Let’s face it, these days everyone needs a security camera or cameras in and around their homes. In an unpredictable world, these cameras have become more of a necessity than a luxury.
If you’re like me, than you want a camera that offers both convenience and efficacy, and there are no better cameras to consider than ones that can be placed anywhere you want – of course I’m talking about battery powered wi-fi cameras.
Although, wired cameras are ideal in terms of efficacy, sometimes it can be difficult to get that wiring to the location you want to place your camera, or, perhaps you are a little intimidated with the wiring involved, or, in my case, perhaps, you took a wrong step in the attic of your home and well…that’s a story for another day.
Battery powered security cameras have come a long way, and are offered in a variety of form factors. The one drawback to battery powered cameras is the need to recharge them every so often, and this can become quite a nuisance if the camera you have requires the battery to be recharged every few weeks. This perhaps is my biggest pet peeve with these types of cameras.
So in my search I attempted to find a camera that was battery powered, wi-fi enabled and had the promise of a decent camera with the functionality that best suited my needs. When I was offered the opportunity to review EZVIZ’s CB8 Pan and Tilt Camera, it checked off most of my boxes and so I agreed, and waited for the camera to be delivered.
According to the product description on EZVIZ’s site, the CB8 is equipped with a 10400mAh battery and EZVIZ notes that the battery can maintain its charge for as long as 210 days before needing to be replenished. Having tested and owned several battery powered cameras in the past, this is a claim I took with a grain of salt. Too many times I have come across security camera listings making claims about its battery and being able to get months of service before needing to recharge. Now that I have had the EZVIZ CB8 Pan and Tilt camera over several weeks not only can I evaluate the camera’s features, but I can also make some reasonable conclusions about the company’s 210 day claim. Here is what I discovered…
DESCRIPTION
The CB8 is a well built, all white pan and tilt (P&T)camera that appears larger than many of its competitors. Although not made of metal, the camera weighs over 500 grams making among the heavier P&T or PTZ (Pan, Tilt and Zoom) cameras that I have encountered.
Taking a visual tour of the camera, beginning with the mounting base reveals a cleverly designed upsidedown L-shaped mount to allow the camera to be hooked up either below a ceiling or eavestrough, or side-mounted onto a wall depending on your preference.
The camera’s face features a 4mm lens with a diagonal viewing angle of 100 degrees, a horizontal value of 83 degrees and a vertical view of 44 degrees. The camera also has the ability to produce full colour night vision thanks to two LEDs which power the spotlights under the lens. I prefer to use the regular IR night vision which does not drain the battery as much. Also on the face is a camera reset button and microSD compartment. EZVIZ notes that you can use a microSD card up to 256GB for local recording or if you wish, you can always opt into the company’s paid cloud subscription.
On the underside of the camera you will find the speaker as well as the charging port and on/off switch. The location of the on/off switch being exposed is atypical and means that you must make certain to mount the camera out of reach since anyone who can reach the camera can turn it off. I would rather see the on/off switch inside of the compartment that houses the microSD card where it requires unscrewing the cap to be accessed.
The camera’s “pan” function allows for a 340 degree movement which thanks to its field of view, results in a 360 degree panoramic view. The “tilt” function is slightly disappointing however with the camera only able to vertically tilt at a total of 65 degrees. Others that I have tested allow for 90 degrees or more. Hopefully, this will be improved in the next iteration.
For the full specification sheet regarding the CB8, click here.
SETUP
As with many cameras, setup requires some form of interaction with an app. EZVIZ has a freely available app that can be downloaded from the Google Play or Apple App store.
Once downloaded, you simply sign up for an EZVIZ account, choose to add a new device, press on the camera option and then proceed to follow the onscreen instructions. EZVIZ has made the process simple and painless, so that you can have the camera up and running within moments.
THE APP
The EZVIZ app is both reliable and snappy. Within the app, you will find a host of options available when using the CB8 including two-way talk, colour night vision, the ability to manually control the camera’s pan and tilt function as well as the camera’s intelligent detection mode which allows you to setup the device to capture human shape movement, cutting down on needless notifications.
How you setup your camera will largely determine how much life you will get out of your battery. For example, you can set the camera to ‘High Performance’ which will increase the length of time a video is recorded, while setting the camera to ‘Power Saving’ will do the opposite.
Additionally, on the neatly organized home page, EZVIZ has added an ‘Armed’ logo which gives you an easy and intuitive way to know whether your camera is armed or not.
FEATURES
The camera certainly has no shortage of features for you to customize the camera. For example, when an intruder is detected, its possible to have the spot light begin to flash while an audible alarm goes off. I mean who wouldn’t be startled by that. You can even customize an audio message should your camera detect in unwanted guest. I have the camera set to make a single beep allowing anyone who has been detected to know they have been detected without necessarily setting the alarms off.
You also have the ability to set privacy areas within the app which just means that you can have the camera ignore activity in certain parts of its field of view. Perhaps you have a neighbour with children that like to play in the yard and occasionally cross into a part of the camera’s field of view. You can have your camera simply ignore this.
