EUFYSPECIAL
What's In The Box:
- 4 X eufyCam 3 (S330) Camera Kit
- 4 X Wall mount and screw kit
- 1 x Homebase 3
Surcharges: 1.2% VISA & MasterCard, 1.7% American Express, 2.2% PayPal.
eufy Security Eufycam 3 4K Wireless Home Security System (4-Pack) $1189 + Delivery + Surcharge @ Device Deal
710
jimojr on 05/08/2024 - 19:11 devicedeal.com.au (2292 clicks)
Last edited 05/08/2024 - 20:27 by 1 other user
Last edited 05/08/2024 - 20:27 by 1 other user
Related Stores
closed Comments
As I'm getting more downvoted than this deal is getting upvoted (!), I'm now extremely curious what people exactly think, how long they have been using their S330 cams with HB3, and how heavy traffic they have around their properties.
I used to be pretty hyped about these, studied all the deals on OzB, got a set (and posted a deal!), which I tested for weeks before installing.
Now, IRL, I see it does miss events, it does classify people as pets (prompting to ensure the AI records "pets" in the settings, as apparently two goodboys picked up some pizza on my well-lit porch the very last night) and browsing 99+ events at the end of the day is just not worth the time, because each of 99+ recordings has to be requested, decoded, downloaded which is all sluggish even sitting next to the homebase/router. Even if it was 20 events, it's just too time- and thumb-consuming. Note that everything has to happen on a mobile app.
The sound is so compressed it comes out as if it was recorded in the bathroom via phone call. Two-way communication is too lagging, dropping, as compressed as the recordings to be usable. There are no setting to improve that. I just switched the audio off on each cam.
I'd be happy to hear about others' experience. But I'll probably try and get my $1000-something back.
Also note how deals for these cams, even at higher prices, used to be heavily upvoted, but they are not as popular anymore.
Don't think about fake internet points for even a second. About the first 2-3 voters determine the way a comment goes. + and basically everyone jumps on it. neg and basically everyone jumps on that also. I don't know exactly why us humans are like that, but there are more of us like that than I once thought.
Totally get where you’re coming from! I had a similar experience with HomeKit recently. In the middle of the night, under low light, the AI mistook a moth for a person. It’s kind of funny but also shows that these systems aren’t perfect. Even though HomeKit and Eufy use different tech, it just goes to show that AI still has a ways to go in terms of accuracy.
Are you sure it wasn’t Mothman it was picking up?
Don’t worry about neg nancies
Thanks for the kind words, everyone, there are certainly some people who got offended by my review and started negging others' comments as well.
Yet, I'm still curious eg. if people even tried talking (two-way comms) via these? If they like the app? If they get more than a handful of events to review? Or do they just watch some empty land around their properties on demand and can't even tell if something's wrong with the product?
Certainly the night view is great. And the battery life - so far - has been great in all of my S330s. Some of them record a lot and are in shaded spots, so I need to charge manually, but still last for weeks. However, from the comments under other deals for the same, that shouldn't be taken for granted.
I buy Eufy for the hardware and no subscription bs.
The software is always going to be rubbish. Security is going to be non-existent. (If you aren't assuming that your livefeed and/or recordings are always accessible to some random guy in a foreign country, even with "military grade encryption", then you're hopelessly naive.) I've never used them for communication (first thing I do is disable all that rubbish).
Anyway, I feed them into a NVR and use that software instead. I used to block their internet access entirely but now I sacrifice a little privacy for a little convenience as their notifications are still handy. That's my use case and Eufy is great.
@gakko: Network Video Recorder - either a dedicated hardware box designed specifically for connecting to and recording footage from cameras, or software running on a PC.
The Eufy Homebase is a wireless NVR.
I buy Eufy for the hardware and no subscription bs.
Eufy is probably one of the better ones, if your criteria is solar wireless cameras, decent feature set and no subscriptions. But there are a massive number if you can use wired cameras instead.
Hey man, I appreciate being open to sharing your experiences. It's good to know what you could be getting yourself into before putting in money on half baked product.
