Reolink Security Camera Outdoor Wireless, Argus Eco + Solar
Reolink 2K Solar Powered Security Camera Outdoor, Argus Eco + Solar Panel, Battery Operated CCTV Camera Wireless with 3MP Night Vision, AI Detection, 2-Way Audio, WiFi Security Camera Works with Alexa
From the brand
CCTV STSTEM
| Weight: | 1.1 kg |
| Size: | 1 Count (Pack of 1) |
| Dimensions: | 11.1 x 7.1 x 7.1 cm; 1.1 Kilograms |
| Model: | Argus Eco+SP |
| Part: | EU-Argus Eco w solar-SR2 |
| Colour: | (1) White |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | Yes |
| Batteries Included: | Lithium Ion |
| Manufacture: | Reolink |
| Dimensions: | 11.1 x 7.1 x 7.1 cm; 1.1 Kilograms |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Size: | 1 Count (Pack of 1) |
This is my 2nd one in this range the previous was slightly longer in length , but having said that the set was the same,had an issue with the wifi athough I live in a fairly modest 1900s terrace house wifi did not give out a stronger enough signal so I had to move the router closer to the camera and use a wifi extender to get the camera to connect ,when my previous camera worked ok ,but saying that the build quality of the camera is excelle
The camera and solar panel were easily put up and connected to each other. Setting it up on my phone and via my Wi-Fi was fairly straightforward. After a little bit of tweaking with the camera settings it all seems to be working well.
This is my second Reolink camera setup and so far I’m pleased with both.
I didn’t install the solar panel and have been impressed with how long battery lasts with it.
It seems to be well proofed too with no damage from lots of rain. Easy to operate with app.
I contacted reolink directly through their website and got to chat with an actual human who understood my issue and investigated.
All I could do was show them pictures etc as I was not in the same country as the camera was.
My issue was investigated and resolved very quickly so I have to give them a shout out as a company who had great support who actually try to help and understand the situation at hand. Makes me guaranteed to buy from them again. And in general their products are excellent from my experience
The camera is brilliant. The recordings are clear even at night. So easy to install. Great value for money
Camera works fine but the charging seems to be a problem
Really easy to install and gives a great picture. Well-thought-out product. I bought one of these before and came back for a second one.
Unsure of hotmail etc but try stick with Gmail and open an email account if you don’t have one youl save hours of messing
I purchased this camera in October of 2019. It has been through the relentless beating sun, 45 degree heat, torrential rain, high speed winds, snow, frost and even a small tornado which damaged several sheds in the village! It has stood through the harshest weather that England can throw at it and still operates the same as day one. I cannot fault it. Anyone wondering if it’s worth the money, it absolutely is. I will buy another, without hesitation, the day it stops working. It is impressively indestructible.
I ise these to provide a live link to a blindspot I used to have. I have 4 reolink cams and they all sync to the same app which is very simple to set up. The night vision is fantastic and detailed.
Fitted to a 2nd home, so gives us 24 hour visibility when we’re not there. Links well to the app, plenty of options. Bought a micro SD card so we can look back at recordings where necessary. The solar panel is a great idea, never less than 95% charged. All in all a superb camera. I also bought the zero link Argus PT for the rear of the property which overlooks a lake. We can pan, tilt and zoom the camera to see the goings on upon the water, as well as keep an eye on security.
Huge fan of this product. Purchased it over a year again and have only charged it once in that period. Great picture and easily to use app to view same
This is the second of these cameras I have purchased, I am very pleased with them. I am happy with the picture quality and found the ability to use a talk feature very good. I would recommend these cameras.
First one wouldn’t physically accommodate the mini so card. Was readily replaced. I have since bought a second one. Both were not easy to connect to the Wi-Fi for some reason. There is a lengthy troubleshooting solutions section , so I suspect this is fairly common! I found it was simply repetition and eventually it connected. Time will tell if the battery life being charged by solar power, will have a decent life span. App has useful features and it was interesting to view the recording as to who was passing our fairly isolated house at 3 in the morning! Worth the money.
