3MP Solar Security Camera Q1 Grey

I bought this camera as my original one didn't cover the area that I needed it to cover and it's great value for money. It's really substantial and well made and looks nice. It was really easy to set up exactly where I wanted it. It seemed to charge much quicker with the power button turned off and is now set up looking over the area I need surveillance. Both night and day vision are good and it's useful having the alerts. It connected to my WiFi extender very easily. All in all, I'm very pleased with it.

We recently purchased these security cameras from Amazon, and we’re really impressed. The video quality is clear and sharp, much better than others we’ve had before. Setup was easy, and they work exactly as expected. Definitely a good buy for anyone looking for a good quality security camera.

I was a bit concerned about battery charging and waterproof quality given the U.K. weather, but have to say, it’s been out in the rain with no issues and I’ve yet to take it down and charge it as the solar panel seems to do an efficient job. Picture quality is good night or day. Slight delay in sending alerts but my wifi is not full strength in the garden, so it may be down to that. You can adjust motion sensitivity and this works fine. However, slight annoyance that I haven’t figured out how to stop motion detection when I go outside. Even if I put a block on the view the camera picks me up and sends umpteen alerts. I can angle the camera down to avoid this, but I find it is a bit difficult to get it back in the correct position then as it keeps overshooting the mark of where I want it to be. Other than this, very happy with the camera for the money. Solar is the way to go and this was a no fuss, easy set up and effective camera for the price (which was very reasonable for this type of cctv). 👍