@pizzaguy
Thanks for taking the time to review this in such detail. Ignore the negs… often they are like sheep.
Seriously, this is so frustrating. Just because someone had a different experience with a product doesn’t mean their opinion is wrong.
It’s lame to just hit the neg button without explaining why. How hard is it to actually share why you disagree?
We’re all here to help each other out, and different opinions are part of that. Let’s respect each other’s experiences and have some real conversations instead of shutting people down.I am on the same boat, having spent months researching and even discussing security options with a friend who uses an Arlo system. I eventually decided on a system of 2 x S330 cameras and a E330 camera.
The system itself looks sleek and appealing, almost like an expensive toy, but in terms of security, I don't think it serves the purpose. Here are some issues I've encountered:
- The system sometimes misses obvious events. For instance, when I slowly drive my car out of the driveway, it occasionally fails to detect it, even after adjusting the sensor sensitivity. It's hit-and-miss.
- The sensor isn't fast enough to track a person walking across it. My driveway is about 8 meters long, and if someone walks directly towards the camera (E330), it only captures the footage of about 4 meters. If someone walks across the camera's field of view, by the time it starts recording, the person is already out of frame, making the recorded video virtually useless. Some YouTubers review this scenario, but I suspect they intentionally walked slowly to demonstrate the camera function, which doesn't reflect real-life use.
- The cameras send notifications to my phone, but there's a lag of a few seconds. For example, a postman dropped a parcel at my door, and by the time I received the notification and opened the door, he had already left, leaving a "delivery attempt" label. The camera couldn't help at all in this situation.
- Eufy camera can define "Active zone" where we can draw the areas we want the camera to monitor. However, this function is not that effective, the camera often detects movements outside of the defined zone.
For true security, 24/7 surveillance cameras might be a better option, but you need to consider HDD space for 4K footage and whether your home requires that level of security.
Lesson learned: Not everything on the internet is true, and even "honest" reviews can have hidden motivations (even this post, hehe).
You have identified most of the shortcomings of wireless battery/solar cameras. The small power budget means they are fundamentally compromised in these ways.
If you can possibly install the necessary ethernet cabling, a wired PoE camera system will cost about the same and not suffer from these issues. They also usually have no subscriptions associated with them, and they're often cheaper as well.
Any recommendation on PoE cameras?
@bargin424: Reolink is a great place to start. None of their products are the best of the best, but they are excellent bang for the buck and have a wide variety of different form factors to suit almost anyone's needs.
This is an expired deal for the package I'd recommend as roughly equivalent to the Eufy one: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/855797
Mine are great no complaints. You can get extra solar panel for those shaded spots
Did you install the hard drive? I'm using eufy cam 2c pro with homebase 3 and after installing the hard drive there was no notification but after removing the hard drive everything worked fine.
If the hard drive has been installed correctly, the increased capacity will show in the app when you view the homebase stats.
I installed the hard drive correctly and it shows up in the app, the only problem is I don't get the notification.
I got Bunnings to price match it down to $1034. They replied to my email in less than 24 hours. It was super easy
Using this same deal?
May I know how did you ask them to price match? Does that mean they also price match items with promo code?
Sent them an email with a few screenshots and the promo code. Replied back with a quote
Thanks
Got it, thanks for the instruction
Show 1289$ for me, oos ?
Add to cart first, apply coupon code, delivery is extra
It worked tyvm
Just purchased x2 eufy 2C 2K cameras + HomeBase from JB price matched from my Anker for $557.50.
I have two of these and solar panels are peeling and not working after only 9 or so months - not in direct sunlight - seems to be a common issue - would avoid if if want eufy get one with a seperate solar panel.
Battery next to useless - need to charge every month due solar panel not working.That's been fixed for a while, you can tell because the new solar panel has a honeycomb look
My 9 month old cameras also have peeling solar panels. Going to have to return them to Bunnings :/
I returned mine and got another flood camera (powered) e340 and solo cam - s340 which has a seperate solar panel - much better connection, speaker, and battery never less than 100% on solo even with cloudy days
Been researching this for awhile, and still can't find a definitive system to get.
