Review: Brinno Duo Front Door Peephole Camera SHC1000W

Brinno Duo is a peephole camera you can install on a front door to take photos with the motion sensor.

Mine was bought on Shopee SG for S$289.00. The price on Amazon is US $199 at the time of this review. For a camera that does not record videos, it's kinda expensive.

I bought this to see catch the person who has been leaving rubbish in front my door step. After using this for a month, there wasn't any more such problem.

The motion sensor is hidden inside the unit with only the spherical part exposed. The look is discrete. That protruding curved part is actually a door knock but I doubt anyone will know it is.

The motion sensor can sense motion quite up to 4 metres, and will take a series of photos when it senses motion. This function has been working quite well.

There motion sensor is powered by the flat CR2450 battery that can be easily found. Not sure how long the battery life can last though as there's no battery indicator for this motion sensor battery on the LCD display.

Installing the unit requires fixing a few parts together. Reading the instruction manual is highly recommended. The part above is attached to the front door. It's actually the holder that the camera and LCD unit can attach to.

On the left is my door's original peephole. The lens quality of the Brinno peephole is really clear and clean. Note there are two sizes for the peephole, 1.2 and 1.4cm. Do not get the wrong size.

Removing the screw-on attachment to the lens from the door can be difficult. So I actually left the original screw-on attachment in my door, and used the Brinno peephole lens instead and not the Brinno screw-on attachment.

There are a few screws and parts to help with the installation. That small thing on the right is a tiny screw driver which you should not lose because it's for the screws to the motion sensor.

You can actually stick the motion sensor to this instead of storing it inside the peephole front unit.
Check out my video review for the installation process.

Buttons on the camera and LCD unit are for navigating through the menu, checking recent photos. The camera uses microSD card (not included). There's also a micro-USB slot if you want to attach an external USB power source.

The camera and LCD unit uses four AA batteries and battery life can be around 2 months, or up to 3,000 triggers. Definitely use rechargeable batteries here if you can. There is battery life indicator for this on the LCD and with the mobile app.

Mobile app

The mobile app allows you to connect wirelessly to the Brinno Duo for live view. The camera will use your wifi network. You can also use the app to browse through the photos taken but it only shows you filenames and not photo thumbnails so this feature is useless.

The live view feature is nice to have but not a must-have feature. The motion sensor is definitely a must have because you want to have photos taken automatically whenever there's motion.

And since the live view feature is not a must-have, you can actually go with the non-wireless model SCH1000 which is cheaper.

How well does it work

The 2.7-inch TFT display quality is alright. Makes it so much easier to see what's happening outside compared to looking through the peephole. The lens is able to cover a wide view.

My initial disappointment was the camera's inability to take videos. But after using the unit for a month, I realised that scrolling through hundreds of photos is way faster than playing through videos. With photos, you can see numerous thumbnails at a glance and this allows you to look for things that catch you attention.

I bought the Brinno Duo to capture activity outside my door and it works well.

Image quality of the photos is not good but usable. Resolution is just 640 x 480 pixel and there's no way to adjust the image quality or resolution. You can download the full resolution photo above to see for yourself. Image quality of photos taken at night is similar to day time.

Knowing what I know now, I would probably buy the non-wireless model for reasons mentioned earlier.

Here's the list of pros and cons
+ Design looks good
+ Battery life is alright (rechargeable AA batteries can be used)
+ Wifi connection allows for live view through app when you're not home
+ Quality of peephole lens is sharp and clear
+ Motion sensor works effectively
+ Knocking sensor is nice but people won't know that's for knocking
+ Photos are stored locally on micro-SD card
+ DIY installation
+ LCD display quality alright
+ Easier to browse photo thumbnails, so no video recording is not a downside
- Live view function not that useful in real world (get the non-wireless model to save money)
- Image quality of photo is not good
- Resolution of photo just 640 x 480 pixels
- Navigation through the menu is slow
- Mobile app can only see filenames of photos, not thumbnails
- Expensive

Availability

Check out more reviews on Amazon. Direct links to product pages: Brinno Duo SHC1000W | SCH1000 (non-wireless)

Make sure to get the right size for your peephole. Either 1.2 or 1.4cm.