I have and extra V3, but it has too large of a view. I know I can digital zoom the phone, That is not good enough. The camera will be outside. Or is there an add on lense to zoom the V3 camera? External lens would be nice. Not worried about voiding warrantee. Just wanting something simple to add on. I have power nearby so battery would not be needed.
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Welcome to the forum @BMann
All Wyze Cameras are fixed focus and digital zoom only, here is a video that may be of some assistance in your quest.
And another thread in the same vein.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the info. Really helps. Replacement lenses on Amazon. I went for a 12mm. Kind of guessing on how much zoom you need. Taking apart camera is pretty straight forward. One tip to follow, make sure you take out SD card if you have one installed before taking apart camera.
Only thing iffy. I would like to keep camera
water tight. Time will tell. I did not realize the lens does not have a cover over it. Just a rubber gasket around it.
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You are welcome.
Nothing a small bead of silicon couldn’t take care of around the seam. If you go down this path it would be cool to see your results if you wouldn’t mind sharing.
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Will try to get some pictures. I just have to remember before tearing stuff apart.
BTW not the body seam… but where the lens goes through the front cover. I always thought the lens was behind the cover. (or behind a glass) From the videos the lens goes through the front with a rubber gasket. As long as it is still a tight fit it should be ok.
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Well for results… Will run down the job. Not very hard. Along the lines of replacing a memory card in a laptop. This is for a Wyze V3. FYI the vehicles in the picture are at least 100 foot from the camera.
I swapped the original lens with this one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K2Z6MV3
Will void warrantee and if you break stuff, you broke stuff.
#1 take out the SD card if you have one. The camera will not slide out of the housing with it installed without breaking it.
The front ring will need to be pried off exposing 3 foam plugs over the screws that hold the camera in the body. They can be pried out with a needle of jewelers screwdriver. The screws fit my #1 phillips.
After removing the 3 screws you need to gently pry the camera out of the case. Careful there is a gasket around the cameras assembly. Show in orange. Then remove the 2 wires from the camera. Pry carefully with a jeweler screwdriver. (Sorry poor case picture. )
The 2 connectors are plugged in to the 2 spots on top of the camera assembly.)
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Remove the 2 screws on the left and right of the board in the picture. Both are sitting loose in the picture.
The lens is glued into place. It is snug. I held the board firmly and used pliers to break the lens loose. It will snap and come loose. At your own risk removing it.
Here is both lens side by side. You can see the glue on the original lens.
When you thread in the new lens. The threads are very fine. So careful you do not cross thread them. The new lens was pretty snug, I tried the old lens and ran it down a couple times and made installing the new one easier.
Careful with the lens removed you do not want to get any dust on the sensor. A good idea to work on a clean area where a tiny dropped screw is easy to find.
The new lens does not have to go in very far. Maybe threaded in less than 20% of the way. The hardest part I had was focusing the lens. You have to hook the wires up to the camera while leaving the screws out and turning the lens to focus it. I had a 20 second lag time so it was a challenge. Take your time.
Once all in focus reassemble the unit back together. It looked like there was a light film of grease on the orange seal to keep it water tight.
Another FYI… I was told set the camera up with your wifi and get it working with your phone before changing the lens. If it hard to get the camera to read the QR code with the telephoto lens.
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When it was done the front of the new lens was smaller and it stuck out farther. So I did not think it would seal.
I had some E6000 glue. It is thick and still has a bit of give if you need to get it apart again. I used a tooth pick and very carefully put a ring of glue around the seal and lens. What ever you use, be very careful to not get it on the lens. Any little bit will probably trash the lens. Any wiping will just smear and make the lens blurry. This picture was before the glue.
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What good is a camera modification without before and after pictures??? The camera was pretty much in the exact same place.
Before.
After
I am pretty happy with it.
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Wow! Very nice work. Thank you for sharing.
That makes one heck of a difference in zoom.
In the pictures it looks like some of the clarity has reduced. Do you believe that to be the case.
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It may be a little fuzzier… Not sure if it is the resizing of the picture to get it to fit the forum. Looks a little better on my phone. But it may also be me trying to focus the camera. That camera is on an outbuilding with its own Wifi point. My phone was locking in on the Wifi signal at the house. The lag time was about 20 seconds. Ugh. It was hard to hold the camera still while it was in pieces, and get the feeling if the focus was better or worse. I can get the logo on the recycle bin in the picture. But not a clear read of the writing. With the original lens you can barely make out the black recycle bin. I still think pretty decent for the bin to be 150 feet away.
