Customer Ratings & Reviews

This review will be done in 4 parts – features, set up options, usage impressions, and Pros/Cons. Features: The HD Wi-Fi camera is a well-featured Wi-Fi camera with a security orientation. Features include 1080p HD video, 2 way-talk, private local storage via up to a 256 MB MicroSD card (a 16 GB card is included), IR night vision up to 33 feet, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connectivity, 112° wide-angle field of view, person detection, and on the go connectivity via the Lorex Home App. Finally, the device can be used with Alexa and Google Assistant (not reviewed here as I don’t use those services). The following items are included in the package with the Wi-Fi Camera – a magnetic wall mount, a pre-inserted 16GB MicroSD card, a power adapter, a camera mounting kit (screws, plastic anchors, mounting template), and the literature pack featuring 3 quick start guides (English, French, and Spanish), regulatory and warranty information, and 2 window stickers for Lorex 24 HR Protection/Video Surveillance. Set-up/ Installation The quick start guides have sections for package contents, camera overview, instructions for connecting to Lorex home (see below for more), camera placement guidance (how to avoid interference), wall and ceiling mounting instructions, an overview of the Lorex Home app device page (since you can have multiple devices linked to one’s account), safety precautions, where to get help, troubleshooting, and LED behavior for the LED on the camera. Set up begins by plugging in the camera to power near the location you select for this camera to monitor. Next, one installs the Lorex Home app on your iPhone® or Android™ phone. Once you have created your Lorex Home account you connect to the camera by scanning the QR code located in the rear of the camera. The account and the camera both have passwords to help secure them. Usage Impressions: Once installed the camera monitors the area it can see. It can be configured to alert you to people in your home. You can then use the features to record the area, talk to the person in your home, or even capture still images. Each device can be configured to send you notifications as the camera senses people in the home – this can be continuous or on a schedule of your choosing. You can also designate the zone in which you want the camera to detect within its field of view via the Motion Zones feature. You can also set the camera to record when it detects sound about a designate decibel level (90 dB being the default setting. One nice feature of the camera is that it records in HD, but can stream in both HD and SD, with SD being the default to reduce bandwidth requirements of live video. When monitoring live you can watch and/or listen via the camera’s microphone. Overall, I like this well-featured camera. It has very good features and capabilities for a device with an MSRP of $59.99 and available for as low as $39.99 - $49.99 based on a quick web search it is priced well and makes a great first impression with the included features and capabilities. One item that I did have some issue with is that the initial card got corrupted within a few hours of activating the camera. I was able to replace it with another card and to date have not had any further issues but it was a concern for me that there might be a possibility that the replacement card would go bad as well. This camera has several use cases above and beyond the basic security and alerting features. First, it can be used as a monitoring system for those that have pets or family in the home that one would like to keep an eye on. It can also provide peace of mind if you were going on a trip and could not remember if you closed the front door or not (it happens) and were far enough away that returning to check was not a viable option. Pros: Features, Ease of installation, Lore Home App, Price. Cons: The included card went bad.

These were my first cameras in the Lorex eco system, and i was very impressed. The selling point for these are that they do not use cloud services, everything is stored on the on-board sd card. All Lorex wifi cameras use a on-board sd card. These work with the Lorex Home app where you can customize, and view recorded footage. These do not have a time when they cut out or off during recording. These can record however long the event takes place, and will start right up with another record even if the previous one just ended. You will never miss an event. I know some cameras are on a time limit, but these are not and do not have a time limit of when they can start recording again. Very fast and efficient. I have had no problems. These do not record 24/7, but can record right away when something happens, no matter how long the event is taking place. To see all footage you will need to look at the app and you can click events and see what events it has recorded, or go to timeline, where you can see every little movement, or person that was in the frame where it started recording. You will not miss a thing! You can customize where you want the motion settings to be and how strong you want the sensitivity to be. These can be used in a window but only if your window does not get much sunlight. Otherwise you will just see glare. Night vision does not work through glass or a window due to the infrared bouncing off the glass and back into the camera. Using night vision in the house is awesome. You can see pretty far and it will pick up just as well as it does during the day. You can share these cameras with other users. They will need to make a free Lorex account, and you can share this camera with that user. Just put in their email address and choose what access they can use with the camera. Then both of you can view this camera each with your own different devices. The status Green LED can be switched on or off, some people couldn't figure that out, but it is in the settings of the camera on the app. These cameras are also great for watching animals when you are not home. I would go under timeline on the app, because it will not pick up that movement under person detection. I think these are great for anyone who wants a little home security system that doesn't have monthly fees where you have all footage on the sd card. Don't worry about the sd card being full, you will have about a month to two months depending on the recordings it captures, on the 16gb sd card pre installed, but you can expand the sd card to 256gb. The camera will rewrite over the existing footage when it's time. You don't have to do a thing. If you're tired of your existing security system that uses monthly fees, then you can put these cameras up around your house very easily. No contractor required. Do it yourself easy. Would definitely recommend to anyone who wants freedom from other companies selling their cloud service and have ownership of their own footage. These have lots of cool features, just read about it and give it a go!

