Logitech Circle 2 review (security camera with cloud recording)

Now it's fashionable to have a security camera that can record on the cloud storage and allow remote monitoring from Internet. Do you have yours?

In this article I'm going to talk about the Logitech Circle 2 camera for residential use. It can be easily installed even you are not a techie person.

Lens aperture

With an aperture angle of 180º, the Logitech circle 2 camera allows full viewing of the environment, no matter where it is installed.

By installing this security camera in a corner of the room or even in a doorway, the view is so wide that there is no way to have blind spots.

One thing to note, however, is that this type of lens with wide aperture makes the objects appear very small and distant and when it is necessary to make some kind of plates or faces recognition the user of the product may end up getting a little bit frustrated. (only if people or car are far away).

On the other hand, the Full HD resolution may slightly outweigh the digital zoom, but keep in mind that you can not expect a Hollywood type scene with security cameras using some miracle digital zoom.

Camera night vision

To view images in the dark, security cameras bring LEDs that can illuminate the environment with infrared light, that kind of light that is visible to the camera but invisible to our naked eyes.

It is worth mentioning that there are limitations in the use of this type of infrared light technology, such as the lack of color in the images and the maximum distance that the LEDs will illuminate the objects or people in an environment.

The technical specifications of the camera are a maximum distance of 15 feet (4.5 m) for night viewing with infrared.

The image below, shows an environment where the security camera is installed and allows image visualization in the dark by using infrared light.

Due to my 14+ years of experience working with security cameras I must say show that images with infrared illumination usually have a more intense central light focus in the center of the image, which doesn't allow easy face recognition, especially on cameras for consumer applications.

See below the image from a professional security camera that is way more expensive than the Logitech Circle 2. Note the infrared illumination pattern.

The little girl's picture was taken from Logitech's website, where there is a video showing her stealing a few cookies at dawn and being clearly monitored by a security camera that sees perfectly in the dark with really incredible details.

I believe the video was created for marketing purposes, it probably does not match the reality of the actual images generated by the Logitech camera it's not possible to see any stronger infrared light at the scene and the little girl's face is perfectly recognizable.

So either the Logitech Circle 2 camera is not using the infrared light at the moment and is recording video with regular non-intense lights or the video it's not a footage from the Logitech camera itself.

See below the Logitech's marketing video....

Nowadays there are cameras with infrared light that can adapt its power and improve the effects of the central "glow effect" in the image.

Depending on the angle, installation distance and environment it is possible to have a good image quality, however don't expect some miracle from the camera in night vision mode. Beware of the marketing stuff.

Wireless communication (Wi-Fi)

The camera can be purchased in two different versions:

With cable or Wireless version that works with 2.4GHZ or 5GHz frequencies and the a/b/g /n standards. (different frequencies and network speed).

The advantages of working with 5GHz frequency is less interference.

Bidirectional audio communication

This Logitech Circle 2 security camera has a built-in speaker and microphone, which allows two-way communication, ie there is the possibility to speak and listen through the camera, which sends the audio over the network to the person using a cell phone or computer.

Mobile communication

You can view camera pictures and video through the use of a mobile phone or tablet with an IOS or Android operating system and also use the camera features such as a motion detection alert

Cloud Storage

Logitech has a cloud service so the customer can store the camera videos on their servers on the Internet, this feature is allows the customer data to be secure if the camera is damaged or stolen.

It's possible to use the cloud recording service for free to record up to 24 hours of footage, if the customer wishes to have extra recording days, he/she can pay for extra the service with prices that depend on the number of days to be recorded.

Price of the product

To date the Logitech Circle 2 costs $179.00 for the cable version and $198.09 for the wireless version and for extra cloud storage there's a 14-day plan for $3.99/month per camera or the 31-day plan for $9.99/month per camera.

Final considerations

The Logitech Circle 2 is very interesting and easy to use, allows connection for cloud recording which usually attracts the attention of the most modern customers who want to make use of this feature.

Consumers who don't need more complex and expensive systems will like this model. The night-time image quality can be good if the object is not too far away from the camera, on indoor installation it should be fine.

Conclusion

Logitech's marketing is interesting becasue shows a camera that can be used for families. It has some features that makes the camera very easy to use via a mobile phone, which seems to be the product's strongest point.

The Logitech Circle 2 is for domestic use and should not be compared to professional CCTV camera that has the purpose of monitoring complex environments related to physical and patrimonial security

Bare in mind when purchasing your Logitech camera or when discussing with customers who want to use such cameras