Great idea, limited app
The idea with camera nest box is great, but the app has limitations and performance issues. When you get an even notification and press on View you would expect to jump in Playback directly to that moment. But no, you have to wait 1 min for the Playback button to show up, then you press it, browse the calendar and then manually you need to spend minutes to find the moment in time for the notification to play the video. I gave the feedback 2 years ago but the developer chose to ignore it and the UI/UX didn’t evolve at all in all this time. At the time of this review, going to Playback constantly fails with no clear error or reason, so one can’t see any videos recorded…
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Could be so much better
Clunky and not particularly user-friendly. Particularly when scrolling through the timeline of the day to find recorded footage - it’s slow to do and cumbersome. There are far better ways, for example the way Ring does it with their camera footage - listing each separate “event” rather than having to scroll painfully across a 24hr time bar.
The menu and record/playback options are not especially intuitive.
It’s “buggy” too. Far too often you find a clip you want to play back, and it will say “Playback failed to start” - and the only way to fix it is swipe-close the app, relaunch it and find it again.
For the price of the hardware, the app isn’t great and really should be better than it is - it’s almost like an afterthought.
The menu and record/playback options are not especially intuitive.
It’s “buggy” too. Far too often you find a clip you want to play back, and it will say “Playback failed to start” - and the only way to fix it is swipe-close the app, relaunch it and find it again.
For the price of the hardware, the app isn’t great and really should be better than it is - it’s almost like an afterthought.
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Do not buy
I’ve written a long review as to why you shouldn’t buy this camera due to the terrible app which should have never been released. A cheap pet cam has a better app. But somehow my review was deleted. That now really pisses me off and now going to make sure that l’ll spread the word EVERYWHERE. Watch this space
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App needs a lot of improvement
App is not user friendly, particularly the playback feature. Finding recordings and downloading them is a real faff. There is an odd timeline control you have to use which keeps zipping back to the beginning. Also it has US style dates mm/dd rather than dd/mm that the rest of the world uses.
Einwandfrei
Die App samt Kamera funktioniert einwandfrei, die Einrichtung war dank etlichen Tutorials einfach. Auch im Betrieb zufriedenstellend, Funktionen ausreichend und funktional.
Do not buy
I cannot believe a €200 camera is worse than a cheap pet cam. The motion detection is useless, cuts off videos mid action. If you set to continuous interaction, you don’t get notified if there’s motion. Downloading videos: if you still have “recorded” videos and you want to download to share them the next idiotic feature: you have to watch through the screen, hit the record button and it will be saved in your al um and then you have to go to your album and download it. Moving from one activity to another is very fiddly, you have to scroll along on the bottom without just automatically switching to the next video. I’m just baffled how bad this app is. I contacted support who are extremely slow to respond- I guess I know why: my issues with the motion detection can’t be fixed. Not a bug. Just a feature of a terrible app.
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Problems
Why don’t greenfeathers leave the app alone. Since I updated the app I
Cannot use on my iPad anymore. It doesn’t fill the whole screen but fine on my iPhone.
They have taken away the option to share your camera with friends. Why do that. Its great to see other cameras.
Sort this out ASAP greenfeathers.
Cannot use on my iPad anymore. It doesn’t fill the whole screen but fine on my iPhone.
They have taken away the option to share your camera with friends. Why do that. Its great to see other cameras.
Sort this out ASAP greenfeathers.
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Easy to use, but missing feature
The app is very easy to use, but for whatever reason they removed the ability to hide the feather and date/time on screen watermark. Please add it back!
Bird Camera
If I had known in advance how much trouble this camera has been I would never have asked my daughter to purchase it for my birthday. It has been so time consuming and still is. I’m ready to throw it in the bin.
Greenfeathers’ updates fix issues but cause new issues
Had a Greenfeathers 3rd Gen camera for 4 years now and every year a new problem. This year (2024) I cannot get a stream unless I’m using WiFi. Mobile data (which is enabled in settings) says “Failed to establish encrypted channel”. WiFi stream keeps freezing too anyway. Router, app and camera reset multiple times. Latest iOS and app up to date. No one is checking the app works before issuing updates. Would not buy again. App buttons on home page need user friendly descriptions of what they do. UPDATE I reinstalled both the app and deleted and reinstalled the device - no difference. Still no stream on mobile only Wi-Fi
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Security / impossible to configure to own network preferences
Warning: the WiFi (GFWF3) camera need always internet connection to work.