Reolink!
Ive had nothing but great success (Borat)Look for something with power over ethernet. Wireless isn’t reliable. If you want to connect to Homekit (using scrypted), check out this list
Thanks, I did want to go for wireless to save the hassle of wiring everything up.
It's either hassle of wiring everything up to start with or hassle of missing events due to unreliability on wireless. Depends on what risk you are ready to take. For wireless, Eufy is good due to no subscription.
@Pricebeat: Reolink now has wireless solar cameras and Homebase-style units to compete directly with Eufy - like the rest of their products, they're fully local with no subscription. I'd be curious if anyone has done a thorough comparison.
Totally agree that the one-time hassle of wiring is probably worth it, compared to the inherent and ongoing limitations of wireless cameras. It's also worth noting that using WiFi jammer during home burglaries is apparently becoming more common.
@Pricebeat: Thank you, I'll consider wiring now since that's the whole point of capturing what you need.
@RocketSwitch: Wiring for security cameras is actually really simple. It's a single ethernet cable running from each camera location to an NVR or PoE-enabled switch, and that NVR/switch to your router. It can be a bit awkward to get into the corners of your house's roof to run cables, so doing a bit of investigation beforehand and choosing camera locations that are at least vaguely accessible is a good idea.
Be aware that by Australian law, ethernet cabling should be installed by a qualified cabler (usually an electrician) but that is widely flouted - most camera systems are self-installed. It's low-voltage cable so the risk is super low, and the terminations are easy to do with cheap, readily available equipment. Some kits come with long, pre-terminated cables to make them entirely plug and play.
Thinking of this Eufy for a while, I am vested into Arlo ecosystem for a while (paid subscription) and they have changed the way and have completely ruined how it used to be. The custom mode is gone now making it difficult to manage different cameras at given times of a day.
I'm really fed up with Arlo. The cameras are basically useless if your Wi-Fi or internet is down.
You can back up footage on a local hub, but it’s super limited—viewing or retrieving anything is a hassle.
Plus, you have to pay extra for 4K recording even though you’ve already paid for the hardware.
If you stop paying the subscription, you lose almost all the features—no activity zones, smart alerts, or even manual recording
It honestly feels like a rip-off.
I have 5x of these cameras and 2x doorbell battery cameras all with homebase 3 and running them the last 15-18 months.
I’ve worked with a lot of surveillance systems over the years and these are pretty good in some ways and terrible in others.
The good:
They’re better than nothing. 4K resolution is good, I like that they have solar (charge them via cable first before you install)
They have relatively good night vision
You can easily diy install them, quickly and they’ll do the job pretty well - buy some cheap brackets off Ali express and put them on your gutters if you’re afraid of drilling.
Would I get them for $1199… probably not. And probably not again. Wifi connectivity saves time on cabling and the solar in theory means you don’t have to recharge.The bad:
You have to get really good placement. Ie need a good angle on top of having a good line of sight to the sun for the solar.
In winter they don’t always hold their charge (especially if there are alot of events) and even if you have good uv light to the top of them.
So you still have to charge them - in reality this is 2 out of the 5 (7 if inc doorbells) cameras that I have, but these are the ones with the most foot traffic.
And it’s not even that much foot traffic or movement. So I’ve had to tone down the settings - which means you can miss items ie post man walks in, but it doesn’t always capture him leaving because it’s on “balanced mode” for optimal battery life and so the AI dismisses his movement after 10 seconds or whatever it wants.They don’t pick things up from 10 or more meters away which is unfortunate, even with 4K and optical zoom. The further away, the less reliable the AI is.
I haven’t been able to use my wireless WAP’s to transfer video from one of my doorbells (they only accept the homebase) which means that the video is choppy and unusable when someone rings from the front for real time audio/ video interaction (and I’m not buying another home base) there may be workarounds for this, but it’s not the most straightforward (yes I’ve manually put in my wifi details for the homebase as a failover in case Ethernet drops) - seems I might have to remove from homebase and then just connect to wifi… but then it might not be recording to homebase…seems too hard basket right now. It works for past events and rings when the doorbell is pressed at the homebase - I just don’t answer anymore.
