This is the SoloCam S40 by Eufy, a wireless security camera that claims to solve a couple
of key complaints that are often levelled at wireless security cameras - their need
for regular charging, and their reliance on a central hub for storing their data.
This camera, with it’s large solar panel, direct connection with your home wifi and
built-in storage should in theory resolve both of those issues.
But does it, and even if it does, is that enough to justify a £200 or $200 per camera
cost?
That’s what I’ll aim to find out in this review video.
Now before we proceed, I do need to clarify that Eufy did send me this camera at no cost
to myself for review purposes, however they’re not sponsoring this video, nor do they have
any kind of editorial influence over the video or visibility of it prior to it going live,
all of the opinions shared here are entirely my own.
OK, let’s get into it.
### The Camera
So, let me explain the key difference between this and say, the 2C Pro camera system that
I’ve already got setup around my home.
The first, rather obvious difference if I hold the two cameras next to one another is
the size difference, the S40 really dwarves the significantly smaller 2C Pro.
And that’s because, housed inside the S40 is a larger battery, but also on the top you’ve
got this large solar panel, and of course with solar panels, in order to be effective,
the larger they are the more effective they are.
So the idea with this camera then is that you’re going to position it somewhere where
you can capture what’s going on around your home, but also somewhere where the camera
can get a good few hours of direct sunlight each day.
That sunlight is not going to be enough to power this camera alone, but in all cases
it will be enough to top the battery up, and in the right circumstances, you might be able
to run this camera for a really long time, thanks to the solar panel really slowing down
how quickly the battery drains.
The other major difference is the lack of reliance on something like this, the HomeBase,
a small plastic device that connects via cable to my router, and pulls all of the video from
my network of 2C Pro cameras together, storing it on it’s 16gb of built-in storage.
The S40 connects directly to your wifi when you first set it up, something that you still
do via the Eufy Security app, but then it’s communicating directly with your router, bypassing
the HomeHub.
It stores footage internally on it’s own 8GB storage, and you can access this footage
in the usual manner via the Eufy Security app.
### Setup
Speaking of setup, it’s extremely easy.
You first need to charge the camera, and this is via USB C rather than via MicroUSB, a welcome
change and hopefully Eufy have stopped building cameras that need micro usb charging now.
I didn’t time how long it took to charge, but I did notice that it seemed to be longer
than the 2C Pro cameras, like I said at the start of the video this is a pretty hefty
battery in here that you’re charging up, so my advice would be that unless you’re
getting this on charge first thing in the morning and planning on installing it late
in the day, I’d put it on charge overnight and then plan to mount it the next day.
You do get a USB to USB C cable in the box, but you’ll need to sort out the AC adaptor
yourself, although any USB wall outlet will do.
Open up the Eufy Security app, locate your camera and follow the simple instructions
to connect it to your home wifi.
Once that’s done, you’ll move outside to mount it.
A word of advice here; ensure that before you drill any holes in walls, you stand with
the camera roughly where you want to install it, and check the connection and view from
your phone.
It would appear that where I’ve installed it has the lowest wifi strength according
to the app, although it does still work, and other than it being a little sluggish to connect
to, it works perfectly fine here.
In terms of where to mount your camera up, you’ve got a couple of things to keep in
mind.
One is that the storage is within the camera itself, so if someone were to remove the camera
from your wall, which is actually not that difficult to do, they could in theory disappear
with your footage, so where possible, go high enough to cause people issues if they want
to try and remove it.
Eufy recommend between 2 and 3 metres, or between around 7 to 10 feet.
The second thing to consider is exposure to sun, you ideally want the solar panel to get
a healthy dose of UV rays every day as much as possible.
It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t mandatory, the camera doesn’t have to benefit
from the solar panel, you could just use this as a regular rechargable camera if you wished,
but you would be missing out on a key feature.
But if you’re like us, and you’ve got a house with lots of overhangs that you’d
potentially want to put the camera underneath, keep in mind that the camera might not get
much sun.
The physical installation is done with the much improved mount, the ones that come with
the 2C Pro cameras are awful in comparison, so much so that I actually went and bought
a bunch of these on Amazon.
They connect to your wall via 3 included wall plugs, and then you’ve got lots of flexibility
for positioning the camera thanks to the ball joint.
### Usage
Control of the camera is via the excellent Eufy Security app, where you can preview a
live feed and access previous recordings, as well as make any changes to the settings
that you might need to make.
The picture is a clear, 2K image, I’ve always been really impressed with the 2K footage
from Eufy’s security cameras and the footage here really is no different.
