[REVIEW] The IMILAB EC5 may have been the manufacturer's best camera, but it has several shortcomings

We have already tested several indoor or outdoor cameras from the IMILAB brand in the editorial office. The last time was the IMILAB EC4 wireless camera, which has its own battery. This time we bring you a review of the latest model, IMILAB EC5.

It is an outdoor wireless camera, but it does not have a battery. It is connected to the electrical network by cable, but to connect to the Internet network you have the choice whether to use WiFi or RJ45 cable.

Where to buy IMILAB EC5?

The IMILAB EC5 camera was provided to us for review by the official IMILAB Aliexpress store called IMILAB Official Store. That camera offers from a Polish warehouse with express delivery within 7 days. You can find coupons for the camera in the article on XiaomiPlanet.sk.

Current coupons for IMILAB EC5

Technical specifications

Content and quality of packaging

We received the IMILAB EC5 outdoor camera from our partner before the official start of its sale. We still had the camera in an unofficial package, stored in an air envelope in its box. It was still wrapped in a nylon envelope, so the seller made sure it arrived without damage.

In addition to the camera itself, the package also contains screws and dowels for its attachment, including a drilling template, if you would like to pre-drill holes in the substrate.

Quality of processing and layout of elements

IMILAB EC5 is so far the best and also the largest camera from the Chinese brand. It is placed on a stand, which ensures the possibility of rotation in the horizontal direction by up to 350 °. It will also please by rotating vertically by 100 °, which its predecessor in the form of the IMILAB EC2 model lacked.

The camera is made of white plastic, as usual. However, it gives a relatively high-quality impression, so we have nothing to complain about in this regard. There is no lack of water resistance, so you can place the camera anywhere outdoors.

The dominant element is the lens, around which LED lighting has found its place, which we will discuss in more detail. On both sides of the camera frame there are antennas for receiving a WiFi signal, which can be rotated slightly.

At the bottom is a small cover that can be removed after unscrewing two small screws. Below it is a slot for a micro SD memory card, which can have a maximum capacity of 256 GB. There is a microphone near the cover and the speaker is located at the back.

Several mounting alternatives

We can mount the new IMILAB EC5 camera in several ways - from above, e.g. to the ceiling, standardly to a wall or other vertical surface or even by tying to a pillar.

For standard fastening with screws, the manufacturer also supplies a drilling paper template, according to which you can drill holes for screws or dowels. We placed the camera on a wooden pole of the garden pavilion, so we didn't need a template.

We simply screwed the camera stand, which is part of it, with wood screws. We only used two, but the camera stand has more holes, so if the grip seems tight enough, you can use more screws.

Return to Xiaomi Home

The IMILAB EC4 wireless battery camera, as well as the IMILAB C21 indoor camera, have worked with a new smartphone application, IMILAB Home. Unfortunately, we have had some negative experiences with this application, so we appreciate that the manufacturer is returning to the proven application Xiaomi Home (Mi Home).

Pairing with the application is standard, easy and fast. It consists of searching for the camera, connecting to its WiFi network and scanning the QR code from the camera. If you have trouble scanning the QR code, the alternative is to enter the numeric code that the camera dictates to you using its speaker.

2K resolution, rotation and other features

IMILAB EC5 has a 3 MP camera with a 2K resolution of 2304 x 1296 px and an angle of view of 110 °. As we mentioned in the introduction, the camera can rotate in the horizontal direction by 350 °, which actually covers the entire 360 ​​° field of view around the camera. A novelty is the vertical rotation of 110 °.

The camera can be connected wirelessly via WiFi (only 2.4 GHz) but also with a cable with RJ45 connector directly to the router or switch. However, we lacked a cover in the package for closing the LAN port, which is located on the cable leading from the camera.

Of course, there is night vision, space monitoring using a motion sensor, object tracking, alarm, or two-way sound transmission.

Application environment

On the camera's home screen, there is a live broadcast at the top, below which are the individual controls. The four-way controller for rotating the camera is especially dominant. An interesting element is the middle button between them with the symbol of the eye.

Here we can set 3 frequently used position settings, between which we can then quickly switch without having to change the position manually using the arrows. Saved locations are small thumbnails that take a while for places to update. Otherwise, this feature is reliable.

At the bottom of the application are buttons to go to recorded videos from space monitoring, continuous recording, call, album and shortcuts. The inconspicuous button in the corner with the light bulb symbol is used to switch on the lighting.

Video options

At the bottom of the live video preview, there are several buttons that are used to control certain functions, mostly related to the video. With a few exceptions - sleep mode and alarm triggering. Sleep turns off the image, but you can still wake up the camera quickly. When the alarm is turned on, the camera will flash for 10 seconds and will also sound a loud alert tone.

The image quality setting also has its place in this panel. We have a choice of automatic settings based on the quality of the Internet connection, SD resolution or full 2K resolution. Another option is to turn on the sound, so if we want to have live in addition to the picture and sound. By default, live video audio is turned off, but is always available in the recording.

