Hi All
I’m looking for info on what Security camera/webcam to use to capture Aurora. It will be used all year long.
For option to wire and battery only? I think I can place it on a tree facing north it will reach the WiFi but I’m not sure I can wire it that far from the house roughly 50 feet.
Is it a paid service to keep Timelapse’s?
Our neighbor has a Lorex camera but not sure what better
Wyze or Lorex? What do I need to set up? Is their a paid cloud service like I have for ring camera?
If I use battery only, How often do the batteries need changing especially through winter?
Any info would be appreciated.
Thank you so much Paula
Welcome to the Forum, @pmzahn! 
First of all, have you looked at this topic?
I think most of the captures shared in that one are from Cam v4 and Cam v3.
I don’t have any experience with Lorex or with Wyze’s battery-powered cameras, so maybe someone else will chime in and respond to those questions, but I can tackle some:
No. When you use the Timelapse feature on something like a Cam v4, the recording is saved to whatever microSD card you inserted into the camera for local storage, so you need to have a microSD card (which is a separate purchase), but you own that and can do that without a subscription.
I haven’t used Ring and so don’t know what service(s) they offer, but you can see a comparison of Wyze’s plans here:
Hopefully that answers some of your questions, and maybe other members will come along and fill in some gaps.
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Thank you so much for your response!
I knew you had to turn off the night vision but didn’t think about the spot light, Good call. So if I want to retrieve recordings it doesn’t save to a cloud service but on the card. So there’s no way for me to retrieve it from home on the fly? The camera would be 4 hours away.
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I don’t own a battery camera but from what I understand you can’t do continuous recordings as it will deplete the battery very fast.
Yes it is. You can access the SD card remotely and hit record and the footage will be saved to your device be it phone or tablet.
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I don’t recall saying anything about night vision or a spotlight. 
That depends on which recordings you mean. It could be both. If you subscribe to Cam Plus or another tier and have a microSD card in the camera and set to record (depending on the camera, you might be able to choose Continuous or Events Only microSD recording), then you could access recordings from either or both places.
If you’re talking strictly about Timelapse recordings, then those are saved locally on the card, and they can get quite large, depending on the settings you use.
Like @habib said, you can initiate microSD playback within the app and use the app’s Record feature to save a local (to the phone) copy of whatever you’re playing back at the time, just like recording from the Live Stream screen. Currently there’s no way to directly retrieve the regular video files on the microSD card in the camera without removing the card itself and inserting it into a PC for access, though this kind of feature has been requested in the Wishlist.
The Timelapse is different. That gets saved to the microSD card and then you download it to your phone, where it gets saved to the in-app Album for that camera. I haven’t ever tried to save one remotely, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t be possible.
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OMG, I’m sorry, it was MVB from your first post on Northern lights Tonight that talked about Turning off the spotlight.
I responded on the wrong message. My apologies
Oh, right on. So you read the other topic. 
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I have used both the V3 and V4 to record the Northern Lights and meteors. For the auroras, color night vision needs to be on. Otherwise, it records only in black and white. I also use time lapse recording to enhance the dramatic effect for viewing.
For meteors, I turn off the color night vision. I felt I captured more sightings that way. However, the process also included pulling the SD card from my camera and copying all of the 1 minute video files to my laptop. I then had to scan each of the files one at a time looking for a meteor. It is very labor intensive work. But over the course of a couple of years, I captured over meteors.
The Wyze Battery Cam Pro does have the ability to record continuously, but it would drain the battery overnight and the solor panel would not have time to charge it back up. I have played with it a bit.
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I might be wrong, but time lapse can only be saved to the device while on local network.
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Yeah, I wondered about that as I wrote it, which is why I said what I said. I know with a non-Wyze camera brand that I use I can view microSD recordings remotely but cannot download those events at all unless my phone and camera are on the same Wi-Fi (which I just tested to confirm that’s still the case), but I’m not 100% sure about downloading a Timelapse recording from a Wyze Cam remotely. I’ve never set one of those to run and then tried to download it later while off the Cam’s Wi-Fi network.
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That is not the case with my Wyze cameras. I just tried and I was able to record SD footage from one of my remote V3s at the cottage, unless it was possible because of my site-to-site VPN set up, but I doubt it.
