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Review on πŸ“· Goowls WiFi PTZ Indoor Security Camera for Baby/Pet/Nanny Monitoring, 1080P Wireless Camera with Night Vision, Motion Detection, Two-Way Audio - Works with Alexa by Jonathan Jensen

Revainrating 4 out of 5

OK for a low price; off white. Tracking movement only horizontally, not vertically; detection is good.

UPDATE Oct 2020: - I can use this with the Yi IoT app. - For some reason the sound detection has stopped working (regardless of which app I use. - The device groans/squeaks when turned from side to side. I have a Wyze Cam Pan that I bought a year ago, and love them.Wanted something else something like pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) but not as expensive and with slightly better image quality.I've tested a few other cameras that I'm returning and this Goowls camera at a lightning deal It actually belongs to the Yi IoT family. However, it seems to be using the Chinese version of the app, not the US version. So if you already have a Yi camera, you can't use their app with that camera ( I don't have a Yi but if I did buy it I would probably run into this complication) I tried setting up the US version of the app but it gave me an error The setup was pretty easy it has a took a bit M I had a hard time pairing the app with the camera, but it connected to my network without much trouble. While not as nifty as Wyze or Reolink, Position still offers some basic customization and control options, e.g. B. rotating the image 180 degrees. I think the application might be the weak point of this system; The camera hardware itself is very promising. The picture quality is very good, the motion detection is also good. I found several "alerts" caused by a moth flying through the room. Motion tracking (when the camera follows a detected moving object) is fine, but only seems to track/pan horizontally, not tilt vertically. (The camera can be tilted, but only manually via the app.) A small bug that hopefully can be fixed/updated by Goowls via a firmware update. Night vision in the camera is automatic; There is no app control. But it turns on and off quickly, and the IR image is very good (even better than the Wyze, I'd say). The app really wants to make you want to get their cloud service. This put me off HeimVision, which made it impossible to view clips even with an SD card inserted. After setting up this camera, it wasn't immediately clear how to view other clips from the SD card as short 610-second preview clips. I was determined to return the camera when I couldn't figure out how to view full video clips on the SD card. However, today I noticed that you have the option to view the entire clip after watching the preview clip. (I'm assuming these are clips stored on the SD card.) Another really handy, but perhaps rarely used, feature is Panorama mode. On command, the camera pans to the limit of its horizontal movement, then pans and records a continuous image. It takes a few minutes for the panorama photo to appear and if you want to view it outside of the app, you'll need to save the image to your phone. The resulting image is severely distorted and vertically compressed, poor quality. I did the trick by pressing the pan button and then the record video button to have a video clip recorded as it moves in space. Again, vertical range is limited (but not as bad as a still image). I would like to be able to automatically take a panoramic picture at a specific time and/or periodically during the day. Another nice feature that I haven't seen on others is the network connection test.

Pros
  • Absolutely amazing!
Cons
  • Not bad but...