I get why the WCO is not everyone’s favorite (it’s my least preferred cam too), but to be fair, WCO’s are AWESOME for particular use-cases:
- Low traffic areas where we don’t need to record 24/7 and don’t need recording triggers far away.
- Temporary timelapse projects. They’re so easy to move around and position perfectly. I have used them for lots of timelapse projects! They are really awesome for this
- PIR triggered recording. For those who don’t want to pay for Cam Plus, but don’t like having basically anything trigger it, this PIR option is really helpful to reduce false detections or notifications, and it can be further improved with regular pixel detection zones even further, making this an awesome option for some use cases.
- Traveling - using it in travel mode, such as in Hotel rooms to ensure hotel staff don’t steal your stuff, or watching your campsite, or to take on hikes and any number of pretty awesome things I’ve done with it.
- I too have used my WCO to record Racoons or other animals eating up close next to it, they’re pretty cool for that, or for just occasional checking in on something.
- Anywhere where electricity is very inconvenient to access.
In almost all other situations a V3 is better most of the time.
Things that would really make it better: Starlight lens (Wyze said in an AMA this summer that they will be adding this to a future version eventually as seen here:
I would also love for a future version to be able to have the option to be plugged in and record 24/7 if it is plugged in.
But even without those updates it’s a great cam for specific uses. But most of us are looking for most of our cams to work like standard security cams, and the other cams are much better for those purposes.
In that sense the WCO is the least useful cam because most of us want to be able to record all the time. Honestly, if Wyze made a WCO that allowed being plugged in and recording 24/7 and where the PIR was optional or not, it would be one of the best cams on the market in my opinion, especially with a starlight lens. I’d probably replace most all my cams with it. Make it a panning cam too and that would be an awesome market disrupter IMO. But as it is, I still love having a few of them for special projects, and now that the solar panel is available, it’s even a lot more useful than it used to be for permanent solutions in electricity limited areas!