One of the first reviews of this camera on Amazon so it is lengthy - hope its helpfulArrived in the customary white and blue box, well packaged, solar panel on top with the instruction leaflet placed upon it in the recess – a nice touch. Underneath is the camera, the bundle of power cord for the solar panel and a USB cable (USB2 to USB Micro, note NOT USB C) a screw template plus 2 screw packs for the camera and solar panel with a spare screw. Not sure what the packaging material is, it is quite glossy to the touch so presumably some form of expanded plastic.Made of the usual ANRAN style hard white plastic and the camera feels solid and of good quality with all the access ports well sealed or hidden beneath. Note that the camera does not come with a MicroSD card (8-128GB Class 10) but that is only needed for local storage and the camera will apparently work without it if attached to a Wi-Fi router.I located the charging point in the base and connected it via the USB cable to a standard phone charger. Took about two hours. A small red LED illuminates next to the power socket when power is applied and turns blue when charged (not mentioned in the manual).This is my first experience with a battery-powered CCTV device, and I was impressed with the flexibility it offers in terms of mounting - essentially anywhere it can receive the 2.4Ghz signal from my router. The downside of course is that it only records when activated by the motion sensor, which was the reason I originally purchased a more traditional powered Wi-Fi system with an NVR recording 24/7. The latter is limited by power source location and this camera is intended to fill a gap in coverage in an area of the garden where there is no power. Like all battery cameras there is a wake-up time of 2 or 3 seconds - note for event recording you need to allow a pretty long period or whoever triggered the alarm will be long gone.Points to note – mounting point needs to be accessible – IR CCTV cameras attract spiders and their webs and you need to clean the lens from time to time, but not too accessible!So, once my microSD card arrived, I started the set-up. Registering an account with the CloudEdge app is straightforward – you can also share with up to 6 family members. Inserting the microSD card is a little hairy – there is an orientation diagram with dire warnings but it went in easy enough, often to latch a microSD you need a tool of some kind if you have fat fingers like mine, but I could do this with my fingertips. Switch on required a push on the button for a few seconds then a red light illuminated on the front of the camera. Pairing with my Wi-Fi and the app was a breeze and then a blue light appears. I have had issues in the past using a mobile phone to conduct a device pairing when you have a dual channel router and both channels have the same name, but I experienced no issues and all was connected after a few moments following the clearly explained procedure in the instruction leaflet. I liked the QR code being read by the camera. Note that when in position a blue light appears when the camera is activated and connected – this is very obvious at night, similarly the IR lights glow red and are easily seenOnce paired the app directs you to take a site survey and confirm the Wi-Fi signal is strong enough at the intended location. I had already scouted potential sites with a Wi-Fi analyser and knew it was OK, but it is still a good feature: nothing worse than installing a Wi-Fi device and then finding the signal is inadequate after it’s too late! My location is about 30 metres from the router and the app reported a 62% signal strength, although later that evening it reported 100%. The router is in a direct line with the camera with only a window between (partly why I chose the location).I mounted the camera on a short wood offcut after connecting the solar panel (approx. 3 metre cable attached through a plastic ‘bung’, I noticed there is a smaller bung supplied with the screws to stop up that hole presumably if you don’t use the solar panel which is a nice touch). Note that the bottom of three screws is obscured by the camera which means you need to put the bottom one in centrally, slide the camera under the screw head (adjusting for tightness, so it took a few goes to get it right) and then screw in the top two screws. (NB: see Update Below Jul23, strongly recommend NOT using screws provided, use good quality galvanised or brass). I then screwed the offcut to the side of an outbuilding. This method meant I got close to 300 degrees coverage rather than putting it on a wall or a tree trunk. After making sure all was working with the app, I then attached the solar panel (south facing) close by and tidied away the spare cable. 3 metres of cable means you can place the solar panel in an area that gets full sun while putting the camera somewhere shadier where it won’t be dazzled. Interestingly with all the waving about and going up and down ladders the camera remained connected throughoutPlaying with the app I discovered it has good smooth pan and tilt, the zoom is digital and soon pixelates but it is fine as a surveillance tool. At night I had not thought about the IR illumination, and it does scatter back off the roof immediately in front of it, tilting up a bit helped a lot but its worth thinking about if you have anything reflective near the camera. IR coverage is good, at least 25 metresIt has tipped down here over the past few days and I noticed that rain can collect around the lens of the camera, shifting it into wind and adjusting the tilt blew most of it off. I also had what appeared to be some condensation on the lens but it has gone now.Alarm management is through the app. There are various options to control sensitivity (the motion detection is tuned to humans), how long recordings are made once an alarm is triggered and a period to generate alerts which come though the app as notifications. This can be set by day(s) and you can set numerous time periods to cope with day/night at home or away etc. For example, you can have a simple overnight alert period 2000=0700 every day and also individual time periods outside that when you are working or whatever. I have tested the motion detection and it works fine and does not seem to alert on small animals like dogs (we have 3 running around) or chickens. You can also set lights and sound alarms including a steady floodlight (see photo 5) and a strobe/siren which is quite loud, especially at night. Not sure how far the detection range is as the geography of our site forces you to walk past at about 8-10 metres.Battery management is through the app too. By the time I had installed the camera daylight was fading so the camera was on battery, but the next morning I noticed it was charging when the gloom lifted briefly. As far as I can see that’s the only way to be sure the solar panel is working. The panel seems to require direct sunlight, not just daylight, but it does charge quickly – 10% battery in around 45 minutes.So, in summary I am impressed. Marked down the motion detection because of the wake-up time but that's a feature of battery cameras. I reckon the night picture is better than the day picture (see 4th photo)Its been up a week so far, I will update in a month or twoNB since i published the photo order changed, first photo is night picture with LED floodlights, second is of night IR picture*Update 19 Jan 22*Not sure what's changed but the solar panel appears to be charging at lower light levels now. Battery is being maintained at 100% except on really dreary daysOne night recently we were frequently passing the camera while it was set to alert. It must have alerted a dozen times.Afterwards the camera refused to respond to the app, a reset sorted it out*Update 2 June 22*Still going strong and alerts are reliable. Just moved the app from one phone to another with no issues*update 28 June 22*No issues, been away on holiday within the EU and logged in remotely via the phone app on hotel WiFi and 4g data. All worked fine, you get a data warning if you are using 4g but its not too hungry. Alerts still arrive even though we were roaming. Data is encrypted**update Nov22**Minor issues with spiders triggering the sensor by walking across it, I had some scary closeups of spiders on the video records! Otherwise all working well**Update July 23**TBH this unit has been so reliable I had virtually forgotten it, just the occasional alert as we passed by it. A week ago it suddenly dropped off the network and I could not access it via the app. Anyway got it down today. Charged it up, but it was 80% charged, checked the solar panel (charged my phone, so OK). Symptoms according to the app were reconfigure the network. So I brought it indoors, reset it and used the app to set it up again as new ('battery camera'). Worked first time - it even realised it was the same one. Took it back out, checked the network signal with the app. All OK and now functioning again. App has improved quite a bit, took the opportunity to apply the latest updates, can now programme a humanoid detection area. Not sure what the problem was, but I had moved my router a bit - it used to have direct line of sight to the mounting location through a window, so I have moved it back. Top tip - don't mount with the provided screws, after 18 months two broke off at the head as I removed them (admittedly they are in a hard wood offcut), use better quality screws

The media could not be loaded. What I like about this camera is that its very easy to install. Fittings are provided and there are no need to drill trough the house walls as its solar powered. The camera can even be placed elsewhere, such as in the garden, as long as it's in reach of your home wi-fi. The wi-fi signal/connection is strong even through my houses thick walls. The device can also be powered via USB if you don't want to depend on the solar panel, so far I've found the panel more than sufficient. Set up is relatively straight forward and the app is very easy to use. It is a different app to my home CCTV system but I kind of like having the two independent of each other. The picture quality is excellent both at night and in the day and the two way communication works perfectly. It has settings for alarms and motion alerts and can be moved in direction via the app. Its a great security feature and installing a 128gb card enables me to record over a weeks worth of footage. I'm really happy with it.

Great cameras and price is great ,bought my first one on sale price for €50 and second one at €70 still cant complain about price for this bit of kit well worth it

Please do not waste your hard earned money on this defective product as they do not work. I spent money to put it up outside my house the charge goes flat very quickly and the solar is a scam as it does do nothing. You can buy this terrible poor quality camera on temu for less a £10 and I bought here because I thought it's genuine product. Please do not buy unless you like to throw your money away.

Good product , well built however most camera now have a higher resolution and AI tracking ( Auto follow ) We are a CCTV installer in UK and have tested this camera in workshop. I think to enable tracking you have to pay a monthly subscription most camera's give you this free.