The first thing you're going to notice on this camera is how it resembles the nest cam but is not. That being said, this camera was very easy to set up. Like most of the smart equipment nowadays requires the creation of an account with the respective brand. Once that is done scan the barcode in the back and you're set. The app was very simple to use with minimal navigations and everything within the home screen . The camera is well made and is very light. it records in 1080P and the images look decent but, in my opinion for this camera being at 1080 it should look much better. The images don’t look as sharp as other 1080p cameras I have and look kind of washed, and when you zoom in they get ever worse. Something I also notice while using the live feed on the app it has a noticeable delay. This camera records clips and is also capable of taking pictures and night vision was actually pretty good. I do like the fact that you can store events right on the camera using an SDCard and a 16GB is included. One thing that really failed was the camera speaker, it is not very loud and people will have trouble hearing you, now the mic was much better. I was able to hear the sound on my phone with no issues. One of my favorite features was the ability to link the camera with the Google Home, I was able to see the live videos on my google home hubs and it worked flawlessly. That setup was simple and to bring up the camera on your google display just say “Google show me (the room the camera is in)”. You can also use this same feature with Alexa. In the Lorex home app you can manage all the cameras and adjust the alerts, storage but you cannot change the video settings. Overall this camera for the price and all the features it comes with it is a very good budget security camera. In the box you get the camera, mounting kit, USB cable, power brick and manuals.

The camera arrived in a completely recyclable packaging. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. The accessories included allow for a variety of mounting options. I decided to use the stand and not attach to a wall for ease of moving it around since I'm using it mostly to keep an eye on my pets at home. The app for the camera was easy to understand but I had a bit of a hard time getting the phone camera to read the QR code in the back of the camera to add it to my network and the code was so small that typing it manually was not possible without a magnifying glass... Other than that little hiccup, everything else went well. The camera resolution is adequate and the angle of view allows to see an entire room. Another small item was that it kept reverting to IR lighting at some points when it was unnecessary, but luckily you can disable the auto-IR low light setting in the app settings. Once connected to the network and power supply, it performed as expected. I would have liked it if the camera had a rechargeable battery to be able to be used where there are no power plugs, but that may make the camera more expensive. The notifications are very quick, less than a second from when it detects activity and the app displays the thumbnail of the event. When you click it you have the view options. It records the videos of said activity to the included micro-SD card and it records in a loop, erasing the earlier videos unless saved elsewhere. One thing I liked is the 2-way sound. I saw one of my cats doing something he shouldn't have so I use this option to discourage bad behavior. The cat jumped! So I hope to use this option as a deterrent to have my pets behave when I'm not around. Overall I'll say it's good value for the cost.

