These cameras are great. I have some old Foscam cameras that I set up years ago manually using IP forwarding. They still work and I still use them. I got these Amcrest cameras to put at my mother's house so I can keep on eye on her when she's alone. I wasn't sure if these would work. They say "baby monitor" so I thought maybe you can only view them when you're home on your home's network. They have all the features of my older cameras and a much better picture. I bought two cameras and may get a couple more. Very easy to set up. The app works great. Image quality if really good. Night vision. I can pan left, right, up and down from the app. I can get notifications when it detects motion or when it detects just people in the room. I haven't set up any storage as I don't really need that. You can use an SD card that goes in the camera or use Amcrest's online storage (which you have to pay for). Unless something happens to these and they stop working, I'm completely satisfied with them. If they do start to have problems, I'll update my review. Read more
I am new to Amcrest Smart Home, which is what this camera is optimized for, but it took less than seven minutes from the time I opened the box and powered on the camera, to the time I was seeing live video in the Amcrest Smart Home app. Though I'm generally not a fan of "Smart Home" apps, the Amcrest app is intuitive and easy to understand. I especially like that they have English words under the icons, so that I'm not expected to try to figure out what each icon means. That's a huge plus. There is about a 3-second delay in the video when viewing the app over Verizon 5G. The delay is about 2 seconds when I'm on my home wifi (the same wifi as the camera is on). Both of these delays are quite normal and common for products like this. There is about a 6-second delay (on Verizon 5G) when pressing the "Talk" button in the app, until the speaker turns on in the camera. If I needed to speak to someone in range of the camera right away, to prevent a problem or alert them to something, six seconds is a LONG time. I understand the reasons why delay is inherent in devices such as this, but ut would be helpful if Amcrest were able to reduce that delay through firmware adjustments. The "Listen" feature is immediate when I tap the speaker icon, but it takes two seconds for spoken audio to play in the app. The audio sync with the camera appears to be perfect, so that's very good. I don't have much need for the baby monitor function, but running it through its paces, I can see where it could be very valuable. I thought being able to set the loudness threshold on the microphone was a very nice touch, to keep the app from notifying you if the baby is just moving around, but not in distress. The rest of the features, Full Screen, HD/SD Quality, Snapshot and Record all functioned as expected. Video quality is really good for a WiFi camera, especially when viewed over Verizon 5G. However, I don't think it's any better than my other Amcrest cameras...which isn't really a problem, since my more than 25 Amcrest cameras all look great. I have this one set to 1920x1080, 20FPS, Bitrate 2048, and it's smooth and clean looking, even in low-light conditions, which is something I've come to expect from Amcrest cameras. Though the Smart Home app works great, I will be using this camera primarily with BlueIris, and it was a bit challenging to get the settings just right for use with that software. However, I knew that going in, because the Amcrest marketing materials state that the camera is optimized for the Amcrest Smart Home app. Frankly, I didn't expect it to work at all with BlueIris, so it was a nice surprise when it did. I do wish pan/tilt worked inside BlueIris, but I can always use the Smart Home app to position the camera when needed, so that's not a dealbreaker. The packaging was almost all cardboard, with just a couple of sections of foam to protect the top and bottom of the camera. I LOVE this about Amcrest cameras. There is a minimum of plastic/foam in all their packaging, and that is a huge positive to me. The Quick Setup Guide was very simple and succinct, understandable since the app really walks you through the setup. I would have liked to try the Smart Tracking feature, but I couldn't figure out how to turn it on. I pressed the button that matched the icon in the manual, but it didn't track me. I won't be using that feature, so it's not a big deal. But it would be a good idea for Amcrest to include that in future editions of the Quick Setup Guide. Rather than just describing the feature, they could actually instruct people how to turn it on. My overall impression of this experience is basically the same as I've had with all my other Amcrest cameras. They just WORK. To not have to spend hours fiddling with a camera is a very good thing. Especially one like this, where you maybe want to throw it in your luggage and have a camera watching your hotel room or VRBO while you're out. If you're looking for a great quality camera for use as a nanny camera, doggie camera, or just add it to your collection of home security cameras, this camera is a great addition. Read more
Pretty easy to set up and does all of the security camera basics (movement detection, night vision, etc). My main complaint is that it clearly advertises "Pet Detection" in the title and mentions "Dog Camera" and "Pet Camera" multiple times, but it does not support pet detection at all - just general movement and human detection. Pros: + Image quality is fine for 1080p + Night vision works well enough for small spaces with very low light + Pan/Tilt is a nice addition, especially at this price point (when on sale) + Motion detection works well, and Human detection works OK Cons: - No Pet Detection, despite being advertised - Camera sometimes needs to be rebooted Notes: Uses about 1-3GB per hour of recording at full HD (1080p). With motion detection on in a relatively inactive space, a 64GB SD card gives me about 3 months of recording history. Read more
