Anker Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt review - very smart IP Camera

If not every buyer thinks about buying smart home components, then everyone has probably thought about buying a camera to view the situation in a house or apartment. After all, everything is somewhat easier with the camera – modern smart cameras do not require special settings, and the applications themselves will tell you what to do and where to click to connect to the camera. And what if we tell you that modern cameras are also able to notify about the appearance of people and animals, monitor their movements and even automatically play not only the sounds of serena, but also commands for dogs? All this can be done by the Anker Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt camera, which we will tell you about today.

Exterior

We start our acquaintance with the packaging and configuration. The box is cardboard, with nice graphics. Inside it is the camera itself and accessories, folded into a separate small box. Among them – a power supply with a USB port, a microUSB cable, a removable platform-mounting to a flat surface or to a tripod, as well as a set of fasteners.

Anker Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt is quite compact, has a white plastic case and a rotary camera unit. That is, the camera can be rotated both vertically and horizontally. If you turn the camera in your hands, there is still a lot of interesting things. On the non-rotating part of the case, there is an LED operation indicator (which can be turned off to work in stealth mode), a speaker and a microphone on the sides, a microUSB port for powering the camera and a setup button on the back.

And if the rotary unit of the camera is turned up as much as possible, access will open to a slot for a microSD card, on which the camera will record video (and cards with a volume of as much as 256 GB are supported).

At the bottom of the case there is a QR code for setting up and a place for fixing the platform, which in turn is proposed to be fixed on any flat surface, whether it is a wall or a ceiling, and there is also a regular tripod thread for mounting on a tripod. And of course, the camera can simply be placed on any horizontal surface.

Software

To control the camera, install the proprietary Eufy Security software, after which, following the instructions of the application, we connect the IP camera to the Wi-Fi network and your smart home in just a few steps. It's nice that immediately at the setup stage it is suggested to choose the orientation of the camera, because if you install it on the ceiling, the picture will need to be turned over.

The camera control interface is very rich: there is horizontal and vertical control of the camera, you can shoot a video or take a frame, activate voice transmission from a smartphone to the camera, activate the microphone built into the camera, turn on the automatic 360-degree viewing mode (the camera rotates to the stop left and right once), turn on the automatic night mode, turn on the siren (the camera will emit a siren sound for 30 seconds), activate the tracking mode and calibrate.

In addition, there is a bundle of camera settings and the profile / smart home itself. For example, there are video recording settings – the camera can record to a microSD card, supports streaming via RTSP to NAS network storage, and there is also support for a proprietary cloud (the first 30 days are free, then it is paid, the storage period is 14 days).

We will separately note the security functions. First, the camera can detect people and pets (and send notifications to the smartphone about the appearance of movement in the frame). Secondly, the camera can automatically monitor their movement, and there is even a separate function for pronouncing the "Stop" command for dogs (so that the latter do not enter the territory where they can not enter). There are also several security modes, for example, "no one is home", in which the camera activates the security functions, and the "all at home" mode, when the security functions are disabled. All these modes can be configured, and there is an automatic mode switching, for example, according to a schedule.

As for the quality of video recording, the camera is capable of recording video in FullHD and 2K resolution (when recording using an application on a smartphone, video files have an MP4 format with a frame rate of 15 fps and a bitrate of 1 Mbit/s-. Subjectively, of course, the picture pulls on HD, but in general it looks very good. Due to the fixed focus, it is not recommended to use the camera for shooting nearby objects (up to 1-1. 5 meters). But objects at a distance of one and a half meters, even with room lighting, are transmitted in sufficient detail and clearly. If you do not chase a very high resolution, then the pictures of Anker Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt are enough that they say "behind your eyes".

Conclusions

To be objective, there are no significant disadvantages of this model. Of course, you can try to find fault that the camera is not suitable for outdoor use – but the manufacturer immediately says that this is a camera for indoor installation. One could complain about the lack of a LAN port, but a modern user is much more pleasant to connect via Wi – Fi-there are fewer wires and easier installation. But there are a lot of advantages here - there is the ability to record to a microSD card, NAS network storage, to a proprietary cloud (of course not for free), and a built-in AI with the identification of people and animals and subsequent tracking, and two-way audio, and a good picture. And the price is quite decent. In general, the Anker Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt is really a very interesting modern IP camera.

Lutovinov Maxim (aka. Kok)
04/08.2021