Cam OG telephoto

Cameras
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I am trying the new OG telephoto cam. I cannot figure out how to use the zoom function this cam is supposed to have. The support person tells me I can do this by pinching the live stream but that is nothing new! There is an arrow pointing to the left and if I click it, a box opens that can be moved around but it shows nothing special. Clicking on the + sign in there brings up another menu that is unrelated. The double arrows in there does nothing also. What am I missing?

I also feel the image is not focused. Is there any other setup stuff to do?

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The OG Tele will zoom in the display in the app just like any other Wyze camera. Pinch in to zoom in and pinch out to zoom back out. That zooming is in the app display (just like any other Wyze camera), not changing the focal length of the camera. The significant part of the OG Tele is that the fixed lens in the camera is about a 3X magnification as compared to any other Wyze camera. This screen capture shows my OG Tele alongside a V2 and a V3 (V3 on top, V2 in the middle and the OG Tele at the bottom). The three cameras are sitting side by side.

Screenshot_20230127-082112
Screenshot_20230127-0821121080Ă—1840 338 KB

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The box that opens from the right is for the PIP \ Swap function where you can “Pair” it with another OG Cam and PIP that cam and then swap live streams back and forth like you would on your TV.

If you are viewing the Live Stream of the OG Telephoto or Standard in Portrait, just below the live stream image you will see a small bar above the Show Menu option. Dragging that bar down will put the cam into Full Screen Zoom mode where you can use the digital pinch to zoom. You can also rotate your phone to go to landscape view and use the digital pinch to zoom.

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Thank you. This is exactly the info I wanted. Now, a follow up question. Once I zoom in to a given area, does the setting remain like that or is the zoom only real time just in the app? I ask this because I have still not mounted it outside and don’t want to climb up twice over if I find that it does not work the way I would like. At 70+, I want to limit my ladder climbing to a minimum!
Thanks again.

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Thanks for the pictures. Is it real time in the app only or can you set it like that and will it remain like that? Meaning, every time I look at the live stream, does it come up with the zoom I used last?

Thanks.

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You do realize you’re not gaining anything by such digital zooming, right? As both you yourself and @K6CCC indicated, it’s just the regular app zoom. So if you can’t read a license plate or see a face, nothing will improve when you “zoom”. Other (usually more expensive) cameras may offer a real optical zoom…

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I think you may be mis-understanding. The OG-Tele camera has a fixed lens - just like all other Wyze cameras. The difference is that the focal length is larger, so it is a closer up view. For comparison if you have ever used a SLR (Single Lens Reflex) - either Digital or Film - the standard Wyze uses a 50mm lens and the OG-Tele uses a 300mm lens (not the actual numbers). The camera dos NOT have any ability to change the focal length in any way.
The pinch in or pinch out zoom is in the app - NOT the camera. Just like every other Wyze camera, when you first bring the camera in the app (or live view), you are seeing the full screen. If you pinch out to zoom in, that is only the app zooming in.
The images I posted are the full screen. You can tell that because you can see the Wyze logo in the lower left corner and the timestamp in the lower right corner. If I had pinch out zoomed, you would not be seeing both of those.

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The cam will always default back to the standard 3x fixed Field of View live stream any time you reopen the cam to live stream. There is no way to save a digital zoom position.

The digital zoom that you perform by pinching the image is only an enlargement of the video image, it doesn’t do anything at the cam. The lens and Field of View is fixed. Once the cam is set in place, that Field of View is locked unless you physically reposition the cam.

As has already been noted, because you are just using the app viewer software to magnify the image, you will also magnify any digital artifacts or pixelation blurring the video processor is producing. This is because you are magnifying the image, not zooming the lens.

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Thanks, that explains it.

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was hopeful about the OG telephoto. turns out while fixed 3x is better, it’s still not better enough for legibility at the distance i need. based on a week’s worth of usage, 4x or even 5x would be the sweet spot. using an old license plate, walking away front front door, 3x starts struggling between the sidewalk and curb. a car parked at the curb begins to be hit-or-miss in extrapolating the characters. sussing out the plate at mid-street and further is possible… with perfect conditions.

night time is a non-starter. i’m thinking if i get one of these infrared spotlights and run power out to the sidewalk edge of the yard and point it into the street, maybe that would work? note: my house is in the dark spot between street lights.

