Help me understand Wyze cameras

Wyze cameras were recommended to me, but I’m having trouble with so many products available and the jargon is unfamiliar, I was hoping someone could narrow it down for me if I give you specifics about my needs. Thx.

Thank you.

I will do my best, I am a community member who tries to support individuals as needed. I am sure if I cannot answer something, someone else can.

Ask away

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Thank you for being willing. I am a retired senior who lives alone with a Great Dane. Just moved to SC in March and there seems to be a lot of people who wander through yards at night, sometimes stealing things left outside. There was a daylight theft yesterday. The home was used as a rental and not kept up, so there are windows that don’t open, and windows without locks that do open. The Great Dane is in crate when I am not at home ( too much of a puppy yet to trust out), so not much of deterrent with her bark if she doesn’t hear a noise. She is always with me when I’m home.

  • I want to be able to see people at my front and back doors and have audio capability.

  • My home is a 120 year old ranch with a covered front door/porch/carport that are all attached.

  • I’m on a corner lot with a “real” driveway out front off a main street and a “dirt” access off the side street that used to run through the yard and be connected to the front driveway a long time ago.
    *I have a 6 ft fence on order that will contain the backyard. There will be front and back yard gates at both “driveways” that I can lock.

*There is a large barn type shed in the corner of the back yard near that dirt access.

  • I don’t see a need for indoor cameras.
  1. I have read contradictory statements about whether the Wyze cameras are wireless (rechargeable battery) or wired.
  2. Does Wyze have a doorbell camera and can it see farther along my porch and carport from front door. Carport is about 4 feet longer than my minivan.Or better to post a camera for driveway and carport area?
  3. Better to have a doorbell camera at back door or just a camera for whole back yard, back door and shed?
  4. I am confused when people talk about the different types of cameras Wyze offers.

If you can help with any of that, then I can move forward with a better understanding of what I should look at instead of trying to digest everything on the website or shopping for it on other sites.

Thank you so very much.
Kathy

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Wyze currently sells the following cameras:

V3 Cam - Outdoor wire-powered camera. Wyze’s current flagship camera that upgraded the V2 Cam to a faster processor, more frames per second, wider view, starlight sensitivity, and outdoor capability. Has a siren. Can do 2 wavelengths of night vision. Can save to a local SD card 24 hours a day, giving you the chance to review any part of the last 3-8 days.

V2 Cam - Indoor wire-powered camera. Was upgraded to the V3 by adding starlight sensitivity and outdoor capability (the V2 has neither of these features). Required on the Wyze car. Can save to a local SD card 24 hours a day, giving you the chance to review any part of the last 3-8 days.

Pan Cam V2 - An upgrade to the original Pan Cam, adding the new starlight sensor. There are some other reliability upgrades as well. Can pan & tilt. Can save to a local SD card 24 hours a day, giving you the chance to review any part of the last 3-8 days.

Outdoor Camera - Battery-powered outdoor camera that is only recommended for situations where you cannot power a camera. Also has a PIR sensor, but you can use a Sense motion sensor to trigger the other models of cameras if their normal pixel motion detection isn’t enough for you (note the new Sense V2 motion sensors are still hard to get). Can be used in no-Internet situations. Separate Base station required for every 4 cameras. This one has not been upgraded to starlight sensitivity yet. Does not record 24 hours a day to SD card without a lot of effort and a soon dead battery. Live streaming must be limited to save battery power.

Doorbell Camera - Replaces front or back doorbells. Requires wired doorbell power of 16V-24VAC (you can also power it from USB 5VDC if you can get that to the doorbell). This one has not been upgraded to starlight sensitivity yet. Does not record 24 hours a day to SD card.

I typically recommend the V3 Cam for all applications, unless you can’t use a V3 there, as would be the case in a location where you can’t run power.

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I will do my best here for you. I will also encourage others to provide what they think would be the best option as well:

@R.Good , @carverofchoice . @peepeep , @Bam , @cheaplikeafox , @Ken.S - if you have anything else to add, feel free.

  1. Yes, Wyze does offer a doorbell which does a real good job of picking up items at a distance, provided you se the sensitivity correctly. It does require power as the Doorbell is not battery operated.

  2. In addition to the Doorbell (Wyze only has a powered doorbell - not battery), a lot of us has also added a Wyze V3 Camera to the mix near the door as well. Between the two, you will catch things. Add an SD Card to the Camera as well, you can then set it up for continuous recording or Record while there is an event especially if you don’t purchase the CamPlus subscription

  3. The Out Door Cam (battery operated) works well if you have no power. However, the V3 seems to work better than the WOC for me. In my opinion, an SD Card does not benefit with this Camera but CamPlus does.

  4. Wyze offers a Home Monitoring System which works very well. I purchased a year plan, but decided to stay in test mode. I primarily did this to get the new V2 Hub and sensors. But you can set an Alarm and you get a keypad. The service is with NoonLight if you decided to exit test mode.

So in your case here is what I would do. But please remember that you still need to do some research before settling in on something.

  • I would get a Doorbell and V3 for each of the Door Entrances. I would get the SD Card for each Camera you decide to buy.