I think I read somewhere on this forum that that is not possible and it was a requested feature, but again, I might be wrong.
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Yeah, but you’re creating a new recording during playback. What I was talking about before (again on non-Wyze cameras, which I should probably just shut up about) was downloading videos that have been marked as discrete events on microSD. We’re talking about different things, and that’s partly my fault for even bringing it up, because it’s probably not very helpful to @pmzahn’s questions. 
If you can find a source, great! That’s probably something I should test sometime just to have an answer I can be confident about. I’ve just never had a particular need to do that, and right now I’m in the middle of testing some problems with Vacation Mode and other things.
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Unfortunately I find the forum’s search less than perfect. I asked ChatGPT and this is what I got:
No, you cannot download a Timelapse video from a Wyze camera unless you’re on the same local network as the camera.
Here’s why:
1. Timelapse videos are stored locally
- Wyze timelapse videos are saved directly to the microSD card in the camera.
- They are not uploaded to the cloud, even if you have Cam Plus.
2. Remote access is limited
- When you’re not on the same local network, the Wyze app can access the camera for live view and cloud-based event clips, but not SD card content like Timelapse files.
- The Wyze app attempts to connect to the camera’s local storage using local IP protocols, which don’t work over the internet unless you’re on the same LAN.
Workarounds (if you need to access it remotely):
Option 1: Use a VPN
- Set up a VPN connection to your home network, e.g., via Tailscale or another VPN solution.
- Once connected, your phone or computer will act as if it’s on the same network, and the Wyze app should then allow downloading the timelapse.
Option 2: Remote desktop to a local device
- Use something like TeamViewer, Chrome Remote Desktop, or AnyDesk to control a computer at home.
- Open the Wyze app or manually pull the SD card contents (if the computer has a card reader).
Option 3: Have someone send it to you
- If someone is at the camera’s location, they can use the Wyze app to download the timelapse while on Wi-Fi and then send it to you.
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I think it’s pretty good, but its limitations frustrate me often enough, too.
There’s your problem. I don’t believe it gave you a correct answer.
I decided to test for myself. I created a Timelapse for 1 hour with a 6-second interval on a Cam v4. After the end time, I turned off the Wi-Fi on my phone running the v2.50x Wyze app (Android) and navigated into the Cam’s Album to download it (>100 MB) over my mobile connection. Success!
Then I turned on that phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot, disconnected my other phone (running the v3x app) from my home Wi-Fi (deleted that network’s settings from the phone), and connected it to the first phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot. I was then able to download the time lapse video to that phone while it was also not connected to the same LAN as the Cam. More success!
Oh, and all of this was done without a VPN.
Y’know how when you’re in school they tell you to do your own work? Yeah, ChatGPT can suck it. Human effort, FTW! 
Hopefully that’s a better answer for @pmzahn. 
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Chuck that to me being lazy to search the forum
I stand corrected, that’s why I said this 
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Yeah, and I said this earlier, too:
I don’t blame you. I blame ChatGPT. It was a good question, so I wanted to find an answer for myself. Hopefully @pmzahn or someone else finds it helpful.
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I found it and looks like it has been fixed, so I was partially right. At some point in the past you couldn’t download timelapse videos unless you were on a local network.
Schedule time lapse overnight and view footage remotely next morning
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Thank you everyone for all of your answers. I’m still new to this site so hopefully everyone can see this comment. I appreciate you all!
Paula
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Nice find! That predates my time here and my Wyze Cam ownership. I read through the links, and this seems to confirm my test experience, except that I did use a cellular connection:
I’m not sure why that topic is marked Wishlist > Probably Not, because it appears to have been granted. I’ll ask about that and about the Help Center article that also says the phone/tablet and camera must be on the same Wi-Fi network.
To be fair, I should note that my cameras are currently on a Cam Unlimited subscription. I don’t know if that matters or why it might, but I want to be clear that I have not personally tested this without a subscription.
Thanks for sharing that, @habib!
You’re welcome, and thanks for asking good questions!
To be fair, I have never ever tried the Timelapse feature as I never had a need for it. For my personal use it is a novelty and I have no desire to try it on.
You are quite welcome, just trying to be helpful.
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