Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 Review: Dual-camera goodness

Verdict

The Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 just about has all of it: twin cameras (wide-angle and telephoto), no month-to-month charges, folks and pet detection, a motorised pan-and-tilt system that really works with out limitations, and wonderful video high quality as much as 4K in decision. Issues fall down barely when utilizing each cameras concurrently, which reduces total picture high quality, however stick with recording with one lens and utilizing the joint cameras for higher monitoring and this can be a good alternative.

Introduction

Motorised pan-and-tilt cameras sound like a good suggestion, however most fashions are overly sophisticated and get the fundamentals flawed.

Including two cameras into the combo, the Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 appears like a recipe for catastrophe, however a neat app, subscription-free recording and a few intelligent built-in options make this a wise indoor digital camera that may see all the things.

Design and set up

• Dual-camera design
• Powered by USB-C
• Works with the HomeBase 3

If nothing else, the twin cameras of the Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 give the digital camera a cute robot-like look that elevates this product from being simply one other indoor digital camera.

Luckily, these twin cameras (one wide-angle and one 3x zoom telephoto) are literally helpful and never simply a part of the design.

As this digital camera has a 360-degree pan (plus 75-degree tilt), it’s much less essential the place you place it than a digital camera with a hard and fast lens, such because the Ring Indoor Cam (2^nd Gen).

Right here, the digital camera will be positioned on a bookshelf (or the stand will be screwed to a wall), after which the Eufy app will be configured to arrange the place the digital camera is wanting. Energy is through the USB-C connection beneath.

In its default configuration, the digital camera doesn’t have any onboard storage. To report clips, there are three choices. In case you don’t need to pay to retailer video, then there’s a microSD card slot on the rear, which takes playing cards as much as 128GB in dimension (sufficient for months of recording in regular use); alternatively, the digital camera will be related to a HomeBase 3 (supplied it’s inside Wi-Fi vary).

Residence to the Eufy S330 EufyCam wi-fi cameras, the HomeBase 3 gives its personal storage, plus some extra options corresponding to facial recognition that’s processed regionally. Lastly, there’s a cloud service, charged at $2.99 a month.

As soon as plugged in, the Eufy Security app connects the digital camera to your Wi-Fi. Twin-band Wi-Fi 6 is onboard.

Options

• Single or dual-camera modes
• Remembers its ‘residence’ place
• Intelligent AI monitoring

The Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 manages to beat lots of the pitfalls of different pan and tilt cameras. Of all the issues with these sorts of cameras, the largest pitfall is just not having a house place that the digital camera returns to.

Right here, you’ll be able to set a default location for the digital camera, which it returns to robotically after utilizing reside view or when movement monitoring is turned on. That is a necessary characteristic, because the S350 will transfer again to cowl the world that you really want, and there’s no probability that you simply’ll miss one thing essential since you by accident left the digital camera pointing down on the floor.

In addition to the default place, extra positions will be chosen after which jumped to utilizing the reside view possibility. It’s a neat approach to transfer round a room rapidly, say, taking a look at a door after which a window.

Moreover, the digital camera will be set to robotically pan round your saved positions, which is helpful if you happen to can spot all the things you need from a hard and fast place.

This digital camera has two lenses and sensors. The first digital camera is a 4K wide-angle digital camera, which might seize most of a room. There’s then a secondary 2K digital camera, which provides a 3x zoom and is there to seize close-up element.

In its default configuration, leaping into the reside view will default to the 4K digital camera, with a button used to change to the 2K digital camera. With each cameras, the S350 will be remotely panned and tilted to concentrate on what you discover essential.

With the default possibility, the digital camera will report movement detection from its 4K digital camera solely. If you wish to see each video streams, it’s essential to activate the choice. This reduces the standard of each cameras to 2K, and stacks them each one above the opposite. Movement-triggered recordings are saved in the identical format.

Ideally, I’d have favored the S350 to have recorded each streams at native decision, with the playback display screen letting me swap between feeds.

To chop down on the variety of recordings and alerts you get, the Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 has just a few tips. Movement sensitivity is one, alongside exercise zones, so you’ll be able to inform the digital camera to solely hassle with movement in sure areas.

Once more, it’s one more reason {that a} residence place is essential. With no residence place, the movement zone would transfer the entire time, and there’d be an excellent probability that one thing essential could be missed.

Extra helpful but are the in-built human, pet and all different movement detection choices. Choose the kind of movement that you simply need to hassle with, and the digital camera will report these solely. By switching to people-only detection, I dramatically minimize down the variety of alerts that I received.

In addition to detecting movement, the digital camera helps AI Monitoring, following the topic that triggered the occasion. Strolling into my workplace, for instance, the digital camera unnervingly follows me round, with the S350 shifting easily to maintain up with movement.

Based on the app, AI Monitoring limits recordings to 2K, however downloading pattern clips, I discovered that they had been all in 4K.

Discovering recordings could be a chore utilizing the timeline within the playback display screen. Scrolling by means of manually is hard, and the method isn’t as clean as in Ring’s app. There’s an occasion tab, which exhibits all occasions from all units, which is simpler to make use of. Filtering by simply the S350, I might transfer day-to-day and see thumbnails of every occasion.

Modes assist you to select when the digital camera is lively or not and will be triggered robotically through a schedule or through geofencing. With the latter, a number of units are supported, so you’ll be able to have your digital camera disarm, for instance, when one particular person returns residence; the digital camera solely arms when all folks go away residence.

Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa assist can be found, and the digital camera can have its reside view streamed to a appropriate sensible show.

Efficiency

• Sharp video
• Wonderful evening imaginative and prescient
• Twin-mode reduces picture high quality

AI movement monitoring is excellent on this digital camera, ably monitoring my actions easily; different pan-and-tilt cameras that I’ve reviewed have usually had a jerky movement that struggles to maintain up with motion.

So long as there’s an excellent supply of sunshine (daylight or brilliant sufficient ambient lighting), the Eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 is able to taking pictures high-quality video. Utilizing the 4K sensor, the picture is exceptionally sharp and vibrant, and you may clearly see all the things happening. There aren’t any safety cameras that may do higher.

When ambient mild drops, the digital camera switches to IR and shoots in black and white. This mode does make the picture a contact softer (you’ll be able to see that my face loses just a little little bit of element), however the excessive decision helps counter this impact. Once more, picture high quality is pretty much as good as you may presumably count on.

Put the digital camera into its twin mode, and the 2 pictures are compressed right into a single video file, which reduces high quality. As you’ll be able to see from the picture under, the video will get artefacts, color accuracy isn’t pretty much as good, and the image simply isn’t as sharp. I’d not use this mode.

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