A lock and a video peephole in one panel. Someone knocks, your phone shows you who it is, and you decide what happens next — whether you are in the kitchen or at work. Two locks in the range do this, and they suit very different doors.
What a camera lock is, and is not
It is a peephole you can read from your phone: check a delivery, see who called while you were out, look before you open. That is genuinely useful and it is what these do well.
It is not a security camera system. There is no continuous recording and no cloud storage plan bundled in. If you want footage kept and searchable, buy a camera as well as a lock, not instead of one.
The two locks
| Camera lock | Face recognition lock | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $539.99 | $894.99 |
| Backset | 22 mm — narrow aluminium stile | 60 mm — standard hinged door |
| Door thickness | 35–55 mm | 40–90 mm |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi built in, no gateway to buy | Wi-Fi |
| Opens on | Fingerprint, code, card, app, key | 3D face, fingerprint, code, card, app, key |
| Intercom | No — camera only | Two-way video intercom |
| View the camera lock | View the face lock |
Check the backset before anything else. These two are not interchangeable. The camera lock uses a 22 mm backset — that is an aluminium-framed or glass door. The face recognition lock uses 60 mm, the standard on a hinged timber door. Ordering the wrong one is the most common reason a lock in this category goes back in the box.
Gateway or built-in Wi-Fi
A lock with Wi-Fi on board connects straight to your home network and works remotely out of the box. A Bluetooth lock needs a gateway plugged in near the door before anything works from a distance — around a hundred dollars and another device to power. The camera lock here has Wi-Fi built in, which is unusual at this price and is the main reason to choose it.
Before you order
Neither lock carries a published weather rating, so both need an eave, a porch or a roof over them. If your door is exposed, the IP66 push/pull range or the gate lock are the ones built for it.
If you want the face-unlock experience specifically, the face recognition collection covers what 3D sensing does and where it struggles. If you simply want a reliable lock on a standard hinged door and the camera is a nice-to-have, a lever handle lock does that for a third of the price.
Measurements are explained in the sizing guide; delivery, returns and warranty in the FAQ.
What you actually gain from a camera in the lock
A separate doorbell camera and a smart lock do overlapping jobs badly: two apps, two batteries, two things to mount. Putting the camera in the lock collapses that into one panel and one app — you see who is there and you decide whether the door opens, in the same place.
What you give up is placement. A standalone camera can sit high and wide; a lock camera sees what a peephole sees. If you want coverage of the whole approach, buy a camera as well. If you want to know who is standing at the door right now, this is enough. Our buying guide sets out where each option stops.
Wi-Fi built in versus a gateway
This is the quiet cost difference in the category. A Bluetooth lock reaches your phone from a few metres away and nothing further. To unlock from work, issue a code to a courier or read the access log remotely, it needs a gateway plugged in near the door — roughly a hundred dollars and another device to power.
The camera lock has Wi-Fi on board, so none of that applies. It is the reason it costs more than a lever lock and less than it looks on paper once you have priced a gateway into the alternative.