detection area, or have different settings for when you are home and away. I've tried a fair number of low-cost indoor PTZ/similar cameras, and this beats them all by far.