Lorex - Connect 2K Floodlight Wi-Fi Security Camera (with App Controlled Horizontal Pan) - White

I own a couple of other Lorex home security devices, so I choose this floodlight camera as an expansion to my current setup. The camera features 2K video and audio capture, two-way audio, automatic floodlight activation, and local storage -- all features that I wanted in an outdoor security camera for the backyard. Note that this unit has a plug-in AC adapter and does not include a hardwiring kit, so it’ll need to be installed within 10 ft feet of an outlet. The wire can be routed behind the wall mount, if drilling a hole to the interior of the home for power, but if plugged into an exterior outlet, you’ll need a way to secure it so that it is not exposed to the elements and cannot be easily unplugged. The unit is smaller and more compact than floodlights with traditional bulbs, as it uses a 6-LED panel around the centered camera lens instead. On the underside of the camera’s housing is a panel secured by two mini screws that covers the microSD card slot which can accept up to 256GBs for local video and photo storage. A mini screwdriver is included to access the slot, but you'll need to provide your own memory card. I was a bit disappointed to find that the device can't be added to the Lorex Home mobile app that I already use, now renamed ‘Lorex Classic,’ and I had to download and install the new ‘Lorex Connect’ app to manage this device instead. Thankfully the login for the new app is the same as the old one, so I didn’t have to create a separate account. Once the unit is added, you’ll connect it to your home’s 2.4 GHz WiFi network, and it will automatically install any firmware updates which takes about 10 minutes. The new app is similar in design and function to the original app, so I found it frustrating that they are separate. The app gives you remote access to view the camera’s feed, start a recording or take a snapshot, review saved video and photos, and control the pan of the camera as it can turn 160° degrees (80° to the right or left). Note that the camera cannot tilt or zoom. The field of view of the camera is wide at around 100° horizontal and 55° vertical and has two resolution choices: 2048x1536 HD or 640x480 SD, both at 15 fps and 4:3 aspect ratio. In dark conditions it has IR night vision which is black and white by default but can be colorized in the settings, which I found reproduced accurate colors similar to what you’d see during the day. At 2K quality, the video is clear, motion is smooth, colors look accurate, contrast is well balanced, and there's a lot of detail in the images. I did find that video captured in low light tended to look somewhat more 'smear-y' during fast motion due to the low framerate. The 1500 lumen floodlight can be manually activated in the app or set to be automatically triggered by motion detection events. The camera detects three types of events: general motion, sound, and people. Each of these modes has additional settings like sensitivity and motion zones. In the ‘Detection Settings’ menus for motion and person detection is a toggle to activate the light during detection events, however, that setting doesn’t actually work. Rather, you’ll need to go to the ‘light settings’ menu to make those selections. I found that having the light switch on for ‘all motion’ didn’t seem to work well, since when the light would shut off the camera would detect the change in contrast as ‘motion’ and immediately turn the light back on in a continuous loop. Sound detection also sets off quite frequently from just wind noise, even at the least sensitive setting. You can adjust the brightness of the light from 1-100, and I found that the max brightness is quite blinding with a throw of around 25 ft or more. The light can optionally be set to flash when triggered. If your neighborhood has a light pollution ordinance you may want to set the brightness lower. One interesting feature is the camera’s ability to automatically ‘follow’ a detected person using the panning motion. When the person moves through the field of view of the camera, the camera will pan and keep them centered within its range of motion. When they exit the camera’s range, it will automatically return to its original position to avoid changing the coverage area and creating an unintentional blind spot. However, this following behavior cannot be used for non-person moving objects. The unit has a built-in speaker that is used both as a siren (100 dB), which can only be manually triggered but not automatically set off by events, or for two-way talk (90 dB max) with the camera’s microphone. There are also a handful of pre-recorded responses that you can broadcast through the speaker by tapping the phrase in the app in order to communicate with visitors or delivery people. The mic pickup is pretty good and the audio captured is decent. Since audio recording may be regulated in different areas, it can be toggled off to comply with your local laws. The recordings on the camera’s local storage can be viewed in the app and downloaded to your mobile device but the unit must be online to do so and depending on the strength of your WiFi signal playback can be choppy and transfers slow. However, Lorex will be launching several tiers of subscription cloud storage plans as a backup repository for up to 60 days of recordings. That would give you cloud access to your recordings even if the camera loses power or its internet connection. While this floodlight would be one of the compatible devices for the service, it is not yet available as of the writing of this review. Overall, the Lorex Connect 2K Floodlight is a nice additional outdoor camera to our existing home security setup. It delivers high quality video and audio, a super bright spotlight to enhance video at night or act as a deterrent, a loud siren, motorized pan and follow, two-way talk, and built-in local storage. Cloud storage will also soon be available for those that want a subscription plan with or without professional monitoring. I just wish all my Lorex devices could be managed and viewed in a single unified app instead of having to use multiple ones.

