Review on eufy Security eufyCam 2C 2-Cam Kit – Outdoor Wireless Home Security Camera System, 180-Day Battery Life, HomeKit Compatible, 1080p HD, IP67 Rated, Night Vision, No Monthly Fees by Rod Evans

This is my first experience with security cameras and overall I'm happy with the 2C. I did a lot of research before purchasing and really liked the non-subscription and local storage aspects of the Eufy system. However, there are MANY small (and not so) caveats that may make you reconsider before you buy a system. First, EVERYTHING is controlled via the app, in my case iOS. I wasn't expecting a desktop client. But I was expecting a web client. The app itself is good. But it's frustrating to be limited to this interface. This also means there is no interface or access to Homebase. Therefore, not only do all the settings have to be controlled through the app, but also all the videos you want to download and save have to be done through the app. So, saving a video to your desktop is a three-step process: select a video in the Eufy app, save that video to iOS Photos, sync (e.g. AirDrop) that video to your desktop. Second, it is correct that all videos are stored locally. in Homebase they are streamed over the internet when you view them remotely (without wifi) via the app. That in itself is not bad. But the mechanism of this transmission is not obvious. It is probably an encrypted connection. But there is nothing to suggest one way or the other that will allow you to follow this transmission. I hope the video is not first cached or otherwise stored on one of Eufy's servers. Ideally this would be a direct and secure transfer straight to my iPhone. But I couldn't verify it. Which brings us to the connections Homebase makes - it's a VERY talkative device. Many times a day it talks to remote servers. From what I've researched, these are all AWS servers. Considering how Eufy advertises these cameras as privacy oriented, it would be really informative if they could tell us what Homebase is doing. When I have more time, I will block these connections and see what detrimental effects, if any, they have on cameras and surveillance. As far as I can tell, all homebase and camera updates are MANDATORY. It is impossible to subscribe, unsubscribe or even postpone. I can't find a way to register or get information about Eufy cloud storage. Presumably they have an additional paid cloud service. But I can't find any mention of it on their website. I have yet to explore the integration with Homekit. I'm not sure if activity zones actually do anything. I adjusted zones and sensitivity in hopes of finding a "good enough" balance for monitoring. But no matter what I do, at night the cameras catch cars driving by. I've set my cameras to only detect human movement and the road is definitely outside of the active zone, but I still get the warning. It really sucks when you wake up at night because a car drove by. And night alerts are one of the BIGGEST problems with this system. In all honesty, this could be more Apple's fault than Eufy's. Like any sane person, my iPhone is set to Do Not Disturb at night. The Eufy app cannot bypass DND. DND MUST be disabled to receive notifications at night. So it either worries about every other alarm at night or doesn't get an alarm if someone is roaming around your garden. This is the BIGGEST flaw in the security system. I've seen other reviews complaining about the range of the system. I had no problems. One cell is just eight feet from the base. The other chamber is about fifty feet away, and the signal has to go through a pair of inner walls and an outer wall. Works well. The video quality is bad. I don't expect fantastic quality from such a small camera, but it produces HIGHLY compressed H.264 video. Most likely, this is done to save bandwidth and disk space. But there is no way to decrease the compression. A quality slider would be a good option. The camera also struggles to find the right white balance in the first second of each video. The videos are always interrupted every one to two seconds. This could be a near perfect security system. And from what I can understand, Eufy has gradually improved it with updates. But at the moment (April 2020) I don't recommend it. The first thing Eufy should do is bypass DND in some way so that you actually get notifications at night. You must also disclose why Homebase is constantly communicating with external servers. It would also be enlightening if they explained how the videos are transmitted when you are outside the local network. Something needs to be done about AI and activity zones - their work at night doesn't work. Owners should be able to adjust video quality with the understanding that they can save fewer recordings. Finally, it would be really helpful if there was a comprehensive web interface for Homebase. With the above improvements, Eufy would indeed have a privacy-focused security camera system worth recommending. UPDATE: After playing around with this camera system for a few weeks. , I'm a little happier. I also appreciate Yufi's response to the review. I am especially grateful that they explained why Homebase is constantly communicating with external servers. And I'm glad they admit they're working on a DND issue. Nevertheless, I cannot recommend it unreservedly. The motion detection just doesn't work reliably. Often passers-by are simply not recognized. I saw people walking 12 feet from the camera on my sidewalk and Eufy wouldn't activate. I adjusted the sensitivity. I drew an endless combination of zones. I adjusted the camera angle. If I had to guess, I'd say it recognizes a person 75% of the time. As a workaround, I set it to detect ALL motion. It seems to work reliably. And it's funny to see foxes and raccoons scurrying across my lawn. It also drains the battery a lot. So I set the camera to be powered by the light on the porch. Using PoE cameras would be VERY difficult in my home. But plugging the 2C into an outlet was pretty easy. I will update my review from time to time. This Eufy camera system is a really great concept that I want to implement. I hope they can improve the AI and handle DND. With those two things, and if they allowed us to tweak video quality (i.e. reduce compression and use more memory), I think they would be a real winner.