(2,3,4-Pack) Wyze Cam v3 Indoor/Outdoor Security Camera

OG doesn’t really compare to the V3.

OG is an updated V1

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To add my $0.02,

Yes, these are great for the price of admission. Small easy enough to setup and SD cards store video to avoid fees (little under $2 per camera/month.) Just be aware that these record everything without the service fees and only at 12 seconds at a time. Leaves, shadows, wind in the plants/bushes/trees, snow falling and any other movement that happens will alert the camera (your phone through app). It also catches animals, people and vehicles but on a windy day you will have ignored it and maybe the cool down missed it over the constant alerts. The service fees help with Ai (full event recording) to minimize the false alarms to alert on actual targets passing the camera. I don’t subscribe to the service because I have better cameras on duty. I just use these for a couple blind spots on my property.

Just be aware that all the best features you want from a security camera are behind the paywall. And I don’t blame Wyze, that’s why the camera is so cheap. Google charges $120-$180 for there cameras (battery cam/doorbell) and you get everything up front. Their catch is it only lets you see the video up to 3 hours back without service. Or $400-$500 camera kits like Swann give you 24/7 recording to a hard drive without fees, but also can false without the Ai paywall features.

So for $20-$30 a camera. And maybe the $2 fee per month is a very good price to get a decent camera to at bare minimum to let you know your Amazon box is on the porch. And Wyze/Amazon sells a light socket to plug into the porch light to power the camera. Avoid recording through a window…too many issues.

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These are OK little cameras. If you’re looking to use these as a proper monitoring system you’ll have to use the cloud offering; no Wyze cameras support RTSP so you can’t use these with BlueIris or any other NVR software.

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I’m not sure what you’re trying to say about the 12 second clips. If you use an SD card and set to continuous recording then you have everything recorded on the SD card in one minute clips

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Nobody has mentioned that these cameras are great for staring at your dog!

I don’t use the motion-sensing for my indoor cameras and just group a bunch of cameras to have a little montage of views around the house. If I need to watch my troublesome dog friend more closely, I put my phone on the charger, turn it sideways, and use it as a video display for one of the cameras (or the group).

So, no subscription needed for this type of usage, though I do subscribe for my three outdoor wireless cameras and the lack of recording cooldown is worth it to me. (By the way, the outdoor cameras have great batteries - the cameras are tripped a lot at my house and I only have to charge about once a month or never for the ones I have attached to the optional solar panel accessory.)

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I have 2 of these that I use with local SD recording and withOUT the Cam Plus subscription, and will order 2 more for this price. The night vision on these is AMAZING. The v3 cam is usually $35 for a single.

To clarify on the recording features…

With an SD card in the camera, the local recording to SD card is CONTINUOUS, and does NOT require the subscription. I use a 64 GB card and I get roughly a rolling 2.5 to 3 days. Though as someone else mentioned, the SD recording sometimes quits, so check it semi-regularly. Unplugging power to the camera and plugging it back in fixes it.

The 12 second recording is the CLOUD recording when motion is detected if you DON’T subscribe to the Cam Plus service. Also, it will only record motion clips to the cloud at a minimum of 5-minute intervals.

If you DO subscribe to the Cam Plus service, it will record motion to the cloud continuously until the motion stops, and there is no minimum interval between motion detection. And as someone else mentioned, the motion detection is much more refined with the Cam Plus subscription.

The new OG camera is significantly less of a camera. Although local SD card recording is still continuous on the OG, the OG only records static snapshots to the cloud without the subscription, not even 12 second video clips. With the subscription, it will record motion continuously to the cloud like the V3.

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I’ve used the cheapest 32gb microSD cards I could fine on AMZ and have not yet had a failure. The cards are MicroCenter and at the time cost me less than $12 for a pair of them.

Nearly two years in operation outdoors and no problems.

While a more sophisticated card would certainly make a lot of sense, I just use my cameras for wildlife, package delivery and other not so important security things.

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There is still a version of the official firmware out there with RTSP support for V3, Wyze just isn’t keeping it updated any longer and they took it off their site. I was able to find it with a quick google and I’ve saved it for future use. Works really well for me!

