Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 Review
A brilliant all-rounder combining a security light with dual cameras
Verdict
This is the camera that does it all without subscription fees: AI object detection and tracking, dual cameras (wide angle and telephoto), and powerful security lights. Simple to use and with great software, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 is a brilliant all-rounder. Just be careful that the lights are angled appropriately so they don’t wash out details and you’ll get excellent video day and night.
Pros
- Brilliant all-rounder
- AI object detection and tracking
- Subscription free
- Excellent video quality
Cons
- Lights can obscure details in night footage
Key Features
- TypeThis is a wired outdoor security camera, with motorised pan-and-tilt and dual integrated security lights.
- ResolutionThe main camera shoots with a 3K resolution, while the telephoto camera shoots at a 2K resolution.
Introduction
Promising a versatile mix of security, quality and convenience, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 packs in everything you could need in a security camera.
Its features include motion-activated security lights, motorised pan-and-tilt, dual cameras, and no monthly fees. Quality software and excellent image quality make it a winner where flexibility is required.
Design and installation
- Has to be wired in place
- Wall or ceiling bracket
Unlike many of Eufy’s other cameras, such as the dual-camera SoloCam S340, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 is not battery-powered. Instead, it has to be permanently wired into the mains.
That makes installation a touch trickier if you don’t already have a security light; if you do, then you can do a simple swap, with the E340 able to be mounted on a wall or overhang.
There are advantages to mains power: you don’t have to remember to charge the battery, and you can have powerful security lights that can go on and off as many times as required without the fear of rapid battery draining.
Although mains power is the ultimate way of powering this camera, it also has a USB-C port for temporary power. This should be used to get the camera connected to Wi-Fi before you physically install it.
Alternatively, you can connect the camera to a HomeBase S380, which gives centralised storage space and adds in facial recognition. As connections to the S380 are via a direct Wi-Fi connection, the HomeBase does have to be within wireless range of the E340.
Once that’s done, I found the camera easy enough to wire into place. If you’re not keen on messing about with mains power, you might need an electrician to do the job.
Overall, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 is similar in size to the Ring Floodlight Cam Pro Wired. Similarly, the E340 has two 1000-lumen LEDs, which can be independently positioned to light up where you want. As you can see from the security footage later, it’s worth repositioning these lights to get the best quality.
Features
- Dual cameras
- Programmable home location
- Smart AI detection and tracking
Once installed, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 acts and operates in a similar way to the S340, including the crucial step of setting up a home position for the camera. Using the pan-and-tilt controls in the app, the home location is the default position that the camera returns to.
Pan-and-tilt cameras that don’t have this aren’t very useful in practice, as it’s all too easy to point them away from an area of interest and then miss something important later on.
Additional preset positions can be set using the app, giving a quick way to jump between locations. For example, you might want to quickly look where your car’s normally parked, then jump to look at a bay window.
In addition to programming where the camera can look, presets can be set to use either of the cameras: the main 3K wide-angle one or the 2K telephoto one.
You can also manually look around with the app, switching between the lenses. It’s surprisingly helpful being able to change where the camera is looking, and the telephoto lens adds an extra dimension, zooming in for more detail.
For the most part, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 will be left to its own devices, recording motion automatically. Although the mains power means that the camera can record as many times as it likes (a battery device runs the risk of running out of power if it’s triggered too often), it’s still worth spending time setting the camera up to reduce the number of alerts you get.
First, it’s worth tweaking the home position to point away from anywhere with too much motion, such as a busy street. Next, you can set up activity zones, so only motion inside them will trigger an alert.
There’s then an option in the app to use AI to choose what to be alerted about: your choice of people, pets or other motion. This detection is all done on the camera, which is impressive: the main competitors charge for a cloud subscription for similar features.
If you do have a HomeBase, then the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 can also use facial recognition, tagging and recording footage with any known people that it has spotted.
Without a HomeBase, you’ll have to install a microSD card in the camera. Up to 128GB cards are supported, which Eufy says will last for 256 days, assuming 45 events per day. Even if your camera records significantly more than this, you’ll get a longer history than most cloud services provide.
As well as simply recording static footage, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 can be told to use AI to automatically track an object. It works brilliantly, and means that more of the action is captured; with a fixed camera, people inevitably drop out of the view sooner.
Recordings can be viewed using the fiddly timeline view or, better, the Events tab in the app, which lets you filter by device, date and recording time, presenting a list of thumbnails. All clips can be watched in-app or downloaded to your phone.
By default, the camera records with its 3K lens. There is an option in the app to turn on Dual View, which squeezes the view from both cameras into a compressed video. As with Eufy’s other dual-camera devices, Dual View reduces overall image quality, so I can’t recommend using it.
The Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 will record in black and white, using IR, but there is a full-colour night mode available, which shoots in colour provided there’s enough ambient light. Confusingly, the option to change the night recording mode is in the live view part of the app, not the camera’s settings.
Given that there are two very bright security lights on this camera, there is going to be enough light to shoot at night in colour.
Control over the lights includes choosing to turn them on when motion is detected, or having them turn on permanently on a schedule. I preferred the traditional motion detection option, and appreciated the slider to adjust the lights’ brightness.
In-app, the Modes tab let me quickly turn on and off my selection of Eufy cameras. I could set this manually, on a schedule or by using geolocation. I would like better integration with third-party systems, such as IFTTT, to let me trigger modes based on other devices, such as turning cameras on when I set a smart alarm.
Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support are available, giving the basic ability to view the live stream on a compatible smart display. There’s no control over the camera used or ability to use pan and tilt.
Performance
- Excellent image quality
- Bright and vivid night footage
- Lights can obscure faces
With a similar camera setup to the S340, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 shoots similar video in the day on its 3K camera. With a resolution of 2880×1616, I found the camera produced sharp, well-exposed images, even when pointing into the sun.
With AI motion tracking, I found that the camera kept the motion target centre of the frame without adding judder or motion blur. It’s hard to expect more from a camera.
At night, the camera has the advantage that its lights can turn on to create a bright enough scene for full-colour footage. Just be careful where the lights are pointing. I found that if the lights aren’t angled properly, they can reflect off faces, obscuring detail, as you can see below.
If the lights are right, the image quality is barely distinguishable from the daylight footage, which is impressive.
I mentioned that the Dual View mode isn’t very good, and you can see why in the image below. Squeezing both cameras into a single 2304×2592 frame, the resulting video lacks detail and is a touch disappointing.
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Should you buy it?
You should buy if you want an integrated security light and camera with no monthly fees
Subscription-free, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 has brilliant AI detection and tracking, as well as bright security lights.
You should not buy if you want a battery-powered camera
If you don’t have wiring to an existing security light, a battery-powered camera will give you more installation flexibility.
Final Thoughts
Giving you everything you could possibly need from a security device, the Eufy Floodlight Camera E340 is a great all-rounder. It doesn’t have any monthly fees, has brilliant AI detection, clever automatic tracking, and shoots high-quality footage day and night.
If you want a battery powered camera or don’t mind paying for cloud storage, you can see alternatives in my guide to the best outdoor security cameras.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every security camera we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main security camera for the review period
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how easy each camera is to automate.
We take samples during the day and night to see how clear each camera’s video is.
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FAQs
Yes, this model requires permanent power and doesn’t have a battery.
It can record to a microSD card or it can save footage to HomeBase.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
