Reolink PoE CCTV Security Camera Outdoor 5MP Super HD Home
Reolink PoE CCTV Security Camera Outdoor 5MP Super HD Home Surveillance IP Camera with IR Night Vision, Waterproof, Audio, Motion Alerts, Remote Access, Built-in Micro SD Card Slot, RLC-52
    What else needed to get it to work:
RLC-520 PoE CCTV IP Camera Specifications
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Great pictures but not the best mounting method. Don’t try to fix to brick work
The camera looks to have a good IP rating but needs to be fixed to a flat wall
Easy to install with great night vision and detection settings
Great for the price .
I have mine connected via my POE network switch so only one cable needed. All the footage is saved to my Asustor NAS. Really easy to set up and use. Recommended.
This camera would not connect to my hic vision system but looked like a good camera
Quick review, This is a solidly built camera, decent features such as mounting plate and easy positioning. Works with NAS security/surveillance station. Software is better than cheaper cameras.
I didn’t know that it could be set up this way with section areas etc. Also sends files via ftp but would have been nice for sftp instead
Picture quality very good. Night vision huge improvement on the camera it replaced. Very impressed. Big drawback is that it’s not ptz. It wasn’t clear that you had position by hand. If was ptz it would get 6 stars so down to 4.
Awesome system, great motion detection, great user interface on the app and desktop client. RTSP easy to setup. A real breath of fresh air after using an appalling Hikvision system for years. Highly recommend Reolink and so happy I bought them.
Installation was a bit fickle, as the mounting equipment didn’t work great with the ceiling but got there in the end with a bit of fiddling. It runs warm but hopefully this has no impact on the longevity of the product. I really hate the bulky dangling bits as I call them which give you an option of how you want to power it and the reset button. I do wish they made this modular, so you could interchange which cables you want/need and so reducing the overall size of it, as it looks hideous indoors and have yet to come up with a way to cover them up.
I am powering this over PoE with the TP Link SG1008P V4. Ethernet on the camera is only 100 mbps, so if you plan to make a cheap NVR set up with a used PoE 10/100 network switch, you’ll be fine.
It has only been a day of usage but I am happy with the video quality for its use case. Audio isn’t great but is reasonable given the price. The zoom on it isn’t particularly great but at 5 MP, it’s not going to be. Night vision is really good, even in an area which gets minimal to no light gets picked up by the camera indoors.
If looking for a good indoor camera or what I think would be an ok outdoor camera, then this is for you but those dangling extra cables may be worth it to some to spend extra to get something modular. Setting times to record is annoying. It would be nice to have something that allows you to just simply enable or deactivate a schedule, for when on holiday, Etc. What Reolink have instead is either keep a schedule or delete it. You can have multiple schedules but you can’t just turn them off or on when you need to use a particular set schedule, you only have the option of using them all or deleting the ones you don’t want to use currently which is an oversight.
You can also view this camera with a Google device, such as a nest hub but it will stream for about 10-15 min before it just cuts out but it’s a nice feature to have nonetheless.
Would I buy this again or recommend it? Probably, especially given the price. I am looking to get the 4K variant of this for outdoor use when able.
Great value for money and easy to fit if you have POE.
Easy to configure and a great android app.
No need to buy sad memory cards if you have a nas or some other compatible recording system.
The product image is excellent and far better than 1080p.
I would buy more of these.
I have previously rated this system when I first purchased it. I was cautiously optomistic as i had been let down with other systems. However, I needn’t have been. It is perfect for my needs. Simple to install. Reliable connection and easy to pick up activity via alerts. Works quietly in the background and you can add more cameras very easily. Lots of cable (power over ethernet) supplied so should be able to cover most houses without cable extensions. Works with my WiFi with cable connection or power adaptors really well.
Camera worked great but the limited FoV want enough to see my entire garden, returned. The RLC-511 has a much wider FoV if you’re after that.
