LOTUSA Spy Camera 2017 S-Ext Edition Review
How many times were your suspicions aroused when something from your house went missing? What about all the times you weren’t sure that your child was secure in its bed while you were unable to be there?
A handy spy camera would kill both birds with one stone, but the trouble with most cams available online is that they look too suspicious and can’t do the first part of their job adequately as a result. You’ll want to get a camera that’s both impossible to spot and great for recording, which this new and updated model by LOTUSA definitely is.
LOTUSA is a Hong Kong-based electronics company that has been producing spy cameras for years, and their newest iteration is also undoubtedly the best one. The problem of easy detection, that so many other models are faced with, has been eliminated by incorporating the camera inside of an iPhone charger.
Not only does it look like one, the LOTUSA Spy Camera 2017 S-Ext Edition actually is a working charger, making the camera useful as well as perfectly hidden. Connecting a standard USB cable to it will charge up your devices, and since the camera is plugged in all the time there’s no need to worry that it won’t be ready to spring into action.
The camera’s lens as well as an infrared motion sensor are hidden behind the charger’s cover and totally unnoticeable. You can toggle between loop mode, where the camera records continuously until you turn it off, and the more practical motion detection mode, which records 3-minute bursts of video and audio whenever its sensor is triggered.
The feed is captured to an SD card you insert into a slot in the charger. Once it is full or you want to review what has been recorded, you simply have to take it out and connect it to a device capable of video reproduction in the AVI format.
The recordings are done in full HD and the microphone does a fantastic job of picking up on every noise while it’s on, even though it is hidden towards the back. Neither video nor audio is choppy, so you’ll always get a clear sense of what you’re looking at. The somewhat outdated 4:3 aspect ratio isn’t exactly ideal because of its smaller viewing angle, so you’ll want to plug the camera into an outlet that faces the most important part of the room.
It’s a shame that LOTUSA didn’t include Wi-Fi or another kind of streaming service. You only get to see what’s happening after the fact, which might prove to be too late in some situations.
Other than that, probably the biggest shortcoming is that no SD card is included with it. Due to their wide availability, this is easy to fix, but it would have been nice to be able to use the camera straight out of its box.
Features of the LOTUSA Spy Camera 2017 S-Ext Edition
- Disguised as a fully functional iPhone charger
- Motion-activated or continuous recording
- Full HD video along with audio
- Support for SD cards up to 32 GB
Pros:
- Excellent recording quality for both video and audio
- True to size of a real charger and has all of its functionality
- Well-hidden camera components whose stealth is further helped by a charger’s usual placement
- Very responsive motion sensor
- Has an in-depth user manual that will get you up to speed in a few minutes
Cons:
- Has no means of viewing what is being recorded in real-time
- The camera’s default setting is loop mode. If you set it to motion-capture mode and a power outage occurs, you’ll need to reset it again manually
- Because of the 4:3 aspect ratio the camera records in, the viewing angle is a bit too small
Conclusion
If you don’t mind having to actually get home before you can review the camera’s findings, then there are practically no flaws to speak of. A device of this kind has to offer as many details about a recorded incident as possible, and the outstanding footage this one provides will be all the proof you need.
For a very reasonable price, you’re getting a camera that can be set up almost anywhere within the home, has all the features essential to capturing important events when they happen, and has a continuous power supply to draw on. The few limitations it does suffer from are negligible in comparison, making the LOTUSA Spy Camera 2017 S-Ext Edition an effective improvement for your safety and peace of mind.