Autumn is just around the corner. As the days grow shorter and the nights longer, the annual fear of burglary rises again for many a homeowner. To contain the risks of unwanted visits from burglars, effective security equipment is essential. Until a few years ago, you had to spend half a fortune on this. Now, however, any homeowner can provide security at reasonable prices. This is due to the growing importance of smart home. One well-known manufacturer of inexpensive security gadgets is Ezviz. In today’s Ezviz LC3 review, we want to take a look at a respectable surveillance camera with integrated lighting. In addition to the pleasingly bright lamp with dimming function, the manufacturer aims to offer a high-resolution 2K camera and cool AI features like person detection here.
Surveillance camera becomes basic equipment
It’s amazing what the smart home trend has done to the security industry. With pretty much every household having a WiFi network these days, installing smart security technology is straightforward. The significantly lower costs can be explained by this very ease of installation. While cumbersome wiring used to lead to high costs, nowadays almost everything can be done wirelessly. This also applies to the installation of the Ezviz LC3. This combination of lamp and security camera simply connects to the house wall like an outdoor lamp. The manufacturer is not the first to use integrated lighting. The aim of the whole thing is not only to enable sharp recordings at night. On top of that, the lighting should even be able to record color videos in the middle of the night.
Unlike many comparable models such as the Ring Floodlight Cam (174.99 euros on Amazon), the LC3 does not have an external lamp. Due to the integration, it rather looks like a conventional lamp in the dark. Only when you take a closer look does it become clear that it is a surveillance camera at its core. Despite modern technology like a 2K camera and an integrated memory (32 GB), you don’t have to worry about any damage. After all, thanks to IP65 certification, the LC3 is protected not only from damaging dust ingress, but also from water. All this is available at a price of just under 130 Euros. But can the manufacturer keep its promises? We’ll clarify that in the following.
Technical data
| Dimensions | 25.4 x 5.08 x 6.86 cm |
| Weight | 1 kg |
| Material | Plastic and metal |
| Installation method | Wall mounting |
| Weather resistance | IP65 certification |
| Camera | – Person detection. – 2K resolution – Night shooting (also possible in color) |
| Video memory | – local (32 GB internal memory). – Ezviz Cloud (paid subscription) |
| voice assistants | Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant |
| Lighting | Up to 700 lumens |
| Viewing angle | 157° (diagonal) |
| Price | € 112.99 * |
Scope of delivery
The Ezviz LC3 comes in a rather large package. This can be attributed to the large dimensions of the surveillance camera. In addition to the camera itself, the scope of delivery only includes a quick-start guide and the screws and dowels needed for installation. Ezviz also includes a practical template for drilling the holes.
This may not be lush at first glance, but that’s all you really need. Why only actually? Strictly speaking, I would have liked to see a security screw that at least makes uninstallation by unauthorized persons more difficult. Here, for example, the counterpart from Ring thinks a bit further.
EZVIZ LC3 review: design and workmanship
Let me say a few words about the design. Personally, I find the look of the LC3 to be handsome. This is anything but typical for Ezviz. After all, the Chinese manufacturer’s products are usually characterized by a somewhat outdated design. The best example is probably the smart doorbell DB1C Doorbell (test). The LC3 can be divided into two sections. In the upper section is the lighting. Below that sits the camera unit as well as a small manufacturer logo. The uncluttered look of the 86 x 280 x 120 mm surveillance camera ensures that you can mount it on your house wall without a guilty conscience. The combination of white and black also makes it compatible with all conceivable wall colors. A weight of 1,038g suggests that there is a lot of technology under the hood.
To protect it adequately, an IP65 certification is used. This offers protection against water and dust. According to the manufacturer, the LC3 should thus be able to function without hesitation even in a humidity of tropical 95%. The possible outdoor temperatures are also promising. Between -30°C and 50°C should not be a problem for the camera. The connection for the power supply is on the back. How you have to proceed here will be explained in the next part – the installation. All in all, the LC3 scores with an attractive design and a high build quality. I also like the protection from external influences very much.
