eufy – IndoorCam Mini – White

This Eufy indoor cam was a breeze to set up because I already use a Eufy system and have the app installed on my phone. I opened the app, selected add new device, and followed the easy setup steps which generated a QR code for the camera to scan. I pointed the QR code at the camera, it scanned it and joined my wifi network. It was good to go from there. Even without an existing system, new users would download the app and set up the camera the exact same way. The kit includes the camera, a micro-USB power cable and mounting brackets and hardware. You are asked if you have a micro-SD card during setup. If not, it offers other options. If no storage is available, it can still be setup to stream without saving.
Video quality is good. It’s clearer, brighter and sharper than my existing battery operated Eufy cams. Night vision is also particularly good quality. It’s crisp, bright, clear and sharp on the static areas of the room and furniture. It’s a little less sharp with people and movement but still exceeds my expectations. Available recording and streaming resolutions are 1080p and 2k. It also has a water ark option that will stamp the date and time on each recording. The camera can also record and monitor sounds and the app allows two-way intercom communication with the camera. Other features include manual video recording, snapshots and sounding an alarm. Unlike my other Eufy cams, there is no camera off option in the app. The only way to power off the camera is to unplug it. I do not want to risk corrupting the SD card, so I always try to make sure the camera is not recording before unplugging. It’s a little inconvenient and would be much nicer if the app allowed me to power off the camera like the others.
The pan and tilt feature is useful for checking an entire area. I can sweep and see the entire room 360 degrees. The camera does make a low motorized sound when moving but it’s near silent and nothing I would consider disruptive or annoying. I like that this cam is AC powered because one of my battery operated Eufy cams has a faulty battery and needs to be recharged every month or two. It’s been that way since the beginning. The other camera works fine and goes 3-4 months between recharges but neither battery lasts remotely close to a year as stated. AC power is much more reliable. The only downside to AC power is the cord may stick out and it limits placement choices. It provides about 7-8 feet of cord to work with. The good thing about the cord being micro-USB is I’ve seen third party micro-USB cables available that measure as long as 15 feet.
I do have one enormous complaint with this camera as an existing Eufy user. I do not like that it seemingly does not appear to be compatible with the Eufy home base that manages and stores recordings for my other Eufycams. This camera seems like a totally independent device that merely shares the Eufy app to an extent. It does not store to the home base like the other cameras and requires either a micro-SD card, a NAS, or a cloud storage subscription. It doesn’t even save events in the app’s event tab with the other cameras. I have to click on the camera in the device list and find the events there. Other than live streaming the only footage it archives without an SD card is the last taken snapshot. It doesn’t even save the most recent few snapshots beyond the last one. It feels disjointed and inefficient to have two Eufy cameras storing to the home base and one separate Eufy camera storing totally independent of the others on a locally inserted SD card. It’s especially frustrating that even the events are logged and accessed separately in the app. For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend this to owners of the home base system unless they need an AC powered or totally separate camera that merely utilizes the same app. I do feel this is a decent camera for those without a Eufy home base and would rate this a 4 star in that regard. My review and rating are from the perspective of a home base user. Both ratings took into account that like a Nest cam, this is essentially worthless without optional storage. However, unlike a Nest cam, this camera at least provides a free local storage option. Well, aside from the cost of a compatible SD card. A card whitelist is provided within the app for reference.

This pan & tilt indoor camera is another good product from Eufy, great for home entrance or maybe as a baby or a pet monitor. The settings in the app are pretty easy to use and the view of the cam is clear with the 2K resolution, however the micro usb cable provided is to short to install on a ceiling as suggested on the manual so I had to buy a longer one. For those people that don’t mind the cable been to short or want to use it on a table, it’s an ok camera, personally I wish camera would have been completely wireless with a rechargeable battery, other than that the features on the mini camera works well with the exception of the Privacy mode that doesn’t have a setting to activate for a long Period of time, when I turn it on it last for a few minutes and then it will turn off automatically or maybe when it sense movement, hopefully they fix this with a software update. Another thing thing that this camera is lacking , unlike the other Eufy cameras is the Geofencing setting, this help detect when you’re home so it will turn the motion off automatically.

