Having owned a video security company you might imagine that my home and properties are well-equipped with the latest and greatest camera technology. They are. The quality of images from my security cameras rivals the best high-def Blu-Ray movies and they are equipped with ultra-sensitive night-vision, motion-sensing and hifi audio. The only thing they lack is facial recognition, which is why I ordered this camera from Tend Insights to test and evaluate. I was intrigued by their marketing claims to offer such technological innovation at a price below even the cheapest no-name cameras. Could their performance match their hype ... and that more famous brand that wants 300 bucks for almost the same thing? Let's see.
WHAT IT IS
This is a stand-alone indoor-only monitoring camera (much like a babycam) that works though your wifi internet connection. You MUST have wifi internet in your home and a smartphone equipped with a specific app to use this camera! And your wifi signal must be strong enough at the location where you plan to install the camera for it to operate. If your wifi signal goes down the camera does nothing, not even record to a local memory card or disc.
WHAT ITS NOT
Right out of the box it became clear that this is not related to the Lynx smart home product line. In this instance Lynx is simply used as a model name of a particular style of camera, not a smart-home ecosystem. One of Tend Insights unique marketing niches is that they brand their products with cute familiar themes like John Deere, Kodak or Universal Pictures characters. Unfortunately, as is much too common, Tend Insights uses their own proprietary app ... yet another app that isn't compatible with anyone else. The major downside is that at this point they are not compatible with Alexa, Google or Siri, leaving them all alone in an increasingly interconnected world.
FEATURES
The number one (and most unique) feature of this camera is face recognition just like the 300-buck cam. Given that otherwise the camera performs roughly on a par with other typical indoor monitoring cameras (and at a fraction of the price of that heavily advertised major brand) my testing concentrated a lot on the value of performance of how well it recognizes faces. Realize something right up front if you are going to consider this camera ... it is NOT going to recognize the face of a stranger and identify them to the police. That would be cool (in a way) but no, it has to be preprogrammed by you for each and every person you know that might walk into the camera's view. And that process is a bit time-consuming. Then, once your camera is programmed to store the faces of your friends and family it will generally recognize them only under certain ideal conditions ... it will not recognize a face from a distance, at an angle, backlit, if they are moving rapidly, if they are wearing anything different like a hat or sunglasses ... in my tests it did its job best if the subject walked right up to the camera and posed. I can see that as being fun for the kids to do for "mommy I'm home from school" but of questionable value if it happens to be a burglar wearing a ski mask who crawls through the doggie door.
OTHER THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
There are numerous advantages to owning a camera like this as a convenience appliance but it is not recommended as a primary home security device because it is 100% wifi dependent and has no local storage.
The company promises free lifetime cloud storage. Compared to other similar companies that offer is a big incentive. But be realistic when considering this ... today's startup crowd-funded tech companies often have the lifespan of a fruit fly. Lifetime cloud storage is only good for as long as the manufacturer manages to survive.
This is not part of a multi-camera home monitoring system. Only one camera can be monitored using the app ... there is no split-screen, no pan/tilt, no zoom and remember this is an indoor only camera (ruling out using as a doorbell cam). That's not to say (at the remarkably low price) that it's not worth considering. I have mine pointed at the garage entrance door of my home to test its face-recognition capabilities so it alerts me every time someone walks up to the door.
Tend Insights offers no less than 4 different apps to use with their cameras which could be a bit bewildering to the average person. Hopefully as they get more experience they can tame that down to something a little less ambitious. So far their app for the Lynx has no valid user reviews.
REALITY CHECK
I've tried to base my review of this one based on a lot of years experience with video security products and actually comparing it side-by-side to several models I own that are made by the long-established brand manufacturers. Here then are the pros and cons for you to consider:
PROS
• Easily at the top of the list is low price, I have not seen any similar model that has as good an image or is as well-featured anywhere near this price
• Size - this is one of the smallest around, a must to be able to hide it from view of burglars
• Discreet night vision illumination - most similar cameras have IR lights that glow like a Christmas tree after dark, like a huge welcome sign to burglars exactly where the camera is located. The Tend camera has the least obtrusive night vision lights I've ever seen, just one small glowing red light
• Standard USB power cable that can be extended to any length. Why hasn't every other camera company thought of doing this?