I also have false positives. Had a lot of those ie identifies something as a pet or doesn’t recognise my wife or I.
I could mention a lot more. But generally wish that I had gotten an NVR and POE Cameras from Reolink or something else ie 3rd party cameras and just use my NAS as an NVR.
Difference is I can cable my own home and have my own crimping tools.
So Eufy It’s expensive, it’s better than nothing if you’re time poor (I’m DIY renovating my house while working full time - which is why this appealed) but is it perfect, no.
It’s faster for install with the EUFY being wifi but the loss of some other features and missing one or 2 events have really frustrated me.
But I see this as something most will buy and replace in 1-3 years.Anything I spend over $1000 i want to get at least 3-5 years of run time out of before I consider upgrading again and I just don’t see that I’ll get a return on investment for these. The battery will degrade which I didn’t think about… but again, still better than nothing.
if you don’t want to cable your home with CAT6 Ethernet or pay someone to cable your home. This might be for you. If you are okay with the risk of not capturing something important, this might be for you.
If you’re time poor and have a bit of money to burn and need something asap because you can diy install shorter term ie less than 3 years. Then this is also possibly for you.Bottom line It’s still better than nothing and better than the battery only (without solar power) eufy cams.
Might need to get some external solar panels as well.
You also need a hard drive.
So the cost isn’t the cost.In future I just want something that works. Set and forget. Something I don’t have to worry about, recharge, interact with daily, check or get annoyed with when it misses something important. Something with no subscription and POE cameras fit the bill for that. wifi cameras even with solar panels don’t achieve that.
There is a reason that all serious security systems use wired cameras with local storage, and it's not because running wires is lots of fun.
Really strange that you have had to manually charge your cameras. I have two of them in melbourne, and I have been amazed that it has hardly dipped in usage, although I live in a quiet street and it is pointing straight down my drive way. I have heard that the more traffic you get the faster the battery drains, but didn't think it was actually possible based on my experience.
At one point the police attended my property due to a car that was damaged,broken into. They asked if they could see the footage and it was probably the biggest test to see if it had recorded that event… and it did. Not sure whether it helped them or not …. but it recorded that event and I has happy that it passed that test.
If you went back in time, what camera would you have purchased knowing what you know now?
I found s330 4K eufycam is sold for about Aud $140 each at eufy official shop in Korea. It is over price Australia … eventually I bought 2 refurbished 4k eufycam for $120, and they worked well so far.
Wow, that's cheap. At that price, I'd keep them, if they could connect to the network directly, ie. if they worked without Homebase 3.
Maybe even if they still required it…
If you only want 3 cameras, you can use the same EUFYSPECIAL code on the three pack here: https://www.devicedeal.com.au/eufy-security-eufycam-3-4k-wir…
It only discounts by $150, but has free shipping nationwide for a total of $1049
You can also use the two pack here: https://www.devicedeal.com.au/eufy-security-eufycam-3-4k-wir… but it only gives $30 off for a total of $848.
I got Bunnings to price match it down to $1081.79
May I know how did you ask them to price match? Was it in store or online? Does that mean they also price-match items with promo codes?
Can you share a copy of your price match receipt? My local Bunnings being a pain in the ass
I saw some deals that comes without the Home base, what would be the difference?
If I only need one or two, can I just get this? https://amzn.asia/d/dwZQzIU
I feel like if you don't have such a big house, 1 or 2 cameras will be more than enough, especially if you have a smart doorbell.
Yes, you can, it will work without Homebase. But I would get the eufy Security SoloCam C210 for $128.69 with the code SHOPAPP and a solar panel for about $25, or you can wait until it drops to under $120 before buying it.
Wait… you can get solar panel to be hooked into that? Where did you get it for $25?
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/395537547857.
