EZVIZ C8C review

The C8C is an outdoor CCTV camera that captures 1080p HD footage and features a pan and tilt function, strobe light, motion and person detection, and colour night vision. It’s easy to set up and use over Wi-Fi, robust, and interesting looking if not to everyone’s taste.

At £89/$99, the C8C is well priced for a high-end security camera, although cheaper products from the same manufacturer may better suit your needs (and your pocket).

Setup

The C8C is the sixth EZVIZ camera I have set up around my house, and one reason for that is the ease of setup. EZVIZ provides a transformer plug so you don’t need to mess around with junction boxes – just make sure there is a plug socket within reach of where you wish to place the camera. And although you can connect to the network via Ethernet, using a wizard within the EZVIZ app to set up via Wi-Fi is so simple I don’t know why you would. (See also: EZVIZ Outdoor Floodlight Cam review.)

A small thing, but I appreciate that EZVIZ includes a drill template, as well as rawl plugs and screws, with its cameras. Stick the template to the wall, drill the holes. It is hard to go wrong.

The C8C is pretty flexible, too – it has four screw holes on a right-angled bracket. Because it is light, I’d be comfortable attaching it by only two of the screws which means it could hang from the ceiling or attach to a wall. EZVIZ would likely recommend using all four.

Build quality and design

I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing, but the EZVIZ C8C definitely turns heads. Like an upturned alien craft, it’s a sphere with Wi-Fi antennae, all shiny white and black plastic. It’s not entirely discreet, but likely you want any potential burglars to see the hardware.

Opinion is split as to whether it is a good looker. I would describe it as striking rather than ugly, but this is not a unanimous opinion in my household.

In use

As with all the EZVIZ products I have tested, the C8C works exactly as advertised. That HD video quality is super sharp, the app is intuitive and well laid out, and the devices are robust and consistent.

A couple of features really stand out. We were used to EZVIZ cameras having excellent night vision, and the C8C is no exception. But we really liked the way it can be combined with AI-powered person detection, and a floodlight.

The detection consistently picks out only people, which is really useful if, like us, motion detection picks up a seemingly endless array of foxes and hedgehogs.

You can set the strobe light to illuminate any motion, or detected persons. And the area in which detection occurs is huge – the claimed 30m seems excessive, but it is hard to get within 20 metres when in sight.

The floodlight creates a warm, detailed colour picture even at the dead of night. And if you prefer sharp pictures in black and white (with no light) that is an option too.

The more vaunted pan and tilt feature is less successful, in my opinion. Using the app you can rotate the camera through 352 degrees horizontally, and 95 degrees vertically.

This indisputably gives you the ability to scroll around the area in front of your camera, but it is quite tricky to use in my experience. And I struggle to find a practical use: the 87-degree field of view is wide as it is, and I haven’t yet encountered a scenario in which I want to follow a person or object around in live view. Maybe it is just me.

There is no siren, which feels like a miss but is not something I have ever used. You can’t speak through a microphone either – the audio is strictly one way with the C8C.

My only other gripe with the EZVIZ C8C is the cost of cloud storage. EZVIZ’s cloud storage works extremely well, but at £49 a year it is not cheap. There is, of course, the option to slot in a 256GB MicroSD card which will be more than sufficient for anyone’s needs, so it is not much of a gripe at all.

Where to buy

You can find the EZVIZ C8C in most technology retailers. At the time of writing we found the best deals on Amazon, where the C8C can be found for £89/$99. Its UK SRP is £109 and several retailers including Currys PCWorld and Very sell it at this price.

It’s good value for what you get, which is a feature-rich, high-end HD camera. We’d avoid the cloud storage for reasons of cost, and simply invest in a 256GB SD card, which the C8C supports. The only question is whether you need this level of features and functionality: perhaps a cheaper model will suffice for your needs. (See also: EZVIZ ezWireLess Kit review.)

Conclusion

This is a really solid product. The C8C has a rich feature set and does what it does well. If you are looking for a high-end HD security camera that is easy to set up and use, and includes a light and person detection, it’s a good deal. But for those who don’t need all the bells and whistles I would still recommend the original EZVIZ Security Camera Outdoor WiFi CCTV camera which you can pick up for around £40/$40.

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