We currently have a security camera on our front doorbell, our driveway, and our back deck.   All three are what I call ‘dumb’ type cameras where they just record and can send notifications when they sense movement. What we do not have is a security camera inside our home.  When I was offered the chance to review the new Tend Secure Lynx Pro security camera I jumped at the chance to put it in my home and see how it worked.

What is it?

The Tend Lynx Pro is a ‘smart’ camera that has the ability to recognize faces and only send notifications when it does not recognize the person.  You can even train the camera when it fails to recognize the person you have set up by pointing out the face in the video and indicating the person whose profile you have set up.  It works in both daylight and dark and can be set up outdoors and indoors.

Hardware Specs

This camera is really impressive and gives you a lot for your money.

• 801.11 b/g/n wireless connectivity
• Network security – WEP (40-bit, 128-bit)/WPA (TKIP,AES)/WPA2 (TKIP,AES)
• 1/3.2 inch security grade CMOS sensor
• 100° diagonal viewing angle
• Infrared Night vision – 850 nm LED: up to 25 feet
• Camera resolution – 1080p (1920×1080) HD at 30 frames/sec
• Built in microphone
• Built in speaker
• Can handle temps from -4 to 115 degrees Farenheight
• Built in battery to handle up to 1 hour of recording for up to 3 days.  It also has the internal storage to hold the data.  This is perfect for power outages.
• You get a full 7 days of cloud storage for no charge.
• App works with IOS 9 or higher and Android 5 or higher.

What’s in the box?

The packaging for this camera is excellent.  The picture above shows the outer slipcover for the box.  Once you pull that off and open the top cover you are presented with the actual camera as you see below.

You then lift that whole blue box top section off and you see the mounting stands on the left and the paperwork and accessories on the right.  The power adapter and extra long cord are all in a separate box stored below the Hello paperwork.

The image below shows exactly what is inside the box.

• Mounting stands for the wall
• Camera
• User Manual
• Extra power extension cord.  It does not have to be used if you do not need it.
• Hardware to mount the camera
• Power adapter and long power cord.

Design and Features

After unpacking the box, the next thing I did was to place the camera where I wanted it and install the app.  Let me state right up front that manual recommends that you mount the camera 6 to 7 feet above ground shooting towards the ground.  They state that will help with the facial recognition.  For my testing purposes, I ended up placing the camera on top of several boxes that were sitting on top of a bar in our home entryway.  So the camera was shooting across horizontally instead of having a nice downward view.  The camera still did a pretty good job on the facial recognition.  The app will work on IOS and Android.  I loaded it onto my Galaxy S9.  The screenshot below is the opening screen of the app.  I clicked on the ‘I’m setting up a new camera’.

The next screen asked me which type of camera I was setting up.  Tend makes several cameras so I chose the Lynx Pro.

The next few screens wanted me to be sure the camera was powered on and the LED was blinking red and green.  I then went to my phone settings and connected via WIFI directly to the camera.

Once connected to WIFI, I went back into the app.  The app recognized I was connected and asked me to name the camera.  As you can see below, I named it ‘Front Door’.

I then got the option to pick the wireless network I wished to connect to.  As you can see, there are some networks with some interesting names in our neighborhood!

The last setup screen tells you how to mount the camera for best facial recognition.  I will note that originally I had the camera facing my front door, however that was causing way too much back lighting and the camera was having a hard time with facial recognition.  Once I moved the camera away from facing direct light it worked much better.

The next few screenshots will show you how the settings screens look in the app.  This first screen gives you a lot of great info and options.  I want to note that the level you are seeing for talkback volume is rather loud.  The speaker on the camera is quite impressive.

This next screen below shows you the secondary screen you get when you turn on motion detection.  You can adjust sensitivity and have the camera send notifications for unknown faces.   You can even set schedules as to when you want to be notified.  Once you start adding folks to profiles for facial recognition, you can turn off notifications profile by profile if the camera recognizes the face.

The screenshot below is the entry screen to set up profiles.  You simply take a picture of the person with your phone and they are set in the app.

The screenshot below shows the recordings it made for part of a day in my home.  When you see a big question mark it means the app did not recognize the person in the video.  I found when lighting was good, the camera did a great job of recognizing both myself and my husband.  Of course, when we entered the scene walking away from the camera it almost never recognized us.  I believe if I ‘taught’ the camera that it was me by clicking on the head in the video and pointing to my profile it might have learned to recognize us better.  You can also see the screen will show you a ‘watched’ indicator if you have already viewed the video.  As stated earlier, the app will store up to 7 days of video in the cloud for free.

