Vimtag Wireless Security Camera Review

This is a review of the Vimtag Wireless Security camera which is also known as an IP Camera.  This device helps you monitor your home inside or out and is used for things like monitoring your kids, watching your pets while you are gone, or simply for home security.  I imagine my favorite use of this device would be to capture what my dogs do when I am gone and the mischief they get into.

The camera is very easy to install and includes a mounting kit so you can mount it on any wall or ceiling in your home.  Due to it having to be plugged in and the limited AC outlet, you may want to consider mounting relatively close to an outlet or where an extension cord can reach easily.  Before you mount it on a wall, you need to set it up via Ethernet first, and then make it connect to your Wi-Fi network so that it can deliver video to your computer and the Internet.

After I had the device configured which you do through their website http://vimtag.com/ you create an account but note one thing, make sure you remember the account name/password.  It is not email based, and there is no forgotten password, if you forget your password you have to create a new account and register your device to a new account.

The mounting bracket is easy to install on the wall, and you can simply screw the Vimtag IP Security Camera on and off.

When installed and setup you can watch and control the camera from just about any device you have including PC web browser, PC camera application, iOS or Android app…etc.

By default the camera will Auto adjust the resolution to be what it thinks is best, it shows the bandwidth in top right, I had no trouble getting 720p resolution which looks sharp.

The lens is very good and clear, much clearer than most web cams for example and still screenshots are crisp and look clear.  The camera has quite a few options including the ability to tune the brightness, contrast, sharpness and has night vision mode which makes the camera go greyscale and illuminate objects for clear viewing at night.

Night vision mode:

You have the ability to display the date/time stamp in top right of camera at all times which really helps you when looking at your previous recordings.

 

You even have motion and sound detection which can cause the camera to record when it detects motion and/or sound.  The microphone on the camera is very sensitive and can hear the neighbors dog barking no problem (which triggers it to start recording).




You can adjust the sensitivity if you find that it records too frequently and with too little movement or sound.

For checking on your home, live recording is easy to see and even control your camera from your iPhone, Android phone or PC.  The app is easy to install, just search for and install Vimtag and setup an account if you haven’t yet.  When you create an account you create a username, password and register your wireless camera to it with the Serial Number on the bottom of the Vimtag camera.  As mentioned you don’t even need an email or email address to register and use the camera system or apps, it strictly allows you to create a username without any email.  This means you won’t have access to forgotten password if you forget your password as there is no email to notify and try to change password, make sure you know your username/password or you will have to basically create a new username/password if you forget it.

Though the website says to go to Vimtag.com and this works for the browser, controls I found you can’t play back recordings with the web browser version, so the company told me to go to http://mipcm.com/ and download the PC Client.  The PC Client app does video playback just fine and without issue.

The playback feature has some limitations at this time, and currently if you want to fast forward/rewind you need to put the SD card in a computer and play it there but the vendor is working on this upgrade and it should be available in the near future. Also note that on Android phones you have the option to download all videos/snapshots by clicking on the arrow at the right top corner but on the iOS devices and computers it’s still only available on the snapshots.  It will soon be available also on the videos and then you could play them with your players on your phone or computers.

So the Vimtag Wireless IP Security Camera has a really nice lens and is a fantastic live camera, as a PVR or video recorder it is a little lacking. First it only records to an SD Card and the camera has to reboot everytime you add or remove the SD card.  This means that should you use it as a porch or outdoor camera, the SD Card can simply be stolen and all recorded footage is lost, this isn’t as valuable as a camera that can record and store videos in the cloud, which is a service they will hopefully provide in the near future. Secondly for playback without the ability to do time-lapse, fast forward or any sort of speed controls in any native player you simply can’t watch 24 hours of footage and take 24 hours, so they rely on you to offload the vid and use another video player to review your video footage really.

For live security camera footage it is fantastic and the microphone and speaker are excellent, we went on a cruise over Xmas and used the camera to check in on our house the whole time.  We could turn on the mic and hear all noises clearly, you can even use your phone and speak through the IP Security Camera being able to converse with people on the other side.  With notifications setup, you can simply get a popup notice on your phone if it detects movement, like if the UPS guy drives buy, then you can login and speak to him through the camera if you can do it fast enough for example.

A solid product and honestly software and a cloud DVR service would make it a virtual 5 star product, in the meantime it gets 4 stars due to some limitations.  It also can only pan/tilt up and down, or rotate, but it can’t pan side to side which would have been an awesome feature.