Have you found that packages left on your doorstep, near door etc. are viewable by the camera? I just installed this camera, and I don’t see packages that are under the camera near my door. This is the number one factor I wanted when purchasing a video doorbell. I returned a Blink video doorbell because it did not do this. I read multiple reviews touting this VDB’s ability to do this, and even read it on the Wyze website:
“Wyze Video Doorbell Pro features a head-to-toe, ultra-wide viewing angle, so not only can you see the ”package at your doorstep, but even the house down the street.”
And
“The FOV is 150º horizontal and 150º vertical. You can see almost anything in front of your door, head to toe, including packages on the ground”
So, are those true statements? Or was it more hype? Could there be something wrong with my settings or the location of the doorbell? It is placed just above the deadbolt. I tried placing it higher up (6ft), and I tried placing it much lower (under the door knob) with no change.
What has your experience been? Should I return it? Is there anything better for seeing packages at the door? Do I need to change something?
When you look at the VDB Pro, is your view square or round? If it is square, then the FOV is reduced. Switch it to round.
You do this by live streaming the doorbell pro, clicking the 3 dots at the bottom right of the stream and the tapping on the icon that looks like a square and circle with arrows pointing to each. Should be the last icon in the list.
You’re making a grossly unrealistic expectation. If you want to be able to see a package immediately below the doorbell, put the camera at at a different location looking at the door.
In the top image below I can clearly see the most common places that packages get left - under the doorbell (with the cat as a package stand in), or on the bench. I am pointing out where my doorbell (not a camera) with the red arrow. It is very unrealistic to expect any camera to be able to see a package (or in the case the orange furball) directly below it. I also have a V3 looking through the window. You can’t see the camera, but the yellow arrow points to where it is located. The bottom image is from the V3. Granted, the V3 does not have the wide angle of the DBC (nor do I want that).
I have a nest hello doorbell camera which has 160 degree FOV, and still it cannot see anything on the ground right in front of it. If people place packages 2 feet away from the doorbell camera then yes the doorbell camera can see it on the ground, but nobody puts them that far away from the door.
Here’s a picture from Ring’s web site about their doorbell camera:
There are doorbell cameras that say they have 180 degree FOV, but still I’m not sure if they can truly see what’s right under them.
If you really want to see packages, it would be better to have another camera pointing at your front door. I have one on the side of the house to cover both the driveway and the front door, and it works well in terms of detecting anybody coming down the driveway.
