A complete waste of money and time. This product was shipped to Australia from China and took about a week to arrive. The product came with a Chinese power plug so be prepared to buy an adapter. But wait, that’s not all - keep an interpreter handy as well because the one pager product manual/quick start guide was also in Chinese.
And then the most frustrating part. You have to rely on voice prompts to set this device up and you guessed right - the voice prompts were in Chinese too. The setup is clumsy where you have to generate a QR code in your phone and show it to the camera and the camera will accept the QR code, acknowledge and set itself up. Well, I wasted an hour of my life trying to guess what the machine is trying to tell me in a foreign language before giving up.
One thing for sure, this is going back
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Reviewed in Australia on 10 September 2019
Style Name: Wyze Cam PanVerified Purchase
Reviewed in Australia on 21 September 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 13 September 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 26 October 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 26 September 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 29 August 2019
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DO NOT BUY
By Duncan Thomas on 29 August 2019
First Wyze pan cam I bought was a legitimate Wyze product, number 2 and 3 were Chinese copies that don’t work. How do we get the legitimate product without the hit and miss of going through Amazon international?
By Duncan Thomas on 29 August 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 23 December 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 17 February 2020
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JS
A Wyze Cam (v2) vs Wyze Cam Pan (v1) Comparison!
Reviewed in Canada on 3 September 2018Style Name: Wyze Cam PanVerified Purchase
A Wyze Cam (v2) vs Wyze Cam Pan (v1) Comparison!
Reviewed in Canada on 3 September 2018
***** Review Update - September 17, 2019 *****Reviewed in Canada on 3 September 2018
An entire year has gone by since I initially posted this review and I was curious to see if a year worth of software updates had changed anything in terms of image quality so I retested the Wyze Cam Pan against the Wyze Cam v2 and was surprised and a little disappointed that my initial findings were still accurate.
That being said, there have been some improvements and things worth mentioning.
* Wyze has implemented person detection as a free feature which has helped to address the motion detection algorithm falsing during light transition changes. Person detection is fantastic as it also helps prevent alerts from squirrels and cars.
* The two way audio through the cameras have improved by leaps and bounds.
* Wyze has added two-factor authentication to Wyze accounts for better security. This is great as it helps to prevent people from getting access to your account and being able to view your cameras.
* Viewing of cameras can be shared across different Wyze accounts. This is handy for being able to view cameras at different physical locations on a single account. We keep a camera at the grandparents in the kids room so when the kids are staying over, we can spy on them to make sure they're behaving and napping when they should be.
* Although this is a "do so at your own risk" and it is not something I am endorsing nor will assume responsibility for if your Wyze Cam should pack it in, I have multiple friends that have mounted their Wyze Cams outdoors under the soffet without using a third party cover and the cameras have survived even through a Canadian winter.
*** Original Unmodified Review ***
This review mainly focuses on the differences between the two Wyze Cams. Please skip to the bottom if you just want a summary, including the pros and cons that pertain to both units.
Having owned a couple Wyze Cams, I decided to pick up a Wyze Cam Pan for comparison. I had a Wyze Cam pointed out a window above the rear French doors of the house to monitor the backyard and have since replaced it with the Wyze Cam Pan. I wanted the pan so I could remotely spin the camera around to view the inside of the house if desired.
Included in this review are some screenshots comparing the picture quality of the Wyze Cam v2 to the Wyze Cam Pan v1. All tests were taken with the cameras side by side and I sat the smaller Wyze Cam on top of a small box so that it would be at roughly the same height as the Wyze Cam Pan. IR testing and extreme darkness without IR test was done outdoors, while everything else was shot with the cameras pointing through a window.
The Wyze Cam Pan is physically about two and a half times taller than the Wyze Cam, and has slightly wider footprint. It also has less flexibility for mounting as it pretty much has to sit in top of something for the pan to work.
Both cameras offer similar 1080p quality and using the 8x digital zoom on either camera results in the same blurry mess. Interestingly both cameras are said to have 110 degree field of view, but the screenshots seem to indicate that the the Wyze Cam has a slightly wider field of view compared to its larger sibling.
During the day, the Wyze Cam offers better colours and noticeably better dynamic range as can be seen in the pictures where the back door is all blown out on Wyze Cam Pan. In low light testing, the Wyze Cam Pan seems to fare a bit better and more details are able to be seen in the background.
Once the night vision kicks in and the IR lights are on, the tables are turned as the Wyze Cams IR lights appear to light up a wider area allowing for more details to be seen. This came as a surprise as the Wyze Cam Pan has 6 IR lights vs only 4 on the Wyze Cam.
CONCLUSION
All said and done, the low light performance between the two cameras probably isn't large enough to be a difference maker especially with the lack of optical zoom on these cameras. That said, the slightly wider field of view of the Wyze Cam may be helpful for some and its better dynamic range is definitely noticeable. The Wyze Cam Pan is good if you need that feature, but the regular Wyze Cam is such a fantastic bargain that unless you need pan and tilt, paying ~50% more for just those features seems pretty tough to justify.
DIFFERENCES
* Pan has 360 degree pan and tilt ability.
* Pan costs ~50% more than Cam at time of writing.
* Cam has much better dynamic range.
* Cam has slightly wider field of view.
* Pan has better low light performance when IR is off.
* Cam is better with IR on as it has wider beam allowing more to be seen at night
* Pan is about 2.5 times taller than the Cam and a bit wider
* Cam has more mounting options
PROS
* Both cameras have good picture quality given their price but dynamic range is noticeably better on the Wyze Cam v2.
* Amazing price (Wyze Cam v2).
