eufy Security eufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system review

The EufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system is a perfect example. At $219.99 for the two-camera kit, which comes with a base unit that stores video footage, this is an affordable system that’s easy to set up and even easier to use. The EufyCam 2C is a subscription-free, wireless home security camera with two-way audio, 1080p footage, and a 6-month battery life. Is it worth investment? Find details in eufy Security eufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system review.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Excellent night vision
• Integrated floodlight
• 6-month battery life
• No subscription fees
• Supports HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant

Cons

• Missing anti-theft detection
• Sometimes slow to load in the Home app
• Non-removable batteries

Specifications – eufy Security eufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system

• 1080p resolution
• 135-degree field of view
• 16GB of storage for up to 3 months of recordings
• AES-128 data encryption
• IP67 weatherproof 
• Human detection
• 180-day battery life from a single charge
• Night vision with infrared
• Built-in spotlight
• Two-way audio
• Smart detection zones

Price

Available direct and from Amazon, the EufyCam 2C costs $169.99 in the US, £229.99 in the UK and AU$399.95 in Australia for the two-camera kit. Then, buy add-on cameras from $84.99 / £89.99 / AU$189.95. Take a look at the widgets for the most recent pricing. 

At $219.99 for the two-camera kit, which comes with a base unit that stores video footage, this is an affordable system that’s easy to set up and even easier to use.

Compare eufyCam 2C vs eufyCam 2 vs eufyCam 2C

eufy Security eufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system review

Build

With a curved white plastic body and a black front plate with the camera lens, microphone, spotlight, and motion sensors, the EufyCam 2C cameras look and feel durable. 

Connectors

The EufyCam 2C two-camera kit comes with a HomeBase unit that you plug directly into your router using the supplied Ethernet cable, a power adapter, two cameras, two camera mounts with screws and fixings, and a USB-A to Micro USB charging cable. Additional cameras cost $99.99 each.

Design

They’re also small and relatively unobtrusive, measuring just 3.2 x 1.89 x 2.24 inches. There’s a rubber pad on the bottom of each camera that lifts up to reveal the charging port.  

Video

Video captured by the eufyCam 2C is high definition 1080p resolution with a 135-degree field of view. For night vision, the camera utilizes infrared for black and white imagery, and the on-board floodlight allows for color video when it is dark. According to eufy, the floodlight outputs around 12 lumens of light at a distance of 1 meter (3 feet).

Push alerts

The camera sends a push alert and records video when motion is detected. Event-triggered video can be stored locally on the included 16GB microSD card, but if you also want to store video in the cloud, you can subscribe to a Eufy storage plan. The Basic plan costs $2.99 per month or $29.90 per year and gets you 30 days of rolling storage for a single camera, and the Premier plan costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year and provides 30 days of rolling storage for up to 10 cameras. 

eufy Security eufyCam 2C – Easy Installation

The camera can be mounted to almost any surface using a simple 2 screw installation method that takes just a few minutes to setup.

Once attached to the wall, the camera screws on to a thread on the mount, which makes it easy to take down when it comes time to charge it. While this does make the camera somewhat easy for someone to just walk up and take, the camera does have a siren built-in, which can be activated manually, or upon motion.

Rounding out the list of features are quick arming and disarming abilities, scheduling, geofencing, motion zones, and A.I. activity detection. A.I. detection allows the camera to filter out notifications for things such as animals or cars, and motion zones are available to fine tune which areas in front of the camera are monitored.

eufy Security eufyCam 2C Setup

Setting up the eufyCam 2C with my existing Home Base 2 was a quick and rather pain-free experience. Since I already had an account with eufy and the base, I was able to get up and running in a matter of minutes, with the entire process just requiring pushing the sync button on the base and then on the camera.

Once paired, the camera was added to the eufy Security app and HomeKit, all without even needing to open either app. Of course, this will vary if you are setting up a new system, which in that case, will involve following a series of prompts within eufy’s app, and performing the same sync button presses.

The mobile app

With the cameras installed, you do everything using the mobile app on your phone. Since the system is connected to the internet, you can access your cameras and the recorded footage stored on the HomeBase from anywhere. 

Tap on a camera in the app to jump into the live feed view where you’ll find controls to turn on the spotlight, trigger the siren, record video, capture a snapshot, or mute the camera audio. There’s also a microphone button that you tap and hold when you want to speak. There’s a very slight delay, but it’s minor enough that you can carry on a real-time conversation quite easily.

There are lots of useful features in the app. By default, the cameras will record 20-second clips when they detect a human, and you get an alert on your phone with a notification you can tap to jump straight to the recording. I found the default settings worked well, but you can change the length of recordings and set any motion to trigger the camera if you prefer. Night vision uses infrared to provide black and white footage by default, but you can also switch to the spotlight in the app. 

