After three years of paying Ring's monthly subscription -- and watching the total cost quietly surpass the price of the cameras themselves -- I decided to switch to a system that stores footage locally without monthly fees. The eufyCam 3 with its HomeBase 3 promised exactly that: 4K video, local AI processing, solar panel charging, and zero subscriptions. Six months into running a two-camera setup covering my front porch and backyard, I'm mostly satisfied with the decision. The hardware delivers on its promises. But eufy's 2022 privacy controversy still lingers in my mind, and the software experience doesn't quite match the hardware ambition. Here's the full picture.
Design & Build
The eufyCam 3 cameras are white weather-resistant cylinders, roughly the size of a soda can, that mount via a magnetic ball joint on the included bracket. The magnetic attachment is surprisingly strong -- I've had mine through wind storms and heavy rain without any shifting. The cameras have a subtle, modern look that doesn't scream "surveillance" the way some bulky outdoor cameras do. My neighbor didn't even notice them for the first three weeks.
The solar panel accessory is a game-changer for installation. I have two cameras running entirely on solar with zero wired connections, even through Seattle's notoriously cloudy winters. The panels mount near the cameras and connect via a short cable. Once installed, I haven't touched the cameras -- no charging, no battery swaps, no maintenance. For anyone who's been putting off outdoor cameras because of wiring complexity, the solar option eliminates that barrier entirely.
The HomeBase 3 is a compact white hub roughly the size of a thick paperback book. It includes 16GB of built-in storage and a 2.5" HDD bay for expansion (I added a 1TB drive for about $40). The base connects to your router via Ethernet and has a surprisingly loud siren for alarm scenarios. It sits on my shelf near the router and draws no attention. Build quality across the system feels solid -- the cameras have an IP67 weather rating and the plastic housing shows no degradation after six months of Pacific Northwest weather.
Features
Local storage is the feature that sold me and it's the one that keeps delivering. All footage records to the HomeBase 3, not to some cloud server. I can scrub through my timeline, download clips, and review events without any subscription. After spending $100/year on Ring Protect for three years, having this functionality included in the hardware purchase price feels liberating. The HomeBase's expandable storage means I can keep months of continuous recording history without worrying about overwriting old clips.
Video quality at 4K is genuinely excellent. I can read license plates from the camera covering my driveway and clearly identify faces on the front porch camera. The 8x digital zoom is usable up to about 4x before quality degrades noticeably. Night vision with the integrated spotlight provides full-color footage after dark, which is dramatically more useful than the green-tinted infrared footage from my old Ring cameras. The spotlight can be set to activate on motion or stay off for passive IR night vision if you don't want to alert anyone.
On-device AI detection runs locally on the HomeBase and can distinguish between people, pets, and vehicles. After two weeks of tuning the sensitivity settings, I've reduced false positives to maybe one or two per week -- usually from car headlights sweeping across the camera's field of view. Activity zones help further: I've excluded the sidewalk on my front camera so that pedestrians walking past don't trigger recordings. HomeKit Secure Video support is available if you'd prefer Apple's cloud processing and the unified Home app interface, though it limits you to 1080p recording. Home Assistant integration works through the community eufy integration -- it's unofficial but functional for live view and motion triggers.
Performance
Video quality is the standout. The 4K sensor captures detail that cheaper cameras simply can't match. During a package delivery last month, I could read the tracking number on the shipping label from my porch camera -- that level of detail has practical value. Color night vision is another area where the eufyCam 3 exceeds expectations. The integrated spotlight illuminates about a 15-foot radius with enough light for the camera to produce genuinely useful color footage, as opposed to the washed-out black and white of passive infrared.
Solar panel performance has been excellent. Both cameras have maintained 100% battery through Seattle's October-to-February stretch, which includes weeks of overcast skies and short daylight hours. If solar can keep up here, it should work nearly anywhere. Detection range maxes out around 30 feet for reliable person identification, dropping to about 20 feet at night. Response time from initial motion to recording start is approximately 1-2 seconds, which means you occasionally miss the first moment of an event. My Ring cameras were faster at about half a second, and that gap is noticeable on quick events like a delivery driver tossing a package.