Purchased this camera with solar panel a year ago and so far it has performed faultlessly. The camera is perfect for overnight monitoring over 10 to 12 hours, however is not suitable for anyone requiring 24/7 monitoring. The installation and set up of the camera are very easy even for those with little technical knowledge. As others have noted the aerial if installing viewing left can foul the camera body this was overcome by mounting beneath a horizontal shelf style mount. Followed this purchase with an Argus 2E on which the battery failed after 6 months. E mailed Reolink through Amazon had a reply 2 hours later and 36 hours later received a new camera though had to pay to return the defective one within UK. To date have been pleased with the cameras purchased their performance, quality and Reolink customer service. Would recommend
What a pity the cameras are good but had issue with solar panel dying and asked for a new solar panel unfortunately the seller did not accommodate me as they want me to send the whole camera back at a cost to me of 40 euros the solar panel is 24 euros to buy. The say they have no carriers to give me a return label and I have to pay. This is after 1 hr on chat
Good camera if you don’t have to deal with selletb
Pity about their customers care
I bought two of these cameras to cover the rear garden and due to where they were going they needed to be wireless with solar charging.
The cameras themselves are well made and in HD provide a really crisp and clear picture. When you have to drop the resolution they are still OK but not like HD, more on that later.
Both sets of mountings are sturdy and firmly grip the camera or solar panel. It even comes with a strap and plate so you can easily fix it to objects that you dont want to drill into (posts, trees etc). They are easy to install and set up.
For storage, I am using Kingston Canvas Select Plus 64 GB Class 10 cards but TBH so long as you use good quality memory cards from a reputabele company you should be fine. Just avoid the cheaper/budget brands.
The big negative is to do with the way that the cameras handle their its WiFi connection. It does not seem to matter how good your WiFi is, the cameras will usualy report one problem or another. You will get repeated messages stating Playback Failed only for the next recording to work fine. When watching a live stream, it always suggests that you drop the video quality down from HD to Fluent…. regardless of the network. When looking for recording you will frequently encounter a delay as it refreshes itself. This is SO annoying and totally unneccersary. Hopefully it’s something they can sort out in the future.
Am I happy that I bough them? Yes, but only becasue I have others installed which are worse.
In short, if they could fix the slow WiFi spped then these would have been an easy 5 stars. As it is they only get 4 due to the poor way it handles WiFi.
Great camera, great night vision. However, no point using the solar panel because you have to open the waterproof socket to plug it in making the camera not safe for wet weather. So I let the battery drain over 2 weeks and take the camera off the bracket and recharge via usb indoors
I got this for my mums house to deter the cold caller con men. The camera with solar panel works well and I am hoping the solar panel keeps it charged. If you buy one of these, the lead from the solar panel is a bit long and I would recommend also buying some cable ties to tie the cable so it doesn’t flap in the breeze and raise false alarms. Where the cable plugs into the back of the camera it is not really weatherproof so I would recommend some blue tack or similar to stop the water ingress. I h have also zip tied some plastic (cut from the lid of an ice cream container) to further keep the rain off the back of the camera. The ice cream was nice too 🙂
We have three of these cameras linked to an external (Ubiquiti) WiFi access point that are used to monitor livestock. They have been reliably beaming images back over 150m through a broken tree line all summer.
I have switched the motion detection off as they animals just run the batteries down with their night time wanderings but they have been excellent for checking in on lambs and any suspicious noises during the night.
We did have issues with a 3rd camera but the customer services team at Reolink have been really helpful performing technical checks and then once it was agree the camera was faulty providing a replacement.
1) I didn’t want to pay for a cloud storage subscription. You simply pop the microSD card in the camera body, and can access footage on demand (or when alerted).
2) The camera runs on a rechargeable battery meaning it can be positioned anywhere as long as it has a reliable WiFi signal.
3) The system comes with a solar panel, which did tick the boxes for me as I would rather be ‘green’ and keep my energy costs down.
The camera was fairly easy to install on my wall, and adjust to the right angle. There are lots of configurations available. One I certainly had to tweak was the alert sound when motion is detected as it was too ‘alarming’, I was able to change to something a bit more subtle.
Update: After having the camera for just over 3 months, the camera alerted me that the battery is getting low. On closer inspection, the camera was not charging either from the solar panel, or from a DC charger plugged in direct to it. Reolink support replied promptly and have sent me a replacement camera, the only snag is I have to pay for return postage costs of returning the item under RMA.
