Want home CCTV? Look no further!
Clear video and pro features at a great price
EZVIZ C6 2K+ Camera From €105 ★★★★★
Ahome CCTV system was once the stuff of fantasy, restricted to those with big gates and big wallets. Now though, outdoor and indoor cameras are much kinder on the household budget. EZVIZ offers a broad range, with outdoor, waterproof and indoor cameras available for homes of all sizes. Increasingly, EZVIZ and others are adding features to make cameras more useful, so rather than just being monitors for when we’re away, they can be used to watch children, pets or even as communication devices.
The new EZVIZ C6 2K+ is a ballshaped, high-resolution pan-and-tilt camera. It looks sturdy and well built, and is not much bigger than a tennis ball. Visible immediately is the integrated but separate base of the camera – this is how it swivels for a 360-degree panoramic view. In the box is a mains power adapter, a USB power cable and a selection
ROTATE THE CAMERA TO SEE EVERY
PART OF A ROOM
of mounting attachments.
There’s also a drilling template sheet, indicating that some people opt to attach these cameras to the ceiling.
I opted to put it on a hall table, so stairs, hallway and entry doors to other rooms can be seen. The camera needs to be on your home wifi network but EZVIZ has made that easy, using its free app for Android or iOS.
To simplify pairing, scan the QR code on the underside of the camera, allowing you to view its live feed via the EZVIZ app on your phone. EZVIZ also has an Alexa skill so if you have Amazon’s smart assistant you can link your EZVIZ account to Alexa devices with screens. If you have Echo Show or an LG TV with Alexa built in, you could perhaps say ‘Alexa, show me the baby’s room’, and the camera feed would appear on your screen.
I’ve used fixed EZVIZ cameras before but this C6 is very different. Firstly, the pan and tilt is wonderful and, almost like using a videogame, you can rotate the camera all the way around, and up and down to see every part of a room.
The picture, with its 2K resolution, is crystal clear and even in low light lets you see detail in a room – even through a window into a garden. There are options for switching resolution, with Ultra HD, HD and standard available, though the greater the resolution, the larger the stored video files will be. The software features are excellent, bringing the features of professional CCTV to the home. There is human and pet detection – when the camera detects a human or animal, it rotates and follows the subject, zooming in by a factor of four to give a close-up view.
If you’re out, you can be notified if your pets are moving around the house, view them in real-time – and even have a video call with them from your phone using the built-in speaker on the camera. Also, when a family member waves at the camera, it initiates a call to your phone – for those quick hellos during the day.
ZOOMS AND TRACKS A PERSON AS THEY
MOVE AROUND
If you have an active house, the number of recorded and stored videos can mount up. EZVIZ’s storage plan is available and lets you save seven days of video, on a rolling basis, for €50 a year. If you have multiple cameras, you can save the footage from four for €75 annually.
This does mean another subscription although the camera does have a microSD slot so you can pop in a memory card and save the footage locally at no cost.
The new C6 2K+ and upgraded app offers crystal clear video and excellent features, making this the best value indoor CCTV camera I’ve seen.