Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I hate to give this camera 1 star because it is actually an awesome camera as far as video quality goes, motion detection and the ability to control it remotely. But there is one flaw so gigantic that it totally overrides all these other considerations. If you're getting this camera for security purposes - it is absolutely essential that it can be relied upon to record all events. And this camera cannot be relied upon. And worse, Amcrest's support is either non-existent or totally useless. Even though I seem complaints about this issue all over their forums - they tell me they're completely unaware of it. And furthermore, they have no idea how to fix it. The camera will record to Amcrest cloud - reliably - for a few days. But after a few days it stops. The problem is, you have no way of knowing when it's going to stop. It stops randomly at all different times. And it has stopped a couple of times when we really needed to have the video from that time. Just imagine you get robbed right when the camera stops. That renders the camera completely useless. In fact, it's worse than useless because it gives you the illusion that you're protected and therefore stops you from getting a camera that would actually work - because you think you already have one! Another complaint is the fact that the videos it does record, are in the end useless, because THERE'S NO TIME OR DATE on them! Amcrest has been aware of this missing information for YEARS and they've done nothing to correct it. It's such a huge and obvious oversight because if you ever do need the video for legal reasons, it will be totally useless without a date and time stamp. Another complaint about the cloud service is their email notification system. It's totally worthless. You may get an email up to an hour after motion was detected. I finally just turned the notifications off. Not that it really matters in our case. You can always login to the cloud service and see every time there was some motion. But if the emails did come instantly, it could be helpful. Another big flaw is that the cloud service interface has different features depending on what device you're using it on. For instance, watching live video on the desktop/laptop web interface, you can adjust the direction the camera is pointing in. And you can save your favorite setting and with the click of the mouse go back to it any time. That's a very helpful feature. So helpful in fact, that you really begin to miss it when you go to the cloud app on your mobile device. There is no ability to adjust the camera or bring it back to the 'home' location on the mobile cloud app. You have to go to the Amcrest View Pro app for that. But on that app, you can only move the camera around, you can't bring it back to the home location with the tap of a button. Also, on the View Pro app, you can turn on the mic and speak through the camera. (We haven't had a reason or need to do that so far, but it's nice to know it's there just in case). But on the cloud's web interface and app, there is no way to speak through the mic. Although you can hear audio through them. It would be nice if they would make all their apps uniform so they all had the same features and capabilities. Without that you're endlessly switching back and forth between apps, devices and interfaces, depending on what you want to do. The Amcrest View Pro app is pretty decent for your mobile devices. The picture doesn't look as good on my tablet or phone... it looks a little distorted compared to the cloud app (where the picture is absolutely perfect). But at least you can see everything you need to see. When you first install it, you're told to connect to the same wireless network the phone is connected to. That left me with the impression that you would have to be on the same network to view it. But happily, a few days later, I discovered that once you get it setup, you don't need to be on the same network anymore. You can view it from anywhere in the world after that! The low-light and night vision features work great! In very low light, and I'm talking like even just the light from the refrigerator, it gives a very clear picture - with color. In night-vision conditions, everything is in black and white, but the infrared light really lights up a good 30 feet away and you can see everything in its path very clearly. CONCLUSION: The camera itself is fine. But the cloud service is terrible. So, if you don't need the cloud service, you'll be fine. But if you do - don't even think about this camera. The cloud service is completely unreliable. And unreliable in 'security' means totally useless.