Was reasonably easy to connect to my WiFi, using the Reolink App. Picture quality is what you would expect for a 1080p image. The support team were good at sorting out a minor issue I had connecting this camera to a Echo Show 8. My only issue is that it takes about four attempts to get the camera to load the image into the App on my phone, just keeps saying “connection failed”, this is very frustrating and is a camera issue not an issue with my WiFi. I have three Reolink cameras and all have the same “connection failed” problem, even though I have a good WiFi signal and the cameras are in different locations relative to the router. They do connect eventually. Charging with the solar panel, is effective providing there is adequate sun light, but I don’t know what the situation will be in the winter months (have to wait and see on that one). I can not rate the detection ability, since the camera is indoors looking through a window and therefore the infrared motion detection does not function. All in all a well made camera. Reolink need to improve the connection with the App situation.
I have bought and installed 3 of these cameras in the last year, 2 from Amazon, 1 from Reolink. They are inexpensive, easy to install and have good picture quality for wireless at this price point, but do have limitations.
Obviously you can’t run these 24/7. They rely on a solar panel to keep the battery charged and are activated by motion detection. Someone walking directly towards the camera will probably not activate the motion sensor; it is triggered by movement across the plane of view. There is a lag from activation to record, so you can miss an event entirely. The APP is decent, when it works. It seems to be disrupted by other wireless equipment and will not always connect first time. It will record to a micro SD card in the camera. With perseverance you can connect to a TV with Alexa or a PC with Reolink software. Neither is perfect and times out after 5 minutes. I don’t want to be too critical. The picture quality is impressive for the money. But TBH, on balance the negatives can outweigh the positives, depending on why you need it. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and go for a wired system. Finally I recommend you buy from Amazon and not direct from Reolink because the return process is easier if there any issues (my 3rd from Reolink is a real pain to link to the APP and I still don’t understand why).
Updated Dec.15, 2020. I’ve continued to monitor the performance and been in touch with Reolink Support. The rating has been increased by one star based on the picture quality, reliability and product support. Balance the ease of installation versus the performance needed. I’m considering the Reolink POE 4K camera systems. I recommend You Tube reviews by LifeHackster for more info.
Update
Had a problem that the solar panel was not charging properly. Emailed the company ..got a reply in an hour and received a replacement by Amazon in 2 days. Battery is now charging perfectly.. What an amazing service/company/product..Well Done!!!
Relatively simple to setup with the Reolink application. The software seems to actually have been written specifically for Reolink, and not some dodgy white label Chinese software.
The image quality is okay, claims to support 1080p yes, but its a low quality 1080 (which is not a problem as it more than adequate for a CCTV camera), also 720p if you want to reduce bandwidth while streaming. There is a 8-12sec delay when connecting from mobile and Echo, but PC app connects very fast.
Once setup you can access the camera over your WiFi. If you create a Reolink login account you can use Reolink cloud to view the camera while away from home or to share with friends, family or to connect with devices like Amazon Echo Show.
There is also a 10-12sec image time lag behind when streaming. However, when you install a micro SD card this seems to improve playback, and you are able to playback the time/clips you may have missed.
The Reolink shines when the SD card is installed. The motion detection will record directly to the SD card no need for PC or mobile. You can then used the Reolink software to view recordings directly from the camera. If setup you get notifications when motion is detected and you can then view the recording of what happened. Again there is a 8-12sec between the motion detected an the actual recording being started.
There is a black and white image mode to reduce bandwidth etc, but this does not seem to work well with night vision. However, colour night vision is excellent.
The arm for mouthing the camera is not great, build quality is good. But found it not easy or flexible enough to position camera easily. The solar panel setup is excellent and easy to setup and connect to camera.
Still testing to see if the solar panel can keep the camera charged. But so far it’s seems to be charging a bit.
Really good product, only problem is the image lagging. But given the power management needs to run from a relatively small solar panel this is probably to be expected.