Compact and light surveying camera with full range of functionalities to control. It is simple to setup to connect to wifi through its mobile app, and place at any spot unless install at fixed location. The package comes with necessary cables and accessories to install fixed location. This process knowing where to place, the setting time takes less than 5 min. From image perspective, it does give clear view either outdoor under daylight or indoor under the dark. For instance image in the dark, user can tell what is. The other part of benefit of the camera consist of the mobile application with full range of functionalities. It has different view and if have more than a camera, it has capability to display all in one screen up to 9 divided screen. Also, allow other user of mobile app add to it the camera and control. This is great for spouses or homeowners and out in different location. Regarding sensors, it has sensor for person detection, sound detection, and two way talk. These works quite well. For instance for person and sound, it detect and recorded if it is setup the option the application, and it add into time lime or separate screen where by time of recording shows image and sound caught by the camera. It functionality is large to describe, but to add to the above description, the function of timeline is a practical and straight forward to assess what was going on while away. Shortcoming: access to it via desktop is not that straight as via mobile. It need to login to the Lorex account which is same as created for mobile app, and the site contains full range of product and company information, and among menu at the last place has menu for live view. Upon opening it, it shows variety of application that available for all Lorex product, and among them the option for cloud, and link to download web player, client and view now option,. However, attempting via Mac and installing all of the option, unable to view from desktop nor the View now via cloud. In short, good hardware and software for mobile, without the need of cloud storage that comes attached for major brands like google or ring. Hope Lorex doesn’t change in this aspect. Recommendable for those who are planning new security package or replacing as its control and monitoring cannot be unified with other brands.

This indoor Wi-Fi camera is offline too often. Is the closest to one to the hub compared to the outdoor cameras. Not once in a little over a month the outdoor cameras have failed vs the indoor camera which has failed over 6 times. The rest of the Lorex Home Center, which includes 2 outdoor WiFi cameras, works great.

This camera from Lorex is quite good and I highly recommend it. I have wanted to invest in a "security" camera for quite some time. Even though we have a good home security system, I wanted to have something that backed it up and could be customized a bit more. This camera fit the bill nicely. The picture fidelity is quite good and I was very pleased with how well you can make out details even at distance. My limited experience with security cameras has been that you generally have to sacrifice picture fidelity for distance and vice-versa. This seems to do both very well. Obviously, like any "smart" product now, Lorex provides an app to download that allows you get the most functionality out of your camera. I'm happy to say it works quite well. With it, you can listen in, talk through the camera to anyone in the room, see when movement (events) occurred and quickly view them, take a snapshot of the current view, and manually record. You can also choose to get a notification every time the camera detects movement. Quite handy if you're going to be away for a while and no one should be in your house. Setup of everything, including the app, was done within probably 5 minutes and there were no issues. The only reason it might take you longer would be if you had a challenging location picked out for the camera. However, Lorex provides great instructions and all the necessary hardware you'll need to make it a lot less of a headache. My only complaint (and it's a very small one at that) is that camera has a pretty bright green light on the front that, as far as I can tell, can't be switched off. Hopefully I just haven't found the setting yet but if it can't be done, I can live with it. I will be investing in more of these cameras soon.

I absolutely love my Lorex camera and the simplicity of it all. It took all of 2-3 minutes to open it up and set it up. Best features are how slim it is, the magnetic plate to secure it to the wall, the crisp imaging, and two way audio. In comparison to my previous camera this one won’t be bulky and annoying while it sits neatly on a shelf. Biggest win is that the camera has a micro SD slot so that I don’t have to subscribe to a cloud company or of forgetting my password to access them. I work a normal daytime job so being able to keep an eye on my little guy is very important to me. He’s a little annoyed obviously... but I’m glad I can check in on him anytime I want.

Love this little camera! It has a wide enough field of view to see a whole room, the image is sharp enough for monitoring purposes (zooming gets grainy), and I love that it comes with the memory card, which makes the price of the camera more than reasonable. You can adjust motion sensing sensitivity and set it to record specific hours continuously, and the app is simple to use and I've had no issues accessing it away from my home network or getting notifications. Also very easy to set up and either free stand or mount.

This is a very decent camera. It has no subscription and it stores recordings using a micro SD card which is an awesome feature. The camera itself is HD and has very good quality picture. The night vision works great. The motion sensor and auto record features are superb.