  • I would get a few additional V3 Camera’s for the Barn and other area’s (With SD Cards) assuming there is power. If there is not, I would get the Wyze Outdoor Cams (WOC) for those area’s. Such as mid way up your driveway to catch anyone or anything coming up. No SD Card for the WOC, But I would get CamPlus for these.

  • I would get the Wyze Home Monitoring System (HMS) if only for the Hub and Sensors. you can get additional sensors as well. I would put the Contact Sensors on all doors and windows as well as motion sensors in strategic locations. I would associate these to HMS and trigger the alram from the hub. You can also set the Motion and Contact Sensors to trigger multiple Camera’s to record as well and turn lights bulbs on.

  • I would get a few bulbs. I would set the motion and contact sensors to turn the bulbs on if an event is sensed, you could tie the cameras to them as well.

For me, I currently have 6 V3 Camera’s around my house powered with POE, 2 Wyze Out Door Cams, which are on my Fence out of site, 2 V2 Cameras (one in my garage and the other attached to my Wyze Car :slight_smile: ). In addition to this, I have the Wyze HMS with Contact and Motion Sensors for my doors and windows. The Sensors are all tied to the Wyze Bulbs I have. All of my lights inside and out go on at night and the Color Bulbs go on in Red. During the day, if the Garage door opens, my Main color bulbs, in my Family Room, turn on in the color Blue. One other thing - I have all of this tied in to Alexa as well so Alexa notifies us all over the house if someone is at the door, on the driveway backyard, etc. and even if a door is open.

Just make sure you understand, CamPlus (which I have 7 licenses for) adds a little delay to the notification. If you set it for All Motion, you are normally notified within 5 seconds.

Can’t stress enough - do your research before jumping in. I am very happy with Wyze and their products. I have also setup my In-laws and my Nephew. So I have a lot of stuff from Wyze. But like all products there are some issues but nothing that is a show stopper for me.

BTW: The If you would prefer the V2’s they work just as well and has the latest version of the firmware they are looking at going to for the Doorbell and V3’s. But if you use them outside you will need to add a housing for them, which can be found on Amazon. These are what I put at my In-laws.

Hope this helps, feel free to digest and ask questions. There is a lot here.

@Newshound provided a great write-up on each item above.

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I would probably just buy a wire-powered, outdoor-rated, awesome-color-night-vision V3 cam to start. Experiment with it. Set it inside on a window sill with the lens real close to the glass looking out over the backyard, plug it into a nearby wall socket. Play around with settings in the app and watch the results. Use the forum as a resource, search topics, ask questions.

After you feel pretty comfortable and confident with the app and cam functions but maybe have just ‘had enough,’ unplug the camera, uninstall the app and don’t use them for a week. See how that feels. :slight_smile:

Here’s a topic from last year that’s mostly still relevant (I think.)

The accompanying commentary gets a little off-the-wall as it ‘progresses’ (mostly me) but the original post and early comments still stand. All who voted in the poll last year (9) judged it to be a ‘fair assessment’, fwiw…

Have fun!

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I agree 100% with @peepeep , Start slow. What I provided is what I would end up with at the end, may have been a lot to take in.

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Thank you for the specific details. I appreciate the time time you and others are devoting to helping me.

I would like to add that you might find it difficult to get your hands on a V3 camera at this time

Since it’s a relatively new product, the V3 is in high demand.

If you can’t get one right now, I’d go for the V2. The only negative aspect of the V2 is it doesn’t work well in low light.

It’ll still let you interact fully with the wyze app and allow you to familiarize yourself with the camera and wyze interface.

Like others have said, an SD card is highly recommend with any camera you get.

If you need installation or setup help, this community is more than willing to help.

You can DM me or just add on to this thread if you have any questions or concerns.

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Good point, as were several you made. This is one reason the other models have not been upgraded to starlight sensitivity yet – there just aren’t enough chips available to do that yet.

The V2s are not readily available and Wyze is somewhat reluctant to provide warranty replacements of them since they seem to be out of production.

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That sucks. I already have a bunch of V2 and was planning on getting some more for areas where I don’t need the starlight sensor.

I was hoping to use only one camera model for my indoor cameras.

True @WildBill – I see both V2s (white & black) are currently out-of-stock, as is the doorbell. The V3, Pan, and Outdoor cameras are not currently shown out-of-stock. Of those, I’d definitely start with the V3 if you can get it.

The V3s closely mirror the V2s, only better. :slight_smile: Once I got one, I immediately decided to replace most of my V2s.

I only have one V2 left, and it’s in a location where I want the camera to be mostly blind at light. A motion-sensitive floodlight lights the area well enough for it, and that is the only light I want tripping that camera at night.

Nice to have a range of responses in a diverse community. Folks can choose what suits 'em. :slight_smile:

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our pleasure. There are a lot of us who try to help regularly. Reach out if you need help when you get your products.

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@kwilson31 The V3’s appear to be available at HomeDepot near my house. Another option to consider if you cannot get some from Wyze.

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Just nit picking but the Home Motoring System was a 1 time offer :slight_smile:
Or did you mean Home Monitoring System?

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ROFL – Nit Pick away. Home Monitoring System… Good Catch