Below are some sample recordings it made during the day and one from nighttime.  There was little to no light in the room when the nighttime recording was made.

What I like

I love the video quality.  I think it does a pretty good job of facial recognition.  I also love that you get a full week of free cloud storage.  The microphone and speaker on the camera are also both excellent.  The fact that it also has a backup battery and internal storage in case of power failure is a winner.  I used to own a Nest camera at one time and I believe this camera gives you way more bang for the buck.

What needs to be improved

This camera is pretty awesome.  If any suggestion could be made it would be to see if they could somehow get this camera to work without wires.

Final thoughts

I really loved this camera.  When compared to the outside cameras that I have the video quality is excellent.   I feel the video quality is certainly comparable to the Nest home camera I used to have.  You can’t beat the free 7-day cloud storage.  This camera just offers a ton of options for the price.

Price: $149.00
Where to buy: Tend and Amazon
Source:  The sample for this review was provided by Tend

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Tend Secure – Lynx Pro Camera Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 4, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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I’ve been using home security cameras for many years now. I find that they give me peace of mind when I know I can check in at any time and from anywhere to see what’s going on when I’m not physically at home. But there’s one problem with most cameras that don’t offer a motorized pan and tilt feature. The camera’s field of view usually isn’t wide enough to let you see an entire room without setting up multiple cameras. That’s where the EZVIZ  ez360Pano WiFi camera shines. Let’s take a look.

What is it?

The EZVIZ ez360Pano is a panoramic WiFi camera with a 360° field of view and a maximum of 1344 x 1344 pixel resolution in fisheye mode.

The EZVIZ ez360Pano offers two-way audio, night vision, microSD local recording, cloud recording with a subscription (the camera comes with a 30-day free trial), and it supports dual-band WiFi 2.4GHz/5GHz.

What’s in the box?

EZVIZ ez360Pano camera
Mounting plate and hardware
USB power cable
Power adapter

Design and features

The ez360Pano camera is about the size of a tennis ball, with a metal housing around the camera lens.

There’s a microSD card slot in the base of the camera that is protected by a snap-on cover.

And there’s a micro USB connector on the base that is used for power.

The camera needs to be mounted to a wall or the ceiling using the included base plate and hardware. Unfortunately, the ez360Pano camera isn’t designed to be placed on a shelf or a window sill.

I installed the EZVIZ ez360Pano camera in a temporary location on a support beam for our upstairs banister. I would have rather installed it on the ceiling, but we have a cathedral ceiling in the main room of the house with no easy way to get to it or provide power. So I settled for the easy way out and rubberbanded the camera to the stair rail. You can just call me the MacGyver of home security cameras.

EZVIZ app

Setting up the camera is relatively quick and easy using the EZVIZ app. The app guides you through the steps of connecting the camera to your wireless network by using the QC code on the bottom of the camera and with sound. Yeah, don’t ask me about the sound part, I was really confused and surprised when the app showed that it would be using sound waves (I couldn’t hear anything) to set up the device.

Once the camera is placed and connected to the network, it will show up on the home screen of the app. The home screen shows a snapshot of the camera’s live view at app launch time. Below the snapshot is a link to the messages page and settings page.

The messages page is a list of motion detection alert thumbnails. Tapping the thumbnail image will let you view the captured video.

The app allows you to switch the view style from ceiling mount to wall mount and you can also choose from fisheye, 360 panorama and quad split screen views. The fisheye view is shown above on the right.

Turning the phone to landscape orientation enlarges the view. In this view, you can’t zoom in or anything. What you see is what you get.

This is the 360 Panorama view which I like best. The app offers a cool feature when you’re in this view. It lets you watch all the motion captured video clips one after the other for the current day and 2 previous days. It’s kind of like a time lapse of the entire day’s events. If you have a micro SD card installed in the camera, you can also view the video history which shows a timeline and red lines for different events. You can scroll through the timeline and watch the clips that way too.

When you turn the phone to landscape orientation you can see a full-screen view in 360 panorama mode. You can’t zoom using two fingers in this view.

The EZVIZ ez360Pano camera has really good night vision as you can see from the image above.

