Expert's Rating
Pros
- Solid security features
- No cloud subscription required
- Local storage (onboard or via an NVR)
Cons
- Very basic feature set
- Cloud storage has benefits, even if you have to pay for it
Our Verdict
Lorex’s indoor pan-and-tilt camera provides broad coverage and great event detection without requiring a cloud subscription. It’s a good choice if you have a tight budget and don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.
Best Prices Today: Lorex 2K Indoor Pan-Tilt Wi-Fi Camera
Pan-and-tilt cameras are a great way to get wide coverage of your home without having to resort to wide-angle lenses, which can cause image distortion and loss of detail. The Lorex 2K Indoor Pan-Tilt Wi-Fi Camera is a straightforward model that’s easy to use and is relatively affordable at $69.99. Its simplicity makes it a good option for first-time security camera users.
Though nothing will wow you about the camera, it has solid features that meet the essential requirements for a DIY home security camera. As indicated, it captures video in up to 2K (2560 × 1440 pixels) resolution via a 4MP image sensor. It has a 110-degree field of view that’s augmented by its ability to pan 360 degrees and tilt about 75 degrees. Sound and motion detection (including person detection), IR night vision, two-way talk, and a privacy mode round out the features. The camera supports Alexa and Google Home devices for voice control and video streaming, or you can pair it with Lorex’s own Home Security Center.
The camera provided an ample view of my living room from a stationary position, and its image quality was crisp and clear in standard and HD resolutions.
Most notably, all video is stored locally on the device—a cloud subscription isn’t even an option. The camera comes with a 16GB MicroSD Card preinstalled, and the camera supports card capacities up to 256GB. While this means you don’t have to factor in the additional expense of a cloud subscription, you might need to be concerned about video evidence if the camera or card is damaged or stolen. Or with the Lorex Fusion line of network video recorders (NVRs), you can store video recordings from multiple Lorex cameras on your network, separate from the cameras.
The camera can be set on a flat surface or mounted upside down on the ceiling, although given its dome-style industrial look, the latter seems more likely if you’re using it in a commercial setting than if in a residential one. In either case, the installation will need to be near an AC outlet to power the wired camera.
The camera can be placed on a flat surface or mounted to a ceiling.
The camera can be placed on a flat surface or mounted to a ceiling.
Lorex
The camera can be placed on a flat surface or mounted to a ceiling.
Lorex
Lorex
You’ll need to download the Lorex Home app and register an account to set up the camera. You’ll scan the QR code on the bottom of the device, then follow several prompts to provide access to your phone’s camera and microphone and to enter your Wi-Fi network’s login credentials. The camera is equipped with an ethernet port if you’d prefer to hardwire it to your router, but there’s no support for power-over-ethernet (PoE); you’ll need to supply your own ethernet cable.
The camera’s modest 110-degree field of view provided an ample view of my living room from a stationary position, and the image quality is crisp and clear in standard and high-definition resolutions. Night vision provides 32 feet of illumination and is activated automatically in low light when the feature is enabled. There is no spotlight onboard for color night vision.
You operate the camera’s pan-tilt feature with a joystick-style overlay in the app. It’s useful for scanning the environment, but the camera responds quickly and moves swiftly, which often caused me to overshoot a target I was trying to focus on. There’s also an automatic panning and tilting feature that locks onto moving objects and tracks them. The app says the feature is still in beta, but it worked very well in my tests, tightly matching my movements up to 15 feet from the camera.
Sound and motion detection both worked well in my testing, and person detection was accurate in distinguishing the two-legged members of my household from the four-legged ones. If you feel you’re getting too many or too few alerts, you can manage the camera’s detection by adjusting its motion sensitivity or enabling motion zones.
The Lorex Home app offers a couple of ways to view recorded clips. The most convenient is a timeline right below the live feed that displays them in reverse chronological order, each identified by detection type.
The Lorex Home app is intuitive to use and gives you easy command of the camera.
The Lorex Home app is intuitive to use and gives you easy command of the camera.
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
The Lorex Home app is intuitive to use and gives you easy command of the camera.
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
The other option is a dedicated events tab, accessible only from the home screen. It seems designed to display only the most recently recorded events, but as my colleague Christopher Null noted in his review of the Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Floodlight Security Cam, it’s not at all clear what qualifies as “recent.” In my testing, it only ever showed a single event, the last detected one, seemingly overwriting the previous most recent clip.
Other than that curiosity, the app is well-designed and easy to navigate. The camera’s live feed screen features a set of controls for operating the device, and options for customizing features such as detection, video quality, and notifications are found in the Settings menu.
Should you buy a Lorex 2K Indoor Pan-Tilt Wi-Fi Camera?
It’s not very aesthetically appealing, but the Lorex 2K Indoor Pan-Tilt is a solid camera that makes a great entry-level option for users curious about DIY home security.
Best Prices Today: Lorex 2K Indoor Pan-Tilt Wi-Fi Camera
Author: Michael Ansaldo, Freelance contributor
Michael Ansaldo is veteran consumer and small-business technology journalist. He contributes regularly to TechHive and PCWorld.