• Very fast app startup, important during an intrusion so you can immediately log in and see what’s happening. Some other brands take up to a minute to log in and even resort to showing you ads for their other products before you can see why you got an alert
CONS
• The mounting bracket is virtually useless. Some people have complained how it is difficult to adjust. In fact that's not true, it's just that Tend doesn't explain anywhere that you have to find the tiny adjustment screw hidden deep in the base to be able to adjust it. Once you find the screw in the base it has good adjustment range. The problem is if you want to wall-mount the camera ... that tiny screw can't (and I stress the word can't) be reached once the camera is mounted. But that's only half the problem, the biggest part of the problem is that they designed the mounting keyholes so they can't (and I stress the word can't) be used with mounting screws. Using the supplied screws with the mounting base is impossible.
• There is no zone selection adjustment for the motion sensing. Security camera pros will tell you that motion sensing is useless and basically a marketing hype. A good security camera records everything24/7, not only when it senses motion. But at minimum if you insist on using motion sensing, zone selection adjustment is mandatory. Look at my photo with the red flower leaves blowing in the wind. Even with the Tend camera set at its most minimum sensitivity, every time one leaf moves in the wind it alerts me and records it as an intrusion. I installed the camera in a very typical way to watch my garage door, there is no way possible for me to stop the leaves from blowing in the wind.
• A less urgent issue but still important is that the designers have the control panel display on their app intruding on critically important viewable screen area, blocking the view of a significant part of the screen. Look at my sample photo, the control panel completely blocks part of the view of the 2 cars.
• Installation ease is only okay. The first time it wouldn't install at all, giving me a bizarre error message. The second time it went okay but later suddenly lost connectivity. The bad part of that is that it didn't reboot automatically, I had to go through the entire setup process from scratch. The #1 critical task of a security camera is dependability … this one isn’t there yet
• Only one user can view the camera at one time. I've never seen a limitation like that. So if I am viewing an event and I text my spouse to check it out with me, it disconnects me and I have to reset my camera app all over again.
This camera has a lot going for it, especially at the low price and has good picture quality, but it seems to have been rushed to market without real life field testing. The company has potential, especially with their co-marketing with companies like Universal, Kodak and John Deere. I would give them serious consideration if they come out with a Version 2 that addresses all of the flaws and I would especially interested if they come out with a weatherized outdoor version that beats the competition on price and cutting-edge features. By the way, it’s common these days for many of the new-tech products being hawked through the various crowd-funding sites to be peppered with glowing paid-for reviews, often posted by the people pushing the product. I suggest it’s wise to seek out trusted reviews from established consumer reporting sources if considering this product.
Despite the limitations my rating of this camera (following the guidelines of 4-stars means I like it) is perhaps higher than it should be. I do like it because it has a lot to offer for the low price and it has a lot of potential. If the bugs described above don’t bother you it sure beats paying four times as much for the heavily-advertised name brand.
I have an Arlo wireless system and got fed up with it eating batteries like crazy (yes, they came out with solar powered chargers, but they're as expensive as the cameras!). So I was looking for a better option, and could live with the cameras being indoors provided they could be pointed out a window. So I wrote to the manufacturer and got a very quick reply about that (it can point out a window if you turn the IR off, and the area it is pointing to at night is well-lit from another source, like a driveway light). So I ordered one of these VERY reasonably priced cameras and held my breath.
Setup was a PIECE OF CAKE - the app walks you through it, and I was up and running in under 5 minutes, including install time. I will update this at a later date, since I've only been living with it about a week now, but suffice it to say I have today ordered ANOTHER of these, and am retiring my Arlo's fully.
PROS and CONS:
*Install, as already noted, was a cinch. Install the App on your phone or tablet, it walks you through the process. The settings that are available to play with are pretty basic, so simple to run through. The app pulls up quickly on my phone, flipping over to a recorded clip to review is easy, activating the voice mode on the camera is literally as simple as tapping on the picture.
* The video quality is exceptional - actually better than my Arlo, but the OUTSTANDING quality of the video is that unlike my Arlo system, which always seemed to MISS the action, this not only captures the action it captures the few seconds BEFORE the action. With Arlo, the camera doesn't even come out of "sleep" mode until it detect motion, and by then someone typically comes and goes - I have a thousand clips of someone's backside on my porch. 2 seconds of them as they leave. Because this is a wired camera. the Lynx is always in at least a low-level "on" mode, so when I review the clips I get the seconds leading UP to the whatever it is that triggered the motion detection, as well as the actual motion. That's just ridiculously superior and useful.
