If you remember the video I did a few weeks ago featuring WyzeCam 2, then you already
have a jumpstart on today's video which is all about the $30 Wyze Cam Pan.
This is a new camera that's launching today, but thanks to WyzeCam, I've been testing it
for a couple of weeks.
It's important to point out that I've been using a beta version of the app so take what
I experienced and expect things to get even better.
In the box, you'll find one Wyze Cam Pan equipped with a universal mount.
It also ships with a quick start guide, USB cable, and a power adapter.
Installing Pan was breezy and took less than two minutes since I already had the WyzeCam
app in place.
Speaking of WyzeCam, Pan and WyzeCam 2 share a lot of the same features but they aren't
exactly the same.
The biggest difference is that Pan can pan and tilt mechanically and robotically.
It's also bigger.
At night Pan uses 6 Infrared LEDs as compared to WyzeCam 2 which uses 4.
Can you tell the difference?
During the day, Pan offers a full HD 1080p video resolution using a 120-degree field
of view.
Of course, when you use its Pan and Tilt abilities, your field of view expands.
Though Pan is a PTZ camera, zoom is achieved digitally.
Pan and Tilt, however, are not.
There are three features tied into Pan's PTZ ability starting with control using the app.
For example, you can press right to pan right and up to tilt up or you can use your finger
to swipe the feed and move the camera around.
You can even customize Pan's pan speed.
At its fastest, it can pan 110° per second which means that it can provide a 360° view
in about 3 seconds.
While this is handy, automating the process is more fun.
And the first way you can automate the process is by creating a Pan Scan.
Think of Pan Scan as preset locations for your camera.
When you turn Pan Scan on, the camera will rotate between your four preset locations
spending 10 seconds on one location before moving on to the next.
This allows the camera to monitor a wider area and provide better security coverage.
The final way you can automate the pan tilt process is by enabling Motion Tracking.
Motion Tracking allows the camera to robotically track motion that's within its field of view.
This works when you have the camera set to a locked location and also when you're
using a Pan Scan.
I first tested the camera in an area where it had to monitor a full 360 degrees.
It was easy to trick the camera and hide from its view.
I found that the camera performed better when I didn't walk behind it as its motion sensors
are located on the front of the camera.
If I stayed in front of the camera, it did a much better job of keeping up, even if I
moved quickly.
Two final issues with motion tracking.
One, I noticed that when the camera follows motion, it tends to lose focus becoming slightly
pixelated.
This could be due in part to its lower frame rate.
Like WyzeCam 2, Pan records at 15 frames per second.
Two, panning is not a silent process.
As the camera moves, it makes a motorized sound which is audible in the room and on
recordings.
Going back to the basics, Pan shares most of its features and shortcomings with WyzeCam
2, and as we just went over those not too long ago, I'm going to go through them quickly
but not deeply.
Pan offers two-way audio, a motion detection zone, motion tagging, sound detection, sound
recognition, local storage, and 14 days of free cloud storage.
If you add an SD card, it can record continuously and offers a time-lapse creation feature.
One thing I learned this time around is how the WyzeCam app behaves when you have multiple
cameras.
First of all, you can only stream one camera at a time.
Second, both cameras will record event-based activity to the same library, but you can
filter clips by camera.
Event-based clips are 12 seconds in length and can be downloaded, shared, or deleted
from the mobile app.
Third, push notifications are one size fits all.
While you can control motion detection on a camera by camera basis, turning push notifications
on or off will affect all of your WyzeCam cameras.
To wrap this up, the fact that WyzeCam turned out a product like this for $29.99 is bananas
but so is their $20 WyzeCam 2.
If you're trying to choose between the two, I vote for WyzeCam 2 but only because I prefer
its smaller, more discreet design, and I found Pan's panning noise a little distracting.
If you are strictly considering Wyze Cam Pan, then my vote is yes.
Buy it.
So long as you can deal the shortcomings I've outlined in this video and the ones it shares
with WyzeCam 2 which I pasted into the description below.
But I'll also add this, WyzeCam continues to make these cameras better.
They've pushed out so many wonderful updates over the past few weeks, and I have no doubt
that both Pan and WyzeCam 2 will improve with time.
So with that in mind, I think it's a pretty safe choice considering that it's only $30.
If y'all have any questions about pan, let me know in the comment section below, and
I will see y'all soon!