Recently there have been reports of cars being broken into locally, hence my interest in this device. It took me about 25 minutes to install the camera and solar panel (included). Connecting it to our Wi-Fi was fairly straightforward, but getting it to send emails to my Gmail account was certainly not straightforward. On the plus side the image from the camera is acceptable, both day and night. However, setting appropriate sensitivity for the PIR sensor takes a little doing (fiddling).. this involved my other half parading about, both within the area we wanted triggering to occur and nonchalantly passing by on the pavement. There is unfortunately no way of defining areas that the camera ignores (does not trigger), such as pavement. There is also an alarm sound that can be set to play when movement is detected, but it was highly annoying when it sounds several times when, for example going to the dustbin. I did stick some sellotape over the speaker to shut it up a bit, but it was driving us bonkers. So in conclusion, reasonable image quality, but needs a few more features and settings in software.
I use the camera inside my home to monitor it during extended periods away. It’s set up to send me an email and a snapshot when the sensor is triggered. I can then watch recorded footage remotely. Battery life is excellent (still 80% charge after 2 months). Daytime viewing is crystal clear and night vision is sufficient. The Reolink app (installed on my iPad) is user-friendly and allows for a wide range of remote settings and adjustments. I can’t comment on the solar panel since I’ve not used it (the camera is indoors). Anyone wondering whether to buy this camera should look at the Reolink support site — it’s clear from the clarity and detail of the guidance there that Reolink is a quality company with good customer support.
I really like the app and PC client – both if which are free. I may try setting up an smb share on an old and to store the recordings on.
You can configure 3 recipients for notifications.
Only downside so far is that you cannot define motion detection zones. Basically any movement in the entire picture could trigger an alarm – so you need to be careful where you are going to point it. There is a a sensetivity setting which seems to limit he distance from the camera at which motion is detected.
2.4G Wi-Fi range could be better but I solved this with mesh devices strategically placed in the right places.
Battery drains quite quickly during capture, so solar connection (or another power source with micro USB) is essential.
There is about 10sec delay when viewing a camera in 1080p mode on Echo Show.
However, they have two major drawbacks:
The first being the lag time from detection to record, this is about four seconds which may not seem a lot but it often (usually) causes the camera to miss the subject completly.
The second is that the software keeps insisting I switch to Fluent video mode due to my poor network quality, even when I’m at home on the same network! This mode is the lower quality video mode with which you wouldn’t even recognise your own partner let alone a stranger.
Furthermore, they frequently fail to connect to my phone for playback in either mode, Clear or Fluent. Stop / starting the phones App sometimes helps but not always. In an attempt to fix this I purchased a Wi-fi extender from Amazon and plugged it into a socket on the inside of an outside wall. Both cameras now being less than four metres away. Same issue. So I purchased a new Wi-fi router from Amazon. Same issue. So I upgraded my internet to full fibre including another new router. Same issue. So. I purchased a new mobile phone, yep, from Amazon. Same issue. I therefore deduce that the cameras Software / Firmware is a bit flakey, hopefully Reolink will address theses issues sooner rather than later.
Other than those issues, a decent camera.
The night vision, however, is a bit weak. Although it does work in the dark, the I.R LED’s are possibly too much for the CCD to manage.
You get an image, but I’d defy anyone to pick out detail and if your brickwork isn’t the usual red variety, it will over-fluoresce. I’ve decided to stick some tape on a coupe of the I.R’s to see if that helps. It may be better if there was a way to dim the I.R’s but for the price paid, it’s genuinely a bargain. The solar charging works as advertised, even on overcast days.
There is quite a long latency from camera to screen, I suspect most won’t worry about that and the detection works well and (so far) no false alarms.
Hooking it up to a Fire TV is easy, but make sure you activate the Cloud Smart Home option or Alexa won’t find it.
One thing to be aware of, unless you’re in America, Canada, NZ etc., there’s ***NO CLOUD BACKUP***.
You can’t pay for it, and the free service is not available. What this means it that if someone can get your camera, you lose the camera and the video of them steaming it too. There’s also no API which you can address the camera from so that you can automate the download of video to a local computer.
Update Mar 2020. Bought June 19. Camera stopped working. I noticed condensation on the lens obviously caused by an ingress of water. I contacted Reolink. They asked me to send photos and upon receipt they immediately sent me out a replacement unit. You can be confident of a 5 star after sales service from Reolink. I highly recommend this company as you can buy from them with confidence.