*Once the camera detects motion, it records the clip and sends you a push notification on your phone. You CAN set it to only send those notifications at certain times (like NOT at 3am!), which is helpful, but there are two features I'm accustomed to seeing with pretty much any security camera system that are missing - the ability to get the notifications sent to EMAIL instead, and the ability to tell the camera how long to record each clip. It apparently records as long as there is motion, but only up to 30 seconds, and there's no way to tell it to record longer. (Though if action continues, I have noticed it will record an additional clip). There is also no geo-caching option - so you can't, for instance, tell it NOT to record a clip or send you a notice if your phone is at home. That's a very helpful feature on many systems, so you don't get notifications, for instance, if you're at home and step in front of the camera dozens of times a day.
* I did email the company and ask about the email notification thing, and they indicated they are working on developing a higher tier subscription option down the road, so perhaps some of those things will be included at a later date.
* In the meantime, don't get me wrong - even without those features, I'm TERRIBLY impressed with this camera! Ease-of-use, ease-of-install, picture quality, the app's responsiveness, the fact that it also includes audio - these are top tier features I'd expect to pay more for, so Lynx has carved out a nice corner of the market for a fairly priced, high functioning camera.
* One "con" worth noting, as others here have mentioned the teensy screw on the underside of the mounting base it very poorly designed - it requires you to know somehow in ADVANCE exactly what angle you want the camera placed, before you even mount the bracket. If you're not planning to actually mount the camera on a wall, this is a non-issue - the screw is easily accessible, no problem once you figure out your positioning. But if you're using the bracket to mount this on a wall or door frame or whatever, it requires you to figure out the angle, somehow then take it down and tighten the screw, then somehow align that back up with the base you have to twist this into once it's mounted? It's just poor design - the screw should be somehow EXTERNAL, somewhere other than on the UNDERSIDE of the base, so it can be more easily adjusted AFTER you get the camera placed just so.
DEFINITELY recommend, without hesitation. I may even have to add on one of those cute little MINION cameras the company makes, just cuz' I think they're adorable (plus, it occurs to me that someone coming into my house is unlikely to look at that on a shelf and think "security camera" - they're more likely to think tchotchke! :D
NO COST FOR CLOUD STORAGE... Yes, I'm shouting out to the world. :) This camera is by no means as sophisticated as my Nest Cams but I wish this was available before I purchased 5 Dropcams/Nest Cams. You can get 3+ of these for the price of Nest Cam. There is no doubt the Nest/Dropcams are 5-star products and deserve their accolades but if someone is in the market for simple efficient, effective security cameras I would without a doubt recommend this camera. Matter of fact I have recommended these and 1 person purchased 4 and another 2. It has a very sharp image and night vision is awesome as well. Plenty of features and a great little app. 7-day FREE cloud storage which is huge. Last month I paid about $250.00 (again) for a year's worth of cloud storage to Google for the 5 cameras. And at the time I purchased them I was fully aware of this expense but it "was" worth that amount in "peace of mind." There were not as many choices 3 years ago. If Google doesn't get with the trend of free cloud storage then next time I'll just purchase 4 or 5 of these and save on cloud storage costs. Bottom line GREAT camera and GREAT company.
Smaller than I expected. Good quality video.Good motion detection, mounts easily. Connected to w-ifi was very easy. 7 days motion detection cloud service is fantastic.Adjusts easily right and left and up and down. Great price.Well built.
No local built in memory card capability.
I don't know what all of the fuss is about on the steel plate on the bottom of the base. If you want the camera mounted on a wall remove the metal base and it works great. To remove the metal disk just give the plastic disk that covers the metal disc a slight turn and the plastic base disk comes off and the round metal disk falls out in your hand.
If you just want to set the camera with the base down on a flat surface and not permanently mount it leave, the round metal disk in the base so it will work well as a weight to keep the camera from tipping over. I mounted mine on a vertical surface with 2 wood screws. Just put the screws in until they are almost flush, then slide the plastic base over the larger part of the screw hole and pull the base down so it locks.
I did not like the white because it shows up to easily on my dark brown wood background so I carefully painted mine with a black marker pen.
Just received it yesterday, nice video, pretty good night vision, easy to connect, able to zoom in and out, easy app, motion detector works well when sensitivity is at the highest, alert notification is delayed 4 to 5 seconds after motion detector is activated, able to have invite other to view the camera, user can manually or automatically take video or pictures. Only flaw I can see as of today is that when you unplug the camera, it takes awhile or need to set it up again. Need to read the instructions properly before use.