I bought a Connect solar panel for my EufyCam 2C pro 2 years ago at Harvey Norman for $25. It works perfectly and the battery is always at 100% even in the winter. It is USB C so I need a USB C to micro USB B adapter to use it.
I was also able to get it price matched from Bunnings for $1,081.79($1289 - $100 = $1,189 + $12.99 delivery = $1,201.99 MINUS 10% = $1,081.79) Thanks
Hi, Where is the 10% off from? Thanks
any can provide advise, i have been considering hikvision or eufy, not sure in comparison how reliable are the software for eufy. Does Hikvision need subscription payment?
Both Hikvision and Eufy camera systems use local storage, with no subscriptions required. The major difference between these two systems are the method used to power the cameras, how the cameras connect to local storage, and how much data they can store.
Hikvision uses mains-powered wired cameras, connected via ethernet cables to an NVR. The NVR uses PC-style hard drives, typically around 1-2TB in size but can be upgraded to >20TB.
Eufy uses solar/battery-powered cameras, connected to their HomeBase via WiFi. The HomeBase uses laptop-style hard drives, typically with 16GB storage but can be upgraded to 16TB.
Earlier on this post, there's a broader discussion of the relative merits of wired vs wireless cameras, but the quick version is:
Wireless cameras:
* Very quick and easy to install
* Significant freedom around placement - they can be mounted on almost any structure
* Must be located where their solar panels get some sun most days
* Must be located within wireless signal range of HomeBase
* Can be late to record events, since they have a limited power budget and only "wake up" when they sense motion.
* Can have their signal disruption to prevent events being recordedWired cameras:
* Can be slow or difficult to install, given the requirement to run cables to each camera location
* Can only be installed in locations where a wire is possible to install (so usually not on fences, posts or in trees)
* Always on and always awake, and can easily record 24/7 if required
* Can have more powerful spotlights and alarms
* Generally much larger storage from factory, and able to expand much further.
* Cannot be easily disrupted without physical access.
* Cable between NVR and camera can be up to 100m long - longer distances are possible with extra equipment.thanks for the detailed comparison, in terms of brand, would you recommend dahua in comparison to hikvision as they are much cheaper!
I would consider Dahua and Hikvision to be roughly equal (they're direct competitors) but they have 2 or 3 different "grades" of equipment depending on your budget level. Both also sell white-label products so there are other brands which have the same camera hardware too.
If you're looking for the best price/performance in wired PoE cameras, Reolink is the easy winner of this category. Their performance is similar to the entry-level Dahua and Hikvision camera lines, but much more affordable, especially when you buy an NVR + cameras in a package deal, and they frequently have special offers with significant discounts like this one: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/855797
You will find that security camera snobs that sneer at Reolink hardware, but they operate on a totally different budget to the average home security package and are happy to spend many hundreds of dollars for each camera.
Also, don't be sucked in by the megapixel game. Just like phone cameras, more megapixels does not automatically mean more better. Higher megapixels usually means very small sensors, which works fine during the day but means low light performance suffers, and the additional storage space required for 4K footage might not be worth it. Somewhere around 4-5MP is about the sweet spot at the moment IMO, but the performance of 8MP (4K) sensors is improving rapidly.
If you want to see some good independant and unbiased reviews of security camera performance, I would strongly recommend the Youtube channel "The Hook Up" who pits very expensive cameras against very cheap ones in very thorough reviews.
The deal is back, don't forget 10% price match from Bunnings.
Also scan your flybuys upon paying and if you're OnePass member you'll get 5 X price of flybuys points which will be around $25.
Don’t waste your time. I visited three Bunnings stores, and their policy doesn’t cover price matching with a discount code.
I'm not entirely happy with mine:
- sound is not usable, the software is cumbersome - try to review or download dozens of events daily, no desktop software,
- AI isn't that I - sometimes classifies people as pets, omits events,
- cams need to be within the HB range (which is decent, but limited still).
Great night vision though. Please note I haven't used any other security system. But I'd hope there are better.
Certainly look for smaller sets if you decided on these but don't need all 4 cams. You won't get much selling the extra cams.