PTZ WiFi Secuity Camera by eLinkSmart – Setup – Footage – Recommendation

1. A user manual. Have a read though it and see how to setup the device… or continue watching this video. The instructions are good but the screenshots are small.
2. The camera itself. It pans and tilts pretty smoothly. There is an antenna on the back (allowing for a 2.4Ghz connection to your router.  It will not work with 5Ghz)  Here is an RJ-45 connection, a card slot and power connection.  The quality feels pretty decent, nice and solid.
3. Some screws, anchors for mounting the camera on a wall or ceiling.
4. There is also a tiny screwdriver in the bag in case you need open the camera. I don’t know why you would. The screwdriver also fits into the reset opening, in case you need to do a factory reset on the device.
5. A power supply and USB power cable, which is about 6 feet long.
6. A little cover. This is actually the mounting bracket for the camera. Attach it to a wall or ceiling and then camera slides into it.
7. Also, on the bottom, there is a screw for mounting the camera on a tripod.  That’s awesome because sometimes you need a camera in a location but there’s nothing to place it on.

1. Plug in the camera and wait a little for the camera to boot up and start beeping.
2. The manufacture recommends you do a hard reset so let’s place that screwdriver in the reset opening for 3 seconds.
3. Now that it’s beeping again, let’s connect it to the network.
4. Login to the eSmartCam app.
5. Click + to add a camera.
6. I’m not going to link it my email address. If I forget my password, I’ll reset the camera.
7. Go to add and select the PTZ camera.
8. I am going to use the QR code method.
9. I’ve already heard the beeping so click next.
10. And I’ve already reset the camera.
11. Ok, so we are connecting to the Wifi. Let’s enter my password for the Wifi and click next.
12. Yes, I am on the same Wifi as my camera will be.
13. Place the phone in front of the camera to transfer this information.
14. Great, supper easy.  (not really a step, but it was pretty easy)

1. To open the camera controls, click on the play button.
2. Out of nowhere I’m asked to do a firmware update. Great! Let’s get that done next.
3. To use the PTZ commands, you can press the arrows on your phone or slide the image with your finger. It’s pretty responsive. I’m impressed.
4. The speaker icon allows you to listen from the camera to your phone. Any I was just playing with this and it’s good quality compared to some other cameras with building audio. There is a little lag
5. The camera icon takes a picture of the current image and pushes it to your phones on your camera.
6. The microphone icon lets you speak through your phone to the camera, but you need to hold it down, kind of like a walkie-talkie. Again, the sound quality is good. I’m not sure if you could have a full normal conversation with someone over the camera, like on a telephone.
7. The video camera icon records footage to your phone’s videos.

This is another way to record footage, but you don’t need to be connected with your phone all the time for this one to work.

1. Go to the setting using the gear icon in the upper right
2. Oh, let’s rename the camera first.
3. As you can see the camera recognizes the card but it needs to be formatted.
4. There was a long wait but I rebooted the camera and the app.
5. On the setting screen, click on basic settings.
6. Under SD card recording setting, you can record all the time or just when motion is detected. Right now, it’s setup for all the time.
7. To playback footage from the card, on the Camera List screen click playback and the video you wish to playback.

Here is a really cool feature.  It’s the ability to save preset positions of the pan and tilt functionalities.

1. On the camera’s page, click the location icon and give it a name.
2. Move the camera via the pan and tilt settings and click the location button again.
3. To recall these setting use the arrow icon in the bottom right and select the location.

Some other cameras make that process complex, but it was actually quite painless.

1. On the Camera list page, click on the camera.
2. Go to More Features.
3. Click on Children song or Story.
4. Here you can make a selection.
5. I’m not sure how to control the volume, but there it is.

Blue Iris is software used to record security camera footage.  To add it to Blue Iris you can let Blue Iris find the camera or if you know the IP address, it will help.  To get the camera’s IP address:

1. On the camera’s page, click on the settings icon.
2. Click on Basic Settings
3. Click on IP Settings
4. Note the IP address. You can also update it to static here if required.
5. In Blue Iris, go to the camera properties and search for all camera on your network.
6. Select the camera and enter your eSmartCam credentials.
7. Press Ok and you’re done.

1. The image quality is good. I’m happy to pay $40 to have that good of a video capture during the day and night.
2. The Pan and Tilting functions using the screen or the keypad is responsive and smooth feeling.
3. The ease of setup. It’s a painless process and it worked great. You don’t need to be a technical person.
4. The ability to record to an SD card, it a great feature if you don’t have a recording system.
5. The camera can be moved around and placed in different locations.
6. The app is clean and easy to use. So easy in fact, the camera is accessible remotely, through the app. And it’s free.

1. I needed to setup an account. I sometimes use BlueIris. I’d rather just add the camera to my home network without worrying about connecting it to an app first.  I wish there were a way to get the credentials to login without creating an account.
2. On that same topic, my camera is connected to my account and that account is on someone else’s server with access to my camera. I know they say it’s safe but I don’t want anyone possibly have the ability of looking in.
3. It’s called a PTZ camera, but there is no optical zoom. With zoom in the title, I was hoping for a zoom feature but it does support digital zoom, which is simply stretching the image.