Feature Product
- Intelligent facial recognition software to choose who your camera recognizes
- Crystal clear 1080P HD live video streaming with night vision to monitor in complete darkness
- Free & secure lifetime 7-day cloud storage and viewing angle is 125 degree diagonal
- Two-way audio, motion detection and instant alerts
- Built-in support for 802.11b/g/n 2.4Ghz Wifi band (5Ghz currently not supported, please confirm that your router supports 2.4Ghz Wifi Band). Access your camera with the Tend Secure App on your mobile device anytime, anywhere
Description
Designed to make securing the people, places and things that matter most incredibly simple with powerful and sophisticated technology, the new Tend secure lynx indoor camera offers the perfect combination of intelligent, yet effortless, video security. Featuring crystal clear 1080p HD live video and audio streaming, Tend secure lynx indoor provides a smart video monitoring solution that pairs effortlessly with any existing Wi-Fi network for easy set up in just minutes. Lynx indoor can easily be placed or mounted anywhere with no complicated wiring for 24-hour day- and Nighttime (infrared) monitoring. Multiple lynx indoor cameras can also be installed on the same network to monitor different rooms, entryways or other locations around the home or business workspace. Lynx indoor’s built-in, advanced facial recognition technology automatically recognizes familiar faces to maximize security and eliminate false alarms. Perfect for keeping an eye on children or elders left home alone, simply use the free Tend secure app (for iOS and Android) to preload images of familiar faces. Once configured , Tend secure issues a mobile check-in notification with familiar faces, or if unfamiliar faces are detected users can get an alert notification and immediately see a live stream of the activity. In addition to live video streaming and still image capture, users can also use lynx indoor’s two-way audio system to communicate with loved ones, pets or other occupants via the Tend secure mobile app. The system comes with a lifetime free seven-day cloud storage; all captured video and audio are saved automatically and stored for up to seven days on Tend insight’s cloud-based servers for secure access from anywhere using the Tend secure mobile app. With the Tend secure lynx indoor, you can always Tend to what matters most.
I bought 2 of these cameras - they are great for the price!
The set up was pretty painless. The instructions were well written and easy to understand. I had the app downloaded and the first camera up and running in under 5 minutes.
I placed the first camera on an inside window ledge located over my front door. Since the outlet is about 10 feet away, I had to order a longer micro USB cable to be able to run the cord down the side of the wall in a less conspicuous manner. The cord that they include is about 7 ft long.
The picture is clear and there seems to be only a few seconds time delay. I have not tried out the facial recognition yet.
I added the second camera to the app in just a minute. As soon as the app recognized the camera (maybe 3 minutes), I was able to flip from camera to camera on the app.
This are my first cameras so I don't have anything to compare them to but for the money, they seem to be a great deal.
This is a limited review, commenting on the fact that I know several users who have complained that you can only access the camera from one device at a time.
I've been chatting with Tend, and I discovered a pseudo-solution to this limitation, allow for more than one user to view a camera's live feed at one time.
It turns out that you can go into each Camera's settings and "share" access to the camera to another use. The other user will need to create their own login for the camera, and only the primary user will be able to access events and camera settings - BUT BOTH USERS can view the live feed for the camera.
This is at least somewhat helpful and would allow you to set up a monitor that always displays a view from a camera by creating a separate login for each device you use to access the camera). This will circumvent the issue of getting logged out on one device every time you try to access a camera from another device.
It's a little dumb that you can't just have multiple simultaneous logins, but oh well.
Also, there still does not seem to be a great solution to access a camera's feed via a non-android or non-ios device without using a virtual OS.
I first got this camera in November, and it was difficult to get set up on Android Oreo, I had to go through an iPhone. which obnoxious but hey whatever. The power cord that came with it was a 10-foot cord but it's got a standard USB plug and it's kind of obtrusive. The camera quality is great, the motion detection is good. but the identification didn't really work well, part of that is due to the height and distance I have it away from peoples faces. I wanted to see a wide area - if you stand close enough it does work. it took 3-4 different angles of peoples faces before it finally being more consistent. The Talkback function in the speaker didn't work advertised. I could talk through it, but it came across as crackles and broken. it was horrible. Untile last week. They did a firmware update that took the camera offline although it was still capturing images. I put in a trouble ticket, and I got an automated response. later the next afternoon, another firmware update was released. it fixed the camera offline issue, but now the motion detection is REALLY sensitive, (had to turn it down) the facial recognition works at a further distance, AND the Speaker talkback function works as advertised. It's not the best, but it at least works... Sometimes. It seems to be very dependent on their server load. if the app is slow to respond the voice transmission is awful and completely not understandable when the app is nice and snappy the voice comes through fairly clear. When it works, it's GREAT! I can yell at the dog when she's counter surfing. I can tell my kids to bed when I'm out with friends, I can even invoke my Google home to turn off the tv on the kids through the speaker when they should be in bed. Which is hilarious!
