OK, as usual, being a regular customer for MARIX, I bought a unit of their zafego PT100C back at special rate for review writing.
Unboxing
The camera comes in a color box as follows, comes internally protected with bubble wrap that prevents the camera from knocks during shipping.
EGGY
The camera is nickname as eggy at MARIX, due to the prominent egg shape design on the top. The base is a square shaped. There is no protruding antenna on the unit itself.
Technical aspect wise, this camera gives you pan angle of 355°, tilt of 110°. 54.16° viewing angle. 1.0 Megapixel 720P HD Resolution.
Setup is relatively easy n basic. Plug wire into router, key in device ID to APP plus password. You will be able to see them online, from there, configure the wifi and you will be able to have a wireless connection.
Video
The images from this camera is sharp in HD resolution. Definitely on par with all 720P cameras that I have seen.
Audio
Audio wise is very powerful as it can capture the moving sound of the motor when you pan/tilt while you can't hear the camera's motor if it is placed in front of you.
Comparing the audio of this camera vs the vstarcam models that I have tried, this one definitely beats both T & C Series hands down.
Feedback handling of this camera is much much better than vstarcam that I had reviewed.
Wireless
The wireless is hidden within the camera, I would expect the signal strength to be weaker than those that had their antennas behind the camera, but I was wrong. The PT100C have a strong antenna internally that could still detect router's wireless at a blindspot area which most of my vstarcam could have dropped every now and then.
Night Vision
Compared to VStarcam's 8~10 LED lamps in the front which could penetrate up to 10 metre, the PT100C can only provide luminated view at 5metres, which in a 5 room HDB flat, this is good enough to cover from one end to the other end. I remember previously seeing how strong the IR from vstarcam that could actual cause a circle of clarity on my office window 2 metres away during a cold wet day in my office. So, lesser powerful IR lens could mean something less worrying for me, especially when I want to put this camera near a baby ( Personal Physchology Effect, all IP Cameras IR LEDs should be safe to the human body).
Supported Platforms
Mobile APPs supporting iOS, iPad, Android phones and tablets. CMS software on Windows 10 platform. Easy to add camera and control the cameras.
Recording (MicroSD Card)
Each file is 30 minutes duration.
Playback (MicroSD Card)
Playback with AUDIO is possible on all mobile devices. This is one device that I would like to compliment, the clarity of the audio capture is really good, the file on the camera is small, hence, using a 8GB microsd card, I was able to capture 32 hours of records, which, with a 32GB MicroSD Card, I could achieve a total of 5.33 days. With a 128GB, i estimate around 512hours or 21.33 days. And all these with AUDIO in it
What I really loved about the APP is that you CAN pull the play bar along the timeline instead of doing an entire playback from beginning to look for a section of the file that you need.
This is an image they send me for me to write about the CMS review. The module is very easy to use, allows playback via the camera's microsd card from remote. comparing this to the super client from vstarcam or the eye4, this is FAR MORE stable. Eye4 crashes more often than useful and IP Camera Super Client uses too much memory which cause the entire computer to LAG. There is currently no software for MAC, but it will be ready soon.
Warranty
Standard 1 Year Carry-in Warranty with premium on-site warranty available for upgrading.
PROS
* Simple Setup
* Good Video Quality (SD is already very sharp, so I don't have to go HD when I am outside using 3G)
* Great Audio Quality (The audio recorded is clear to my expectation, far better than the audio recording I had on C series of vstarcam)
* Playback with Audio (You won't believe the clarity and the quality of the audio over mobile playback)
*
Continuous playback, I did not encounter any so called relay mode which is in the VStarcam cameras. Good for those parents who needs to continuous connect and see the camera without APP closing by itself
* Very stable Windows CMS Software
CONS
* No multi-screen in current APP, but MARIX is working on it to build a version 2 APP that will give us multi-view
* To view over 2 devices, you need separate email accounts, cannot use same email on 2 devices to view.
* IR is 5 metre range (with 2 array LED), so anything more than 5 metres, you probably can't see very clearly. But for a standard Living Room of HDB 5ROOM size, the Night Vision is clear enough for the whole living room.
Personal Verdict
Only thing I want to complain about is the lack of multi-screen, otherwise this camera would be near perfect. The feature of clear audio for an IP Camera is the main element which MARIX and her partners (Zafego & Chinese Factory) had focus on and done it pretty well, recording stability and audio function on microsd card is also well taken care of.
Importantly for this camera is Continuously viewing, NO RELAY MODE kinda of feature which auto closes your viewing and frustrate you.
As far as I understand, although this is an OEM camera design, there are some elements of the hardware (audio) which the factory had changed the parts specifically for MARIX, hence making this camera different from the OEMs we've seen on the usual market.
Good or not, try the demo yourself. For cheaper alternative (fixed wide angle lens), I am personally quite impressed by Xiaoyi camera's performance except for the recording which I am seeing some issue with 1 of my 3 cameras.