EZVIZ LC3 review: installation
You don’t need a lot of tools to install the Ezviz LC3. Besides a drill, a screwdriver is also needed. On top of that, you should organize a ladder or at least a step. After all, the manufacturer recommends a height between 1.80m and 2.20m. Before you rush off to your tool cellar, you need to find out for yourself whether you are up to the task. After all, working with power lines carries some risks.
If you have never connected a lamp before, the assistance of an experienced acquaintance or even an electrician may be advisable. The first thing to do is to remove the fuse from the power socket. Now you can work with the wires without fear of electric shock. To mount the camera with lighting on the wall, you must first disassemble it. Strictly speaking, you unscrew the wall mount and put it on the wall of the house.
Pay attention to how long your lamp cable is here. Ezviz relies on a rather small bracket here. This may mean that you have to shorten the existing cables, otherwise there is a risk of a gap between the house wall and the wall mount, which can destroy the weather resistance. The practical drilling template included in the scope of delivery will help you with the fastening. Now drill the holes and screw the bracket in place. If this sits on the wall, you hook the security camera again and fasten everything again with the screw loosened at the beginning.
EZVIZ LC3 test: setup and app use
Once the camera is hooked up to your power outlet, you have the physically demanding part behind you. Now you should grab your smartphone and install the Ezviz app. If you don’t have a user account yet, you have to set one up first. Then you can add the LC3 as a new device. The app guides you through the setup process with a practical step-by-step guide. Once you have added the camera to your home network, you can already control it via the app. Using the app is very easy. This is due to the fact that the application scores with a good overview and is thus self-explanatory to a certain extent. When you open the app, you first select the LC3. Now you get to the device screen. A live image of the camera is displayed here.
Furthermore, you can use many features here. For example, you can take a snapshot. It is also possible to set an alarm siren. Video recordings can also be started. An intercom function, where you use the camera’s speaker as an output medium, is also on board. You can get the maximum of 700 lumens out of the lamp with the help of the floodlight feature. I find it particularly practical that you don’t have to search for these features in the menu jungle. Instead, you can display them as shortcuts at the bottom of the screen. If you want to switch to fine-tuning, simply tap on the corresponding icon in the upper screen. The app control completely convinced me during the test. I really didn’t miss anything here.
EZVIZ LC3 Test: Camera
The heart of the Ezviz LC3 is, of course, the 2K camera. What this has on the box and what settings options it offers, you read in the following.
Setting options of the camera
A surveillance camera may provide you with an extra dose of security. It may be your right to monitor your property with a camera. But when using it, you should also consider the rights of third parties. In particular, you must pay attention to the privacy of your neighbors. Otherwise there is the threat of trouble. Fortunately, the Ezviz LC3 allows you to make many different settings for recording range and motion detection. In the recording area, you regulate “blind spots” for your camera, so to speak. The subsequent recordings then only consist of the image areas that you also allow. To prevent yourself from annoying permanent motion notifications, you should also regulate areas where they do not work. This is especially true for people who live along busy roads. Speaking of people.
The LC3 offers a practical person detection feature. In the test, this proved to be extremely reliable. While the “person alarm” went off in my case, my dog was ignored, so to speak. However, if you want to register every movement, you can of course switch off the corresponding filters. Thanks to an angle of view of 157 degrees (diagonal), the camera hardly misses anything. If you want, you can use a kind of alarm that automatically goes off when a person is detected. The volume and time of the alarm can be adjusted. This is especially useful at night. Alternatively, you can also record a kind of voice message yourself, which is played back. While I find this practical for a smart doorbell, it seems a bit useless here. But well. Having is better than needing, as we all know.
Image Quality
With the LC3, you get videos in a maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. The moving images look correspondingly good. Thanks to the FPS rate of 30 frames per second, they are also pleasingly smooth. However, it is worth reading the fine print here. After all, you only get a particularly smooth frame rate when the Wi-Fi reception is extremely strong. You should keep that in mind. The surveillance camera not only takes great pictures during the day, but also at night. I find it especially amazing that you can get color images even late at night.
