Wyze Cam Pan v3 review

Wyze went back to the drawing board for the third-generation version of its Wyze Cam Pan, a 1080p home security camera that, as its name implies, pans and scans its surroundings, looking for any activity and recording what it finds. It boasts 360-degree horizontal rotation and 180-degree vertical panning to ensure it captures anything and everything going on around it. 

I set up the Wyze Cam Pan v3 inside my house for a few weeks, overlooking a heavily trafficked area in my basement as well as on my back porch, keeping tabs on my dogs and my daily commute to work. It’s done exactly what’s promised — all for $34. When it comes to the best home security cameras, it’s hard to beat that price. Read the full review to find out if the Wyze Cam Pan v3 is right for you. 

Wyze Cam Pan v3 review: Design

The first two generations of the Wyze Cam Pan looked like a tall, rectangular soda can. The base of the camera was circular to facilitate its spinning 360 degrees. 

The Wyze Cam Pan v3, however, looks like Wyze redesigned its standard Wyze Cam and put that on top of a white square, with an arm attaching the two parts. The benefit of the new design is that it still allows for 360-degree rotation but adds 180-degree tilt rotation. The end result is a camera that is capable of following an object nearly anywhere in its immediate surroundings. 

Included in the box is a 6-foot microUSB cable with a 90-degree connector on the end that plugs into the base of the housing, allowing for a smooth bottom. Also included in the base is a 1/4"-20 mounting screw that you can use with the included hardware and bracket to mount the camera under an overhang on the outside of your home, or on the ceiling inside your home.

On the backside of the base is where you’ll find several holes for the speaker that facilitates two-way communication between the mobile app and whoever’s near the camera.

When the face of the camera is pointing straight up, you’ll find the Setup button that’s only used during initial setup or to reset the camera, along with a microSD card slot for local storage.

The Wyze Cam Pan v3 is rated for indoor or outdoor use due to its IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. The included power adapter and cable aren’t rated for outdoor use, however. If that’s where you ultimately plan on using the camera you’ll want to get the $15 Wyze Outdoor Power Adapter v1 + L-shaped adapter.

Wyze Cam Pan v3 review: Price and availability

As is the case with the rest of Wyze’s product offerings, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 is super affordable. It’s currently available for $33.99 for one unit, or if you buy them in a bundle of two you get a couple of dollars off the total cost at $65.98 when you purchase them directly from Wyze. 

The camera is available on Amazon but costs $40. The same applies to its Walmart listing. 

In other words, if you’re not in a rush, buy it directly from Wyze to save some cash. 

Wyze Cam Pan v3 review: Video quality and features

The Wyze Cam Pan v3 can record video at up to 1080p quality, with the frames-per-second (FPS) varying based on the lighting condition. Video recorded during the day is captured at 20 FPS, with low-light or nighttime recording captured at 15 FPS. 

As previously mentioned, the base can rotate 360-degrees, while the camera itself can rotate 180-degrees vertically at a speed of 110-degrees per second.

To take advantage of all that range, you can use the Wyze mobile app to set up to four waypoints for the camera to automatically move to and monitor for movement every 10 seconds. That means it’s a 40-second round trip, which seems reasonable given the camera’s 120-degree field of view. Having the camera scan is an optional feature, called Pan Scan, you can turn it on or off with just a tap.

When the camera does notice some motion or movement, you can optionally have the camera track that motion and record it. I’ve noticed when walking by the camera myself or viewing old clips of my kids playing, the camera takes a second or two to identify motion and then moves to put whatever’s moving into the center of the frame. When it does start tracking a person or object, the camera moves at up to 110-degrees per second.

At times, it felt as if the camera moved too slow to keep up with movement, especially if you’re watching the camera as you walk past it. But when viewing the recorded clips, it does a great job of keeping the person in the shot at all times, even if it does get a little ahead of the camera’s movement.

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Clips recorded by the Wyze Cam Pan v3 look good when there’s no or minimal motion, either by a subject in the shot or the camera itself. The 1080p quality is good enough to see who or what is in the frame, with appropriate color saturation and exposure, including at night.

When motion is introduced into a clip, the video has some resulting pixelation around whatever’s moving. I saw it in clips I captured both inside and outside, so lightning and environment aren’t a factor. In fact, even the clip that Wyze currently uses on the Wyze Cam Pan v3’s webpage of a UPS truck backing down a driveway and taking out some trash cans exhibits exactly what I’m talking about. Look at the blurry patches that take over the entire shot, but most importantly the truck and driver as it starts to move. As the truck gets further away and slows down, the video gets clearer.

Ultimately, you’re still able to see what or who is in the clip and what’s happening, even if it’s not as clear as I’d like. Admittedly, this isn’t an issue that’s specific just to Wyze cameras. Home security cameras and their lower frame rate is the ultimate culprit.

Wyze Cam Pan v3 review: Video storage

When it comes to video storage, you have two options for the Wyze Cam Pan v3. You can use the microSD card storage to store up to 256GB of video or you can sign up for Wyze’s Cam Plus subscription service for $1.99 a month or $19.99 per year. That fee covers a single camera. You can subscribe to the unlimited camera option for $9.99 per month.

Starting June 20, the price for Cam Plus will increase to $2.99 per month for individual cameras. That will make the Cam Plus subscription the same as Ring and Blink; to see how Wyze’s plans compare, check out our story on which home security camera has the best cloud storage plan

The Cam Plus subscription gives you 14 days of event recordings, along with person, pet, package and vehicle detection, along with access to additional features like back-to-back recordings, access to your camera’s via the Wyze website and fast-forwarding. 

With a microSD card installed, you’re able to enable 24/7 recording with all clips stored located on the memory card. You can store up to 4 days of footage on a 32GB card. 

My approach to Wyze cameras, and I suspect what most people will do, is to use both a microSD card and Cam Plus. Doing that gives you 24/7 recording, along with person and object detection, and web access (among other features). 

Wyze Cam Pan v3 review: Smart home

Currently, the Wyze Cam Pan v3 works with Alexa and IFTTT, and should work with Google Assistant by the end of June, according to the company. With Alexa, you can view a live feed from the camera from a smart display, such as the Echo Show 15 or Echo Show 10. 

Wyze Cam Pan v3 review: Verdict

There isn’t a single side of my house that doesn’t have some form of a Ring security camera attached to it, and yet there are still blindspots in what and where the cameras are monitoring. I love the idea of a camera that moves and monitors a wider area, and then follows whatever’s in the frame. And the Wyze Cam Pan v3 does just that, and does it surprisingly well for a surprisingly low cost.