If you are looking for an inexpensive, easy to set up and easy to use home wi-fi security camera, it's hrd to go wrong with the Lorex W261AS. I have tried several devices of this type and this was the easiest one yet, at least in terms of initial setup. So easy, in fact, I did not really even need to read the instructions. Download the app, create an account, plug in the camera, follow the on screen prompts to add a camera password and connect to your wi-fi network. You will be up and running in a few minutes. The camera, like most of this type, is managed with a smart phone app, Lorex Home. It gives you options on when to record, whether to trigger video recording with a motion sensor or person sensor, whether to send you alerts and overall sensitivity, etc. Very impressive. You can even add Alexa or Google support, but in the case of Alexa, will have enable the Lorex Home skill first in the Alexa app. Then add device.. After that you can issue voice commands to turn on and view whats going on with the camera using any Alexa device. Of course you also view and record from anywhere using the Lorex Home app. The indoor-only camera has a very wide angle lens so can cover almost every corner of any room. But the downside to this is details drop away pretty quickly the further you are from the camera. So if you are hoping to ID a burglar robbing your house, you better hope he or she walks close to the camera. You also better hope that person does not decide to steal the camera too, since that is where all video is stored. Because this is relatively cheap camera, there is no cloud storage. Video goes instead to an included onboard 16BG micro SD card, which should hold about 2 hours worth of footage. The camera will accommodate cards up to 256GB (Class 10) if you need more storage space. The upside to this there are no cloud stoarge fees to worry about. Video is recorded in HD (1080p) but you can opt to stream at standard def if your wi-fi bandwidth is limited or you do not want to use a lot of data when reviewing video remotely using your phone. A built in microphone also allows for two-way audio or audio monitoring. Night vision mode also is supported to catch those creeping around in the dark. Lorex gives you lots of mounting options, from simply placing the camera on a table or countertop to mounting it on the wall or ceiling. Just remember this camera requires AC power (A USB charger and cord are included). So that may limit where you can put it.. The camera stand is magnetic so will stick to the included round steel plate that is designed for wall and ceiling mounts. It can be attached with the included two sided tape or screws. Lorex makes lots of surveillance camera and systems, all of them much more expensive and sophisticated than this one. But despite its low cost, this one probably will do just about everything you will need. Just be prepared to do a little extra work to figure out how to do everything. Unlike the initial setup, I found it difficult to get to essential settings for determining when and how the camera activates automatically. They are buried pretty deep in the menu. (hint: look under notifications) Once you find them, however, you have the ability to set the camera to turn on only when you are away (geofencing) and even what times of the day or night it should trip, since you don't want it going off all the time when you are at home and simply wandering around the house. . You can even set which zones within the overall view to watch so, for example, you can remove floor areas so pets do not trip the camera at night. The biggest downside is that you must monitor how much of your onboard storage is being used by video and audio recordings and manually delete individual recordings to free up space. If that turns into a big chore, it might make sense to buy an SD card with more capacity so you don't have do the cleaning operations as often. Except for the somewhat cumbersome software setup process this is a very good little camera and well worth the modest price.

Has a couple of moments where it struggles to connect, but for the price it’s great. You can adjust the sound detection sensitivity, turn it on/off and set motion sensitivity. You can also select and deselect areas to detect motion. It gives push notification alerts if a person is detected when someone delivers something and even gave a loud sound detected alert with loud thunder while we were away. I have two and they were very simple to set up.

I was looking for a camera for my dog while the dog sitter was with her while I was away for a little over a month on a trip and stumbled upon this camera. This was literally so helpful because it did not shut off at all while I was away. I love that it had a privacy mode on it too. Definitely put my mind at ease knowing I could watch my dog 24/7 and also it saved recordings when it detected a motion. Bought this in April and I am now reviewing it in late June because I wanted to give it time and see if it truly worked, and it still works!

Love these cameras. They are very easy to setup and with expandable storage onboard you never need a subscription. But be aware, not every micro SD card will work with these. Refer to the link below for compatible cards. I have tried other branded cameras and these for the cost i feel cant be beat. Also the PTZ version is amazing as well. Minimal delay when controlling it. https://help.lorextechnology.com/link/portal/57356/57366/Article/3488/lnw16fx-w261aq-w261as-w281aa-compatible-sd-cards

Very nice product. Well built. Nice picture quality & very easy to set up with the LOREX Home app. Reasonably priced.