Superb value and more features than you can wave a stick at. Good integration with NAS systems (e.g. Synology) means you can store continuous video remotely and only use the SD card in the camera for clips triggered by motion which can be accessed easily via the Reolink app. Night vision could be a bit better but that’s not an issue for me as I’m not monitoring an area too far away from the camera. Daytime picture quality, motion detection, and navigation through the app are all very good and in a different league to battery operated cameras I have tried. You can even set sensivity schedules to prevent false alarms during the day caused by tree movements / shadows etc.
I connected it via a 30m ethernet cable (13) and a basic 10 poe injector. For me, a lot less faff than trailing power cables and installing outdoor junction boxes – also means it’s easier to move if you change your mind about best location.
This is my second Reolink purchase to replace my obsolete cameras.
Phylink Solutions made my previous cameras. They went bust and their app stopped sending alert notifications.
I searched long and hard for cameras that were as feature packed as Phylink and Reolink fits the bill perfectly.
If you need to replace your orphaned Phylink or Ucam 247, look no further. Reolink is the one for you.
It does everything the Phylink did but with a better image.
The only criticism I have is that you need to insert an SD card and use FTP if you want to save files to a NAS drive.
Phylink could save files directly to a NAS drive but that’s a tiny inconvenience.
I bought this because I didn’t want to risk a Wi-Fi connection. I have some concerns about security of internet enabled devices so I am using a smart Ethernet switch to isolate it from my home network.
The setup onto phone was simple – download the Reolink app and scan the QR code on the camera.
I now have a second camera and can swap between them or show both together.
It is possible to add up to four privacy rectangles to prevent recording the neighbours (see photo) and you can set areas to avoid alerts.
There are several resolution settings for streaming. The quality is good at high resolution – I can read the number plates of the cars on the drive opposite. On my router video is too jumpy at hi res so I set to “Fluent”. The steaming is smoother, though still with a couple of seconds delay. I find it is still recording and will play back at hi res.
Downsides.
1 The manual. This is very basic and makes no mention of all the feature. The web site does show instructions but you need to know what you are looking for. I had no idea I could use privacy masks or alert areas until I found them looking for something else on the settings menu.
To counter this customer service is very good — emails are helpful and very quick.
2 The app only works on Android, plus I understand also iOS. I can’t use it on Windows or Linux, and if it will stream to my TV I haven’t yet found it.
Nice size units and easy to install, I have three under the house eaves and one one the top of the gable end; they are IP rated so being exposed to the weather should not be an issue. Interestingly although the cameras have PoE they also have an external power connector (if you don’t have PoE) and a reset button. Initially, I installed 32Gb cards into the cameras to allow local storage of the images – this needs to be done before the cameras are physically mounted, it’s quite fiddly.
I loaded the Reolink app onto my PC and upgraded the firmware – nice to see that things are being supported – and set up the cameras. There are quite a number of videos on setting things up but they show outdated interfaces and I could not find a downloadable guide which is my only criticism of the process.
I did have problems with setting up the FTP link to the network storage and was greatly helped by Peter from technical support who over the course of 20 odd e-mails and a good few weeks helped me resolve the problem. It would appear that the cameras and the FTP service on my router (Archer VR900) would not communicate but I eventually used an old Synology NAS and that worked perfectly. So now the cameras store about 3 to 4 days of motion-triggered recordings but copies are also backed up to the NAS which should hold a rolling 30 day back-up.
All said for the price I found these to be good value & would recommend.
Great product, easy set up, well made and app is very good as well. Overall great quality at a very good price. Very difficult to get the motion detection sensitive enough to catch what you want without avoiding false alerts, this model doesn’t support the later more advanced detection for that you need the 520A which is more expensive. Workaround for me is to set motion detection high and turn off alerts when at home. You can set different scenarios so if I’m expecting a delivery I can just turn on the push notification for the front. Easy to search for anything else.
For the price you can’t really go wrong.
Web interface is a little clunky but it offers good configuration for image quality and let’s you modify a low Res and high res video stream.
There is an odd bug with using RTSP and Zoneminder, so I had to use the RTMP stream instead, fortunately someone has written a handy guide on the Reolink sub Reddit.