* Makes for an excellent baby monitor.
* Feature packed with motion tagging, real time alerts, and two way voice communication.
* Free cloud recording for two weeks (first 12 seconds only).
* Supports Micro SD card for video playback. Card not required, but is needed to view playback of events exceeding 12 seconds).
* Super easy to set up.
* Wyze is constantly improving the software and camera firmware which shows good support.
CONS
* Video playback software needs improvement. It's very difficult to scroll through history but thankfully this can be improved.
* Wyze Cam Pan is not as good of a bargain as its little brother. It's tough to justify a 50% premium for just pan and tilt especially considering the noticeably worse dynamic range.
* Indoor use only, but there are third party housings claiming outdoor use available for the Wyze Cam.
* Motion tagging is only limited to only one adjustable rectangle.
* Motion detection algorithm used by cameras is prone to falsing during light transition changes.
* WiFi only supports 2.4 GHz.
* 15 fps recording makes recording of moving objects less fluid.
* Canadian pricing has quite the premium versus US pricing. :(
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customer
security issue
Reviewed in the United States on 18 December 2018Style Name: Wyze Cam PanVerified Purchase
Nicholas Parker
Amazing picture, features, ease of use at this low price! How does it stack up against Nest?
Reviewed in the United States on 16 August 2018Style Name: Wyze Cam PanVerified Purchase
Amazing picture, features, ease of use at this low price! How does it stack up against Nest?
Reviewed in the United States on 16 August 2018
This little camera is VERY impressive. I currently own a Nest IQ indoor camera and have owned a couple Foscam indoor cameras in the past. This Wyze camera produces excellent picture quality and has a very easy to use app. The fact that you get 14 days of clips storage for free just blows the Nest cam out of the water.Reviewed in the United States on 16 August 2018
This camera does so much that the 10x more expensive Nest Cam IQ at a fraction of the price.
So how does this stack up against the much more expensive Nest Cam IQ indoor camera?
* You don't get continuous recording stored online, you only get clips stored online. However, you can pop a $10 32GB microSD card into this Wyze camera and get continuous local recording (meaning it's being recorded on the card in the device). You can view your recordings in the app. At HD quality, you get a couple days storage on a 32GB card, more if you go SD quality.
*You don't get the ability to turn the camera on/off based on whether or not you are home. Personally, I really like this feature so it isn't recording us when we're home. Just feels weird. Wyze support says they may add this via IFTTT in the future. You can control whether or not motion recording is on when you are home using IFTTT. However, I"ve found it a little buggy.
*You don't get the Nest IQ facial recognition which is very high tech. I'm not sure how important this is for an indoor camera. It's amazing for the Nest Hello doorbell.
*You don't get a monthly fee with the Wyze cam. You pay a fee for the Nest Cam IQ.
I can't believe this thing is so cheap and works so well. It has so many features like the big guys. Even the two-way audio is decent. If I had one complaint, it's that the motor that rotates the camera is a little loud. I'm still giving this 5 stars. I guess its sensitivity to sound is a little high too.
It seems like it's too good to be true. If you are looking for an indoor security camera, you found it.
TIP: I am using this SD card in the camera and it's working fine. Inexpensive and does the job if you want local recording - . [[ASIN:B07F31LQ7M Silicon Power-32GB High Speed MicroSD Card with Adapter - New Edition]]
NOTE: In the video, I have the camera attached to a mini-tripod. The camera has a standard screw mount for a tripod. You can get a little tripod for around $10. I like it because it raises the camera a bit and provides some extra stability, decreasing the chance it can be knocked over.
----- 07/2019 HERE ARE SOME ANSWERS TO COMMENTS PEOPLE HAVE LEFT BELOW ----
- Yes, it will continue to do its cloud recording when you have an SD card installed. There is an "events" tab on the main page of the app for the clips. You can also open a specific camera and tap "view playback" to see the continuous recording. When viewing on the SD card, there is a delay as it loads up the video. For example, you scroll the time line back 8 hours then there is a 3-4 second delay as it loads the chunk of video around that time. Once it loads, you can move back and forth in it instantly.
- I am going to say my 32GB card is getting a little over 3 days recording in a room with only light activity. I can't speak to how that time grows as you increase the size of the card. I'm not sure if 64GB would get you 6 days. Seems like it would though.
- To the person that thinks the app is useless, I'm sorry to hear you are having such troubles. I think the app works well on my Android phone (I don't know about iOS). However, I do believe that those kinds of things can happen. It's not a perfect app and they are adding features which can introduce bugs. Considering the cost of this camera, the app is phenomenal but some people are going to have problems. Hard to predict.
- The other app question about it being efficient - yes, it works much better than those other cheap camera app. There is about a 2-3 second delay before it brings up live video. I'm not experiencing freezing. However, that is heavily dependent on the network in your home and the network you are using on your phone when you access it (e.g. mobile, slow WiFi, etc.).
- I'm not sure about the comment about not auto-rebooting when you lose WiFi? I'll say that the cameras survive power failures perfectly. We just had a three hour one last night. Booted right back up. I have reset my network periodically which causes my WiFi to go down for about a minute and the cameras come right back online.
I'm still using this one and the regular Wyze cam. I still think these are SHOCKINGLY good values. I feel like I wasted so much money on my Nest cam. I should sell it and buy 5-6 Wyze cams.
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GD
Does not auto reboot when losing WiFi connection
Reviewed in the United States on 21 August 2018Style Name: Wyze Cam PanVerified Purchase
David J. Fraser
Canadian Pan Cam Review!
Reviewed in Canada on 23 October 2018Style Name: Wyze Cam PanVerified Purchase