At the point I left the focus, I was going back and forth less than 20 degrees of a turn to see what was best. Thinking back with the lens sticking out of the front, I might have been able to tweak it better assembled. (Or it was a lesser quality lens??) Maybe bolting it to a table to hold it while focusing would be another idea.
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Many of us want telephoto lenses for Wyze V3s. We’re not worried about warranty. It is the modification learning curve that is expensive. Wyze should work with a group of tech persons to set up a non Wyze V3 reseller program with a 12 and 25 MM , directional external antennas and external IR lights, all sealed for outdoors that comes with the correct sized image on paper to do the setup for that telephoto. Put a link on the Wyze site, state is is a no warranty non factory Wyze reseller. Wyze would make money on the cameras sold to the reseller and the Cam Plus/Pro and solve the big limitations, problems with V3s, Another big thing a reseller could do. 1- put the IR light on a wire a foot away from the lense so spiders build nests away from the lens, not over it and the light can be aimed where needed. 2-add a external directional antenna to allow a v3 further from the Wifi signal. If I had those modified v3s , I would replace 15 cameras at 3 properties with Wyze.
Hmm. This is cool! I may have to try it.
Couple of questions:
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Did this affect the starlight feature of the V3?
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Does this work on the V2? I have more V2s I don’t mind DIYing.
Thanks again!
Very interesting project work, @BMann , and thanks for the good documentation.
I wonder what the real value proposition is here. For comparison, a very brief check shows a Reolink camera with 5X optical zoom (not just fixed telephoto) for $101, a Foscam PTZ with 4X optical zoom for $120, an 18X optical zoom for $150, and some no-name brands under $50…
Here’s one 5X example for $49.
https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Security-Optical-Weatherproof-Detection/dp/B09WQKN94M/
WC14… Affect starlight?? My area is DARK. With the larger lens it restricts more light. At that distance 150 in my dark area, I get almost nothing if it isn’t lit up. IR is useless at that range, Unless you use a higher power external unit.
V2? No idea there was a bunch of stuff on the net about modding a V2, I did not pay a lot of attention. Since I do not have any.
After a week I am still really happy with it. Not good at night, but I am mostly interested in daytime activities.
Ahh I can figure out the quote thing…
Value? It depends. I have a bunch of Wyze cameras. At several locations. I wanted to add another to monitor a place farther away. All these cameras are setup on the same app on my phone and I know how to use it. Like I need to add anything else on my phone. I tried the camera, with the regular lens it was almost useless. I had an extra camera and for $12 I thought I would try another lens.
A Wyze camera is bottom line cheap so you can have a bunch. With other cameras you are back to learning the software and hope it does what you want.
Other ideas… On the other cameras you mentioned, how much does monitoring or storage cost? To me the AI with Wyze is ok, but sure can weed out a lot of junk motions. It sure could be a lot better.
If I needed just one camera, I would have gone to a nice variable zoom. This turned out to be a “I got an extra camera I wonder if I can…”
Also I am a tinkerer. I have modified and repaired more things than anyone I personally know.
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Yup, exactly what I’d figured your response might be, and I don’t disagree. Makes a lot of sense with your position and skills. To your question, I don’t know since I haven’t used or heavily researched any of the examples I cited, but both Foscam and Reolink are moderately well regarded (and I’m about to start playing with the former). I’m trying to get away from “cloud” stuff, inch by inch.
You may have noticed there are similar older threads with people adding telephotos to their V2s. I’m glad you were able to get good results with the V3.
Ah thanks. I guess starlight doesn’t work then. The V3 has good image at night/dark, even without IR.
I get what you mean about the IR. I have pro PTZ cams that can see hundreds of yards out with adjusting IR built in.
On the other hand, I have some POE cameras. I picked up some nice IR flood lights. I bet I can light up a half acre or more. They do good for recording, but the Wyze blows them away on eliminating false alerts.
Not a big fan of the cloud, but I don’t have cameras where a “loose” recording would mean much. There are a lot better cameras, but for the money the Wyze are a pretty good deal. They have short term recordings for $15 a year per camera. I have not looked a lot, but have not seen anything close to that.
I have a Swan setup. POE pretty much 100% reliable. Just really can’t use it for alerts. I tried and got alerts every couple minutes. Way to much activity around here. Tons of animals. But it is there if I need to look something up.