The Eufy IndoorCam Mini does exactly what I was hoping for. It is very convenient and easy to use! Following are the pros and cons of this Security Cam:
PROS:
– This is a small unit, so it is easy to find a good place to put it. You just need access to electricity. It can be set on a table or shelf or mounted on a wall or ceiling with the included mounting hardware
– It was very easy to set up and start using it. You just plug it in and download the eufy security app, connect via Bluetooth and it is ready to go. The app gives you instructions on how to use it and various settings. There are a lot of different settings that can be adjusted to meet whatever your needs are.
– The 2K resolution is really quite good. I can clearly see everything going on in the room where it is installed via my phone. Even at night it has a very good night vision mode so you can still see what is going on and it can detect motion. It also has a very wide field of view and motion detection area.
– The camera will rotate and pan and tilt automatically to follow any motion or sounds, if you have it set to detect both. You can choose whether to have it track motion or sound or both. If you mount it in the corner of a wall or ceiling it would probably capture the most motion, but I have it sitting on a TV stand. As long as I have it close to the edge so the camera can pick up things down low, I can see my whole room and even capture the cat down on the floor when she walks by.
– It performs 24/7 recording. You can pop in a mini SD card and it just uses that and keeps recording over it when full, so you don’t have to pay for any monthly storage fee. You can also choose a cloud based storage plan if you’d rather have a service store it for you, but I use it with a mini SD card and it works great.
– You can set it up to send you alerts whenever it captures motion or sound. It will then send you an alert and either a 30 second clip you can watch, or a longer clip if there is continuous motion or sound in your house. You can also choose to turn off the alerts and just log into the app whenever you want to watch all the clips recorded. You can watch them and delete them or save or forward any clips. I have had as many as 50 clips stored and it barely used any of the SD card storage. As I delete them it frees up storage space.
– You can also go into the app at any time and watch a live feed of what is going on in the room where it is set up. You can click on a button for it to do a complete rotation to see the whole room, or you can adjust it however far you want to go, side to side or up and down. I really like this feature as I can pull it up and see and hear what my pets are doing when I am away. A can also speak to them or anyone in my house remotely through the speaker and people can also speak back to me.
– When I come home at night, I can go into the app and click on a privacy mode button and it will rotate the camera backwards and turn it off so that recording stops while I am home, then turn it on again when I leave.
– You can also choose whether to only record clips where a human is in the room, if you don’t want clips of your pets or other movement or sound in the room. This is great for security purposes, but you can still go in and look at the live feed whenever you want to see the pets
– When movement or sound is detected, it has motion tracking that allows the camera to rotate and follow the movement or sound in the room.
– You can set up the cam to run on a schedule if you don’t want to turn it on and off each day.
– If you see someone in your house via the live feed, you can set off a loud alarm on it with the push of a button on the app.
CONS:
– It would have been nice if it came with a mini SD card. I luckily had an extra one at my house to put in, but if you don’t then make sure you buy one if you want to record video. You may want to choose the size of your mini SD card, but even if it had come with a small one to get you started, it would be nice.
– I’ve noticed the motion tracking cannot keep up with fast moving objects. If my pet runs by it or even a human who walks by quickly, it will start recording and the camera turns to follow them, but if they are moving fast and quickly get past its field of view, then it will lose them. Not an issue if I am watching a live feed, as I can manually turn it to watch. I think for monitoring and recording for security purposes, this is why it would ideally be hung in the corner of a ceiling, as it could then easily monitor the whole room and track any movement in the room. Based on where mine is setting on a TV stand in the middle of a wall, things that move past quickly and at close range could be lost on the recording.
– It does make some noise when it is rotating. Its not really noticeable in a house with background noise like a TV on. However, if someone broke in and was walking around in a quite house, I think they would hear it and see there is a camera. However, that is not necessarily bad as it might scare them away since they would know it may have sent an alert to someone. However, if you are wanting to use it as a nanny cam or to spy on someone’s activity in your house, it may be hard to do that with the sound being made.
While I have listed a few cons, I feel they are very minor issues and compared to all the pros and great features, I feel this is an excellent small indoor security cam that meets all my needs and more. I would definitely recommend it!

Pros:
– Wired camera that supports 24/7 recording @1080p only (to save memory card). For Motion/Human Detection supports up to 2K. I would prefer the option for me to decide if I want to save my memory card’s lifespan or not. Especially, since it doesn’t come with one.
– Good picture quality.
– The detection works extremely well. It picks things up almost immediately and then tracks them accurately until out of the frame.
– I found recordings recorded the entire event over only getting half of it like most of my other cameras. If anything it goes to long which I prefer over too short.
– Loading up the live view is quick.
– Setting up schedules was easy and works well.
– I REALLY like the privacy setting. Where when it turns off it will move to be facing the other way giving you peace of mind. Additionally, the light on the front is blue when on, and red when recording. You can set up exactly where it moves to when off and where it moves to when on. When in live view you can also pan 360 degrees.
– Multiple mounting options such as by itself on a shelf, on the ceiling (mount included), or on a wall (mount NOT included).
– Night vision looks good and works well.
– As mentioned, it has pan/tilt. Where it can pan 360 degrees and pan up and down.
– It supports noise detection. Where if it hears something, it will turn on and then pan to that location. From my brief testing this working alright being very hit or miss.
– Doesn’t require the cloud and is a completely close system. Meaning no subscription fees!
– You can talk through it via 2 way audio.
– Comes with a long cable.
– Eufy app is relatively easy to navigate.
Cons:
– Doesn’t support animal detection. I got this mostly to monitor my puppy (6-months) when I’m not at home. So, I have to turn on all motion alerts to pick him up which drastically increases the number of alerts I get throughout the day. As it is quite sensitive and sends me a lot of false positives.
– Doesn’t come with a memory card. Adding $16 – $30 to the price. Making it less competitive to other brands. Hopefully, they will make this more obvious on their marketing material. As I wasn’t aware of this when I bought it as it’s kind of hidden.
– Tracking can be jerky, is picked up on recordings, and with low FPS can make things blurry.
– Not supported by HomeKit. But is supported by Alexa and Google.
– Freaks people out as it moves with them.
– Alarm setting isn’t very loud (which can be a pro or a con) and for some reason was activated by default when any motion was detected.
– Uses Micro USB. Like why?!
CONCLUSION:
It’s a nice camera and at first I really wasn’t sure I liked it. But after using it for the past week it has grown on me. I get a lot of false positives which can be frustrating but part of that is on me for having “all motion” detection on, instead of having “human detection” on. I could also probably further refine this though the settings as they are currently on default. But them adding at least “animal” detection would be great. As I think most of the target demographic will be getting this to monitor their children and/or animals. There is plenty of customization in the app itself and the pan and tilt function is really neat.