This is the Stuart Cam from Despicable Me… it is a high definition Wifi camera. They didn’t specify the quality but Amazon states that it is a 720p camera.
On the back it features a pet highlight reel which gives you a snapshot of your pet’s day with a video tailored just for you…
This camera uses the TEND app for both IOS and Android phone.
Also, it has free cloud storage…so the camera records motion triggered events to a cloud with Free Lifetime 1 day storage. This is going to be a negative for this camera that is doesn’t have a local recording like micro SD card storage option.
So, it is a Wifi camera which uses an app to setup, connect and control the camera. It has night vision and also a 2 way audio communication.
So, lets open it up.
We have here a minion…Stuart….and it looks pretty cute.. the camera adjusts on a ball joint which you have good adjustment range and also has slots to install to a wall or ceiling and it looks like a toy which is a good thing especially if you are going to use it as a baby or nanny cam…Good range of adjustments on different installation setups. You can loosen the ball joint to be able to adjust the camera position and tighten it up to secure it. I’ll put this on top of my kid’s room night stand.
On the back of the camera is a setup switch and several LED status lights. To initially setup the camera, you will need to toggle the switch up to enter the setup mode. Also on the back is the plug in for the power supply.
Checking out the rest of the box…we have some installation screws with plastic anchors for dry wall or masonry installs.
We have the power adapter which has a 10 foot long cord.
We have the quick installation guide which is pretty easy to follow.
Now, to set it up..we have to download the TEND app..plug in the camera and toggle the switch up to enter setup mode. Wait for the status lights to match up like the one in the installation guide…
Go to your phone’s WiFi settings and click on the Stuart Cam network..
then go and open up the app……click on setting up a new camera, , choose the stuart cam. Pick the mouth that matches your camera and type in a name and I’ll name mine Stuart, click next..then will choose which Wifi we are going to use and click next….type in the Wifi’s password…and click Join..
Then the camera will be connecting to your Wifi…then either create an account or log in to an existing account if you already have one.
then finally, flip the setup switch back down to camera, click next and setup is complete.
You just need to log in so as to be able to view your camera.
When you first log in, you will see these user guides on how to use the app..so just click next when you are done..you will also be prompted to update the firmware if needed…
When everything is updated this is the main screen that you will see…you can turn the phone to view in landscape mode. In this screen you can adjust the volume, use the 2 way communication in which you need to push to talk but there is another feature of this camera that makes it more fun…you can select the minion icon and it will change your voice to a minion voice when you are talking through the camera. I will demo this feature later on.
You can click on the upper right gear icon to go to settings where you can adjust the volume of the speaker in the camera, there is motion detection in which to record your footage you need to enable event recording and you will then have an option to adjust the sensitivity of the motion detector. You can also turn on notification so that you will be notified if the camera senses motion. Then, you can schedule the time range and days you want to get notified.
You have an option to share your camera footage…just type in their email and they will be prompted to download the app and sign up so that they will be able to view the camera. We have the night vision..on or off or automatic…
We have the rotation so the you can flip the camera view when you install it like in the ceiling.
And we have the time zone and that’s it…
Now as you can see, the camera started notifying me…
This camera also has a feature called Pet highlight reels..where you can generate a time lapse video of your pet including background music. I don’t have a pet so I’ll just give you a link of a video demonstrating it below.
On the “play” icon on the bottom, it will show you the recorded events. Just scroll down to find the video you want to watch.
Click on the video to play it and it will be labeled as “watched” after you are done.
Click on the download icon to save a copy of the video to your phone.
Remember that it says that videos will only be saved for 24 hours. But check out my recordings….I have a recording from Sunday and if you scroll down..it still saved all the recordings the last 5 days…so we will see how long it usually saves the videos in the next couple of weeks..but it is better to save any videos you want to keep as soon as you can.
Now, let’s check out some video footage…This is daytime video with lights on…
This is night time, no lights and with infrared on….I also placed this camera in our living room just to see how wide the field of view is because there are no specs printed anywhere on the box for this camera.
Overall, this camera is a good buy..especially if you can get it for $25 bucks. The only negative that I can see would be the cloud recording which is supposedly limited to only 1 day…but for now, it seems like it is keeping my recordings on the last 5 days…