At least that’s the case when the lighting is working at full power. Of course, that eats up a lot of electricity. And also your neighbors might be annoyed about the too bright lighting. But if you turn it down, the pictures are still solid. Although you only get a black and white image, I didn’t notice any major misrepresentations. By the way, the camera offers a 6x zoom. If you use it to its full potential, there’s unfortunately not much left of the once razor-sharp resolution.
EZVIZ LC3 test: Strong WLAN is a prerequisite
As already mentioned, you only get the great picture quality if you can also show a strong WLAN signal in your own front walls. For this reason, you should not choose the position of the LC3 too hastily. Make sure that the wireless router and the surveillance camera are not too far away from each other. Otherwise, you can expect the security gadget to perform its core function only satisfactorily. In my test, the distance between the camera and the router was only 5 meters. However, you also have to consider the thickness of the outer wall.
Nevertheless, I did not experience any real connection problems or major quality restrictions. In order to be able to check the stability anyway, I connected the security camera to my outdoor socket via power supply. It turned out that the stable Internet connection can quickly become unstable. And that’s when you increase the distance to the router. At a distance of about 10 meters, the camera already had big problems. From the maximum possible 30 images per second became here quickly only 15. Since the camera delivered only a comparable image as my Ring Video Doorbell Wired (64.99 euros on Amazon). The only remedy here is to reduce the resolution.
But who wants that?! Not only the picture quality suffered from the weakening internet connection. Occasionally I even had to put up with disconnections, which in my opinion is even more serious. After all, a security gadget like this should always be ready for use. If you want to benefit from the excellent image quality and value stable connections, you should definitely pay attention to the rather limited WiFi range of the LC3 when installing it. On the subject of WiFi, I have to address another small point of criticism. Namely, the Ezviz LC3 only transmits at 2.4 GHz.
This may be the most common wireless connection, but for a modern security gadget I would like to see at least 5 GHz support. Maybe that sounds like complaining on a high level, but the future-proofing of the gadget would certainly have benefited from it. In direct comparison to my home Ring Floodlight Cam (199.99 Euro on Amazon), I noticed partly significant differences in the stability of the data transmission. Despite a distance of almost 10 meters and only a satisfactory WiFi connection, the camera of the Amazon subsidiary passes its recordings on to the app without quality compromises. Perhaps Ezviz can remedy this drawback with a software update.
EZVIZ LC3 review: no free subscription
Ex works, the camera comes with 32 GB of internal memory. Unfortunately, the memory cannot be expanded via SD card. Therefore, you can hardly avoid the manufacturer’s alternative. You can also use the Ezviz cloud to save videos. The basic subscription, which covers one camera, costs a hefty 4.99 Euros per week. A month, on the other hand, costs 9.99 euros. The subscription costs also increase with more cameras. Here you have to reckon with 14.99 euros a month.
Termination
The Ezviz is one of the prettiest surveillance cameras I’ve ever had the pleasure of testing. This is mainly because it is not recognizable as such at first glance. Rather, the piece of technology is reminiscent of a classy outdoor light. And strictly speaking, it is one. After all, the excellently crafted security gadget scores with a light source of up to 700 lumens. The high brightness ensures that the camera is capable of taking color pictures even at night. During the day, the 2K camera scores with excellent video recordings that are crisp and recorded at up to 30 frames per second. You can watch the whole thing in the clear and self-explanatory app. This scores with many setting options and lets you, for example, define motion zones, adjust the person detection and regulate the alarm signal.
So the hardware has everything it takes to conjure up high-quality videos. However, this requires a sufficiently strong WLAN connection. And this is where the security gadget is a bit weak. There should only be a few meters between the router and the camera. The picture quality drops rapidly if the distance is too long. Sometimes the connection was even interrupted. Ezviz will have to improve this once again. Apart from that, the Ezviz LC3 is a real enrichment for every home. If you are looking for a suitable surveillance camera, you will get a lot of performance at a very fair price. Currently, the smart home gadget costs 129, 99 euros. A real battle price at which not even the cameras from Ring can keep up. However, you should also keep the quite expensive subscription models in mind.
Ezviz LC3
Design & Workmanship
Hardware
Usability
Value for money
88/100
The Ezviz LC3 scores with a good price-performance ratio. Hopefully, the manufacturer will improve the Wi-Fi reception.