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OG Tele is a visible light camera, amazing for the price. A license plate reading camera LPR is a totally different animal, different type of camera. No LPR or visible light camera can do each other’s job well. LPRs use a rapid range of non visible light flash exposures to get one combined computer readable image. LPRs use non visible to human light so headlights don’t interfere. That is why HOA entrances use both a visible light and LPR side by side usually in one box. Both do totally different jobs well. Neither can do the others job.

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I have a Wyze Cam v2 with a 25mm lens (custom $20 add) that I use to view vehicle license plate numbers in daylight. I was happy to see Wyze come out with the OG Telephoto lens. Overall, I like the new OG Telephoto and I’d encourage Wyze to continue developing more telephoto capabilities. However, this OG Tele camera won’t be replacing my Wyze Cam v2 with the custom 25mm lens anytime soon. I think these pictures (of moving vehicles!!!) are good representatives of what I’m seeing when comparing the two cameras.

Note: I blacked out portions of the license plates for privacy. And, neither camera works well at night; that would require a significant dollar investment in lens capability which I don’t need.

Wyze - v2 & OG Tele Compare
Wyze - v2 & OG Tele Compare1920Ă—1234 373 KB

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It is a shame the picture is so poor, because I like the idea, and mine is great looking down the drive.
30 metres to the gate and you can read car Regs from that distance.

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Really liking the V2 25mm clarity. Seems to be more like a 5x than the OG 3x. Did you post your custom lens refit?

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There are numerous youtube videos out there on replacing the v2 and v3 lenses. I’ve done it with both cameras. There are some pros and cons with each. Currently, the v2’s are my choice.

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The v2 has experienced some harsh winter conditions this year:-( The lens could use a cleaning! Can’t wait for Spring…

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The 25mm lens is of course far more zoomed in than the OG-Tele so kind of an apples to oranges comparison. If the OG was about a 8 to 10x telephoto, it would be a more even comparison…

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Yes, that’s my point. Wyze OG needs more tele power! More FPS and less video compression would be nice too;-)

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Also, a pony. :wink:

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Dang, now I need to figure out how to get photos so I can show you how crappy the focus is on the Cam OG Telephoto.
I’ll be back in a bit.

Wyze Cam OG
Wyze Cam OG403Ă—651 39 KB

Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 3 ft
Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 3 ft1920Ă—1080 41.5 KB

Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 7 ft
Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 7 ft1920Ă—1080 94.9 KB

OK. Took a bit of figuring out how to get photos into a post. Yeah, easy for you yung’uns, but us old fogeys need to figure it out.

Basically the Telephoto is worthless up close. That RAM box is about 3 feet away from the camera. I am building a new desktop computer today and want to use both Cam OG’s to record it.

I thought it would be cool to do that. Have them set up so the Telephoto would record INSIDE the case and the Wide Angle would record the overall project.

Well the Telephoto is just going to be a blurry recording and the Wide Angle won’t be much better quality.

I understand these cameras are NOT designed for “close up” use but from the above comments they aren’t much better for further away either.

I have 6 “supported” cameras and am still happy with them and their image quality. But now I can see that they are NOT particularly “high resolution” or quality.

And I’m unhappy with the Outdoor Cam but that may just be because of my settings. And the Doorbell seems to have reverted to Default Settings. I’m planning to do a Wyze Day and finally set everything up and adjust the settings. And DOCUMENT them so when they “disappear” I can quickly reset them.

Security Systems and Cameras are NOT as easy as they show on TV. Heck, it usually takes me 10 minutes just to FIND and record something I JUST saw on one of the cams. You can jump 30 seconds but then you have to WATCH the whole playback to record it if it wasn’t an event.

So, I may still use the Cam OG’s to record my PC build but to record it I will have to go to each camera in the app and then find the start of the project and hit record and let it play until the end.

Or I can possibly pull the SD cards and transfer their entire contents to my desktop and then edit there.
Of course, I should format the cards BEFORE I start recording so only the PC build will be on the cards.

Overall, Wyze is the BEST VALUE security cameras and components. (According to Thee Frugal Curmudgeon, which is my nom de plume.)

The only feature they don’t have that I would find valuable is a LUX measurement on their Temp/Humidity Sensors. I use those in my greenhouses and it would be a nice additional data point.

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