Imilab EC4 Wireless Outdoor Camera Review

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The App

The Home window will display the Imilab EC4, the hub and, at the top, there’s the live view. Let’s start with the Imilab Smart Hub. The Hub Settings include the option to check out the status of the Memory Card, to see what the LED lights mean, the option to change the name and check the update, and lastly, there are the Wi-Fi settings. So there is an option to connect to the router wirelessly, but only using the 2.4GHz band (unsurprisingly). To check if everything was working properly, I immediately added the necessary info in the app and disconnected the hub from the router (the cable). It needed a restart, but afterwards, the hub was indeed still connected to the router which is good news – still, to avoid any issues due to poor connectivity, I suggest you put the hub next to the router and use an Ethernet cable.

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That’s about all there is to the hub, so let’s check out the camera options. The dedicated window is very similar to the Reolink app, so I was able to see the live view portion at the top and underneath them, there are several quick action icons. First, there’s the image quality and I was a bit surprised by the 2.5K that was written there.
This is apparently the maximum quality available and it means that it goes above the 2K, but not quite that much – the resolution is 2560x1440p, so it’s just the 1440p, considering that 2K can also refer to 2048x1080p. In any case, the Imilab EC4 supports the same resolution as the Argus 3 Pro and the Arlo Pro 4.

Next, there’s the option to hear the sound or mute it, followed by the option to capture a video or record a video. The last two icons will allow you to enable the spotlight and to see the live view full screen. If you click on the cogwheel from the top right side, it will open the Settings. The first set of options can be found under the Camera Settings and they relate to the battery, as well as to the image quality (such as the Lens distortion correction, the WDR Mode or the Night Vision settings – can be colored or black and white). The Home Monitoring allows you to create a Schedule for when the camera will be active, to set the Detection Mode (immediately or after a certain period of time), for how long the camera will record (as well as the amount of time needed before the next trigger) and the Detection Sensitivity. The closer the area of interest is, the lower the Sensitivity needs to be.

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I also saw that there was the possibility to create up to four areas of interest and this is a very good way to remove false alarms. For example, you can ignore a tree branch or a piece of cloth from needlessly triggering the alarm. I also saw that there is the possibility to choose how strong the brightness of the spotlight can be when the alarm is enabled and if it will be continuous, if it will blink or pulsate. Next, there’s the section where you can check the videos captured on the SD card and it was a bit strange that I couldn’t see them in the Events window – it seems to be dedicated solely to the Cloud storage. The app will provide a Signal test utility to let you know if you went too far from the hub and you also get the option to update the firmware.

I was unable to find anything in regards to the smart motion detection and then I realized that even if the process happens inside the camera, the AI features can be used only after one of the Cloud packages are enabled. It will also include encrypted uploads. I understand that Imilab needed to make sure people will make use of the Cloud storage (the other features would come as a bonus), but I was a bit taken aback considering that some of these features were a part of the default experience on the Argus line.

imilab-ec4-settings

At the same time, Netgear has followed the same path as Imilab, locking some of its features behind a subscription, so it seems that Reolink is the oddball in this case (not that I’m complaining).

The Image Quality and the Performance

The Imilab EC4 uses a 4-megapixel lens with an F1.6 aperture which should perform well during the day and, after installing the camera outdoors, the footage does look good. The EC4 was positioned about 25 feet away from the hub which was connected to the router via an Ethernet cable, so I was able to push the maximum 1440p resolution. The video was saved on an iPhone and, as you can see, during the day, there is a very good amount of detail – the car is at about 170 feet from the camera. The colors have a bit more contrast, just like the Reolink Argus 3 Pro and it’s a nice effect since it make the footage look better.

Then again, most outdoor cameras offer an excellent video performance during the day, so let’s check the night vision. I set the brightness of the spotlight to low and the footage looked better than expected. Indeed, there is colored night vision which relies on a spotlight (or other lights that are powerful enough) and there isn’t much change in the detail amount or noise quantity than what I saw during the day. I do admit that the shadows are a bit dark, but if that can be an issue, just rise the brightness level of the spotlight or switch to the black and white night vision.

I did take a couple of photos in an area where the shadows could provide some cover to a potential intruder and, as you can see, the colored video looks good, but the black and white footage will eliminate those darker spots. Sure, the footage will not look that good, but then again, this is a security camera, not a device built for vlogging. I saw that the lens distortion is definitely noticeable, but doesn’t really have an impact on the overall quality of the image (it’s actually more subtle than on other wide-angled cameras).

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Night Vision – Spotlight enabled (100%).
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Night Vision – Black and White.

I also noticed that despite the distance between the camera and the hub, the Imilab EC4 is one of the best performing outdoor cameras in terms of lag. I could see the cars passing by almost in real-time from the app and that’s something very difficult to achieve. I assume that it has to do with the connection with the hub, but in any case, kudos to Imilab. Since battery-powered cameras are not suitable for continuous video recording (they would last a few hours), these devices are designed to rely on motion sensors to both send a timely notification to your smartphone and to start recording. This means that a good algorithm and a good sensor are of paramount importance.

And I noticed that during the day, the notification would arrive to my phone (and smartwatch) in less than ten seconds, sometimes in about 2-3 seconds with the Sensitivity set to 3 and I was walking about 15 feet away in the front of the camera. The sensor would also easily activate even if I was at about 25-30 feet in front of the camera. Things do change quite a bit during the night and not for the better. I noticed that the spotlight would turn on about 2-3 seconds after I was in front of the camera (sometimes up to 5 seconds, if I was farther than 20 feet and near the corner of the view), but the notification would arrive way later, like up to 40 seconds later. And that’s not good. I checked with both black and white and colored night vision, but it was still late to arrive.

imilab-ec4-outdoor-camera-front

I assume it’s a software thing which probably will be fixed in the future, but be aware that this is how currently the Imilab EC4 performs during the night. About the battery life, I have been playing around with the camera for a few days and after recording a few videos, constantly checking the live view feed and so on, I saw that the battery went from 92% down to 89% in about 12 hours.
I doubt that most people will use the camera in this manner (at least after the novelty has worn off), so at least a couple of months before needing recharging is realistic if you live in a lively neighborhood. Lastly, I have enabled the three-month trial period, but I was still unable to find any way to configure the AI motion detection behavior, so I assume it’s done automatically – I would have liked to see some sign that it was working though, such as an icon on the screen or something like that.

The Conclusion

The Imilab EC4 is an excellent outdoor camera, but it’s also a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the video quality is good during the day, as well as during the night, the built quality is excellent and I liked the almost latency-free streaming. The speaker and microphone were also a very nice addition. But the software still needs a bit of work. I have to admit that there is a very healthy amount of features, but the installation process can be a bit annoying if you don’t do things right (don’t use a VPN and use the correct type of email, neither being disclosed beforehand). The notifications that arrive late during the night are also a problematic aspect that needs to be improved. Since this is mostly software-wise, I think it can be solved very soon and I do look forward to it (I’ll update the article when it does).

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Imilab EC4

-
7.7

DESIGN

7.8/10

EASE OF USE

7.0/10

FEATURES

8.4/10

AFFORDABILITY

6.5/10

IMAGE QUALITY

8.8/10

Pros

  • Very good image quality, even during the night
  • The app has lots of options
  • Spotlight
  • Speaker and microphone
  • There is almost no lag between the live view and the action that's recorded

Cons

  • MicroUSB port
  • The app configuration can be a bit annoying at times
  • Official support for only 64GB of storage (apparently it can go up to 256GB)
  • A bit expensive
  • The notifications arrive late during the night

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