EufyCam 3 Review: Best Subscription-Free Security Camera

The EufyCam 3 is by far probably the most completed digital camera system from Eufy but, with a mixture of options that may catapult it to the highest of many want lists. Anker’s good dwelling safety model has all the time supplied native storage and a subscription-free mannequin, however that is its first safety digital camera that may reliably acknowledge faces and accomplish that with out connecting to the cloud. Subscription-averse of us with privateness considerations, this could be the digital camera you may have been ready for.

The EufyCam 3 delivers crisp and detailed 4K footage, has onboard AI able to precisely figuring out topics and even faces, and boasts built-in photo voltaic panels to maintain it absolutely charged. The Homebase 3 hub permits for native storage, with 16 GB inside and the choice to increase as much as 16 TB by including a tough drive. But all this comes at a hefty value. The two-camera equipment is $550, whereas the three-camera equipment will value you a whopping $680.

Stranger Danger

The headline characteristic right here is facw recognition, so let’s cope with that first. Eufy’s machine-learning AI (referred to as BionicMind) spots and flags faces, and you may tag them within the app. When it acknowledges a face, the title pops up within the alert in your telephone; when it doesn’t acknowledge a face, it says a stranger has been detected. You can even add acquainted faces manually and assist practice the system utilizing a photograph out of your telephone’s gallery or by taking a brand new shot (these should be passport-style).

With BionicMind, you possibly can shortly distinguish between certainly one of your youngsters coming dwelling and an unknown customer. I solely bothered to test movies when a stranger was flagged, which actually cuts down on false positives and wasted time. But the system takes some time to study what individuals appear to be, and it requires a transparent have a look at their faces to determine them.

If somebody is sporting a hat, has their hood up, or passes the digital camera shortly with out wanting immediately at it, BionicMind usually fails to acknowledge them. This drawback is exacerbated by the truth that the EufyCam 3 isn’t the quickest digital camera to set off. I usually discovered recordings began with somebody midway via the body. That mentioned, I’ve solely been testing for round a month, and it has grown noticeably extra correct. Now that it has a number of pictures of my mug, its hit fee at accurately figuring out me is bettering (from 50 % or much less, to round 80 %).

Notifications with names connected are reassuring, whether or not household and associates or different frequent guests like window cleaners or mail carriers. Face recognition additionally means that you can filter all movies of a specific topic, making something you would possibly want to research that a lot simpler to search out.

Like earlier Eufy safety cameras, the EufyCam 3 additionally has individuals, pet, and car detection. You can outline exercise zones and tweak the detection sensitivity to fit your chosen spot. I are likely to set detection to people solely, and I’ve had solely two false positives in a month of testing (each had been a close-up of my cat climbing the fence proper subsequent to the place the digital camera is).