Fredi WiFi Camera REVIEW Pocket sized recorder.
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With all of the media buzz concerning personal rights and body cams, dash cams, etc. I was incredibly interested in the Fredi P2P WiFi camera. I do not expect there to be a need for the device, but my children and I are regularly active with baseball, cub scouts, and camping. Sometimes it is incredibly helpful to be able to capture video/memories with a hands-free system. I have tested sunglasses with an HD camera embedded into them. I have tested numerous home webcams, dash cams etc. Having never tested a wearable body cam, the P2P Wifi camera had some big shoes to fill.
The Fredi P2P WiFi camera arrived in a small white box that embodies a very prominent 1970’s feel. Opening the lid of the box, the camera is nestled securely in white foam. Upon removing the lid, I caution you to not throw it away. If you are not careful, you will accidentally throw away the instructions, which are nestled inside of the lid. The camera is very attractive and will fit in the palm of your hand, measuring 1 13/16″ tall by 7/8″ wide by 3/4″ thick and weighs 5 oz without and 8 oz with the clip. Along the front, you will notice a small camera, and a sticker labeled “night vision P2P WIFI Mini DV. The right side has a port for a micro-SD card (up to 32 GB supported, none included). The left side has a mode button and on/off switch. The back has a sticker with the Cam ID/USER and login Password/access code. The base has a USB-Mini (yes, USB-Mini and not USB-Micro) connection point and the top has a hole for the included lanyard.
The Included accessories are rather promising. You will find a 14-panel instruction manual, that unfortunately suffers from poor translation. Additionally, you will find a 32″ USB-A to USB-Mini connector, a MicroSD to USB2.0 adaptor, a swivel camera clip, a neck lanyard with a quick detach clip and a wall anchor that you can dock the camera clip into. The wall anchor has a swivel that is very secure and a ribbed attachment point for the camera lapel clip. Unfortunately, the lapel clip was incredibly loose upon evaluation. If you look closely, you will notice that there is a single Phillips screw in the middle of the clip. Once this was tightened, this did help to secure the belt/lapel clip very well.
One of the first steps, recommended by the instructions, was to charge the camera for 2 hours, prior to its initial use. You will notice an illuminated blue LED, on the back top of the camera, which signifies the charging status. You can use the charging time to peruse the instruction manual. The camera is designed to use P2P technology (allows users to use it without any settings). The manual further details the network settings of the camera. It will utilize a 2.4GHz WiFi, the video format is AVI, coding M-JPEG and the resolution is 640×480 VGA with 10fps. The camera will support up to a 32 GB microSD. The camera has loop video function, which will overwrite old data first. It will segment video as well, into 30-minute clips, to enhance transfer speeds. You can name video and multiple phones can connect to the camera at once. I also like that the camera will try to use a local Wifi before using its own WiFi. If you are out in the middle of nowhere, you should be able to connect directly to the device WiFi and see the images directly.
The setup details are not easily utilized. Start with downloading the app. You can use the included QR code, within the manual, or you can navigate to the IOS App store or the Google Play store and download p2pCamViewer. Turn the camera on by sliding the On/off toggle to the on position. Wait 20–30 seconds and then navigate to settings, WiFi, and select Q7 and tried to connect. It required a password. I attempted to enter the listed 12345678 password and received an “Unable to join the network Q7.” I tried multiple passwords and none of them worked. I had to turn the camera on and off about 3 times and finally, the 12345678 password worked. I then navigated to the app and selected the local cameras. MD220361 will appear in the list. The steps are listed in written form and in pictorial form, which is more useful. The camera connected and got incredibly hot to touch. After about 15 minutes of trying to connect and trying to set up wireless viewing, the camera powered off. It never powered on again. Although disappointing, I did reach out to the company, who sent me another device.
Everything listed above was duplicated a second time. I charged the device for 2 hours and again tried the above connection. Slide the switch to the on and you will notice a red (flashing) and blue LED. Again navigate to settings, WiFi, and select Q7. This actually showed up pretty quickly. The reds are a little off, appearing pink in the picture. The whites appear to be bright. The camera shot at about 20–107Kbps. The instructions discuss LAN connection as well, which I did not test. You can also evaluate real-time video over the internet using PC. Again, I did not utilize these features as I wanted a portable smartphone device. To activate night vision mode, you can press the circle/steering wheel icon along the bottom left of the screen. If you press the camera icon on the bottom right, it will snap still photos and store them to the microSD card. Press the video camera icon on the bottom right and record what the camera sees. To end the recording, press the camera icon again. From the main page, you can select my cameras, local cameras, files, alarms, and more along the bottom. From local cameras, select the cog icon to access settings. Format the SD card, CHANGE THE PASSWORD, etc from this location.
Overall, the camera proved to be a little sluggish, especially at home where I had 2 different WiFi networks. Out in my driveway, the camera was much brisker. The device clips nicely to the lapel, and then again to the wall clip. I was dismayed when the original device did not function. However, I was really pleased with the information provided by the company. They provided quick information, quick return and did provide a backup device. Some will find the 640×480 resolution to be unacceptable. However, it is actually quite reasonable on a small device screen. I would not use this to take HD home movies, but then again we have been capturing home movies for a generation in standard definition. I used the device for a good 40 minutes on a single charge. With about 1 week of use, I would say that this is an interesting device. The quality of an image is beneath that of modern generation smartphones. It has motion detection opportunities and you can set this to alarm as well. I liked that you can set the record to SD card feature.
Summary:
I have tested a variety of cameras and found this to be mediocre. Everything about the camera depends on the app. I did not test the connection with my PC as I wanted to test this as a smartphone option. The cost is actually amazing for what the device promises. I, like many others, did get a defective device. I was very pleased with the customer service and when the camera worked, felt it did okay. I wish that there was a 3.5 star because 3 is not fair and 4 is perhaps overgenerous.
BUY FROM AMAZON
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Originally published at macsources.com on April 25, 2017.
