For just $51.99, the Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt is a budget-friendly indoor home security camera equipped with the type of high-end features you typically find on more expensive models, including mechanical pan and tilt, high-resolution video, automatic motion tracking, and intelligent motion and sound detection. It also offers local and cloud storage, supports Apple’s HomeKit platform, and works with Alexa, Google, and Siri voice commands. The camera is easy to install, and all of these features worked well in testing. It beats out similarly priced competitors to earn our latest Editors’ Choice award for affordable security cameras.
More Features Than Your Average $50 Camera
The cylinder-shaped 2K Pan and Tilt camera stands 4.2 inches high, 2.9 inches wide, and is white with a black camera assembly. The bottom of the enclosure contains a motorized swivel mechanism that gives the upper portion of the enclosure (which contains the camera) 360 degrees of horizontal panning movement. The camera assembly itself uses a motorized mechanism that provides 96 degrees of vertical tilt movement. The $29.99 Wyze Cam Pan offers similar pan and tilt functionality, with a 93-degree vertical tilt range.
There are speakers on the left and right sides of the base, while the front contains a status LED that flashes blue during setup, is solid blue when the camera is connected and working properly, blinks red when the camera is disconnected, is solid red when the camera is recording, and blinks red when sound or motion is detected. The back of the base holds a mini USB power port and a Sync button. Included in the box are a USB charging cable and AC adapter, a ceiling mounting plate and hardware, and a quick start guide.
The camera captures video at 2K (2,304 by 1,296) resolution and has a 125-degree field of view and an 8X digital zoom. Eight infrared LEDS provide up to 33 feet of black-and-white night vision. The camera assembly contains a microphone and a microSD card slot for storing event-triggered video locally. The slot will accommodate SD cards of up to 128GB, but you’ll have to supply your own media, or you can subscribe to a Eufy Cloud storage plan.
Eufy’s Basic plan goes for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year and gets you 30 days of video history for one camera. The Premier plan is $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year and gives you 30 days of video history for up to ten cameras.
The 2K Pan and Tilt will record video and send push alerts when sound or motion is detected, and you can configure it to detect human and/or animal movement while ignoring all other movement. It offers motion tracking, two-way audio, continuous recording (requires an SD card), crying detection, and a unique Pet Command feature that plays a pre-recorded command when a pet is detected—for example, you can have the camera say “get off the couch” in your voice when it spots the dog up on the sofa.
The camera has a built-in siren and an embedded 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio. It works with Alexa and Google voice commands and will stream video to a smart display. It also supports Apple HomeKit, which means you can control it with Siri voice commands and include it in HomeKit Scenes. However, several features are disabled in HomeKit including sound detection, pet commands, activity zones, and intelligent motion alerts. Also, the camera doesn’t work with IFTTT applets to allow it to interact with third-party smart home devices.
The 2K Pan and Tilt camera uses the same mobile app as other Eufy smart devices. Upon launch it opens to a Devices screen with panels for all of your installed Eufy cameras. Each panel contains a still image of the camera view and a play arrow. When you tap the arrow, you’ll be taken to a screen with a live stream you can view in full-screen mode by tapping the two arrows at the bottom of the video panel. Below the panel is a round digital joystick controller for pan and tilt maneuvers.
Farther down is a control panel with function buttons for manual recording, taking a screenshot, initiating two-way talk, muting the sound, activating the siren, enabling motion tracking, and enabling automatic night vision. There’s also a button that makes the camera pan 360 degrees before returning to its original position, and there’s a calibration button that recenters it.
Tapping the gear icon in the upper right corner opens the Settings screen where you can adjust pan and tilt rotation speeds, configure motion detection settings including intelligent alerts and sensitivity, enable motion tracking, record pet commands, and configure video quality. Other settings allow you to select the kind of notifications you receive (person, pet, all motion, crying, all sound), enable continuous recording, and view local and cloud storage capacities.
Easy Installation, Sharp Video
The Eufy 2K Pan and Tilt camera is very easy to install. I opened the app, tapped the three-bar icon in the upper left corner of the home screen, and selected My Devices. I then tapped the plus icon in the upper right corner and selected Indoor Cam Pan & Tilt from the list. Following the on-screen instructions, I plugged the camera in, waited a few seconds for the LED to turn solid blue, and scanned the QR code on the base. I then pressed the Setup button and confirmed that I heard a beep and that the LED was flashing blue, then selected my home Wi-Fi SSID when prompted. I entered my password and the camera was immediately connected and added to my Alexa device list. I gave it a name, activated my free cloud trial, and updated the firmware to complete the installation.
The camera delivered crisp, highly detailed 2K video in testing. Colors appeared evenly saturated and bright, and black-and-white night video was well-lit and appeared sharp out to around 30 feet. Pan and tilt maneuvers were smooth, responsive, and whisper-quiet, and two-way audio was clean.
Sound and motion alerts arrived instantly, and motion-triggered recorded video was just as sharp as the live feed. The camera did an excellent job of tracking the source of motion and identifying movement from people and animals, and the pet command feature worked as intended, as did Alexa voice commands to stream live video to an Echo Show.
An Unbeatable Value
Despite its affordable price, the Eufy Indoor Cam 2K Pan & Tilt is packed with the kinds of features you usually find on more expensive cameras. It not only delivers outstanding 2K video and detects motion and sound, it offers smooth mechanical pan and tilt, works with Alexa, Google, and HomeKit, and offers several useful features including intelligent motion detection, pet commands, and motion tracking. It doesn’t support IFTTT, like the more affordable Wyze Cam Pan, but you get HomeKit compatibility and a significantly sharper picture, which is enough to earn the Eufy Indoor Cam 2K our Editors’ Choice award for budget-friendly indoor security cameras.
