I use my Outdoor cameras the same way you do - - close to the ground to monitor my cats and other animals. The Outdoor v2 does not work at all - - I only get bright flashes that make the video almost worthless. The Outdoor v1 works fine. I have found refurbished v1’s on eBay and Amazon and will avoid the v2 until I hear that Wyze has acknowledged this problem and fixes it. (People who don’t use their cameras close to the ground trying to answer this question don’t know what they are talking about. The v2 will not work for this. Period.)