After selecting the AP Host Spot and following the instructions to reset/boot the camera I had no problems finding the camera’s AP Hot Spot (CLOUDCAM_xxxx) in my list of Wi-Fi networks on my phone and connected with no issues.  At this point the process failed.  The App just sat idle with nothing happening. I waited at least 5 minutes but no luck.  The App would not connect and give me the option to input my Wi-Fi credentials.  I tried this complete AP procedure multiple times with the same results. I eventually gave up with AP Hot Spot and moved onto using the scan code option to learn my camera. 

I followed their instructions for use a scan code and after presenting the QR code to the camera it was immediately learned and showed up in my App.  I now had live video.

The video looked great on both SD and HD modes.  I was very happy with the quality of the image.

I then proceeded to test the many functions:

Panning/Tilting control

The the panning and tilting control of the camera was quite good and didn’t exhibit any extreme lagging.  The only possible issue I saw was that the camera would continue to try panning or tilting even though it reached its limits.  My concern with this would be the possible wear and tear on the inner gears. 

Intelligent Tracking

One of the best selling features of this camera is its ability to perform Auto Tracking.  In my tests it worked quite well in picking me up in it’s field of view.  It would follow me just fine as long as I didn’t move too fast.  If I was fairly close to the camera and walked at a faster than walking pace it would tend to lose track of me.  At a normal pace it worked fine.  Now it would only track me on the horizontal plane so if you expect vertical tracking you would be out of luck.  

Sound Detection

The sound detection worked as advertised.  It would send notifications to my phone when ever it heard adequate sound in its area.  It pick up me talking at normal volume about 8 feet away.  

Motion Detection

Motion detection worked quite well. Actually too well in some cases.  It would detect cars headlights from cars about 100 feet away, reflections of those same headlights off other objects, rain, bugs and blowing leaves.  Basically unusable in any area where any of the above could be seen.  Indoors it seemed to work fine. This was using the Low motion setting. 

Cloud Storage

I did not test the cloud storage as it required a paid subscription.  At the time of this review they were offering 7 days all day storage for approx. $69 USD per year.  I found the onboard SD card storage worked fine for me but of course you will be limited on much you can store on a SD card.  When using a SD card the older recordings will be overwritten with new video if the SD card becomes full.  The number of days you will be able to store will depend on if you setup to record on motion only or record all the time.  

Play Back from SD Card

As mentioned you can have video recorded on a SD card.  It supports up to 128GB.  In my test we used a 32GB card.  I first setup recording to Continuous recording mode.  I then viewed the recorded video with the built in viewer and it seem to work just fine.  I was able to move back and forth between different times and it adjusted fairly quickly.  I recorded for one hour and checked the percentage of storage used.  It was .21% which roughly translates to 1.6GB/ day which provide approx. 20 days of storage on the SD card.  This was recorded with almost no movement in the camera’s field of view (FOV).  Having continuous movement in the FOV would drastically increase the amount of storage used for the same time period.  So the amount of storage you will get will depend on your environment.

Sharing 

To give other people access to watch video from your camera you need to share your camera with them.  There is a Sharing menu option on the App where you can enter their email or phone number.  It will then send them a email with instructions on how to setup an account and access and control live video on your camera.  They will not be able to view recorded video unless you subscribe to the paid cloud service.

Major Issue Found

Hold on a minute! During my review testing the camera started to exbibit some strange behaviour.  After more investigation I found that once you connect this camera to the App it would constantly perform a reset approx. every 30 minutes.  During this reset it would start panning left and tilting up, and turn on the Red and Blue LED’s.  This would take about 10 seconds.  It would then return to the original position and resume normal operation.  During this time all communications would stop with the App.  I contacted the supplier/manufacturer in China and provided them with all the details.   I completed this review hoping that they would resolve the issue (possibly issue new firmware) but at the time of this review release the  issue was not resolved or acknowledged.  So at this time I can not recommend that you purchase this  camera.