The fifth symbol, represented by small scissors, is used to take a picture of the image, and the small camera represents a manual recording of a short video. The last option is to switch to full screen mode.

Video recording and storage

The IMILAB EC5 security camera can constantly record an image if it has a micro SD memory card. Its maximum capacity can be up to 256 GB and when full it should overwrite data from the oldest, which does not work. When the card is full, the application reports its absence as if there was no card in the camera. No recording available without memory card. The application did not even offer us the purchase of a cloud.

However, this does not mean that the camera is unusable without a memory card. It can still record short videos that are created during space monitoring if the camera detects movement. This is because they can be stored in cloud storage, which in this case is free and always records events from the last 7 days.

Image quality, night mode and lighting

At a maximum resolution of 2K, the video quality from the IMILAB EC5 camera is very good. We were able to get closer to the picture without any problems, because it offers a lot of details and nice colors. It is clearly one of the highest quality lenses in cameras from the IMILAB brand.

As we have already mentioned in the previous chapters, there are several LEDs in the front part around the lens of the camera lens. They really shine bright enough and will be pleased with the ability to adjust the brightness.

The LED lighting is also associated with an improved night mode, which in this case offers several options. A standard, black-and-white image that uses infrared illumination is a matter of course, but a color image is also available. The camera achieves this by turning on the LED lighting, which can be regulated in five stages.

An interesting option is the so-called smart night mode that combines a standard black and white image with color. The black and white image is preset, but if the camera detects movement in its field of view, it immediately turns on the light, which switches the image to color. If it is not a person, it switches back to the infrared backlight and turns off the LED light.

The video quality at night is not perfect, but it is at a fairly good level, especially when we talk about objects that are close to the camera. Distant people or objects can no longer be seen so clearly. When the light is on, the video from the recording sometimes cuts, which you can see in our example above.

Space monitoring and notification

An integral part of security cameras is monitoring the area and notifying the owner in case of movement. Because it is a smart camera, it can distinguish whether it is a moving object or a person. The settings offer to turn on person detection or any movement, or both at the same time.

We also have a choice of sensitivity (low and high) and a minimum interval in which you will receive notifications. There are 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes to choose from. Therefore, if the camera detects movement using a PIR sensor, it creates a push notification in the smartphone.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that space monitoring is not working very well. If we turned on notifications for each movement with a minimum interval of 5 minutes, we received a notification of movement almost every 5 minutes, even though no movement was seen in the recorded video. Even at low sensitivity, which should only capture large moving objects, the situation has not changed.

It was better only with object tracking off and person tracking on. In this case, we actually received notifications only if a person appeared in the field of view of the camera.

Notification videos and tracking of people

Notification videos are variable in length, but we can't set them. These were mostly short videos lasting 8 to 9 seconds. When setting up monitoring, there is no possibility of choosing the time period when the space is to be monitored with several presets or settings of specific times.

Since the camera can rotate, we will also find the possibility of tracking people in case they appear in the field of view of the camera. However, even this function does not work reliably. At first, we walked purposefully in front of the camera, which initially watched us, but we lost sight of the camera without any problems, even without fast movements.

In this case, the camera will return to its original position, but it is really very easy to lose sight of the camera, which is not good for monitoring premises. If a thief were to appear in the monitored area, the camera will escape very quickly and namiafter watching it, we set ourselves to the original position. In this way, the potential of the rotating camera is not fully utilized.

Two-way audio transmission

Thanks to the built-in microphone and speaker, the camera offers two-way audio transmission, which means that you can also use the camera to make a phone call with a person near the camera.

The sound from the camera is clear, clear and loud enough. It was worse with the sound in the app, which was often choppy and harder to understand. It's hard to tell if there's a problem with the app or the camera's microphone.

Settings and other options

The settings in the application offer a relatively wide range of customization options. Here you can turn off the signaling LED on the camera, turn on automatic video playback only if the smartphone is connected via Wifi or turn on the hot-spot function. This option is available only when a LAN cable is connected to the camera. It does not work as a WiFi extender.

The image settings include the option to display the date and time in the video, turn on the wide-angle lens correction, rotate the image or also the mode with a higher dynamitechnical scope. Like other smart devices, the camera can be shared with other users in the Mi Home application or used for automated scenes using other smart devices.

IMILAB EC5: Final evaluation

The new IP66-certified outdoor camera, IMILAB EC5, was supposed to be the best camera from a Chinese manufacturer. It offers 2K resolution, connection via WiFi or LAN cable and will please especially the possibility of rotation in the horizontal and vertical direction and quality images.

Also interesting is the strong lighting, thanks to which the camera is presented under the English name "Floodlight camera". This ensures a colorful image even during the night. The lighting can also be turned on as a warning when detecting the movement of a person in the field of view of the camera.

However, the novelty currently has several shortcomings. The biggest is perhaps too high the sensitivity of the motion sensor even at the set low sensitivity, which causes a number of false motion warnings. Two-way audio transmission is often incomprehensible in the application, tracking people does not work reliably, similar to recording to a memory card. We believe that these issues can be fixed by updating the firmware.