If you have disabled on your home router for this device the internet it’s not able to get access to the stream via the app in your local network.
They advertise ONVIF support,
1. but the documentation on the website is wrong and incomplete.
2. The camera onvif service work on port 835
3. But most paths are restricted to configure the camera, the standard username doesn’t work. It’s impossible to configure the camera to your own preferences.
If you have disabled on your home router for this device the internet it’s not able to get access to the stream via the app in your local network.
They advertise ONVIF support,
1. but the documentation on the website is wrong and incomplete.
2. The camera onvif service work on port 835
3. But most paths are restricted to configure the camera, the standard username doesn’t work. It’s impossible to configure the camera to your own preferences.
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Which card does this camera need
Does the camera need a card or does it come with one plz
App seems to have been “improved” for the worse.
Bit of a faff to set up to be honest but once that’s done it works okay. However, the app doesn’t seem to work properly with my iPad, the view looks to be designed only for use on a phone. This didn’t use to be the case so something has changed somewhere. Seems okay on my iPhone so I’ve given up trying to use it on my iPad which is a pity.
Also, the camera regularly drops offline. While I understand that this may be down to my WiFi signal the Greenfeathers app and camera is the only equipment that doesn’t manage to reset itself after a losing the WiFi signal. I have printers, an EV charger, three TVs, a hiding system and a computer network all managing to use the router flawlessly, with very few problems but not the bird box camera. Once that goes offline it stays offline until I set it up again from scratch, though to be fair, there are occasions when I can get it back by simply unplugging it and plugging it back in again. Those occasions are rare however, it’s usually necessary to do a complete reset, which means going outside and risking disturbing any birds that might have started to nest or show some interest.
Quite disappointing to be honest and has prevented me from buying more cameras for my other three bird boxes.
Also, the camera regularly drops offline. While I understand that this may be down to my WiFi signal the Greenfeathers app and camera is the only equipment that doesn’t manage to reset itself after a losing the WiFi signal. I have printers, an EV charger, three TVs, a hiding system and a computer network all managing to use the router flawlessly, with very few problems but not the bird box camera. Once that goes offline it stays offline until I set it up again from scratch, though to be fair, there are occasions when I can get it back by simply unplugging it and plugging it back in again. Those occasions are rare however, it’s usually necessary to do a complete reset, which means going outside and risking disturbing any birds that might have started to nest or show some interest.
Quite disappointing to be honest and has prevented me from buying more cameras for my other three bird boxes.
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Average app
Setup of camera is okay and live streaming is good although often freezes on my iPhone XS even though signal is good (86%). Scrolling through playback is painful and must be able to be improved. You shouldn’t have to start at the beginning of each day every time you want to watch what has happening throughout the day.
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Too much manual adjustment
Doesn’t connect? Need to hit reset button. It’s attached to the camera, with the bird box.
Need to focus? It’s manual. In the bird box.
None of this is practical when you are trying to avoid disturbing the bird box as it has wild animals nesting in it!
Otherwise it works ok but given the price things should be less fiddly and unintuitive than this.
Need to focus? It’s manual. In the bird box.
None of this is practical when you are trying to avoid disturbing the bird box as it has wild animals nesting in it!
Otherwise it works ok but given the price things should be less fiddly and unintuitive than this.
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Good apart from notification issues.
Works pretty good. Some features that would really help:
More sophisticated system for controlling when notifications come through. I’m getting too many so will have to turn off completely until the system is more sophisticated. Ideas to combs this: 1. ability to set a time in the day (not just the night) when it’s muted. 2. Ability to set the frequency of notifications. ie. If you get one then set a minimum time before another one is given (in minutes and hours). 3. Ability to mute notifications for a set period.
Sound has a constant low frequency crackle on it. Not sure if this is a camera fault or a software issue.
I really hope this keeps developing as it is really promising.
More sophisticated system for controlling when notifications come through. I’m getting too many so will have to turn off completely until the system is more sophisticated. Ideas to combs this: 1. ability to set a time in the day (not just the night) when it’s muted. 2. Ability to set the frequency of notifications. ie. If you get one then set a minimum time before another one is given (in minutes and hours). 3. Ability to mute notifications for a set period.