This is what the screen looks like if you choose the ceiling mount 360 panorama view mode. I’m sure this mode would look much better if the camera was actually on my ceiling…

The only viewing mode which allows you to pan and zoom with your fingers is the quad split screen view and as you can see from the image above, that mode looks pretty bad. I think each section should have a larger frame around it so you can more easily differentiate between each window.

The EZVIZ  ez360Pano WiFi camera comes with 30 days of free Cloud Play which saves the notification video clips to the cloud and also lets you watch a video montage of the current and previous day’s motion detected events.

The camera comes with a 30-day free trial of the Cloud Play service which saves the motion clips to the cloud. After the 30 days, you have to subscribe to one of their plans for each of your EZVIZ cameras if you want to store the video clips in the cloud for safe keeping. The prices are:

7 Day Playback per Camera
Save 7 days of video
$5.99/month
$59.99/year

30 Day Playback per Camera
Save 30 days of video
$10.99/month
$109.99/year

Of course, you can also use a micro SD card in the camera which will also store the motion clips.

What I like

• I like the 360Pano’s 360-degree wide view because it lets me see a large area without needing to pan and tilt.
• Easy camera setup

What needs to be improved

• micro SD card is only used to store motion detection clips and not 24/7 video.
• The app doesn’t offer the ability to block certain areas of the view from sending motion detection alerts.
• The push motion notification alerts sent to Android devices can’t be dismissed by swiping them from the lock screen. You have to go into the app for them to disappear from the notification bar at the top of the phone’s screen.
• The app only allows you to zoom and pan in quad view which offers four tiny windows that are hard to see on a smartphone display.
• The app doesn’t always remember camera view mode settings.
• Cloud Play subscription is per camera.

Final thoughts

The EZVIZ ez360Pano WiFi camera is a nice camera because it has such a wide angle view. It’s also easy to setup and does a good job of capturing motion and delivers a clear image even in the dark. The main things that I don’t like about this camera are the Cloud Play subscription service and the fact that the camera doesn’t record video to the micro SD card 24/7.

Right now there are so many security cameras on the market that it’s a buy’s smorgasbord. While the ez360Pano does offer the panorama feature which 99% of other cameras lack, the price per camera and the subscription fee per camera may take this one out of the running for a lot of potential buyers.

Price: $179.99 (Cloud Play subscription is an additional purchase but is not required)
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by EZVIZ.

The post EZVIZ ez360Pano panoramic WiFi camera review appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

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Tagged: security camera

EZVIZ ez360Pano panoramic WiFi camera review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2018 at 4:59 pm.

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Home security seems to be one of the hot topics at this years CES, with the expansion of the connected home it seems like new home security products are popping up every day. While interior security seems to be getting the most attention improvements and innovations in outdoor security have brought about new products and competitors. One such “new” innovation is the outdoor floodlight. I know the floodlight is not new, but the addition of a camera and speaker system is. These systems have the ability to record incidents as well as allow you to view them in real time. 

Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.

What is it?

The Maximus Camera Floodlight is just what the name implies, a Floodlight with a camera built into it. But there is more to it than that, it is a security tool. Besides, the floodlight and camera the light has a built in microphone and speaker. Along with the Kuna software package the Maximus Camera Floodlight is a smart security device.

Hardware specs

Per the Maximus web page:

Camera & Sound

• Resolution: HD full-color 1080p
• Field of view: 155º diagonal
• Viewing angle: Adjustable camera (up to 40º left-right, up-down)
• Two-way talk: Communication through your smart device
• Siren: 100 dB

WiFi & Detection

• Wi-Fi frequency: 2.4/5 GHz
• WiFi network 802.11b/g WEP, WPA and WPA2 supported (WPA2 recommended)
• WiFi speed: best performance with 2 Mbps upload/download where installed
• Sensor: passive infrared + motion detection algorithm 
• Detection range: optimized to detect objects within 70’ (7’ mounting height)
• Mobile device: iOS devices running iOS7 and above, Android devices supporting Bluetooth LE:4.4 (Kit Kat) an above
• Internet: internet connection required for both mobile device and location where camera floodlight is installed

Hardware

• Material: plastic
• Power type: hardwired continuous power (no batteries)
• Weatherproof: tested in -4ºF (-20ºC) and 122ºF (50ºC). Humidity < 95%
• Light settings: dimmable; motion activated + dusk-to-dawn + turn on/off from your phone
• Lightbulb: 2400 lumens brightness; 5000K color temperature 
• Dimension/weight: 10.78 (W) x 8.02 (H)
• Input voltage: rated 100-240V, 50/60 Hz max 90-277V, 50/60Hz

What’s in the box?

