Best Indoor Cameras for Pets

A pet camera fails in a boring way. You open the app and the dog has walked three feet to the left, out of a lens you aimed at the water bowl yesterday. If the animal uses the room, our preference is the eufy Indoor Cam S350. eufy describes it as a pan-and-tilt indoor camera with a 4K wide lens and a 2K telephoto, and it can track motion instead of waiting for you to drag a joystick. If the animal stays in one place, a crate, a bed, a mat by the door, the Wyze Cam v4 is the camera we would buy, because a motor you never need is money and a little noise.

The mistake is buying a wide fixed camera and calling it coverage. A 130 degree lens still has edges, and a pet lying against the wall becomes a blur. The S350's second lens is the reason it wins a roaming-pet room. The C225 wins when you want pan and tilt and you do not want to spend S350 money. Neither one replaces being home. They tell you whether the room is calm.

Night is the other pet-specific choice. A white spotlight, which the Wyze Cam v4 uses for color night vision, is bright. Some animals ignore it. Some will not settle. TP-Link's C225 is the one we mention when color at night matters and a spotlight is a bad idea, because the brand's starlight claim is about seeing color in dim light rather than lighting the room yourself. Infrared is the quiet option and it is black and white. For a dog sleeping in a dark bedroom, quiet beats color.

Pet cameras, by the job

Pet detection labels vary by brand and some of them sit behind a plan. Check the app page, not the box slogan.

Follow the pet, or watch the spot

A pan camera that tracks is worth the money when the animal patrols. eufy advertises person and pet tracking on the S350, with the dual lens so a zoom on the pet is not just a fuzzy crop of a wide frame. That is the camera we would put on a shelf for a dog that moves from the sofa to the door. If the question is whether the puppy stayed in the crate, tracking is a gimmick. Buy the Wyze Cam v4, aim it once, and stop paying for a motor.

The Tapo C225 sits between them. It pans, it is much cheaper than the S350, and the starlight sensor is gentler at night than a white LED. It will not match the S350's telephoto. Read the C225 versus S350 piece if the pet room is the only camera in the house.

What we would not aim at a pet

Do not use a siren or a spotlight as a training tool. You will teach the animal that the camera is unpleasant, and you will annoy everyone else in the apartment. Bark and meow alerts are uneven across brands. Treat them as a maybe. Crying-baby detection, which some indoor cameras advertise, is not a pet feature and it is not a medical monitor.

Skip a camera in this guide if you want to watch a pet in a bathroom or a crate so small the lens is inches from their face all day. That is not a security camera problem. It is a welfare problem, and a wider room is the kind one.

Where to check the current price

Street prices move with sales. These links search a major retailer for the model named in this review. Confirm the exact model number on the listing before you pay.

• See the eufy Indoor Cam S350
• See the Wyze Cam v4

Questions people ask before they buy

Do I need pet detection?

It reduces alerts from curtains. It is not required to record. On some brands the label "pet" is part of a paid plan even when the video itself saves to a card.

Will a pan camera scare a dog?

The motor is audible up close. Place it high, not at eye line on a table the dog can reach. If the sound bothers them, switch to a fixed Wyze Cam v4.

Can I talk to my dog through the camera?

Most of these plug-in cameras include two-way audio. It is a speaker in a plastic box, not a training program. Use it to check in. Do not expect the dog to understand a lecture.