Reviews: Security Camera Wansview Wireless Compatible

My friend J. CASTANEDA say Compact IP Camera! Easy to Install!.

I have plenty of IP cameras in my house. They are a combination of DLink, Wansview, Tenvis etc. I have to say my most durable ones are from Wansview. I've had some for as long as 2010! They simply give you the best bang for your buck. I hate to say it but the reason ALL of these IP cameras have a low rating is because of one thing. User error. I admit, I have an IT background and installing these are really easy for me. The new cloud feature couldn't be more easier to install. Even my mom could do it, (sorry mom LOL). Just download the app, make an account, show the QR code that shows up on your app to the camera. Super easy.
This new Q5 is my favorite along with my other Wansview cam (top photo). It is very compact (see bottom right photo). It also has a microUSB port for power (left pic). I hope this review has helped you.

Review Joseph tell us A much improved camera..

My review is based on the experience of using several IP cameras from different vendors over the past 4 years.

Overall, the Wansview Q5 Cloud Camera performs very well and the initial setup / install is super easy and quick. With some of my other cameras, I sometimes spent hours (even days) in setting them up. I like the Q5 new form-factor which is nicer and much smaller than the previous Q3 camera. It feels well-built and I expect it to last for many years. The phone software can use some bells and whistles available from other competing IP cameras. That said, it is very intuitive and easy-to-use. In summary, I would recommend this camera because of its well-built hardware, functionalities, and price. Below are some more details:

Pros:
+ Setting up the first time is quick (5 min for both software and hardware) with their easy-to-follow instructions.
+ Camera hardware is well-built, good-looking, and small in size which I like.
+ The wide-angle lens is the best I’ve seen in terms of clarity and coverage.
+ Crisp & clear images and videos - day and night (see images attached).
+ Excellent audio & mic (considering the small-size factor), definitely better than that on their Q3 and K3 cameras, and other cameras I’ve owned.
+ The Wansview cloud android phone app is easy to set up, easy to use and to configure.
+ Upon detecting motions, the camera sends me alerts on my phone, and 10-sec video clips in the mobile app. This a new feature. Nicely done Wansview!

Cons:
- No audio-detection alert capability (only motion-detection).
- Viewing saved images, they don’t auto-rotate along with the phone’s rotating to a horizontal orientation (from a vertical orientation)
- It would be nice if the phone app’s white background can be manually set to a darker theme like black.
- It would be nice if the multi-camera screen can be set to load as default upon logging in. Currently it requires an extra click.

My friend Missus Alviani say Great Camera, App Needs Work, EXCELLENT CUSTOMER DEDICATION.

 UPDATE: in light of their excellent customer service and dedication to make it right I have changed my rating from 3 stars to 4
I uploaded a screenshot of the new app and the old app for comparison as well as a screen recording of me using the app. You can see the video delay between the controls moving and the video showing me moving. It also shows that the controls glitch frequently.

This camera is very compact and good quality especially for the price. Set up is quick and painless. The video shows a very clear picture when there is no movement. Audio is clear and the night vision setting works fantastically. Motion detection works well and the notifications are prompt. Wainsview customer service and support is quick and extremely helpful.
However, the app required to utilize the camera needs a lot of work! The motion section sensitivity control does not actually adjust, it seems to always be at high sensitivity. There is a noticeable lag for movement on screen and also for panning the camera. Switching between FHD and SD does not seem to improve this issue. The panning control is very cool looking and set up in a much more user friendly manner than the previous app but it glitches often. I also wish that the new app supported older cameras because having two apps is much more difficult especially with the huge differences between them. I personally rarely audio detection but if one wanted to use this as a baby monitor or to monitor a dog barking, not having the audio detection alerts is a significant detraction. I have not tried the Alexa connection as we have a google home. Hopefully it will soon be compatible with google as well!

Pros:
- very clear still images
- motion detection very accurate and prompt notifications
- easy quick set up
- new panning controls and app layout very aesthetically pleasing
- audio quality is clear
- Infrared/ night vision perfect!
- Ability to store positions to pan the camera to

Cons:
- lags about 1 second behind on all motion in the video
- app motion sensitivity adjustment does not work, always high sensitivity
- no audio detection notifications
- panning in app is very delayed and sometimes it moves in the wrong direction
- cannot adjust video quality like in previous models
- new app cannot support older model cameras (requires two apps)

Overall, if the app is improved this will be a great camera at an even greater price!

Another customer KevCentral tell us *Updated* Poor software. Camera issues after 2 weeks 👎🏼.

*Updated - see update at bottom*
I bought this camera to use with Alexa as backup security. The camera initially worked. The picture quality certainly isn’t the HD quality it claims, but it did work...Did! I’ll get to that in a second....