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If you don’t opt in to the cloud storage, you can do a continuous record on the SD card which records everything. Events are only a picture now, but you can click on Playback, which will take you close to the time the event occurred so you can watch footage. For some reason, mine have been taking me to a time approximately 12-20 seconds after the event happened, so I have to rewind to catch the action.

I power mine using an 8 port POE injector. That let’s me use network cables as the power cords, and then place a POE to microUSB splitter on the camera end.

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We’ve been running a mix of Wyze V2, V3, Outdoor V1, original Doorbell Cam, and smart bulbs for several years. Observations:

  1. The functionality for the price is great, but they do require some care and feeding, and tweaking to get them running the way you want.

  2. As a matter of principle, we don’t have any interior focused security cams - they’re all either outside or pointed outside through windows.

  3. We’ve slowed our Wyze purchases due to Wyze losing its way since the V2 days. They launched far, far too many products to reliably support them as a still startup company. Amateur hour mistake. Our Wyze Security Sensor V1 stuff died, and my Wyze Watch sits dead in a drawer somewhere. Their back and forth on cloud-based smart identification, subscriptions, and 2FA, is especially frustrating.

  4. We have Amazon, Wyze, and TP-Link smart bulbs and plugs. Do not waste your time with anything but TP-Link for these uses. They’re inexpensive, bullet proof reliable, and quick responding. Wyze’s cloud responsiveness is embarrassingly SLOWWW, not very reliable and Amazon’s plugs lose their settings when not powered.

But we remain somewhat satisfied with our Wyze cams themselves.

BTW, if you’re lucky enough to have the very handy Microcenter near by, they’re selling brand new, full 1-year warranty Wyze Cam V3’s for $25 each. Ours has tons of them in stock. Edit: they also have lots of Wyze Cam OG’s for $26 each (regular focal length, didn’t see the telephoto version). While Wyze sells the OG for $20, “launch price”, direct, you gotta pay shipping with them.

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As others have said, full recording when using SD card. You do not get any AI motion detection, however, so it will record any motion it sees and cannot be restricted to person/package/vehicle without paying for CamPlus.

I have a couple of Wyze products at home.

Let me just say that the older cameras have security issues that the company has refused to patch. There is open source firmware out there - probably available for these too - that expand the feature-set and flexibility of these cameras. So, they are solid for around $20 a pop. But you should start with one before you jump into four.

The other downside is that the more you buy, the more they begin to watch you. I put one in my basement, and the next thing I knew… it was in my bedroom, watching me snore. Unacceptable feature that is not listed anywhere on the device packaging.

No.

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The older, original Wyze Cam V1 had the security issue that they didn’t patch. It’s not that they refused, it’s that it’s technically impossible to patch on that camera due to lack of available memory. It has also been discontinued. All other Wyze Cam variations and versions HAVE been patched for that issue.

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The V3 does not require a base station.
Of course they do require Wi-Fi and a smart phone

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The V3 was originally recommended to use a 32 gig micro SD card. Upgrades in software allows larger cards now. Recording is constant so footage a few days old is overwritten.
The free cloud service stores clips for 2 weeks. Paid cloud offers longer storage and longer clips. The SD card will record longer than the free cloud clip all you have to do is bring up event playback.

One feature I especially like is that I can put cameras at other locations as long as there is Wi-Fi. I have a Wyze doorbell camera at my elderly mom’s house and a camera in her living room so I can monitor her well being.

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I have no clue if they will record to SD without internet. Of course they require internet for initial setup and all warning must go thru the web and onto your smart phone.

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I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think the SD card recording is in a format that’s viewable by plugging the SD card directly into a computer. The only way I know of to view the SD card recording is still through either the Wyze phone app, or possibly via the Wyze website.

I.e., even if the camera will record to SD card without internet, I believe that internet is required to view the SD card playback. But the subscription is NOT required for this.

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https://forums.wyze.com/t/wyze-cam-v-3-use-without-internet-wifi/204644/6

From that post:

You DO need internet in order for the cam to turn on and start recording, but once it has authenticated with Wyze servers and starts recording, then you can cut the internet off and it will keep recording to the SD card as long as it doesn’t lose power or reboot for some reason. If it ever loses power or reboots THEN you must reconnect it to internet for it to boot up and start recording again.

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