Lorex - 2K Floodlight Wi-Fi Security Camera (with App-Controlled Horizontal Pan). Security monitoring is rarely this flexible. From setup, to user controls accessible from the app, and to the local storage of video clips, Lorex has given me complete freedom to manage security the way I prefer. The wired horizontal pan camera and floodlight are set up where you need them, and no matter their initial setup location, you can manually redirect the camera. And, the Lorex camera has the ability to track an intruder while it continues to record and focus. Storage is onboard with a (NOT provided) microSD card you can acquire. Details below. SETUP: If you already have an account, you simply add this camera in the App. The Lorex app first directs you to sign up, and then to plug your camera in so it can be added to your network. It uses your phone camera to scan a QR code located at the rear of the Lorex camera. From there, linking it to your Wi-Fi network takes less than a minute. You are now able to select your camera, view images live, and modify every setting. and create a schedule of camera behaviors. It’s here that I wish Lorex would provide an overall SETTINGS guide to advise the end user where SETTINGS are located, how these settings work and maybe suggest a typical schedule. That said, once a user is in the SETTINGS menus, a brief description does a decent job of explaining what you are able to do. (See photos for the various settings.) I’m not sure why Lorex advertises “No Wiring” because the Wi-Fi is certainly wire-free, but you do need a nearby outlet for power. PERFORMANCE: Images are sharp, clear, and brightly lit in daylight. The images are very natural in color, brightness, and contrast. There is no way I could find to manage any of those parameters, but I’m not complaining. Too many security cameras make no effort to get the image right and leave that to the end user, who never does achieve a good image. These are picture-perfect, wide-view (120 degrees) when your camera (or tablet) remains in the vertical orientation. If you rotate your camera or tablet to maximize size, the image becomes horizontally distorted. The large feature list includes the wonderful and easy-to-use PAN (160-degree PAN), the fully variable intensity LED Flood Light (up to 1500 lumens). I actually set it at 5%! I don’t want angry neighbors when the light is triggered. The PAN feature is fully automatic, but I can override it. I can set color night vision if there is adequate light. Intruder detection utilizes AI to distinguish people, pets, and vehicles from background noise. This was reasonably effective. I can modify my alert selection based on these settings. There is also real-time communication using the microphone and speaker. There is only modest lag. Custom responses allow for immediate interactions with delivery people or unwelcome visitors. Video clips are easy to view with sufficient detail and contrast. They are also easy to manage. The entire process of setting up, using, and modifying features is generally intuitive, but a real user guide should be provided. There’s a lot here, even if it is fairly easy to sort out. Recordings can be set using a very easy scheduler feature in the app. You cannot enable recording unless you have a microSD card (NOT provided) to store video clips. SUMMARY: The Lorex - 2K Floodlight Wi-Fi Security Camera (with App-Controlled Horizontal Pan) is actually fun to use and has become an immediately useful security and monitoring tool. Lorex has this PAN, Zoom, and camera action nicely implemented. The app is convenient and reliable. I’m quickly connected and can interact with the camera and a visitor when needed. I do like recording to the camera directly and avoiding a subscription. Others will want to consider if subscription-based cloud storage makes more sense for them. This combination of flexible camera placement, onboard recordings, and convenient app is all well done. Recommended.

Unboxing the Lorex 2K camera, 2 way audio, Color night vision, warning siren, IR night vision - the unit is well made, it doesn’t feel like cheap plastic for an outdoor camera. Pretty easy to install. The camera comes with everything you need to install, even comes with a tiny Philips screwdriver. Setting up the app to control the pan and view images was also easy and straightforward. I like that a lot of company’s are similar so set up is pretty easy now when purchasing from different companies. Register, connecting to WiFi was a little finicky because it was further out from the router so I had to move my WiFi extender to provide a stronger signal. Once it was set up and running you have to configure the motion and light settings. The camera has an optional 32GB microSDHC card slot if you don’t want to subscribe to a plan but want to save everything (microSD card not included). A Cloud storage option will be available in the Lorex Connect app soon which will allow users to back up recordings, access footage and have AI powered features. I must say that I am impressed with the resolution of this 2K camera as well as the pan feature. It does not tilt up or down just side to side which is controlled through the app. So make sure you adjust the height when attaching. The pan feature was pretty smooth, no jittering which was pretty impressive and very useful for an outdoor security camera. The LED lights were very bright to light up the path when coming home or outside with the dogs. The night vision is clear for camera at this price point (unfortunately I upgraded phone and lost some photos). Overall, this is a great camera at this price point for resolution, ease of use in the app and the Lorex connect app. I highly recommend if you want the pan feature and bright LED lights.