There are 2 major annoyances/issues I have with this camera. The first is that the required phone app to set it up and control it is very clunky. The pan feature works, but it’s not a crisp control. Very jerky and I never know if a quick movement will move the camera an inch, or if it will pan across half the room. There is also a horrendously log load screen to open the app. They cared more about a fancy (but useless) animation than getting to the video feed, so good luck if you hear a noise and want to quickly pull up the camera. The second problem is that it buffers a LOT. This causes issues when pairing it with Alexa. Regularly, Alexa can’t access the camera. Even when she can, the feed will drop after a few seconds. The buffering happens via the app too though initially not as bad. Even with a strong and fast internet connection that plays other video feeds fine this camera buffers more often than not. Making it basically worthless for displaying on fireTV. Today, after only 2 weeks of use, it now drops the connection regularly. Mysteriously, even though the app says it can’t connect to the camera, it can reboot it via the app. After reboot sometimes it will stream for a few seconds - usually it won’t. I took a risk on a cheap camera...and that’s exactly what I got. A cheap camera that doesn’t work a majority of the time.

*Update* - read all this, because it’s important to know before buying!

-Since my initial review there have been multiple firmware and software updates. The software still favors unnecessary loading screen animations that take too long, but the camera buffering has improved greatly. Which is good....however, today a neighbor called the police on a person going house to house looking in windows and trying to open doors. I instantly checked the SD card on this camera (which sits at my picture window looking outward) where I discovered the file structure is archaic. It writes four 10-12 second video files into individual folders - meaning lots and lots of folders to sift through. Difficult to search but still useable. The BIG PROBLEM is that between each folder’s contents is a 2 minute gap. So when looking for the window peeker I see this person leave my neighbors yard and walk into mine. Then, as they walk up to my window the 10 second file ends, and being the 4th file in the folder I have to move to the next folder - which picks up 2 mins later. I check all the folders and there is 2 minutes of no footage between them all. Worthless! Who would make a security camera that records 24/7, but has 2 minute gaps between every 40-45 seconds of recorded content? Crazy and super sad considering there have been improvements on most of my other initial complaints. A security camera that misses more content than it records though....that makes it useless to me!

Review HonestReview say Excellent price point!!.

I have a lot of security cams from different vendors, Foscam, HooToo, Ring, Fujikam, Vimtag, Arlo, and a few others. I wanted to see how the technology changed and at the price point this is a good buy. The installation was simple using the instructions provided. Note, make sure you download the correct App. I downloaded the wrong app with a similar name, and lets just say I was about to return this camera, but fortunately I went back and read the manual carefully and downloaded the correct app. Connecting to Wifi was a little different, as I was used to plugging a cat5 to the back of the camera, which this does not have. The process was new to me, it had me scan a QR code with the camera itself to a code provided by the app, but it worked and connected quickly. The only thing I can think of that would make this better was if you could control the brightness/contrast, but again at this price point it is an excellent buy. The picture quality is good and is equal if not a little better than my current cameras. Another thing to note is the memory card slot is not on the body of the camera, but located on the eye ball at the bottom, please reference the pictures to see what I'm talking about.

A review Mirium McManus say Can’t go wrong for the price, some quirks that need to be worked out.

** update
I’ve been having some issues connecting to the camera when I am away from home. I did purchase the memory card and I’ve been getting a weird message when trying to review video , again when I am away from home. Trying to resolve. Says a need to have my phone and camera in a LAN. Not sure what this means. Will update again if I figure out solution.
** Update
I was told that you can only view memory card motion recordings when you are connected to the same WiFi network that the camera is on.
I’ve had some issues with the camera randomly dropping my network or needing to be reset a few times. Not sure why this is happening. Also I decided to try the 30 free cloud trial. I will update with that experience. I have 3 cameras and the one that had a memory card in it didn’t not want to stay connected to the cloud. When I took the card out that issue resolved.

I posted pictures of what was in the box as well as a few screen shots. Also a picture of the correct app to look for. My husband downloaded the wrong app and it took us a while to figure out why he couldn’t connect. But after that it was simple. I purchased this camera as a baby monitor and also to check in on our dogs when we are out. I haven’t had the baby yet so we are just testing it out to make sure it works good before the baby comes. My husband is in the army and will be deployed overseas the first 13 months after the baby is born. This will let him view live video , take screen shots and hear his child while he is away.
It gives you the option to purchase a monthly cloud subscription for recording. Or you can purchase a micro SD card which is what I did. You do not need to do either. It still works and records 10 second clips of motion. But that has limited storage without the cloud or card. I have included a picture of the hardware for mounting and the slot for the SD card on the camera body itself. I plan on adding a second and third camera. You can add up to 4 devices.

