eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit- Featured
There was a time when we could depend on security guards in our building to protect our home from intruders. No doubt, we have CCTV provided by the societies or companies managing the buildings. But in modern times and technology, personal home security has become accessible and affordable for consumers. We have various companies like eufy which provide with the Smart Home Security Solutions.
eufy is part of Anker Innovations and claims to be one of the leading and most trusted consumer electronics brands in America as mentioned on the website. Anker is a Chinese electronics brand owned by Anker Innovations based in Shenzhen, Guangdong.
eufy brand builds easy-to-use smart home devices, laser-guided robotic vacuum cleaners to wireless security systems.
We had received eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit and used it for a month which is also during the #Covid-19 lockdown. The eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit (180days) was used in a studio flat and the 2 eufy Cam was placed at 25ft away from the HomeBase unit across a home outside on the door wall.
Body and Specifications
The product which we received for review comes with two wireless Eufy cameras and one homeBase unit. In one HomeBase unit, you can add up to 16 Cameras and 32 sensors.
eufy Cameras/Cam
eufy Cameras or also called eufyCam comes with a dimension of 3.25 (L) x 2.25 (B) x 2.25 (H) inches. It comes with Black piano finish face with white curved body. It comes with 2 stands or Mounting Bracket which has to be fixed on the wall with Mounting Screws and Anchors. It has a built-in battery which can work for 180 days on a single full charge which is possible in 5 hours of charging.
The Cam comes with micro USB to charge the eufy Cam. It has wireless chipset built-in to connect with the HomeBase. The CAM also has 2 LED lights, motion sensor, spotlight, Status LED light, sync button, mounting hole, microphone and speaker, so you can communicate with the person Infront of the camera. CAM is IP67 weatherproof and can work in -20°C to 50°C.
eufy HomeBase
The eufy HomeBase has a dimension of 5(H) x 3.5 (L) x 3.5 (B) inches in white colour. It comes with a status LED, Power port, USB port, Ethernet port, Sync/ Alarm button ON/OFF and reset button. The HomeBase is powered by a power adapter provided along with the package.
Review
The process of installation was quite easy. Firstly, you need to connect the HomeBase unit to a power source with the provided power cable adapter . Next step is to connect the HomeBase to the router with ethernet cable which is also provided along with the package. Switch on the power and the LED light will start blinking and change to Blue which indicates, it is ready for connection with the eufy cameras.
eufy cameras may come with some power in the battery for the trial but it is always suggested to charge any electronic equipment which has a built-in battery to fully charge for the first time. You can charge the eufy camera by using the provided USB A to micro USB cable. It may take around 5 hours to charge the Cam unit. You can connect with the USB cable with HomeBase unit to the microUSB port in the eufyCam unit OR you can charge it with a 5V charging adapter. (eufy recommends to use the HomeBase unit to charge the cameras)
The next step is to connect the eufy Cameras to the HomeBase. You need to download the eufy Security App from App Store (iOS devices) or Google Play (Android devices). Or you can scan the QR Code which is pasted on the bottom of the HomeBase. Create an account which can be used for all the eufy products. After registration, follow the procedure to step by step choosing your device from the application. On searching on the app, you will discover your device in the list and you can name the HomeBase device as per your choice. As the application has the options and suggests names for multiple devices choice which can help the customer to identify particular HomeBase if they have multiple units under one application.
Once the HomeBase is connected, it will turn blue. Now, to connect with the eufy cameras, you have to press the sync button on the HomeBase and then press the sync button on the eufy Camera. You have to keep the sync button pressed for few secs till you hear a long beep. For the first time connection, you need to keep the eufy camera within 1-meter distance from the HomeBase. Once the connection is established, you can fix the camera using the holder/mounting bracket to your required designated place. While placing the eufy cameras make sure you wi-fi connection strength shown on the App shows good range and if there is weak signal then do the necessary changes by shifting the camera to another place or bring the HomeBase near the cameras.
The eufy Cam’s lens can live-stream and record footage in crystal clear 1080p HD during day time. The 135° diagonal field of view allows you to see exactly what is happening in and around your home up to 30ft distant. As the Cam is also equipped with night vision technology, you can capture a video recording in low light condition and even in dark with the infra-red technology.