HUMAN DETECTION
The most intriguing feature of the camera in my opinion, is it’s human detection and tracking feature. The CB8 is designed to not only alert you when an unwanted guest is within its field of view, but it will also track that individual sending a clear message to that individual, that they have been detected and are under real time surveillance.
I found that this feature was great at times but in some circumstances had flaws that need to be addressed by EZVIZ.
While it is certainly a terrific feature to have in a camera, human detection and tracking really comes down to execution. Let me elaborate…
When the camera was set up at the side of my home, there was limited traffic and so the camera’s human detection and tracking worked very well. This is likely due to the lack of competing objects for the camera to have to contend with.
When the camera was setup at the front of the house facing the street, the one thing that became obvious was that as a variety of objects are detected by the camera it can have some trouble determining what to track and what not to track.
During one test, I was crossing the field of view of the camera on my driveway in the evening hours, when a car passed by from behind. The camera became confused and went into its initial setup mode, moving from side to side and then up and down, essentially resetting itself. This did not happen just once but a few times.
What I did notice however is that this problem was not an issue during the daytime for whatever reason. The bottom line is that this is a feature while good in theory, needs work when it comes to execution and I informed EZVIZ of these issues.
When all is said and done, following several tests, I can basically summarize the human detection and tracking feature in the following way. To optimize this feature, it’s best to place the camera in an area that gets limited traffic (and by traffic I mean, limited activity overall). Next, the tracking appears to work best when the object of interest is within the 20-30 foot range of the camera. Finally, like most security cameras with this feature, the camera is best able to detect and track an object that is crossing the field of view rather than coming directly towards the camera.
NOTIFICATIONS
As an extension to the human detection capabilities, I want to briefly touch upon alert notifications by the camera in terms of speed, cool down period and nature.
I would rate the EZVIZ CB8 notifications sent to your phone to be average in terms of speed. In a head to head trial, Reolink battery cameras including the Argus Pro and Argus 3 Pro, were quicker at sending an alert to my phone when detecting an object, by an average of approximately 3.5 seconds.
The CB8 along with Reolink cameras all have a cool down period of about one minute although you can extend that for the CB8 within the app. The cool down period refers to how long it takes before you receive a second alert should the object of interest continue to be in the camera’s field of view. So if an intruder is walking around, the CB8 will notify you once, but will not notify you again until a minute has passed. While this may seem like a long period of time, a minute seems to be the average with battery powered cameras.
Finally, when you do receive an alert from the CB8, there is no preview picture associated with the alert which forces you to tap on your phone to open the alert to see further details. I would like to see this changed so if your child or loved one sets off the alert, there is no need for you to necessarily go to the playback video.
IMAGE QUALITY
EZVIZ has equipped the CB8 with 2K vision. We found that the resolution of the camera’s pictures could reach as much as 2304 x 1296.
Equipping a camera with 4K may sound ideal however in reality, that level of resolution is often not necessary and serves to only drain your camera’s battery needlessly and so I find that the 2K resolution is a reasonable level of resolution for cameras that rely on a lithium battery.
The camera’s best quality in my opinion is its night vision which extends up to nearly 50 feet. There are many battery powered security cameras on the market that have less than stellar image quality and video, but this camera’s quality is excellent. Directly comparing the EZVIZ CB8 with competitors such as Reolink and others, it is clear that the CB8 is an outperformer. For example, one thing I noticed with both Amcrest and Reolink cameras is something called “ghosting” in both video and image quality. Ghosting refers to the object of interest (usually a person) literally becoming see-through either in part or in whole. Reolink’s cameras including the Argus Pro and Argus 3 Pro as well as the E1 Outdoor all exhibit some varying degree of ghosting. The CB8 on the other hand, showed no ghosting when it came to object detection or in its tracking mode.
Furthermore, the tracking mode was much smoother than others that we have tried, including the aforementioned E1 Outdoor.
Lastly, when it comes to examining the Frames Per Second (FPS), many battery cameras are often designed to lower their FPS at night to conserve battery power resulting in somewhat choppy video. While cameras from Reolink can drop to 5-10 FPS, the EZVIZ CB8 maintains its 15 FPS during the day and night, ensuring that any video produced is smooth. Just to compare with a more popular device, the Google Nest doorbell has an FPS of 15 as well so we are talking about a comparable speed.
Overall, image quality is excellent and so is video quality.
BATTERY
Many of the features discussed thus far can be found to a varying degree in most battery P&T or PTZ cameras today. While I noted the exceptional image and video quality of the CB8, the real intrigue in the camera is the length of time the battery can function before needing to be recharged. Just as a reminder, EZVIZ notes that the battery can last as long as 210 days and naturally I wanted to get a sense of how accurate or inaccurate this statement is given “real world” use of the camera.
I should first point out that I have not tested the camera for at least 210 days, but rather 32 days or roughly a month. However, in this time I feel confident about making some projections regarding battery life.