Within the app you have the usual controls which allow you to manually record video or
capture a screenshot of what’s showing on the live feed, mute the audio, view captured
events, change the night vision mode, trigger an audio alarm which sounds at 100db, or access
the settings.
You can also manually activate the spotlight, and this for me is one of the biggest selling
points of the Solocam S40 over say, the 2C Pro system.
The spotlight on the 2C Pro is extremely weak, just bright enough to allow it to assist with
colour night vision.
Compare that with the spotlight here on the Solocam S40, this is a 600 lumen light, comparable
to a good quality torch, and more than bright enough to not only illuminate the entire area
where it’s pointed at, but also to possible startle an intruder.
It’s not as bright as the floodlight on Eufy’s floodlight cam that I recently reviewed,
but it’s good, and the fact that it’s battery operated, so no electrician needed,
is a huge bonus here.
In terms of night vision, I’ll include some footage on-screen now, showing you both the
regular black and white night vision without the spotlight, and the full colour night vision
using the light.
The camera features 2-way talk, so it can pick up audio using the built-in microphone,
and the built-in speaker can also be used to communicate with someone at the other end
of the camera.
Rather than talk about this, I’d much rather share with you a couple of examples.
Motion Detection is right up there with the best Eufy cameras, which for anyone who hasn’t
seen my other Eufy reviews, means that it’s generally very good during the daytime, and
a bit scattergun at night.
What I mean by that is, the camera uses AI during the day to tell the difference between
a person and say, a dog or a cat or a car.
You can be alerted to everything if you wish, or you can specify that you only want to be
made aware of people, which I would argue is extremely helpful at night for example.
But unfortunately, at night, the AI isn’t able to differentiate a person from any form
of movement, so if a cat walks in your camera’s field of view in the dead of night, even with
the bright spotlight, you would be alerted to movement.
This is a shame, and I really think it’s the one issue for me that I wish Eufy would
address in a future firmware update, or even future camera models.
Having confidence in the AI at night would encourage me to have the camera trigger it’s
alarm if it spots anyone walking around the side of our house late at night, something
that I just can’t do at present, as I’d get too many false positives.
But during daytime hours, it’s good.
The camera is quick to activate and alert us regardless of whether people are walking
away from the camera or towards the camera, and if you need to, you can set up activity
zones, and these are the new shape activity zones that give you much more flexibility
than the ones on the 2C Pro system.
The camera has a weather protection rating of IP67, always a difficult one to test fully,
but this camera has been sat out in storms recently, lashed with rain, battered with
wind, and it’s working absolutely fine, so I’ve got no worries there.
And finally, the solar charging does work, as you can see from the dashboard in the app.
Now keep in mind, this camera has been installed here in the UK in February, and the weather
has been particualrly grim lately, but you can still see that overall, I’ve technically
gained 1% battery each day in the past week.
Now obviously, if you have this installed in a busier part of your house than where
I’ve got mine, your battery usage might increase.
But also, if you’ve got installed somewhere with more direct sun, that will help.
And I reckon in spring and summer, I should see improvements here, so that’s good.
### Verdict
So, what do I think of this camera?
Well, I really like it.
Before this, I had a 2C Pro camera covering the side of the house, which I’ve now swapped
out with this camera.
Obviously, Eufy sent me this camera, so I didn’t have to pay to make that change.
Would I, having used this camera, have paid £200 to swap out from the 2C Pro?
Probably not, there’s not a huge amount of difference between the two in my opinion.
But if I was buying a camera for the first time, I’d absolutely pick this over the
2C Pro.
You don’t need to buy a HomeBase, you just connect to wifi and then add as as many new
cameras as you need to over time.
It’s one less thing connected to your home power, it’s one less thing connected your
router, and if you lose power to the HomeBase, this camera will still operate, it’s only
if you lose wifi that it becomes an issue.
The spotlight is excellent, in my eyes it’s the best part of this camera by far, and it’s
the reason why I’ve got it installed down the side of our house, adding some much needed
security light to the 2 solar lights I’ve already installed there.
It’s reliable, captures great quality video and the solar panel, whilst less exciting
to me than it perhaps is to other people, is a nice touch, at the end of the day if
I only have to charge this once every few months instead once every month like I have
to with the 2C Pros at the front of my house, that’s got to be a good thing.
So there you go, my thoughts on the excellent Solocam S40.
What do you think?
Would you consider picking one of these up?
Or, are you considering a different camera brand?
If so, which one, and why?
Drop me a comment, and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.