Motion detection technology also helps to conserve battery, so the cameras will act when there is movement in front of the camera and with Ai, it can identify humans with face detection capture. If the camera is fixed at the height of 7-10ft it can capture up to 30ft of distant which includes motion detection at an acute angle. The eufyCam 2’s 1/2.8-inch 2-megapixel Sony sensor and glass lens capture nice-quality 1080p daylight videos but had high noise level in the night videos.
As informed by the eufy, it considers 20 incidents/ captures per day in which the camera can work for 180 days with a single charge. There is an option to keep the camera on continuously which can be set via the app but in that case, the battery of the camera will require frequent charging. Also, a continuous recording will fill up the built-in storage which is 16GB in the HomeBase.
The HomeBase storage can be an increase from 16GB to more in coming future as mentioned by eufy spokesperson. You also have an option to set up additional storage via cloud service or you can connect with your NAS drive for additional storage for video. For better connectivity with the Cameras or sensors, it suggested keeping the HomeBase at least 1m away from the wall and router.
So, for some reason, your phone is not connected to the Internet, the internal 16GB storage records the incidents and when you are connected to the system, you can access the footage or the incidents.
The audio quality is quite good and clear and two-way communication. There was a little echo when the homeBase and eufy are near each other.
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The Security screen on the app, which is accessed via an icon at the bottom of the main screens, controls scheduling, geofencing and the modes (Home, Away, Disarmed and Custom).
In the Camera Settings, the Motion Detection screen handles activity zones, motion-detection sensitivity, a motion-sensitivity test and detection type (human only or all motion). eufy doesn’t have audio detection.
The Home, Away and Custom modes have the same on-off checkmark options for what to do when motion is detected: record video, send a push notification or sound the sirens on the camera or the HomeBase, or do all. Tapping the Disarmed icon in the Security screen turns everything off.
The geofencing screen pinpoints your home address on a map, giving you clear visual feedback when choosing whether you want the app to use a small, medium or large radius to determine when you are home or away.
Scheduling specific days and times when the Away mode will be automatically applied is intelligent, flexible and easy to use. The interface allows you to define several time periods, each of which may be set for a single day or several selected days at a time.
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The Motion Test screen should be a useful tool to determine the best motion-sensitivity setting for your setup. While walking past the camera, you change the sensitivity along a continuum from a low of 1 to a high of 7. The camera will blink red when it “sees” you. Your final choice in this test screen will be automatically applied to the motion-detection settings. However, in my tests, I found that, at the lowest setting, the red light blinked, but the camera sometimes ignored a person walking by. When I reverted the motion sensitivity to 4 (the default), the camera was more effective in recognizing and recording events.
One key value of eufy’s local storage is that all AI analyses are done locally, which ensures privacy and is usually much quicker than cloud-based analyses. During the tests, the app and notifications to be quite responsive. If you want the safeguard of offsite data redundancy, eufy sells 30-day rolling-cloud subscriptions.
Conclusion
The eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit is a personal smart home security system which comes with one HomeBase unit with two eufy wireless cameras in the box. You can add up to 16 wireless cameras and 32 sensors to one HomeBase unit. The cameras record 1080p quality video with audio and you can interact with the camera with two-way audio communication.
For a one-time cost and simple procedure to install the product is quite remarkable without the additional cost involved except you required cloud storage. The HomeBase unit comes with 16GB storage which enough for almost one-year storage on the average of 20 incidents/ video capture per day. The Cameras are all weatherproof IP67 and can operate in cold and hot weather but it is advised to not use under direct sunlight. The product stylish is quite nice and can fit your home environment without standing out loud. The camera can capture the human face and keeps as a record for the homeowner to see and identify the person. It performs better during the daylight and at the night or low light area the performance was not bad but had a high level of noise in the video but still, the face identification works well. The response time of the camera notification was good and alerts were instant. The only issues found was the grainy video in low light and if you are not in-network connected to the eufyCam, you don’t have the access to the recorded videos as you were accessing directly from the HomeBase storage and not stored on your phone.
Overall, the product review was quite satisfying and can be recommended for consumers who require to install smart home security at their home without the hassle of wires and DVRs.
Package & Price
eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit comes with HomeBase 2 (T8010), Power Adapter for HomeBase 2, Ethernet Cable, Metal Pin for Resetting and for eufyCam 2C installation comes with eufyCam 2C (T8113) 2 nos, Micro-USB, Charging Cable, Mounting Bracket, Mounting Screws and Anchors.
It is priced at AED 1149 with VAT.
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