Review: ILIHOME Dual Camera Screen Endoscope
Although your first thought for an endoscope may be the endoscopy procedure used to look inside the body, the same class of device actually has a lot of practical uses around the home. While looking in your plumbing to inspect your drains and pipes is a key usage for an endoscope device, it’s also useful for any other time you might need to look in or behind tight spaces, like say inside a wall or inside a car engine.
As the name indicates, the ILIHOME Dual Camera Screen Endoscope features two cameras. One is at the tip of the probe and the other is just below it on the side. They’re rated at “up to” 1080p resolution, so they’re definitely sufficient for capturing good quality images or video. Naturally, since most use cases will involve dark spaces, LED lights flank both cameras.
A built-in 4.5 inch IPS screen lets you see what the cameras see, as well as cycle through the menu functions. One thing to note is that the shipping screen protector was a bit hard to take off. The pull tab just came right off. I had to use tweezers to remove the protective film.
An included 32GB microSD card allows for image and video storage, as well as transfer to other devices like a PC. The built-in rechargeable battery, which is charged over a microUSB cable, provides up to 5 hours of run-time. Note that the microUSB cable is very short at around 12 inches, so you may want to use or get one of your own if you need some distance from the USB port you use for charging. Rounding out the package are some hooks and a magnet for the end of the probe.
Operation is super simple. Power it on, insert the probe into what you want to look at, and adjust the LED light brightness until the images from each camera come into focus. For my testing, and as you can see from the image and the video, it did a great job with showing me what was going on not too far down my bathroom sink. I will say that the live view seemed to have better resolution and overall quality than what was captured on the microSD card in terms of both still and videos, so if you want to use the captures for anything more than simple reference, they’re probably not good enough.
Overall, I love the simplicity of this product. It’s ruggedly built and super simple to use. If you’re looking for a good value in home endoscopes, the ILIHOME Dual Camera Screen Endoscope Model:P50 is well worth investing in.
