The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is built for your home. With Wi-Fi connectivity and a dedicated app, you can quickly access your video feed. You can also adjust its camera angle so that you can keep an eye on all around the house. Apart from this, many features are also available in it. We will talk about all those features here. So is this the best cheap security camera currently on the market? Let’s find out here.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 design and specifications
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is a direct competitor to Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt camera. It offers similar range and features as the Vision. However, its design is quite different. The camera is housed in a ball-like module that allows the camera to look up and down. Its plastic case can rotate on its base.
The device has a microphone and a speaker which are present on its rear side. With its help, not only audio can be captured, but it can also do two-way communication. Also, it plays alert music and alarm when unwanted person enters the house. It has an LED on the front which shows its power and connectivity status.
The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 has a fixed base with a rubberized surface for enhanced grip. The rest of the camera body can rotate on this plane. A socket given at its bottom helps in mounting it on a tripod. You can also mount it on a wall or ceiling. No kit or mounting bracket is provided with it, you have to buy it separately. In the package, you get a wall adapter and a USB Type-A to Micro USB cable, which powers the camera.
In the base, you get a microUSB port for power and a micro SD card slot, which supports cards up to 128GB. It has a 2 megapixel camera sensor with which FullHD video recording is supported. The camera has 350 degree horizontal rotation range and 65 degree vertical range. The field of view is 120 degrees in horizontal and 95 degrees in vertical. To increase visibility in the dark, it has been given 6 infrared LEDs. The camera connects to the Internet using 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. The 5GHz band is not supported in this.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 App and Features
Like other Wi-Fi home security cameras on the market, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 works through an app. This allows the user to monitor video, control the camera, view stored footage, and much more. The Kent CamEye app is available on both iOS and Android platforms. I checked its connectivity on the previous platform. If you have multiple Cant CamEye cameras, they can all be controlled and monitored simultaneously.
After registering on the app and creating an account, you can link security cameras to it and connect it to your home Wi-Fi connection. After this, by tapping on the camera icon, you reach the video feed. Here you can adjust the camera angle and settings, activate the speaker and microphone together or separately, even take a snapshot to save on the smartphone.
Using the app is very easy. Its options and functions are given at convenient places. For example, you can easily activate two-way communication or take a snapshot with a single tap. The D-pad can also be accessed directly to adjust the camera angle. Normally it only takes two to three seconds for the camera to activate and the video feed to be displayed.
Going deeper into the menu and settings, you find Privacy Mode. Activating this does not automatically activate the camera or record footage. You can view your saved recordings and photos and view all alerts issued by the camera. Its alert sensitivity can be customized. After turning on all its settings, when I put it on the main door of the house, it issued dozens of alerts daily. In this way, it is very good to have the control of its different functions in hand.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 footage can be uploaded to the company’s cloud platform. This is a premium feature, storage space has to be charged for. It is Rs 150 per month or Rs 1500 annually. You can store video clips for up to 7 days even for a specific event. These clips are 12 seconds long. For this, there is a charge of Rs 400 per month or Rs 4,000 has to be paid for one year, in which video history of up to 30 days is stored.
For this review, I used the one month plan. With its help, I was able to store videos on cloud storage and also view old video footage. Even after the plan expired, I was able to watch some videos in the app and download them to my smartphone.
The paid subscription lets you capture event-triggered recordings, which are saved to the cloud, according to Cantt’s website. From here you can also watch them by playing them directly. However, all other functions like memory card recording and playback, live streaming of video feed in real time, two-way communication and privacy mode are all available even without any paid subscription plan.
Using a skill, you can link the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 to your Amazon Alexa account. This lets you access the video feed from within the Alexa app. Or you can even access the video feed on an Alexa enabled smart display like the Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen). This worked for me, but I was not able to adjust the camera angle with the Alexa link.
Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 performance
One important feature for a home security camera is its reliability. It should work when you need it. For me, the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 worked fine over my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. I was able to operate it smoothly and was able to do whatever I wanted to do within seconds. The app has been designed very well. Access to all the essential features is quite easy.
The Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 can record FullHD video feeds. It shows full color feed in day time and monochrome feed in dark. The camera automatically detects low-light conditions and turns on the infrared LEDs as needed. This worked well as I was able to see details and faces even though the feed had no colour. There were times when the camera took a few seconds to adjust to the lighting conditions and re-calibrate the video feed, but it didn’t cause much trouble.
The camera’s FullHD footage was quite sharp and detailed but it showed some artefacts in fast moving situations. There was no problem as there was a lot of detail visible in faces, clothes and small things like boxes and packages etc.
You can also set its resolution to HD or SD, due to which the stream is recorded in more stable and detail in case of low internet speed. This also comes in handy if you want to store more footage on the SDCard. Although it becomes difficult to read the text appearing on the objects in SD, but the faces are still clearly visible.
Wide range is available to adjust its camera angle. Wherever the camera is placed, the area around it can be monitored with a 350-degree range. Its tilt range of 65 degrees is combined with the wide viewing angle, which gives a lot of flexibility in the viewing range. However, the camera took a second to adjust the angle on command from the app.
The speaker of Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is quite loud. It makes a lot of noise and is loudest on siren mode. Its chimes are also quite loud and can be heard from different parts of the house. Standing near the camera, I was able to easily have two-way communication. The microphone captured ambient sound quite well but when someone spoke standing near the camera, it captured the spoken words well. If needed, you can leave the speaker and activate only the microphone.
The camera captures the movement of the man well but it cannot track any object or person. The saved clips were quite clear and faces and objects were easily recognized.
Verdict
A good Wi-Fi camera is an easy and efficient way to monitor your home, and the Kent CamEye HomeCam 360 is a great option. However, it faces stiff competition from the Godrej Spotlight Pan-Tilt Camera and the Mi Home Security Camera 360.
This is a good basic Wi-Fi security camera that comes with two-way communication, paid subscription cloud storage, and reliable performance. Its price is also very reasonable and it is obviously a good buy depending on your home security needs.
Price: Rs. 2,999
Rating: 8/10
Advantages:
Wide range of motion for wide coverage
microSD and optional cloud storage option for event triggered recordings
Works well in all lighting conditions
Best Companion App
Harm:
Mounting kit not found in the box