Solar Security Camera WIFI Human Tracking 50X Optical Zoom

Watch the back gate with no power and no cable.

What goes missing is never in the house. It is the diesel drum by the shed, the pump on the bore, the trailer parked up the back where there is no power point, no data cable and nothing to plug a camera into. You find out days later, the tracks have gone cold, and when the insurer asks what you have got, you have got nothing.

This one runs on its own battery and its own solar panels, so there is no cable run and no power bill. Bolt it to a shed wall, a post or the corner of a yard, get sun on the panels, and it charges itself while you watch it from your phone.

It carries two lenses. A fixed wide one takes in the whole yard, and a motorised one underneath pans, tilts and zooms so you can steer onto one thing and look at it properly. The app shows both at once.

Be clear about what wakes it up, because that is where cameras like this disappoint people. The trigger is a PIR heat-and-movement sensor with a supplier-stated range of 0–12 m. Past that it is a camera you look through, not a camera that rings you.

What It Does

• Covers the shed with no power there: two solar panels and a built-in battery mean no trenching, no extension lead and nothing for a storm to take out.
• Puts you on the gate from the crib room: the lower lens is motorised, so you pan, tilt and zoom it from the app instead of squinting at a fixed wide shot.
• Wakes up and pings you: the PIR brings the camera out of sleep, records the event and pushes an alert to your phone, within its stated 0–12 m reach.
• Works past the end of the Wi-Fi: the 4G option takes a SIM card with a data plan on it, so the camera does not need a router anywhere near it.
• Lets you say something: two-way audio through the app — warn someone off, or tell a delivery driver where to leave the pallet.

Key Features

• Two lenses, two views: a fixed wide-angle lens above and a motorised variable-focus lens below, both live in the app at the same time.
• 5 MP per lens: the supplier adds the pair together and calls it 10 MP. It is two 5 MP pictures, not one 10 MP one.
• Motorised head: 355° of pan and 90° of tilt from the app, plus a bracket you can swing 110° and tilt 90° by hand when you mount it.
• Solar and battery: two panels the supplier rates at 6 W each, feeding a built-in 14400 mAh battery.
• Wi-Fi or 4G: pick the Wi-Fi model for a shed inside router range, or the 4G model for anywhere a phone gets signal.
• Two night modes: infrared for a quiet black-and-white picture, or white light for full colour, switched in the app.
• 128 GB card included: every option on this page is the 128 GB version, and the supplier's own packaging artwork shows the card supplied with the camera.
• Two ways to mount it: panels bolted straight to the camera, or split off on a 3 m lead so the panels sit in sun while the camera sits in shade.
• IP66 marked: the supplier's rating for rain and dust. No certificate was sighted.
• Grey or white: 304 mm tall overall, so it is a solid lump on a wall rather than something you hide.

Limits

This is the section worth reading twice. False triggers and disappointing detection are the standing complaint about every solar PTZ camera on the market, and nothing on this page is going to pretend otherwise.

What it will not do

• It will not reliably tell a person from an animal: a PIR sensor reacts to warmth that moves. Roos, dogs, stock, a hot bonnet and a shadow crossing a sunlit wall can all set one off. The supplier publishes no detection accuracy figure and we have not tested it, so we are not going to promise you it only calls you for people.
• It does not recognise faces: "human tracking" is the supplier's name for the motorised head following movement once something has already triggered it. It is not face recognition and it does not identify anybody.
• The trigger is shorter than the view: the PIR is stated at 0–12 m. The zoom will show you something much further out, but nothing past about 12 m will wake the camera on its own.
• It is not a 24/7 recorder: a battery camera sleeps, wakes on the sensor, records the event and goes back to sleep. If you need continuous footage, that is a mains-powered camera on a wired recorder, and this is not it.
• We cannot confirm the 50x is all optical: the supplier states 50x optical zoom, and says so twice on its own artwork. We have not tested it and we cannot tell you how much of that 50x is glass moving and how much is the app enlarging pixels. Take it as the supplier's figure, not ours.
• The supplier's "4K" does not add up: the packaging artwork prints "10MP-4K", but a 5 MP lens is not a 4K picture and two 5 MP lenses side by side do not make one either.
• Wi-Fi model is 2.4 GHz only: if your router only broadcasts 5 GHz, the Wi-Fi model will not join it.
• 4G bands are not specified by the supplier: no band list is printed anywhere on the supplier's material, so nobody can tell you in advance which Australian or New Zealand networks the 4G model will lock onto, or whether it is carrier-locked.
• IP66 is rain, not immersion: weather off the sky and dust off a paddock. Do not submerge it, do not put a pressure washer on it, and do not mount it where it sits in run-off.
• The 12 W solar rating deserves a squint: on the supplier's own drawing each panel measures 224 x 70 mm, which is a small piece of silicon to be pulling 6 W. Treat 12 W as the number on the label rather than a tested output, and give the panels the best sun you have got.
• Standby is not run time: the supplier quotes up to 365 days of standby. That is the camera asleep. A busy gate wakes it dozens of times a day, and every wake-up, every zoom and every night-light burst costs battery.
• No claim about evidence: we make no claim that footage from this camera will be accepted as evidence by anybody, and no claim that it meets any surveillance, monitoring or privacy requirement. It is a camera, not a compliance product.

Q & A

Will it only alert me when a person walks past?

No. It is a PIR sensor, so it triggers on moving warmth — that includes stock, dogs, roos and a warm vehicle. The supplier calls the feature human detection; it publishes no accuracy figure, and we have not measured one. If you put it on a paddock fence you will get animal alerts.

There is no Wi-Fi anywhere near the shed. Which one do I want?

The 4G model. It takes a standard SIM card with an active data plan and connects over the mobile network, so no router is needed. The supplier does not publish the 4G bands it supports, so we cannot tell you which carrier will suit it best.

Do I have to buy a memory card as well?

No. Every option on this page is a 128 GB version and the supplier's packaging artwork shows the microSD card supplied with the camera. The app also offers paid cloud storage; you do not need it to record.

Will it keep going through a week of cloud?

Not specified by supplier, and it depends entirely on how often it wakes. The battery is 14400 mAh, the panels are rated 6 W each, and a quiet corner of a yard will last far longer than a busy driveway. Anywhere the panels sit under a tree or a verandah, expect to top it up off a charger now and then.

Can I put the panels somewhere sunnier than the camera?

Yes. The supplier shows two mounting options: everything bolted together as one unit, or the panels mounted separately and run back to the camera on a 3 m lead.

How long will it take to get here?

Delivery is 10 to 14 days from the day you order — allow up to three weeks, and longer again for regional and remote addresses. Shipping is free to Australia and New Zealand.

Specs