Sound has a constant low frequency crackle on it. Not sure if this is a camera fault or a software issue.
I really hope this keeps developing as it is really promising.
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Not a robust design
Worked fine last year when new. This year it was very difficult to get it to connect to the Wi-Fi and recently it has just stopped working. I took a look inside the camera at the beginning of the year when I was having issues connecting and the internal design is not robust enough for outdoor use. There was already corrosion on the circuit boards. This is probably why it has failed now. I have tried to reset the camera but I cannot get any response and no signal to connect. As the box is in use I can’t remove the camera. Would not recommend this camera useless you are willing to replace it every year.
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Always disconnecting
Excellent smart bird box & stylish mini camera but where do I start to complain ??
Hubby bought this (expensive for us but we love to bird watch) for my upcoming birthday. He set it up , really complicated may I add & nothing like how easy they say. Camera would NOT work so we tried our best to work it out as I had tried on occasions to contact someone from Green Feathers ( which again is really complicated to do) We tried all different ways to fix the problem by trolling through the numerous videos on You Tube. We eventually thought it may be that we didn’t have a memory card in. So we went & purchased one. Not knowing a 64gb would NOT work! ! but it says on most of Green Feathers that any card will work even though you have to format it?
We did format card on numerous occasions & still nothing!! Then we saw a video saying camera will only take a 32GB so we went & purchased one of these. Camera now worked but still not in the way we thought. We thought when a bird entered box it would automatically start recording but oh no you have to go through a lot of rigmarole to set this up.
Can I just say “Green Feathers you should have a much better & easier way of explaining to people who buy your products how to set them up & that you need to buy add ons ie.. memory cards. We have had our bird box for approximately 4 weeks & we have only managed to record my husband on the camera setting up the box. We keep getting notifications that there is a “visitor” in the box but NO videos or pictures are being recorded!!
We are past ourselves now & wish we had never bought this bird box. It is pointless saying get in touch with Green Feathers as like I’ve said previously “this is completely hard to do & all they say is “watch the videos”
We have & our camera is still “NOT WORKING”
Sorry for the rant but don’t buy this if you want to set up your box easily. The product like I said is excellent & excellent quality but complicated.
Oh & we even went & purchased a booster for the internet signal in case it was a weak connection.
Hubby bought this (expensive for us but we love to bird watch) for my upcoming birthday. He set it up , really complicated may I add & nothing like how easy they say. Camera would NOT work so we tried our best to work it out as I had tried on occasions to contact someone from Green Feathers ( which again is really complicated to do) We tried all different ways to fix the problem by trolling through the numerous videos on You Tube. We eventually thought it may be that we didn’t have a memory card in. So we went & purchased one. Not knowing a 64gb would NOT work! ! but it says on most of Green Feathers that any card will work even though you have to format it?
We did format card on numerous occasions & still nothing!! Then we saw a video saying camera will only take a 32GB so we went & purchased one of these. Camera now worked but still not in the way we thought. We thought when a bird entered box it would automatically start recording but oh no you have to go through a lot of rigmarole to set this up.
Can I just say “Green Feathers you should have a much better & easier way of explaining to people who buy your products how to set them up & that you need to buy add ons ie.. memory cards. We have had our bird box for approximately 4 weeks & we have only managed to record my husband on the camera setting up the box. We keep getting notifications that there is a “visitor” in the box but NO videos or pictures are being recorded!!
We are past ourselves now & wish we had never bought this bird box. It is pointless saying get in touch with Green Feathers as like I’ve said previously “this is completely hard to do & all they say is “watch the videos”
We have & our camera is still “NOT WORKING”
Sorry for the rant but don’t buy this if you want to set up your box easily. The product like I said is excellent & excellent quality but complicated.
Oh & we even went & purchased a booster for the internet signal in case it was a weak connection.
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Not suitable for iPad
The app is designed for a phone, not an iPad, therefore the screen is limited. Also, when you click “maximise” you actually lose part of the video. I you want to use on an iPad, forget it, it’s useless.
Great camera rubbish app
Great little camera which proved easier to connect to this app than the earlier versions with ICSee but the app is useless for viewing what’s going on. It is only for iPhone use and if you try to watch full screen on phone or tablet it just zooms in on the left third of the image and there is no rotation working to landscape format to view it that way. Very disappointing by modern standards.
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