eufy Security SoloCam

I have 3 of these. The great functional use of the first one, prompted me to buy a second and then a third. Give me another payday, and I will get a forth.Mechanically speaking: Upon receiving my cameras, I found them to be well assembled of high quality components. They looked good. Insofar as the mounts, visually I found item to be barely up to task - they looked cheap or like a hastened afterthought. The nylon lock washers all had loose fitting threads that felt like they're ready to strip when tightening. It was a dicey step in the mounting process. This was the case on all three cameras I bought. The base of the mount is thin and easily cracks when tightening the screws, so be careful. Regardless, the mount did not allow the camera's aim to move in recent 65 mph winds! I was surprised.The 2K picture is very good (not great) and clear once the cameras are fully "awake". They do not enlarge well. When the cameras are awoken out of their slumber, the picture quality sucks until it finally clears up. This wake up time varies from just a second or two, to a very irritating many seconds. Sometimes you only get just a few seconds of usable "footage" of an offense, and if the sleepy camera hasn't cleared up the image enough, the offense is not well captured. One of the greatest things of the 2K quality are the family videos that occur whilst everyone is behaving naturally. Verses everyone posing, putting on the forced smile or locking up from camera shyness. That alone is good reason to get one. Be advised, it'll also show the world the bald spot on top of your head that you didn't know was there.The IR night vision covers our small yard very well at night - about 35 feet. But beyond that in the street where our vehicles park, it struggles. I HAD use use supplemental IR lighting in certain areas to get usable imagery. People walking laterally to the camera are rather blurry in very low to no light conditions. Note, I have the white spot light turned off. The color vision works well as dusk or dawn get underway. I am pleasantly surprised by the level of color captured when things are in that in between zone, between daylight and night time.My biggest PERSONAL disappointment is not having the ability to take still photographs with it. Just videos.The date/time stamp is white. Therefore if the date/time stamp are in a portion of the image that covers a white building or sky, it cannot be seen at all during certain times of the day. Too bad the stamp did not give options for color and/or shadow effects for better clarity.Insofar as the human detection AI, it is not perfect. Sometimes it misses people altogether. Oftentimes it mistakes cattle for humans. Sometimes, even trees, a watering pail, or even a closed umbrella. One day, I had a hundred videos of a "human" that was a watering pail with an top opening resembling a smile. So I had to move the pail. Nonetheless, I am happy that I now live in an age where such technologies exist for consumers at a reasonable price. It works as intended more often than not. And for the price, I am very happy.Insofar as when "motion" detection is selected, it will detect any motion within the selected sensitivity setting and within the "activity zone" that you select. Using motion detected gathers the most reliable evidence as it records virtually any motion. HOWEVER, that leaves you with the task of going through allot of videos. If you chose not to go through the videos and do a mass delete because you don't think anything happened, you could be sorely wrong. We have found people acting truly mental or even criminal when we didn't think anything happened.Occasionally, a video disappears when "downloading" to be put on another drive. Such was the case this morning when I had a large spider that looked like it was "Zip Lining" from my eaves, across the lawn, and onto my car in the street. That video disappeared during downloading. Like other infrequently lost videos, it wasn't important, but it was really cool. I think spiders invented Zip Lining.Having said all that, I'm certainly not going to hyper criticize a technology so new - consumer technology that it wasn't attainable just a few years ago. Therefore, I heartily give it a 5. A couple more years down the road, it'll be comparatively obsolete like everything else in consumer technologies. But for the here and now, I well pleased with my affordable and high quality Eufy S40 cameras.

So I have 8 of these installed in 2 different houses. I also have like 20 "regular" wireless EUFY cameras installed at the two houses. All outdoors.Suffice it to say - I have alotta tech installed in my two houses. Like tons.WIFISo a lot of the reviews have issues with wifi. I did have some issues early on, but have worked them out. People need to remember these devices are only 2.4 GHZ capable. Those are not just words ! That means something. Most "Internet of Things" devices are only 2.4. So that's not surprising. And yet most people nowadays have WIFI transmitters at home that transmit at 2.4 and 5. Some with only one WIFI name being visible on their computers/iPhones.Just because the EUFY connected the first time - on one of these unified 2.4/5 routers, doesnt mean it will stay connected. The solution is simple : be sure you initially connect on a dedicated 2.4 line, and you should be fine.How to do this ? A few ways :1. Try using the guest network. Less secure I know, but most guest networks are 2.4 only. Not all tho.2. Some transmitters transmit a 2.4 signal and a 5 signal separately, and might be named accordingly. Pick the 2.4. Some routers/transmitters - you have to go into the admin settings - and ask it to transmit two separate names (one for 2.4 and one for 5).3. If that fails, you can go into the admin settings on the router/trasnmitter, and turn off the 5 (temporarily). Now it will only transmit in 2.4. You might need to reboot your router then. Then connect the EUFY. And then go back and turn the 5 back on. Maybe another reboot of the router is then required. I know this is a pain. But it should work. I'll admit that I'm always nervous turning off the 5 (cause I dont know what it the house now disconnected, and might, in theory, have trouble reconnecting. or will be permanently stuck on the slower (but longer range) 2.4)Anyway, that will probably solve most of the wifi issues listed in these comments. It did for me.VIDEO NOTIFICATIONSI recognize this can be hit or miss. Be sure your phone has the notification settings properly set. Both in the EUFY APP, and the Settings>Notifications part of the iPhone. Some iPhone Software updates tend to mess this up, and might need to be redone periodically. I often get too many notices. To the point where it becomes noise.PRIVACY ZONES/MOTION DETECTIONCan also be a little hit or miss - you need to keep adjusting the sensitivity in the EUFY app settings to get it just right. Might take a little time. Not perfect, but it generally does work. The Privacy Zones - if you set them too small - might not work.RECORDINGI wish it did record to a USB stick on the EUFY base station (like the regular EUFY cameras do). This solar one does not. No EUFY base station is required, but you lose the advantage of having a central store of all videos. I like having a central store of all videos - in case someone cuts your internet line (cable line, phone line, fiber optic cable, etc) or you just otherwise lose connection to the internet for awhile. So that's why I have a mix of these solar cameras, and the regular EUFY cameras.SOLAR CHARGINGAlso can be a little hit or miss. In the summer, with a few hours of direct line of sight to the sun, this thing charges great. Even with the spot light use like 10 times all night (animals, etc), this thing charges to 100% if you get it right. In the winter, less so. And if there is any awning over the solar panel (even 2 stories above it), the charging is wayyyyy less good. You have been warned ! I have played a ton with location issues here. Sometimes having to point the solar panel/camera in an angle/way to get more sun.I also wish there was a global mute setting - to globally mute all notifications for some set period. Like when the lawn guys are here. Nope. You have to mute each camera individually - pain in the neck. . . . .I have tried many wireless cameras - some with solar panels. This thing seems to be the best out there at this point. The closest thing to an "install once and forget about it" outdoor camera I'm aware of.I am buying more. . . . if that tells you anything. But dont pay the $199 full price. These go on sale quite often.