In the box you get the Maximus Camera Floodlight, instruction booklet, a welcome card and mounting hardware. 

There are four main components to this floodlight system (not including the WiFi element), the lights, the sensor, the camera and the two way speaker. 

The lights for the floodlight are bright. They are so bright in fact that I dimmed them a little so I would not make the neighbors mad. Being adjustable allows me to set a wide area of illumination so I can see more with the camera. 

The sensor looks like most sensors on outdoor floodlights with the exception of the LED on the bottom of it. This LED is what lets you know when you are connected to WiFi. 

The camera on the Maximus Camera Floodlight is adjustable, it looks kind of like a ball joint with a hole in it. Daylight and nighttime (when the lights are on) pictures are good quality.

The speaker unit is mounted on the base of the floodlight unit, you can see the holes. Besides, being able you yell sayings like “hey you kids get off my lawn” the system comes with preprogrammed sayings that you can activate using the Kuna software on your smart device (I like the dog barking).

Instllation

The Maximus camera Floodlight comes with mounting hardware, and installation is rather simple if you already have wiring and a junction box at the location where you are mounting the camera.  The system is designed to use the junction box as a mounting point. In order for you to be able to take advantage of all of the features of the Maximus Camera Floodlight you will have to be connected to the internet. 

Software

Although not technically in the package there is a software component to this system its called Kuna. The Kuna app is used to set up and control the features of our Maximus Camera Floodlight.  Kuna also has a built in AI that can learn and can distinguish between a car and a person.

One nice feature of the Kuna software is the thumbnail view of recent events. This displays the recordings of events that have happened in the recent past (I believe within the last two hours). That being said, I must say I found the Kuna app hard to navigate at times. Getting to the settings page is not really evident and can be frustrating when trying to adjust the floodlight system. Another issue I observed is that the app does not work well on my iPad Pro. Even though the user interface was not to my liking setting up and connecting to my Maximus Camera Floodlight was easy and straightforward. The app automatically found my device and walked me through the setup.

Design and features

As you may have surmised by now the Maximus Camera Floodlight is designed to compete against other similar products on the market today, mainly Ring. With similar features floodlight, camera, two way speaker both systems work on the same principle. The folks at Maximus (the makers of the system I am reviewing) sent me a design and feature comparison so I could see the difference between them and who they perceive as their main competition. Both Ring and Maximus have a free service and paid service for their apps so I will highlight things what I think are important focusing mainly on the hardware features.

Mounting options: Both products can be mounted on a vertical wall, but the Maximus Camera Floodlight can be mounted on your eves as well. The Maximus Camera Floodlight also has a “Quick Connect” mounting base that made installation easier.

Lighting: Both systems have two lights, the Ring has LED spotlights and the Maximus has LED panels. In the comparison photos I would say the Maximus illuminates a wider area.

Camera: Both cameras seem to be close enough in similarities to call that a wash, but the Maximus camera does allow for some independent adjustment where the Ring’s is fixed.

Software/apps: Both companies offer a paid service and a free service and they have some of the same features, but what stands out to me on the Kuna app for Maximus is the free cloud storage of your recordings. The recordings will stay in the cloud for two hours so you can view and download them. Ring does not offer this in their free service.

What I like

• Designed for easy installation.
• Bright and adjustable lighting.
• Easy setup.
• Free service basic functionality works well.

What needs to be improved

• Kuna software

Final thoughts

What’s my bottom line on the Maximus Camera Floodlight? I like it a lot. This system is almost plug and play (minus the hardwiring you do) out of the box. Once you wire it up and connect to the internet you are good to go. The Maximus Camera Floodlight works well with the basic free service, but the pay service has an AI that will learn and help make your system smarter. During my writing of this review this system gained the ability to integrate with Google Assistant which is a nice plus. With a cost of $249 on the Kuna website, the Maximus Camera Floodlight is on par with other similar systems of this type and quality.

Price: $249.00
Where to buy: Kuna
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Maximus

The post Maximus Camera Floodlight review appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

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Tagged: security camera

Maximus Camera Floodlight review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 8, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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