EufyCam 3 Evaluation: Finest Subscription-Free Safety Digital camera

The EufyCam 3 is by far essentially the most achieved 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 residence 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 achieve this with out connecting to the cloud. Subscription-averse of us with privateness issues, this is likely to be the digital camera you’ve 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 develop as much as 16 TB by including a tough drive. However all this comes at a hefty worth. The 2-camera package is $550, whereas the three-camera package will price you a whopping $680.

Stranger Hazard

Eufy by way of Simon Hill

The headline characteristic right here is facw recognition, so let’s cope with that first. Eufy’s machine-learning AI (known 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 have to be passport-style).

With BionicMind, you may rapidly distinguish between one in all your children coming residence and an unknown customer. I solely bothered to examine movies when a stranger was flagged, which actually cuts down on false positives and wasted time. However the system takes some time to study what individuals seem like, and it requires a transparent take a look at their faces to establish them.

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

Notifications with names hooked up are reassuring, whether or not household and buddies or different frequent guests like window cleaners or mail carriers. Face recognition additionally lets you filter all movies of a specific topic, making something you may 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 possibly can outline exercise zones and tweak the detection sensitivity to fit your chosen spot. I are inclined to set detection to people solely, and I’ve had solely two false positives in a month of testing (each have been a close-up of my cat climbing the fence proper subsequent to the place the digital camera is).

Eufy by way of Simon Hill