Let me begin by outlining some important metrics. First, as I just noted, I have had the camera for 32 days. Second, the total number of detections during these 32 days is 74. Next, the camera’s power mode has been set to ‘Power Saving” for the entire 32 days. This mode, is what the camera is set to, out of the box. Fourth, I have been using IR night vision and have not used the colour night vision other than for a few images, and thus by not using the spotlight, have conserved additional battery power. Fifth, there have been no triggers that resulted in any alarm being sounded other than on the first day when I wanted to get a sense of just how loud and what features are available for the audio alarm. Finally, although this does not have any bearing on the battery, the camera has been used in two different locations, although this may contribute to the number of detections.
Here are the current measurements of the battery on the camera. As at the time of writing, there is currently 83% left on the battery. That means the battery has consumed roughly 20% of the battery in about 32 days. A simple projection would yield that at this current rate of deterioration, the battery would last anywhere between 150 – 190 days (I have added a slight buffer both ways). When we convert these numbers into months we are talking approximately five months, give or take. These ranges are excellent when it comes to real world testing and projections. This is not a test in a laboratory under some kind of ideal conditions, but rather projections based on what would happen under the circumstances where someone uses the camera normally to protect their property.
I would again point out some of the conditions that I have employed to conserve battery life and these factors need to be considered based on how you would utilize the camera, but notwithstanding, these are very good results and surpass most battery cameras that I have tested. Also keep in mind that this is a P&T camera, and just moving the camera to track objects puts considerable energy into moving the motorized components.
As a result, I would say that although I have some issue with the 210 day number in EZVIZ’s marketing material, I would still rate the camera’s battery to be very good especially for a camera that has tracking ability.
What We Like
Long battery life: When it comes to the evaluation and measurement of battery life for the EZVIZ CB8, its clear to me, that the 10400 mAh battery does an excellent job at maintaining the battery’s charge for an extended period of time. There is nothing I hate more than having to go out in the middle of the winter to remove a battery powered camera from its base in order to bring it inside to recharge it. The EZVIZ CB8 can be charged at the beginning of November or December and left until late February or early March before needing to attend to it.
Human tracking: Although I have noted the flaws that I have experienced using this feature, I believe that if this feature can be improved through a firmware update, then the CB8’s value proposition rises substantially. In its present form, the feature works well in low traffic areas, while having trouble in high traffic areas.
Clear image quality both in still images and during tracking: The 2K image quality is very good both during the day and night. Furthermore, when the camera’s lens is moving to track an object of interest, the image quality remains very good. Finally, there is no ghosting to speak of at long distances like other brands I have tested and the smooth video of 15FPS for night vision is something I appreciate.
Durability: This camera is made of a thick ABS plastic but you wouldn’t know it. The weight, size and design of the camera tend to indicate that the camera will be durable and able to withstand the heat and the cold. It has already been through some wild weather thus far in 2023!
Local recording: Features that can save the end user money are always something that I like to see in a product. There is no need to subscribe to the EZVIZ subscription plan and the camera can use a microSD card with up to 256GB of memory which is more than enough before anything is looped over and recorded over.
EZVIZ Studio: EZVIZ has a desktop app that can be downloaded turning your desktop into a PC based NVR. The program works well and is my preferred way of viewing detections rather than my phone. If you think you will need to invest into an NVR if you purchase this camera, don’t worry, because you won’t need to spend extra.
What We Don’t Like
Price: The EZVIZ CB8 is a “good” camera, but outside of the long lasting battery and above average image quality, the CB8 has features that its competitors also have. In its present form with the human tracking issues, given what you currently get with the camera, its somewhat overpriced. EZVIZ needs to address the human tracking feature and improve notifications to offer a product that has the features more in line with the current asking price
Human tracking: Although I have noted this as a feature that I like, as I have repeated, it needs work. In theory this is a great feature, and more and more competitors are featuring some form of human tracking. This camera needs a little more engineering to get it to where I believe it should be.
On/off switch location: I am not a fan of having the camera’s on/off switch so easily accessible to anyone who can reach the camera. While it is true a camera should not be placed in reach of anyone without needing to get on a ladder first, it would be better to house the on/off switch inside of the compartment that houses the microSD card. Many other companies do just that, and I am not clear why EZVIZ does not.
Pan, tilt: While I have no problems with the functionality of the pan and tilt features. The 340 degree horizontal pan and 65 degree tilt are below the competition. Its is not uncommon to see these numbers in the 355 and 90 degree level with other manufacturers.
Final Thoughts
The EZVIZ CB8 P&T Wi-fi camera is a very good camera. The image quality is outstanding and the night vision quality is excellent as well.
The company has also chosen to add a large battery to reduce the rate at which you need to recharge the camera tapping into the pet peeve that many owners of battery cameras tend to have. In this regard, it has done well and the results show in real world circumstances. EZVIZ has also recently announced that there is a solar panel which can be used to keep the battery charged so in theory, you would never need to recharge the battery at all, but that is not what we have reviewed here.
While the company has gotten the battery features right it has some work to do on improving other features which if addressed and corrected can add significant value to the EZVIZ CB8.
As of right now, this is a very good camera, but I’m hoping EZVIZ takes the steps necessary to turn this into a great P&T security camera.
For more information and the latest price on the EZVIZ CB8 Wi-fi Pan and Tilt camera please click on a button below.