Wyze has launched a new indoor security camera with a simple but useful privacy trick: the lens physically retracts into the camera when you don’t want it watching you.
The new Wyze Indoor Cam Pan is available now for $39.98, making it one of the company’s more affordable pan-and-tilt cameras. Unlike a typical indoor camera that can be disabled through software, the Indoor Cam Pan can tilt its lens down until it disappears completely inside the body, giving you a visible indication that the camera can’t see what’s happening in the room.
That should be particularly useful for bedrooms, living rooms and other spaces where you might not want a camera pointed at you all the time.
The lens disappears when you want privacy
The Indoor Cam Pan is designed to cover a room from a single position. The camera itself can rotate through a full 360 degrees, while the front-mounted camera and lens can tilt vertically through 103 degrees.
Wyze has also fitted it with what it calls its quietest and smoothest motor yet, so the camera can move around without being particularly distracting. AI-powered motion tracking can follow activity while ignoring things such as robot vacuums, as well as people and pets outside user-defined detection zones.
Video is captured at 2K resolution, putting the new model above the older $44.98 Wyze Cam Pan v3, which is limited to 1080p. However, the pricier $59.98 Wyze Cam Pan v4 remains the higher-resolution option with 4K recording.
For nighttime monitoring, the Indoor Cam Pan uses infrared LEDs and night vision. Low-light recording drops from 20fps to 15fps, though, so footage won’t be quite as smooth in darker conditions.
Local recording is supported
There’s also a microSD card slot supporting cards up to 512GB, allowing recordings to be stored locally rather than relying entirely on the cloud. A built-in microphone and speaker enable two-way communication, while the speaker can also sound a 95-decibel alarm.
The camera works with Wyze’s Cam Plus and Cam Unlimited subscriptions, which add features including AI-generated descriptions of detected activity.
At $39.98, the Indoor Cam Pan is an interesting addition to Wyze’s range, particularly if privacy is a priority. The ability to physically hide the lens is a little more reassuring than simply pressing a software button to turn a camera off.
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