Review Tuya 5-Megapixel Pan/Tilt Security Camera

The latest design 5-megapixel wireless security camera based on Tuya IoT platform. It’s a pan/tilt type indoor camera supports 355-degree horizontal and 90-degree vertical rotation, hence covering large indoor area. The camera works with Tuya Smart / Smart Life app, can be another useful gadget for your existing video surveillance or home automation system. Furthermore, it supports ONVIF protocol, can work with third-party devices and software.

It’s pan/tilt camera that has a 3.6mm lens built-in, offering nearly 360 degree viewing angle. Unlike similar products in market, this camera comes with English voice wizard which helping users to quickly setup the camera.  

Is it a real 5-megapixel camera? Certainly it’s, recording the video to the memory card, and checking the video’s property, we can find the video resolution is 2880*1620=4.665 megapixel. 5-megapixel or 2K resolution is two times higher than 1080p/2MP. Higher resolution means higher image quality and retain quality after zoom-in.

The camera only supports Wi-Fi connection, doesn’t support Ethernet. As usual, you can find the reset button and microSD card slot on the camera ball (manually scroll up the ball to reveal them). It not only supports cloud storage, but also local video recording up to 128G.

Setup the camera is straightforward; connecting it to the included power adapter and logon your Tuya Smart app, and tapping “+”, then “Camera & Lock”, selecting “Smart Camera (Wi-Fi)”, then entering the Wi-Fi password and let the camera to read the QR code, it’s done.

This camera offers plenty of functions and features. These settings give users a great flexibility when using the camera in various applications.

• Snapshot: taking snapshot to save the images on your smart phone (need to allow Tuya Smart app to access photos, media and files on your device.).
• Talk: hold to talk
• Record: recording video clips on your smartphone.
• Playback: play recorded video clips on memory card (using a FAT32 memory card).
• Gallery: view snapshots on your smartphone.
• Theme Color: Light mode, Dark mode.
• Private Mode: camera in sleep mode/turn off video stream.
• Night Mode: Auto, OFF, ON
• Motion Tracking: automatically tracking moving object, tapping it to turn on/off.
• Sound Detection: detecting loud noise like glass breaking sound, fire alarm sound.

Messages: read and manage motion detection alert (with snapshot) push notifications
Direction: pan/tilt control keyboard
Site: preset positions, you can add several key positions, and tapping the image, the camera can quickly rotate to the designated/preset position.
Cloud: video cloud storage, camera will upload encrypted video data to the cloud once the service is subscribed. You can check the video through the app anytime, anywhere.

Going to camera’s settings we can tweak the camera’s settings. It can support tap-to-run and Automation. It supports third-party services including Amazon Echo and Google Home.

Basic settings including “Flip screen” and “Talk mode (one-way or two-way)”.

IR night vision supports auto, off, on three modes selectable.

It supports smart detection function such as motion detection, motion tracking, human body filtering, sound detection. Comparing rivals, users can not only select the detection’s sensitivity, but also customize the detection’s areas, you can add totally four areas on the monitoring screen.

Furthermore, you can set timer and alarm interval for the motion detection.

Lastly, the camera can support ONVIF protocol, it’s mandatory to set a new password when enabling the ONVIF connection. With help of ONVIF, the camera can deliver real-time video stream to third-party devices locally. For example, you can add the camera to Synology/QNAP surveillance station, Dahua/Hikvision/Uniview/XiongMai NVRs, iSpy/BlueIris/Agent DVR/Milestone surveillance software, Home Assistant…etc.