Frankly, if it needs to survive direct rain, I wouldn’t trust any of them. It’s not an outdoor camera, and I don’t trust that any of the aftermarket housings are THAT level of waterproof. If you were mounting it under an eave, I think you’d be okay, but not in direct rain.
I do not advise it to anyone, but for kicks I have had one in the weather completely unprotected and so far it has survived rain and snow, I do not know how long it will last, but I am sure it will give at some point. I do have others under eaves and in housings.
Again I would not advise using them outdoors unprotected, but I will let you know when it finally does fail.
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It may depend on the type of weather you get. I lived in San Francisco for a while, for example, and I’d probably trust it outdoors there. It “mists” in San Francisco. It doesn’t rain. I live in Florida now. Sometimes when it rains, you can’t get from your car to the front door without looking like you just stepped out of the shower.
Basically, if you wouldn’t put it under a literal shower head, I wouldn’t put it in direct rain, where I live. Haha. But that type of rain doesn’t happen everywhere.
I get bad rainstorms a few times a year, a few snowstorms over the winter, calling for 4 to 8 inches tomorrow. Been out there for about 4 months now. I am honestly surprised it has survived this long.
This is what I’ve been testing for about a month. I’ve had 2 outside in Northern Va.
But what I’ve been using since mid summer is
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002N8HZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
till Sept in Mississippi and after that moved it to Northern Va.
The owl looks better but is harder to mount.
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I’ve had one outside for over a year in Arizona heat and torrential rains using product in the link. I have it pointed down at about 45 degrees. My dad has 2 outdoors in Montana in rain and snow.
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Thank you guys i really appreciate the info and links.
Has anyone mounted the Wyze Cam Pan under a roof eave (that is only about 1-2’ over hang from the exterior wall) upside down where the camera’s lens will be exposed to direct sunlight some of the time? My mounting location options for my driveway are limited as I have no shade from trees anymore due to them needing to be cut down because they were diseased. Now I am concerned that the camera will not withstand the Texas sunlight/heat in the summer time. I understand that these cameras are currently not outdoor rated and it is a install outside at your own risk type of situation. I want to know if anyone has tried installing a Wyze Cam Pan with a similar situation and how good did it perform and is it still working? I have looked at a lot of the outdoor mounting and protective casing options on Amazon/elsewhere and I am not confident there is a way to protect the camera’s lens but only the other parts of the camera itself.
I have also been waiting for the Wyze Outdoor Cam but I am 99.9% sure it will not be a Pan/tilt model for the first round and I need to have Pan/tilt capabilities for my driveway as that is what I have had for the last 6 years with the camera I am trying to replace with the Wyze Cam Pan model. I could install a regular Wyze Cam and the camera lens would be much closer to the ceiling and out of the sunlight due to its compactness but then I would of course lose the Pan/tilt feature which is not desired.
Any testimonies that will give insight will be helpful. Thank you.
Why so negative?
It’s not complicated at all. Battery powered is exactly what the community wanted. Did you want them to take the lazy route and just make some cheap, 3d printed outdoor case?! I personally cannot wait for this camera. I will be buying several!
If it’s $75 or less. That’s extremely competitive for price.
I want a wired version!
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It will have the option to be wired
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If you can wire it, and it can run non-battery mode firmware without needing a nonsense base station, then sure.
Will it allow the camera to do continuious recording while plugged in or will it just charge the battery.
In addition to video quality, audio is just as important. Is the WYZE team making sure that the mics on the outdoor cam can pick up the faintest of sounds, just like the Arlo (which is really the only great thing about Arlo).
The other Wyze cams have dismal microphone systems. You can only hear the loudest of sounds, even when the speaker setting on my phone is jacked all the way up.
Don’t forget there are ways to use solar panels (some you can get very reasonably) that are around 3 to 5 amps. That’s enough to to charge/run a camera during the day, then let it use the battery power at night. Hmm, maybe the roof or top of the Exterior cam could have a solar panel mount for an add on; one that might even add a little extra shade for the lens? Screw it, make the external housing a solar panel and just slip it over the camera unit.
A charge on a battery would need to be like the Ring Doorbell, it lasts for months; given it usage of course. However, given the camera system would be running for almost what is sure to be a continuous time, you might get days at best. That is why a solar charging system would work wonders here.
Exterior audio pick up isn’t huge for me, I need to to pick up the sound of breaking glass or metal being forced (like using a crowbar on a tool box or to smash the windows). I don’t care what the neighbors are say, unless they are in my yard talking about breaking into my house LOL.
I know that the Outdoor camera will be able to be plugged in so you don’t have to change that batteries but, will it be able to record continuously if it is plugged in?
Sokomi has a point. The problems with motion detection waking the camera can be:
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Delayed recording missing the start of an intrusion / incident as the camera takes time to wake from a sleep mode and initiate systems or worse still boot if in an off configuration
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Missed recordings if the algorithm wrongly believes a trigger is a false alarm
Many cameras that use triggers to start recording already have the camera “on” and in a ready to record state. I’m guessing with battery and wifif, as the aim is maximum life, the camera will be in some deep sleep or even fully off and will have to boot if off, or wake and initiate systems if sleeping, before it can start recording. That could lead to several seconds delay / lost footage,
Typically when dashcams are in parking mode and in a low power state, they are still recording but into a memory buffer whereby if the camera is triggered by an event, the memory buffer and then live footage are recorded onto an an SD. They also typically use low frame rates when in parking modes. Dashcams however, are usually wired into the car battery or a Lion battery. Even then they can drain the car battery or will exhaust even a quite large power bank battery eg 20,000 mah, in quite a short period of time. Certainly hours, not weeks or months many users on here seem to be expecting.
For that reason, I’m guessing the Wyze is more likely to be a camera that’s off or in a deep sleep with most systems inactive until wakened by the PIR / software. However, although we don’t know the details, it seems more likely to me that a camera of the Wyze type won’t be recording into a buffer but most likely wake on PIR stimulus and start recording from the point at which the systems initiate. To do otherwise would probably use too much power. I think what we’re probably going to be seeing is essentially a wifi enabled trail cam. Although I’m no expert on trail cams, tests here show trigger time to be anything from 7 seconds (!) to a few hundred milliseconds. I’m guessing on the latter, it’s probably higher end, with a large battery or short life, and using some kind of memory buffering:
Let us know how that works out.
I’m going to tape over the back (so the tape is tight from side to side but does not touch the recessed holes) of an “outside V2”. I’d hesitate to “fill” holes because of heat in Mississippi.