With the first fine weather, plans to secure his home flourish: the spring holidays, then those of summer, already seem within reach. The plentiful supply of connected cameras is constantly renewing itself, as evidenced by the launch by Avidsen of its HomeCam2 360a small camera that allows you to be alerted in the event of presence detection, but also to to watch its interior from its smartphone. “20 Minutes” kept an eye on her home sweet home for a week and gives you his impressions.
Ease of use
Alert, the new surveillance cameras are out! Among them, the new HomeCam2 360 from Avidsen, which has just been released with two arguments: it is easy to use and motorized. Plugged into the mains, connected to the home network in five minutes, paired using a QR Code offered by the Avidsen Home application, it seduces with its ease of use and can be recommended even if you have not completed a techno baccalaureate.
Few parameters need to be adjusted. Among them, detection sensitivity (low, medium, high), motion tracking and whether or not to send notifications when motion is detected. And we can be satisfied with it at first. To go further, it will then be possible to define the operating schedule of the camera, or even to orchestrate routines.
360° subject tracking
On a daily basis, the HomeCam2 360 is also distinguished by its motorization. As soon as a presence is detected, it sends a notification, starts recording a video on its microSD card (not supplied) and chases the intruder. The Full HD camera thus follows horizontally and automatically any visitor in his movements. For his part, the absent owner can remotely take control of the orientation of the camera at any time, and control it horizontally but also vertically, with an angle of 85°.
A system with two-way sound can possibly address the person at home from their smartphone and hear them answer. It can also be used to pet the household dog or cat…
Convenient, but with shortcomings
Our testing reveals a product that can be relied upon overall. We did not notice any latency between the passage of a person in front of the camera and the resulting alert. However, we were able to notice some untimely alerts, which nothing justified. It is better to check, therefore, before calling a loved one or the police station… The subject follow-up is a little more random.
We first noticed that the motorization of the camera works in jerks, not allowing a very fluid visual follow-up of a possible visitor. More annoying: faced with a person moving quickly (which one can imagine in the case of a burglary), the camera sometimes loses sight of him and interrupts his follow-up! A constraint if we rely on recorded images to confuse an evildoer…
For their part, the images provided remain correct, with a sufficient level of detail. The HomeCam 2 360 has also proven to be quite relevant for nighttime use. Its infrared LED lighting seemed to us to be of good enough quality to provide us with images (this time in black and white) of honest quality.
In for money
On arrival, this camera sold for 59 euros offers services corresponding to the investment made. More expensive models are necessarily more advanced and can, depending on the case, offer a shutter to hide the lens, alerts in the event of sound detection, intelligent detection of animals, a zoom, or even a service cloud to store its recordings (and secure them!). These are criteria to consider before a purchase.
Halfway between the Mi Home Security 360 from Xiaomi (sold for 39 euros) and the Pan & Tilt from Yale (69 euros), the HomeCam2 360 remains a basic that you can be satisfied with before, possibly, upgrading your installation.