Sure, on paper it has some great specs and features. But, in use, this thing is either over recording or under recording. There seems to be no middle ground. I have used Lorex cameras a lot over the years. Mostly wired NVR/DVR devices and the one wireless device I used of theirs before, I also did not rate well. I was hoping that since it has been a couple years since that mess that they have made better. Well, like I mentioned, on paper, the item is nice. A 2K camera with a bright LED flood light, panning capability even with auto tracking, micro-SD card slot for local recording, two-way audio with a siren and pre-recorded replies that fit many situations. But, what good is all that if it either records every leaf blowing in the yard or misses every single actual event you expect it to capture. I installed this above my garage, which luckily I have an outdoor plug just to the side. It is a one car garage and the cord is just barely long enough to reach the middle of that to the plug literally right beside the door. I would figure that a security camera system would provide a cord long enough to go inside so it is secured, or even a screw mount option to secure it to the plug. Mounting the camera is fairly easy as they have always provided a little sticker so you can pre-drill holes in the proper location. The plastic mounting bracket also has a notch if you want to drill a hole through your space to run the cord through your wall inside. With 3 screws and a twist on the neck, you are pretty much installed. However, if you do intend to use a micro-SD card, install that first, as the tiny screws for the cover are very easy to lose. The rest of the install is with the app and it is simple as scanning the QR code and connecting it to WiFi. However, finding the right settings for you is where it starts getting frustrating. There are three detection modes, motion, sound and person. Each one has their own sensitivity settings, schedule and zone. However, sound detection will trigger on practically every breeze that blows by, so not a good idea to keep that one on. I tried just person detection, but it only seems to recognize a person when you are fully in camera, so missing anything that happened as you come into screen. So, you need motion detection if you want to catch other things. But, then as I mentioned, it either catches every single thing while on high, like lighting changing due to clouds, a leaf blowing by or a light change from the house lighting or nearly nothing at all when it is on medium or low. On low, I was literally jumping in front of the camera and nothing. Then you have light settings. Which of course, that is the whole point of this type of setup. It too has activation settings, but, if you adjust it here, it will then also change your detection settings for the camera. Instead of low/medium/high, it is now an image of a person standing or running. So, put it on running and the light will trigger on everything that the motion was triggering on. Like the camera settings, you also have a schedule you can set for light activation, but good luck on trying to make it stay on the time you want. Apparently there is no “all day” option and you would think that 12:00 am to 11:59 pm would make a full day, but for some reason it reverts to 12 pm every single time I go back to it. It seems to handle smaller intervals, but will not take a full 24 hours or so. There is a separate schedule option for each thing, including notifications. Which again, does the same thing when you try to set for all day. As mentioned above though, the worst thing is that it is so inconsistent with recording and notifying of events. I get a clip of motion as I am getting out of my truck, not the fact that I drove into the driveway. But, that was just 18 seconds, not the fact that I got out, and walked around my truck. Another time, it only notified me that it detected a person after I was walking out of my vehicle and only for a few seconds, not seeing anything I did after walking away. But, I set it to high detection and now the light is constantly coming on/off, recording 5 minute segments of leaves blowing around. I set the tracking on and can see it is tracking me as I walk around, but check for any playback footage and there is nothing. Even while working with tech support on trying to get consistent recording and notifications, this camera and the new app were frustrating me. Now I have three different Lorex apps for the various systems that I have obtained over the years and this one, though looks simple, has been the most frustrating as it seems the various settings that look like they are separate, are linked to each other in some way or another. Overall, the specs you see on the product are nice. However, in everyday practical use, this will either drive you crazy with false notifications and recordings, or not record the very thing you were hoping to have a security camera for.

This camera was incredibly easy to set up, and I've been thoroughly impressed with the overall image quality, especially during nighttime hours. The app is also very user-friendly, allowing for easy adjustments and monitoring of the feed from anywhere.