Pros:
+ Setting up the first time is quick (5 min for both software and hardware) with their easy-to-follow instructions. (After we used correct app 🤦🏻‍♀️)
+ Camera hardware is well-built, good-looking, and small in size which I like.
+ The wide-angle lens is the best I’ve seen in terms of clarity and coverage.
+ Crisp & clear images and videos - day and night - surprisingly good quality.
+ Excellent audio & mic. You will get feed back if you open the camera with sound and you are close to it. Also don’t place near a fan.
+ The Wansview cloud android & iPhone phone apps are easy to set up, easy to use and to configure. I have an iPhone , husband has an android. Both apps work good.
+ Upon detecting motions, the camera sends me alerts on my phone, and 10-sec video clips in the mobile app. We have dogs so we turned this feature off or we’d get constant alerts. You can do this via the app.
+ Allows you to use a SD card for more recording capabilities.
+ Allows the main user ( the person who first sets up camera with phone app) to send an invite to up to 3 other users who will need to download app, make an account and then will be able to view the camera as well.
+ We have both tested out the connection on the app while we weren’t home ( he’s in another state right now) and neither have had an issue connecting or viewing the camera.
+ Has a feature on app that allows you to set multiple favorite positions which I love. So if you are moving the angle around you can hit a potion and it will automatically go back to it.

Cons: (only one so far)
- No audio-detection alert capability (only motion-detection). Maybe this will change in the future )

Overall for price and quality and ease of use I would definitely recommend this camera.

Another customer AJV experience No DDNS option, but great customer support.

Gave this camera to my dad. Here is his review:

"Just got this new Q5 IPCam to add to my other Wansview IPCameras. First thing I noticed was the ease of setup.

A couple of items to note:
- Setup and operation are ONLY with WiFi. Plugged in LAN is not an option.
- Your phone and Q5 will have to be in same 2.4GHz connection frequency. Q5 will only connect to 2.4GHz and your phone may be on a 5GHz spectrum, not gonna work. If your home WiFi shows two separate SSID’s for each frequency then it should be easy enough for you. I’ve setup my WiFi router to use one SSID only for both frequencies, I had to go into my router setup and temporarily disable the 5GHz radio to force all devices I have to the lower frequency. I turned the 5GHz radio once the Q5 was completely setup.
- Like the fact they’re finally using micro USB connector from DC supply to IPCam and not the old 3.5mm plug in type
- The Q5 will not work with the previous Wansview IPCam App but instead you’ll need to download their new Wansview Cloud App which is fine as well.
- Image sample looking from my home office window is not that bad. I’m sure I can clean it up some more later.
- No DDNS support. Camera will only work using Wansview Cloud App. I use a third party IPCam viewer App to use on all my other IPCameras (Foscam, Amcrest and Wansview), no luck on this one or at least not yet. Hopefully they will upgrade it for future capability.
- The new Wansview Cloud App still need some work to refine minor UI issues particularly on the chat section.
- I’m not a big fan of IPCam paid cloud subscription regardless who the service provider is. I’ll continue using the memory card option on this camera. I could save all recording to my own cloud system if only DDNS is supported on these Q5 IPCam

Technical support either email or chat using the chat option on the App (even on Wechat!) was amazing. These guys are extremely helpful, particularly Simona!

Will definitely order more again from them if only they can help on the DDNS option. Otherwise their customer support team’s ability is what pushed them to 5 stars."

While Chryswithay said Terrible Product.

I have had nothing but problems with this camera. The camera and app constantly stop working or the feed continues to buffer. I get a grey screen while trying to watch the live feed half of the time. It constantly has to reconnect to play the video. The motion detector is extremely delayed, if it even picks It up. I use this camera as a baby monitor and find it far from reliable since the app continues to shut down. I am very disappointed in this product.

A review Marlene experience Had high hopes....

The product was very disappointing. Initially it seemed like set up was a snap, not a problem. But with each step that I took the next step could not be completed. Once I plugged it in and connected it to the Wi-Fi it wouldn’t pair with my phone. When I restarted it/rebooted it so I can do it again, it wouldn’t even connect to the Wi-Fi. I called customer service. They were very helpful. They got me to the point where it connected to my Wi-Fi and it paired to my phone. I hung up with them thinking everything would work now. Then the camera just didn’t work. If it didn’t say it was off-line there would just be nothing; no video, no nothing. I am getting this for my parents who are in their 80s so we can communicate if they’re not answering their cell phone. With so many issues, I cannot depend on this. Returned.

My friend A in Alabama say False add and a defective product.

This simply did not work. After a very frustrating hour with a technical person (Sylvia) in south America it was sent back. Sylvia was hard to hear and understand. According to her, too many people had shown up to the call center creating a true "din" and despite her playing with her microphone tp try to make it better, this was truly ridiculous. In any case the product does not work, it is not "plug and play" and the vendor should be pulled. This reflects poorly on Amazon!