My only real wish is that they would do some integration with Google - I need another security camera and I'll buy another one of these, due to rising issues in my hometown, but I'd totally throw more money at this if they would do the integration. Truth be told when I get an external camera I'm going with NEST because of their integration. Tend has a decent product here, and it is cheaper, and the speaker proves it on this device, but they are improving it.
Pros: good device quality, it doesn't feel like cheap plastic. Solid image/movies. Speaker works decently but not great Easy to setup, and Support is quite responsive by phone.
Cons: The app is slow to respond, There's no Amazon/google integration, and the power cord is rather obtrusive in size. I'd like to be able to customize the length of recording on movement. I'd like to see some improvement on the speakers, I don't know if that's a build issue or a firmware issue. The voice when transmitting is still barely audible it only works sometimes. They need to update their APP, the app crashes a lot on Android Oreo, but works well on older versions and an iPhone.
Exactly what we needed! We were having problems with car break-ins in our apartment. Installed this camera in the window that faces our carport spot. The camera is no bigger than an apple or yogurt cup and I bought a good suction cup to stick it in place. the nightvision works best in near-pitch-black darkness. In more well -lit parking lot scenes, we found it was better to turn off the nightvision to get more detail.
I had some trouble with setting up the wifi over wifi. I plugged it directly into the wifi router through usb, set it up, an never have had any problems with lost connection in the three months I've had it. - Even after I unplugged it to move it to a different room in the house.
For a couple weeks we used it to spy on our cats! that was fun : ) its probably most useful for spying on pets and family rather than as a detailed security camera.
My only complain would be about the interface. The only way to interact with the camera is through smart phone. It kills my iPhone battery to watch videos. I wish there was a way to access them through a desktop interface. Maybe one day.
LOVE IT. GET IT.
So far I've had this camera for about a week and it works great and I'm honestly impressed with what it does for the price. The fact it has free cloud storage is incredible at this price point. The image quality is just as good as my friends more expensive, more well-known brand camera (I don't think I can say the brand name, but it rhymes with "rest"). The app that you use to access the camera works well, but does have some glitches. There was one point where the app would refuse to login and kept giving generic errors like "error code -1" A restart of my phone fixed the issue. I have the camera setup in a way that it views most of my apartment - dining room, living-room, the front door, and the sliding window. The app mentions that in order for the facial recognition to work properly, you have to have the camera set at face height and facing a door / hallway. I do NOT have mine setup like this, and so far the facial recognition only works at times, which is to be expected with my chosen camera placement. The motion activation does work well, but if you have the camera setup in a way that doesn't see your face clearly, you can expect to be bombarded with "Motion detected!" notifications on your phone while you're at home and moving around . Again, this is all expected behavior since I have the camera set up high and facing a large area. The app does let you set times when you're expected to be home to silence the notifications, which is great if your always home at the same time day to day, but is less effective when you work a job that has a random schedule. I bought this camera to keep an eye over my apartment when I'm away, and the motion detection and notifications work very fast. You'll receive a notification of movement roughly 5 seconds after the camera starts recording so you can remotely view what the camera sees. Do be aware though, when the camera switches from Normal Vision to Night Vision, you'll get a notification that says "motion detected". Made my heart skip more than once while I was at away from home.
Edit: I've decided to do some more testing after reading some of the 1 and 2 star reviews.
I unplugged the camera for 10 minutes and reconnected. It took about 5 minutes, but the camera is now connecting to the app with no need for reconfiguration.
Another thing I've noticed is it seems the clips it records are all very short, usually less than 10 seconds. At first I was concerned about this, but this only seems to be true when a lot of motion has been detected for an extended period of time, such as being home from work and moving around a lot. Once I left my apartment and no motion was detected for a while, I got home and it recorded a good 2 minute clip.
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