Base station system is a great mid-tier level option
Given the low price and high image quality, the Ezviz BC1 stands out. For those that want a simple-to-install wireless camera system, this is a great choice, shooting decent video during the day and, particularly, at night. Control of the camera is a little basic, particularly with the lack of activity zones, and cloud storage is a little expensive, but both limitations can be overcome with proper camera placement and offline storage.
Pros
- Excellent night footage
- Well priced
- Offline video option
Cons
- Fiddly to get footage off the camera
- Basic motion detection controls
- Expensive cloud storage
Most of the Ezviz cameras that I’ve reviewed have been wired, outdoor models. They’ve all shared low prices and quality video but installation has always been a little fiddly. With the Ezviz BC1, fiddly installations are a thing of the past, with this wireless camera able to go anywhere.
As with the Chinese company’s wired cameras, a relatively low price and excellent image quality are the stand-out features; but opt for the competition such as the Arlo Pro 4, and you’ll get more features and a smarter app.
However, with a starter pack of a base station and two cameras costing £299, it’s a more affordable alternative to Arlo’s line-up.
The competition: The best smart home security cameras
If you’re after a budget option from the brand, check out the likes of the Ezviz CTQ3N or the C6CN.
However, if you want a top end Ezviz system, read on for our full review.
Ezviz BC1: Design and build
Rather than connecting to your Wi-Fi network, the Ezviz BC1 comprises a base station, which plugs into your home network via Ethernet, plus battery-powered cameras (you can buy the system with one, two or three cameras, plus buy add-on cameras only).
That’s similar to how Arlo used to work, although its more recent cameras can connect directly to your router.
Here, the base station doesn’t particularly add to the overall price: the two-pack is just a little more expensive than a single Arlo 4 Pro.
Having a base station makes a good deal of sense, here, too, as it ensures the strongest wireless signal to the cameras and lets you install a microSD card for offline storage.
Ding dong: Ezviz DB2 review
You can run up to four cameras from each base station, which is enough to cover most homes; if you want more, you can add more base stations, too.
Each camera is a long cylinder that looks sleeker than most of Ezviz’s attempts, with no aerials on display.
Pan and tilt: Ezviz C6 2K review
Each camera can need a mount that has to be screwed to a wall. You get two attachments for the mount: a screw thread with a ball joint or a magnetic mount.
With the magnetic mount, it’s easier to grab the camera for charging via the Micro USB port; the screw mount is more secure.
Ezviz BC1: Features
All BC1 cameras are added to the Ezviz app. It’s a little clunky and isn’t as smooth or as polished as rival systems, such as Ring. It can be confusing to find how to do something simple.
For example, downloading video clips is different depending on the system you use: SD card or cloud recording.
With cloud recording, you can view recent clips in thumbnails underneath the live view and tap a button to see all. Each clip can then be downloaded to your phone, although that process isn’t quite as straightforward as it should be: clips are downloaded to the Ezviz app’s library, requiring a second task to download the clip to your phone’s photo gallery.
If you go for SD card recording, you can use the timeline view and filter by date, but there’s no option to download a clip. Instead, you have to ‘record’ the clip to your phone, starting and stopping at the bits you want to save.
It’s a little fiddly to get right, and pulling the memory card out of the base station and copying clips using your computer is a little easier.
SD card recording is probably the best bet for most people, as the Ezviz cloud plans are much more expensive than the cloud plans for rivals, such as the new Nest Cam (battery).
Prices start at [currency usd=”3.99″ gbp=”2.99″] a month per camera for 3-days of history but jump to [currency usd=”10.99″ gbp=”9.99″] a month for 30-day storage.
If you want the occasional bit of cloud storage, say when you’re away, this is alright but for longer periods I’d go with offline storage or a rival camera system.
Battery-powered cameras typically go for PIR motion sensors. These are low power but react to any large movement.
Here, you get a few options to cut down on alerts, including onboard ‘Human Shape Detection’ (that’s a clunky way of saying people), and you can adjust motion detection sensitivity. There are no activity zone controls here, as you get with Arlo cameras or the Nest Cam.
You can schedule when you do and don’t get notifications; the camera will keep recording but you’ll get fewer beeps on your phone.
Pointing your camera carefully is very important, then, as you want to make sure it’s not looking at an area with a lot of motion, such as a street, as you’re likely to get a lot of notifications and drain the battery faster.
From the main app, you can dive into the live view and see what’s going on.
As the BC1 cameras have speakers and microphones, you can have a two-way conversation with anyone you can see. It works pretty well and the delay’s not bad at all.
This camera has Ezviz’s Active Defense technology, too, which plays a siren sound out of the camera. It’s loud enough to attract the attention of anyone standing close but it’s far from ear-splittingly loud.
Ezviz BC1: Image quality
There’s a 128-degree lens on this camera, which is the bottom end of the scale that I’d expect from an outdoor camera.
It’s enough to capture a fair amount of what’s going on, but those with larger gardens may prefer a camera with a wider angle lens.
Internally, there’s a Full HD (1920 x 1080) sensor. During the day, the camera captures well-exposed images, although compression levels do tend to smudge out some details, such as grass. Still, you can clearly see what’s going on.
At night, the camera has dual spotlights that light up the outside, delivering full-color night vision. As you can see in the clip below, there’s little to tell between daylight and nighttime video. That’s impressive, given the price.
Inside the camera, there’s a large 12,900mAh battery, which Ezviz says can last for up to one year based on its tests.
How many events it captures will affect this. In my home, I lost around 1% per day (I blame the cats), so a third of a year would be more realistic for me. That’s still impressive.
