Sometimes the IR night vision isn’t enough on your security camera, you just need more light and that’s where the LC1 comes in. The LC1 by EZVIZ is a two in one LED light fitting and security camera bundle, which I’m hoping will illuminate any tresspasers that fall within proximity of it. Let’s find out.
Features
- Dual LED lights upto 2500 lumens (dimmable)
- 270 degree PIR motion detection
- Night vision upto 18metres
- Fully waterproof IP65 for external use
- Full HD 1080p camera
- Active defence, alarm sounding, lights flashing and two way communication
Opening the light for the first time, it’s quite a large and heavy unit. It’s somewhat industrial looking and robust, but I guess that’s part of the design. The first way of deterring someone from your home is by letting them know they’re on camera and they certainly will see this, as long as it’s during the day. It’s an all-white affair and it’s constructed from both metal & plastic, and it’s fully waterproof and designed to be installed outside. There are two LED lights, both attached to the base unit with flexible arms, so they can be rotated and tilted in the direction of your choosing. Between the two lights is the camera unit, with built-in motion sensor and IR under the camera lens. The camera part can also swivel & rotate but it is limited.
In the box you get the light itself, a variety of tools & screws for fixing and some instructions. The instructions are limited but there was enough for me to get it installed correctly.
Set Up & Use
Installation wasn’t too bad for me, as I’ve changed various light fittings in my house before, so felt confident enough to install this. The light is mains powered and requires a feed from your consumer unit. Hopefully, like me, you may already have an external lighting point that you can use. I had a pre-wired point above my patio door, with a switch on the inside, so I used that.
The metal backplate can be removed from the light and you use this to drill the holes required for fixing. The cable runs through the backplate, with bare wires one end and a connector block at the other. Fix the back plate to the wall, with the cable through it and then you can clip the connector block back into the light and screw the light, to the backplate. Once that’s done, you need to wire the loose cable into your existing lighting point. Overall, it took no longer than 15 minutes to drill two holes, secure the plate, fit the light and wire.
You do need to flip the breaker down in your consumer board and work with wires, so if in doubt, get an electrician to install it. If you don’t have an existing light point outside, you will need to install one somehow. If you really wanted, you could wire the light onto a plug and plug in somewhere. Crude but it would still work.
The light needs to be connected to your home WiFi network, so bare that in mind when you’re positioning the light. You don’t want to install it and then find you’re out of range…
Once the light is installed and turned on, you need to download the Ezviz app, register and go through the setup procedure. Set up was very quick, it took me less than 5 minutes and once it’s done, you can live view the camera feed and adjust any settings you wish.
Performance
As a light fitting, it performs as expected and offers a very good level and spread of light to your desired area. The lamps are LED, they’re a warm white, say 3000K and they are sealed, so you will not be able to change or replace the lamps. Not that you should need to anytime soon though, as LED’s will last for several years. Both lamps can be angled to suit, it’s somewhat limited but more than enough to direct the light towards the ground, in the direction of the camera. The lamps are very bright and illuminated half of the garden, which is exactly what you want and whoever/whatever walks by and sets of the motion sensor off, you will see them with ease and hopefully startle them. There is an option within the app to dim the light, a slider, which works well if you want a reduced output. When triggered, the light would stay on for 1 minute or 2 before turning off again.
The sensor works well and its sensitivity can be edited within the app to suit your needs. The shortest sensitivity is 10ft or 3m, then you can up that to 25ft (7m) or at its longest, 33ft (10m), which I think is more than enough. You can also adjust the sensitivity in sections, left, straight on and right, so if you wanted the sensor to cover the right side at 10m but want the left to be 3m, you could do that. The sensor includes a daylight function, so although it will sense your presence during the day, the light won’t turn on as it’s not needed. When dusk hits, the light will come on.
As for video performance, it’s very good and better than I expected. In daylight, the image is crisp, bright and has a good frame rate too. As expected, the image has that rounded fish eye effect, so you lose some detail in the corners. As you’ll see below, it’s a relatively smooth image of objects walking across the camera. At night time, you have the night vision mode which is ok, it will pick up a person and if they’re close enough, you should be able to identify them. The beauty of the LC1 is, the lights will come on too, which really helps highlight the subject. In the sample, you will see my foot pop into frame, the sensor picks me up, turns the lights on and then the video turns into colour. The lights are so bright I look almost ghost-like when walking up to the camera, so I may even need to dim it down slightly. Videos can be stored locally via microSD card or into the cloud via an Ezviz subscription service.
To finish off, the camera does also record audio, it’s faint but it does pick up my voice. You can live view the feed, playback recorded footage via your smartphone, zoom in and also set up alerts. There is also an alarm option on the light, when activated, the camera will sound an alarm. Another deterrent to put off any intruders.
Verdict
It’s not the sleekest looking product, it looks little industrial but it does the job it’s meant to and it does it very well. Fantastic as a light, it’s functional, practical, easy to use and offers a very good video recording. It retails at £179.99 here in the UK. The only problem I forsee is finding a location for it and whether or not you can get a mains feed to it!
For more info, head over to the official EZVIZ LC1 webpage.
