I purchased 4 of these cameras, with solar panels for each back in October 2021.
As of January 2022, 3 still work, but 1 will no longer hold a charge and has become completely useless. It was just outside the return policy time frame so it’s highly disappointing…
That being said, there are a lot of pros to these cameras and some cons. allow me to list them regarding the remaining cameras that do still work:
PROS:
— Cost for the camera is very affordable, and the setup is EASY.
–The picture quality is EXCELLENT. Clean, Crisp, and crystal clear both day and night.
–Sound quality is better than expected for the two-way mic/ intercom feature.
–The app is very simple to use.
–The pricing for the extra features is incredible and has a much better value than similar security cameras. A year of service is well worth the $30 for the zone setting and extra space.
— Each camera comes with 2 ways to secure them. One is a screw-on with a tension bracket, and the other is a screw-on magnetic one. The tension bracket is most reliable outdoors. It screws into both the wall AND the camera so it’s difficult to remove by an intruder, but is restricting on the angles it can be set at. The magnetic one is STRONG. Strong enough to withstand heavy winds, but I am wary to use it outdoors since it can be easily disconnected by a person giving it a good yank.
CONS:
— The battery life is not as long as advertised. The first charge (with no solar panels) did not last even a month during winter, and WITH the solar pannels only BARELY kept them with enough power to work through the night, and that’s IF it was a sunny day.
So far now that it’s spring, I have no issues with the solar panels. Even with some facing the East, they stay pretty close to fully charged all day. But winter is rough.
— There is no update or reconnect ability through the app. It will notify you of an update or need to reconnect and give you the option to start the process, but it will still require you to physically go up to the camera to actually run the update or reconnect the camera by pressing the power button.
— The sensors are fickle. Either it will detect EVERYTHING that even so much as sneezes in the vicinity of the camera view, OR, won’t notice it until it’s right up in the camera’s face (so to speak).
This can be rectified by having another camera and narrowing the detection zone for each one to a smaller area, but this means more cost to the buyer…
— The recording does not always kick in quickly enough to catch an incident. I would say the rate is about 70/30 for good catch/ miss. There have been many times someone has walked into my detection zone but the recording feature did not start until they were leaving, thus missing all the key evidence of criminal or suspicious activity.
DEDUCTION:
I will buy this product again pending further use.
The cameras are worth the cost overall for smaller properties, porch, garage, or indoor use.
As for wider viewing outdoor use, they are good as long as you can purchase solar panels to go with them or hardwire power to them, and as long as you can buy enough cameras to fully cover all areas with enough overlap that you don’t miss anything.
If you can’t, I’d recommend something more dependable or 24/7 record cameras.
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