What do our dear furry friends do when we’re not at home? Are they waiting for us? Sleep? Or maybe they are also doing mischief?
To observe this, you can of course use a surveillance camera. PetTec offers surveillance cameras with “animal focus” specifically for this purpose.
The PetTec Cam Feel not only offers subscription-free use, but also some interesting features, such as temperature monitoring, 2-way communication, etc.
Let’s take a look at the PetTec Cam Feel in the test! What can this do that a normal surveillance camera cannot?
At this point, many thanks to PetTec for providing the Cam Feel for this test.
PetTec Cam Feel im Test
The PetTec Cam Feel is a purely indoor surveillance camera that relies on an unusual design.
This uses a very unusual base. So you can set up the camera, hang it up or “clamp” it using the stand. Therefore it is very flexible in terms of positioning.
The head of the camera is freely adjustable on the base so that you can align it at an angle.
The camera head is oval shaped and has a small “antenna” at the rear end. However, this is not a radio antenna, but a temperature sensor. Very well thought out, because an internal temperature sensor would not provide particularly accurate values due to the heat generated by the camera itself.
On the side of the camera we find the USB-C input for power supply as well as a microSD card slot.
A suitable 5V/1A USB power supply is included; you have to buy a memory card separately.
App and setup
To use the PetTec Cam Feel, you need the “Snoop Cube” app. This is a fairly generic smart home app. I assume that PetTec outsourced the development of the app because its structure is similar to some Asian surveillance camera apps that I know.
However, we have a clean German language here and the general structure is clear.
After installing the app, you must first create an account with the manufacturer. A QR code is then created using your account and WiFi data, which you have to hold in front of the camera. The camera reads this and connects to your network and account accordingly. Fortunately, this worked well for me too.
Once you have arrived in the app, you will find an overview of all connected surveillance cameras on the home page. These are listed here with a small preview.
If you tap on the preview you will end up in the live view. There you can manually take photos and videos, initiate two-way communication, etc.
You can also access the recordings and motion detection from here.
Recording, locally or in the cloud
In principle, the PetTec Cam Feel can save recordings on a locally inserted memory card. This has the advantage that there are effectively no follow-up costs (aside from electricity consumption).
Alternatively, you can also save recordings in the cloud. But this costs €4.99 per month. Why would you possibly want that? If a burglar steals the memory card from the camera, the recordings are gone. If you have the cloud subscription, these can still be accessed.
However, from a data protection perspective, storing in the cloud is less good than locally, even if PetTec uses data centers in Germany.
2 ways communication
An important point about the PetTec Cam Feel is the ability to talk to your dog or animal.
The 2-way communication also works quite well and has little delay. However, the integrated speaker could be louder and the audio quality could generally be a little higher.
Recording and alarms
With the PetTec Cam Feel we first have to differentiate between recordings and alarms.
Alarms are simply a notification that you receive on your smartphone but do not necessarily start a recording. Alarms can be triggered by movement or noise. Here you can choose between three levels of sensitivity.
Alarms can also be restricted in area. For example, you could set up the alarm so that you only receive a notification when the dog jumps on the couch.
Recordings can be set independently. This means the camera can record constantly onto a microSD card or only when motion is detected.
Here, too, you can choose between three levels or set “person detection”. If you set this, only movements by people will be detected.
With sensible encryption?!
Surveillance cameras are something very “sensitive” and unfortunately there are always security incidents here. By that I don’t mean hackers, but often simply errors in the system that give other users access to the wrong cameras, etc.
Most manufacturers advertise great encryption, but this usually doesn’t help because the key is simply stored in the account or in the cloud.
PetTec is doing something super exciting here! If you wish, you can give your camera a private password. This is not saved in your account, but must be entered separately when a new device registers. This password (according to the manufacturer) is only known to you and will not be transmitted.
If this is implemented cleanly, as it looks from the outside, then this is excellent! Even if the camera were accidentally assigned to the wrong account (and this has happened with other manufacturers) or someone cracks your account password, that person still has no access to the camera or the recordings.
In my article a few months ago “Which surveillance cameras are still safe?” “Security incidents at Netatmo and Ubiquiti” I described this exact principle as optimal for security and was surprised why no manufacturer uses it.
It is all the more surprising and gratifying that a pet accessories manufacturer has implemented this theoretically very safe system. Again, I can’t look into the camera’s code to see if everything is implemented practically perfectly, but it looks very positive!
Good image quality
The image quality of the PetTec Cam Feel can be described as good. We have a 3 megapixel sensor here which actually takes videos and photos with 2304 x 1296 pixels. This means we have a higher resolution than Full HD.
The camera has a very wide angle of 110 degrees.
In practice, the image quality is simply good. Not absolutely outstanding, but above average for a camera in this class. This also applies to the image quality in the dark.
Temperature monitoring
A temperature sensor is installed in the camera. This means you can see the temperature and humidity in the app at any time.
The values for me were around 1 degree too high, which is probably due to the heat radiation from the camera itself. So keep this in mind when reading the values.
You can also set temperature alarms so that you receive a smartphone notification if they are exceeded or fallen below.
With backup battery
Excitingly, the camera has a backup battery integrated into it, which allows it to continue operating for a few hours even if the power goes out.
Power consumption
The PetTec Cam Feel requires +- 2W in normal operation and approx. 3W when the IR LEDs are active.
Conclusion
I am very positively surprised by the PetTec Cam Feel! Considering that we essentially have a “pet accessories manufacturer”, they have created a pleasantly competent surveillance camera.
This is not perfect, for example the integrated speaker for 2-way communication could be louder and offer better sound quality, there is also a small deviation in the temperature sensor (+1 degree), but apart from that it is well implemented!
The camera works perfectly. The image quality is good and recording on an inserted memory card is possible. The camera can record constantly or only when movement is detected.
In addition, alarms can be set up for both movements and noises. Does the dog bark when you’re not at home? Then you could receive a notification.
The app is tidy and worked well for me. I would also like to praise the encryption concept, which looks very good and secure! Some big manufacturers can learn a lesson here.
The bottom line is that the PetTec Cam Feel is a great “basic” surveillance camera.