Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Wide rotation and tilt vary covers massive areas
- Sharp 3.5K decision with full-color and infrared evening imaginative and prescient
- On-device AI detection
Cons
- Bulky design could stand out an excessive amount of for some setups
- Requires a wired energy connection
- Only helps 2.4GHz Wi-Fi
Our Verdict
The Imilab EC6 Panorama delivers broad, high-quality protection with good options that punch above its worth. It’s a powerful alternative for anybody keen to commerce a compact design for fewer blind spots and fewer reliance on a number of cameras.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$169.99
Best Prices Today: Imilab EC6 Panorama
$113.99
Covering massive areas like entrance yards, driveways, or vast aspect yards usually means juggling a number of cameras and feeds–and apps, should you purchase from multiple producer. But as customers pile on extra units to cowl each angle, managing all that footage can get cumbersome and costly.
Imilab’s EC6 Panorama 3.5K Wi-Fi Spotlight Camera goals to unravel that by providing a broad, close to wraparound protection from a single vantage level. It’s constructed to scale back blind spots—and perhaps the necessity for a second and even third digital camera.
The Imilab EC6 Panorama’s marquee characteristic is its vast protection, due to twin lenses that ship a mixed 180-degree subject of view.
Design and options
The EC6 Panorama is a dome-style digital camera with a clear white end, designed to be mounted on a porch, beneath an eave, or anyplace else that offers it a transparent view of a big space. It measures 7.91 inches deep, 7.56 inches excessive, and 5.04 inches vast, so it’s not precisely inconspicuous, however that may work in its favor as a visible deterrent. With an IP66 ranking, it’s sealed towards mud and may deal with heavy rain or high-pressure water jets, making it well-suited for outside use in uncovered areas. You can learn extra about IP codes on the previous hyperlink.
The digital camera’s marquee characteristic is its vast protection. It makes use of twin lenses with an ultra-wide-angle 180-degree subject of view to seize broad scenes. It can even rotate 344 levels and tilt 90 levels to comply with motion throughout practically a whole perimeter. You management the rotation and tilt by means of the Xiaomi Home app, which additionally gives 6x digital zoom if you need a more in-depth look.
The digital camera’s cumbersome design isn’t discreet, however the broad protection eliminates the necessity for multiple-camera setups.
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
It additionally makes use of AI to determine individuals and automobiles and to create digital fences, with all detection dealt with on the gadget itself—there’s no cloud processing or subscription required. You can filter alerts primarily based on what sort of exercise you need to be notified of, which helps minimize down on false alarms from issues like squirrels or passing headlights.
Video is recorded in 3.5K (3456 × 1944 pixels) decision. The digital camera gives full-color evening imaginative and prescient with the assistance of its onboard highlight, or you possibly can change to infrared mode for a extra discreet view in complete darkness. That highlight, together with a built-in siren, provides an additional layer of deterrence when movement is detected.
The EC6 connects over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, which gives higher vary however is likely to be extra liable to interference in congested community environments. If a wi-fi connection doesn’t give you the results you want, benefit from the RJ45 port on its energy twine to make a hardwired connection to your community. Two-way audio means that you can converse to guests—or warn off intruders—immediately from the app.
The digital camera works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, supplying you with the choice to manage it with voice instructions. Once paired, you possibly can pull up the reside feed on a appropriate good show or work together with the digital camera hands-free, which may be helpful when your cellphone isn’t inside attain.
A microSD card slot permits for native storage. It’s hidden behind a tamper-resistant tab.
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
Video may be saved regionally on a user-provided microSD card (capacities as much as 256GB are supported) or within the cloud. The latter requires a subscription: $4.49 monthly for 7 days of occasion video historical past or $6.49 monthly for 30 days.
Setup and efficiency
Getting the EC6 Panorama put in was simple. The digital camera contains all the things you might want to get it mounted and powered up. You’ll have to mount it close to an outlet, which limits your placement choices a bit, however as soon as it’s up, it feels stable and safe.
To begin the setup, you’ll press a small reset button hidden behind a protecting tab on the bottom of the digital camera. The microSD card slot is situated there too, and also you’ll have to take away a few tiny screws to get in there—not tough, however you’ll want a precision Phillips screwdriver to do it; I needed to borrow one from a pc restore package. Once that’s executed, the Xiaomi Home app walks you thru the Wi-Fi connection course of, which solely took a few minutes in testing.
The Xiaomi Home app makes it straightforward to get began. The foremost management display screen is clear and easy, with clearly labeled buttons for key features like two-way speak, highlight activation, snapshots, and recording. A easy directional pad enables you to management the digital camera’s pan and tilt, and swiping gestures may be enabled from the digital camera settings. Most options are straightforward to seek out, although a number of—like auto-tracking and sleep mode—are nonetheless tucked away in submenus. Overall, it’s a clean, user-friendly expertise that doesn’t require a lot of a studying curve.
The Xiaomi Home app has clearly labeled buttons for key features like two-way speak, highlight activation, snapshots, and recording plus a directional for controlling the digital camera’s pan and tilt. Other options may be custom-made from the settings menu.
Michael Ansaldo/Foundry
The EC6 Panorama delivers glorious video high quality. Footage is crisp through the day, and at evening the digital camera robotically switches to full-color mode when movement is detected, utilizing its highlight to light up the scene. This helps preserve energy whereas nonetheless supplying you with detailed nighttime footage when it issues.
AI movement monitoring works properly. The digital camera follows individuals and automobiles as they transfer by means of the body, and for probably the most half, it stays locked on. It’s not excellent—now and again it overcorrects or drifts off-target—nevertheless it’s quick sufficient to be helpful, particularly should you’re watching occasions in actual time.
This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best home security cameras.
Two-way audio labored properly. I had no bother listening to individuals on the opposite finish, and my voice got here by means of clearly once I examined it from the app. It’s greater than sufficient for giving supply directions or yelling at somebody to get off your garden. The highlight and siren additionally kick in with barely any delay—loud and brilliant sufficient to startle, if not outright scare somebody off.
We reviewed Imilab’s dual-2K-camera–the Imilab EC6 Dual–last October and had a equally favorable opinion.
Should you purchase the Imilab EC6 Panorama?
If you might want to monitor a big space and don’t need to sew collectively protection with a number of cameras, the Imilab EC6 Panorama is a stable wager.
With a avenue worth of $169.99, it delivers so much for the worth: broad protection, reliable efficiency, and good options that always include higher-end fashions. It’s price a search for anybody seeking to simplify their surveillance setup with out sacrificing protection.