I need to address the elephant in the room: eufy's 2022 privacy controversy, when researchers discovered that supposedly "local" thumbnail data was being sent to eufy's cloud servers without encryption, and that camera streams could be accessed remotely without authentication through predictable URLs. Eufy has since patched these issues, implemented end-to-end encryption, and undergone third-party security audits. I believe the current product is significantly more secure. But the incident revealed that eufy was either dishonest or negligent about their "local only" claims, and that's hard to fully forget. I've put my cameras on an isolated VLAN as a precaution.
Day-to-day reliability has been good but not flawless. The eufy Security app occasionally shows cameras as "offline" when they're functioning normally -- a refresh fixes it, but it's unnerving to see your security camera appear disconnected. Live view takes 3-5 seconds to connect, which is noticeably slower than Ring's near-instant stream. These aren't dealbreakers, but they're quality-of-life issues that eufy should address.
Ease of Use
Initial setup is straightforward and took about 20 minutes for the full two-camera kit. Plug in the HomeBase, connect it to your router via Ethernet, download the eufy Security app, and add cameras by scanning the QR codes on their bases. The cameras pair with the HomeBase over a proprietary wireless connection that's been reliable at distances up to about 50 feet through two walls in my setup. Physical mounting requires drilling pilot holes and screwing in the bracket -- the included mounting template makes this easy, and the magnetic ball joint lets you fine-tune the angle after mounting.
The eufy Security app is functional but not polished. The home screen gives you a grid view of all cameras with snapshot previews that update periodically. Tapping into a camera takes you to the live view (after that 3-5 second connection delay). Event history is organized as a timeline with thumbnails, and filtering by detection type (person, pet, vehicle, motion) works well. My complaint is the persistent advertising for other eufy products -- banners pushing robot vacuums and doorbells show up in the app for a product I've already paid $400+ for. It's a minor annoyance but it feels disrespectful to paying customers.
My wife uses the app regularly to check the front door camera when a delivery notification comes in, and she's had no trouble navigating it. She particularly appreciates the notification system -- rich notifications with event thumbnails that let you see what triggered the alert without opening the app. For non-technical household members, the experience is approachable. The app's learning curve is minimal, and day-to-day operation requires no technical knowledge once the initial setup and tuning are done.
Value
A two-camera eufyCam 3 kit with HomeBase 3 runs around $400-500 depending on sales and configuration. The solar panel add-ons are about $30-40 each. So a fully solar-powered two-camera setup totals roughly $460-580. That's a significant upfront investment -- no question.
But here's the math that justifies it. A comparable Ring setup: two Stick Up Cams at $100 each, plus Ring Protect Plus at $10/month for video recording and person detection. Year one: $320. Year two: $440. Year three: $560. By month 30, the eufyCam 3 has paid for itself, and from there every month is money saved. Over five years, the Ring setup costs $800 versus eufyCam's one-time $480. That's $320 in savings -- and you own your footage rather than renting access to it.
The value proposition extends beyond raw cost. Local storage means your footage isn't sitting on someone else's server. No subscription means no one can gate your security features behind a payment wall or raise prices. The expandable storage means you control how much history you keep. And the solar panels mean near-zero maintenance cost. For budget-conscious homeowners who plan to keep their cameras for 3+ years, the eufyCam 3 is one of the better long-term investments in the security camera category. The only thing I'd recommend spending extra on is a separate VLAN for your cameras -- given eufy's history, an extra layer of network isolation is just good practice.
Pros
- True local storage - no subscription required
- Good 4K video quality
- Solar panel option for wire-free installation
- HomeKit Secure Video support
- AI detection runs locally
- Pays for itself vs subscription cameras
Cons
- Past privacy controversy damages trust
- Live view connection is slow (3-5 seconds)
- App cluttered with product advertisements
- Occasional false offline status
Final Grade
The eufyCam 3 proves you don't need a subscription for quality home security cameras. The 4K video quality is genuinely impressive, solar panel charging makes maintenance virtually zero, and local AI processing means your footage stays on your HomeBase rather than someone else's server. The system pays for itself compared to subscription cameras within about two and a half years, and the expandable storage means you won't run out of space. I do think about eufy's 2022 privacy incident -- they've addressed it with encryption and audits, but the trust damage lingers and I'd recommend network isolation as a precaution. The app could use polish and the live view connection is slower than competitors. But for homeowners who want to escape subscription hell and own their security system outright, the eufyCam 3 is one of the strongest options available. Just don't assume "local" means completely private without doing your own network security homework.