This Lorex camera is a great Camera. From setup to functionality it is very good. After downloading the app and connecting your camera the setup is super easy. Then enjoy the features within the Lorex Home app and admire the great quality of the HD pictures and video. The camera has some pretty cool features too. The camera is both Alexa and Google Assistant compatible. Again connecting to Alexa was smooth and easy. The app works very well and the camera comes with micro SD storage which can be increased to 256GB. The camera has 2 way talk with a pretty decent speaker. With HD quality, night vision, and a person feature detection this camera is loaded with features. I found person detection to be cool. The camera comes with a wall mount plate as well. The sleek look of the camera is futuristic and can be mounted flat or in many other configurations pivoting off the pivoting stand. The camera view can be rotated 180 degrees by changes in the app. On and on it goes with features that prove Lorex left nothing out with this camera. A great camera loaded with features and quality images.

We are building a "He Shed" for my husband. Since it will have all of his tools and power tools in it, we wanted to make sure that we could keep an eye on it. This Lorex HD Wi-Fi Camera seemed to be the perfect thing for the job. We have a Lorex home security camera system that we haven't been overly enamored with. Even so, we thought that this camera would be a good choice so that we wouldn't have to download another new app for another smart home product. This Lorex camera uses the Lorex Home app and our home security system uses the Lorex Cirrus app. So we wound up having to download another app anyways. Once the app was downloaded, set up was super easy. The camera connected faster than any of my other smart home devices. The picture quality is passable but the picture and audio have about a 5 second delay. It isn't too bad compared to other cameras we have. The camera has motion detection and person detection and will send notifications to you. You can set up a pretty intricate activation area. This camera also has 2-way communication and night vision. It comes with a 16GB memory card. One issue that I do have with this camera is that there isn't a battery backup. If someone were to enter your premises when there was no power, the camera would not issue a warning or it could simply be unplugged to avoid being recorded. Overall, I'd say that this is an ok camera. There are better choices with better recording quality but for the price, this is a pretty decent entry level camera.

We wanted a security camera to monitor our granddaughter when she goes down for a nap or when she is spending the night. This Lorex camera totally fits the bill. The image quality is very nice and the camera is definitely on the affordable side. If you have the camera configured to record, the footage is not stored in the cloud. It's stored on a memory card in the camera. Lorex was kind enough to include a memory card with the camera, which seems almost unheard of these days. The card is on the small side, 16Gb, but that still allows around a day of continuous recording! You access the camera through their mobile app. You cannot access the camera through your computer aka website or otherwise. You have to be able to install an iOS or Android app. Lorex also does not make an iPad app. It's an iPhone app. Not having an iPad specific app a bit disappointing. Everything you want to do with the camera is done through the app. The camera is very simple to set up. Plug it in, install the app, and give it access to your local WiFi network. Once you do that, you'll be able to access the camera inside or outside your home. The app itself is pretty comprehensive but slightly complex and confusing to start with. There is no real help within the app. You have to go to the Lorex website to download a manual. The manual does a decent job of explaining things but it didn't match up 100% of what is in the app. Once you play with the app for an hour or two, you begin to understand how to find the various things you want to do. It's beyond the scope of this review to go into too much detail but I will give Lorex kudos for trying to make it semi-automatic to view the recorded footage. The configuration of the camera allows you to set recording schedules, motion detection, motion zones, and sound detection. Because the camera is plugged into an outlet, the camera is always on (but only recording if you want it to). Unlike a battery-powered camera, you can watch the camera without worrying about killing the battery. Speaking of which, the camera does integrate with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. I hooked it up to my Echo Show and it's as easy as saying, "show me my bedroom camera" and I'm watching the camera live. I also put the camera in a window pane to look outside. It worked great for that. At least during the daytime. I didn't try it at night. I think the infrared won't work because it will reflect off the glass. If you're looking for an outside camera though just for viewing and can't or don't want to put one outside, it's an option. The motion detection was kind of hit and miss though so think of it more as a webcam. At this price point, I'm very happy with what the camera and software have to offer. It's certainly more than 50% cheaper than my set of battery-powered cameras I use on the outside of the house and I don't have to have an online plan!

Clear and crisp image. Housing is not as sturdy as some of the other Lorex cameras but the price reflects that. Great App to control the camera.

Great indoor camera. Use it for monitoring my infant at first, now it is a hallway camera. Good price. Keeps connected to the wifi well.