I am quite familiar with the Cam V3 cameras. I have some on Cam Plus and some without. Most of the ones without (Cam Plus) use the SD card for recording and looking up events. So I am pretty fluent with that.
I was looking to install a camera, at least temporary, far out in the yard where there is no power. From what I read the Cam V3 uses a lot more power than the Cam Outdoor V2. Besides not having an installed battery, the Cam V3 will not run very long off of a battery solar panel. So that leaves me with using a Cam Outdoor V2 with (or without) a solar panel. (I know there have been ideas of large solar panels with large batteries, but not for now.)
How do you look at videos from the Outdoor V2 if it does not have an SD card or Cam plus? I know you get the 12? second record and then a cool down correct?? Is that the only option?
Correct, without cam plus or an SD card, there is no other option because the camera isn’t told to save any other video. You need an SD card to save video to the card and you need cam plus to save the video on the cloud.
I did not mean not to use a SD, but the specs say the Outdoor V2 does not use a SD card. Correct?? So no way to watch unless live or with a paid subscription. Seems kind of odd to me.
It can use the SD card to back up videos to. Also, what some people do is they will setup a “Scheduled Recording” that records “Motion Only” and then they can set it to a flexible cooldown time (or no cooldown) and flexible Event recording length (12 seconds to 5 minutes long). They can have this Scheduled recording period run for up to almost 31 days before they have to set it up again.
Then, you can review any motion event on the WCO and have time limit or cooldown limit for recordings to the SD card done this way. But, you’ll still be limited on how often you get notified of events by a cooldown of 1-5 minutes.
The other option is to have Cam Plus, as you said. I just wanted to let you know that it IS possible to record more events onto the SD card. Lots of people do it this way. The main downsides are that you have set up that schedule every month, and if you want to watch one of those events in the app, you have to go into the album area of the cam, and download the event to your phone first before you can view it. I believe you could also pullout the SD card and stick it into your phone/computer and view the events that way.
You are correct. If they marked that it had SD card compatibility then everyone would think that it functioned and recorded exactly like all the other cameras do with playback and then they’d be mad thinking they were misled when they find out it doesn’t work the same way that all the others cams do with the SD card. It can’t really record 24/7 like the other cams and that’s what the feature in the comparison is talking about here.
This camera DOES use the SD card for some thing though, including being able to save a Timelapse (a feature I love with this very portable camera), and start a recording manually, and to use it on “Travel mode” when there is no Base station nearby (I have taken this camera hiking with me, and just tied it to my backpack and recorded the entire hike with a full recording and with a timelapse at the same time even though there was no internet access), AND doing the scheduled recording option like I previously said. So it DOES support SD cards, but it doesn’t use them the same way as all the other cameras, so they’re just being careful to reduce those misperceptions.
