jrockbridge
Stealing Your Riffs
SYMYNELEC 5GHz/2.4GHz Light Bulb Security Camera Outdoor Waterproof 2.5K, 5G Dual Band WiFi Light Socket Security Camera with AI Human Motion Detection Tracking 4MP Color Night Vision Alexa (2 PCS).
Currently priced on Amazon at $95.99 for 2 lightbulb video cameras. Mini SD memory cards sold separately. Single video cameras of the same model via Amazon currently priced at $49.99 each.
These can be used indoors or outdoors. This model is waterproof and fits in a standard size light socket. They include a socket extension arm for each camera and a light bulb socket to electrical outlet adapter for convenient WiFi setup.
The video quality is good for a lightbulb type camera but not as good as an upper end, dedicated security camera. The video is color in daylight, and also when the camera lights are turned on manually or automatically at night. The camera records in black ‘n’ white at night when only using IR lights. The audio recording quality and playback is very prone to noise and pics up interference.
You can choose to pay extra for cloud service for recording and archiving videos or you can purchase mini SD cards formatted Fat32. The maximum capacity that will work with the cam is a mini SD 256 GB, but smaller GB will also work.
The cameras can be set to work in HD or SD quality. The cameras ability to connect to WiFi from a distance, even outside the house, is very good.
A free App for Apple iOS iPhone and iPad is available in the Apple App Store. There is also an Android version of the app for Android phones and tablets. The Apple iOS app works on Mac but it has not been retooled to comply with Mac’s current security protocol, so using it on Mac may come with some risk. Also, if you try to enlarge the image, it turns sideways. A restart of Mac seems to be the only way to turn the image right side up again.
The cameras can rotate left, right, up and down via app control on phone or tablet. That control only works with the image sideways on Mac. Lol! I’m not aware if there is a Windows PC app available.
Every once in awhile, a camera will go offline. The easiest way to fix it is to toggle the main light switch power off for about 15 seconds and then back on, much like rebooting a computer.
If multiple cameras are installed, they can be named in the app and the order changed. Multiple camera screens can be viewed at the same time including 4 cams, up to 9 or 16 at once.
It does include a simple user manual in the box. The app is well designed, intuitive, relatively powerful and somewhat complex.
Keep in mind, the motion sensing and recording, as well as the automatic turning on of the lights for color night recording, is triggered by any movement in the video frame. For my use, outside the motion recording was triggered by cars driving by in the frame, small animals flying at night, shadows moving during daylight and people walking into the frame and blowing snow.
In my use case, outdoors, the cams replaced my floodlights. The cam lights are not as bright as a typical floodlight. However, you can mount these cams next to a motion sensing floodlight, which seem to sell for as little as $11 each.
The camera via the app has many more powers and features, including Human AI tracking, which I have not yet explored.
Overall, these seem to be good quality and a value for the dollar. It will be interesting to see how well, and long, they survive outdoors. I did drop one cam, by accident, from a very high height, off a tall, extended ladder onto the frozen ground, and it survived unharmed.
I’ll post some example videos via YouTube. If the video appears black and white, that means the cam was in IR lighting mode at night. If the video starts out black and white and then changes to color, it was in smart mode at night and motion triggered the lights to turn on. The daylight videos are self explanatory. All the videos were automatically recorded via the cam motion trigger technology.
My final thoughts: This technology is great, particularly if you consider how it compares to old school solutions from yesteryear. Before digital, security cam setups were relatively expensive, analog, and often, all black and white, night or day. There wasn’t infrared lighting at night. Footage was recorded on tape. If you wanted to access what was recorded in a 24 hour period, you’d have to rewind or fast forward through 24 hours worth of recorded footage. With this Symynelec cam, the smart technology only records motion and then shuts off after seconds of no movement. So, looking through a 24 hour period of recorded footage is only scrolling through minutes, not 24 hours. Most recorded segments are between 30 seconds and 120 seconds. Everything is time stamped and dated. If you want to look at footage from the 15th, you click on a calendar type interface on the app of the 15th. Not only is this technology incredibly affordable but it’s also much more convenient to use.
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