False positives can be an issue with home security cameras, so the option to change the detection sensitivity, with a scale from 1 to 7, is welcome. The Eufy Security app also offers the ability to set activity zones, so you can draw a box on the screen to specify the area you’re interested in. This is vital if you have a camera that overlooks a busy road, for example. 

You can schedule the cameras to be on at specific times, you can set up a geofence, so they turn on automatically when you leave home, and you can quickly disarm or snooze individual cameras or the whole system. 

Recorded events are organized in a calendar view, and all the footage is stored on the HomeBase unit, which offers 16GB of eMMC storage. That’s enough for around three months of recordings, but you can download videos and share them directly from the app. There is also an option to store recordings in the cloud, at $2.99 per camera per month for 30 days of rolling recordings.

All in all, it’s a versatile app, with features that often require a subscription with other systems. 

Battery life

Battery life, while rated for up to 180 days, is still a toss-up at this point for me. I have only been using the camera a few weeks now, so I can’t quite say if it will meet this goal, but I can say that eufy does warn that having it connected to HomeKit will drain it faster. I am undoubtedly ok if I only get a couple of months between charges, but I am a little concerned about battery-aging as the internal battery is not replaceable.

Does it support Homekit?

This is the camera that Arlo Pro wishes it was. This camera’s quality is superb, it includes a spotlight, and it integrates fully with HomeKit. I own Arlo Pro. I am currently on a legacy plan with them that allows me to save footage on the cloud for 10 cameras for $9.99/month. However, I don’t really want that. I simply want to be able to access my saved footage stored locally on my attached harddrive. Enter, Eufy. Eufy does not require a monthly plan to stream the cameras. It allows up to 90 days worth of storage on the local Homebase. AND the HomeBase DOES NOT need to be hardwired to the router. The home base has excellent range, but at this price, I purchased an extra HomeBase just in case. I currently am only using one of the bases that I purchased and have four cameras connected to it. The HomeBase connects to Homekit via the App.

eufy Security eufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system performance review

Thanks to its pretty stellar feature set, the performance of the Eufycam 2 is surprisingly solid… as long as it’s within 60 to 100 feet of the HomeBase. 

In terms of features, the Eufycam 2 has a built-in two-way microphone system that lets you yell at any potential intruders, as well as a night mode to capture any details in the dark. 

Speaking of clips, they’re all stored directly on the HomeBase – which is actually a good thing in case someone were to ever come along and take the camera. The HomeBase has 16GB of internal storage for clips, which should last you around a month before it needs to start erasing old footage, but keep in mind that it will all be in 1080p resolution.

Any time a person or event is detected you’ll get a notification on your phone with a thumbnail for easy identification and the video stream loads up in seconds, or you can always check in on a video-enabled Alexa or Google Assistant device.

The night mode performance is also very good. For dark environments and larger areas, the infrared probably works best, though the footage is in black and white. It’s good that you can select to trigger the spotlight instead, which provides color footage, but it’s fairly short range, so I used it for the front door camera but stuck with infrared in the backyard.

While you could certainly stand to find higher-resolution cameras – Eufy’s solution is still pretty good and delivers when it counts.

The resolution is a bit of a double-edged sword here. Because it’s only 1080p, the HomeBase can store more footage of the Eufycam 2 than it can of the Eufy Video Doorbell that has a 2K resolution. The downside, of course, is that there’s slightly less detail in the 1080p footage. It’s not enough to blur essential details, but it does make it slightly harder to identify faces at longer distances. 

Alternate of eufy Security eufyCam 2C wireless home security camera system

The Google Nest Cam Outdoor or the Ring Spotlight Cam are popular alternatives, but you’ll have to pay considerably more for a two-camera system and they both require subscriptions if you want to access recordings.

You might also consider the Arlo Pro 3, which offers higher quality 2K footage with HDR and a few other extras at $399 for a two-camera system, but it also requires a monthly subscription. 

Pros: No subscription required, good quality video, two-way audio, smart detection, activity zones, easy to use, solid mobile app, affordable

Cons: No theft protection, no face recognition, occasional delays connecting 

Editor’s recommendations

• Amcrest NVR 32 Channel review – how to setup?
• Compare Amcrest NV2108 vs NV4108 – do they have recording option?
• Amcrest NV4108E-HS 4K 8Ch PoE NVR review – does it have hard drive?
• Amcrest NVR comparison chart 2021 – do they have pre-installed Hard Drive?
• Eufy camera battery replacement – how to change?