For the price, you can’t go wrong
I installed a dozen of these superb cameras for security at a sports club over 18 months ago. All cameras run 24×7 and continue to provide superb picture quality day and night and there have been no problems at all despite being exposed to the wide variety of UK weather (sample picture attached).
The cameras are powered using POE with cable runs as long as 90m and record to 2 x NVR. I recently upgraded the firmware so that they continue to be viewable in a browser now that Adobe Flash has been switched off. Many thanks to Doris (UK Reolink support guru) for guiding me through the quick upgrade that was needed.
I have no hesitation in recommending these fantastic quality cameras and the after sales support provided by Reolink.
For the price these cameras are brilliant and really can’t complain for the picture quality and features. What I was impressed with the most was the brilliant quality of the audio, it was surprisingly impressive.
Only disadvantage is the fact the cameras and be easily removed as there is no security screw and they just twist and come off.
Reolink need to look into improving this and they will have a flawless camera
I’ve been really impressed with the Reolink cameras I own. They work properly with standard 15 W IEEE 802.3af power over ethernet (no PoE+ required) and can be set up for use completely offline (no internet required). I have the timestamped video feeds fed back to SecuritySpy, a CCTV recording application for macOS, and they’re very reliable. All the models I own feature a web user interface, which means I’m also not reliant on an app – except for configuring custom NTP servers (a bug which in the latest firmware which has been reported and will hopefully be fixed).
The 5MP image quality is excellent and I prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio of 2560×1920 for CCTV as you can generally see more useful area, plus they tile nicely on an iPad display. They also work extremely well in low light, so much so that I don’t use the infra-red LED lighting. It’s useful for illuminating dark corners but attracts insects in the summer months, so I turn it off where I don’t need it.
The only issue I’ve found is on the rare occasion the CCTV system is restarted it can take some time, sometimes up to 10-15 minutes, for the feeds to re-establish themselves. They always return immediately after being rebooted themselves though, so triggering this from the web interface or the app is fairly trivial. In the meantime the cameras continue to record to their built-in microSD cards, so I always have a backup recording.
Very impressive and affordable, particularly when they pop up on a sale.
I can’t add much more than previous reviewers. Good it, good price. Only one problem on two cameras not powering up from normal supply (Not POE). The 12v connector on the camera loom has a thin pin in the centre for the + connection. I found this to be so thin that it did not make contact when used with two different PSU sockets. Consequently the cameras would not power up at all. There is a simple solution, the pin has a slot down the centre and a thin screwdriver can be inserted to spread the pin open. Just a small amount or it may break. There are no power on indicators on the camera but I found a quick way to establish if power is ON is to cover the lense for a few seconds and the IR LEDs will visually activate. I have added this so others may not have the same merry chase.
Really impressed with this camera even though it’s the older 5mp version. Easy to fit and attach to your network. Motion detection is really good and when configured in the settings it actually makes a difference. I have an 8mp H.View bullet camera and it’s not a patch on this one, mainly down to the software.
I have put a 10 64gb class 10 miniSD card in the cameras. It’s soo easy to view the footage. Reolink have done a great job with their cameras and especially the software. The H.View is going back and I’ve ordered two more of the rlc520 for the same price.
Well done Reolink, you have restored my faith in cheap security cameras.
We now have 4 of these on our 10 camera system. Better sound and picture (day and night) than the RLC-420’s that they work alongside. But 2 of them had moisture in the casings, so fogged up within 4 hours of them being installed.
Reolink suggest removing a bolt from the back of the camera & running it powered indoors for 4 hours as the heat generated by the cameras should evaporate the moisture. It might – but these were brand new, so were replaced under warranty.
This is an excellent security camera for this price range. It works well as a stand alone camera on a wired internal network and the PoE (Power over Ethernet) means a single network cable it all that is needed along with an PoE capable Ethernet switch. I added a small 4 port PoE switch to my network to connect and power this camera. Connecting the camera to the mounting plate is a little fiddly and it is important to have planed the orientation of the plate so the camera can cover the areas required.
Have this camera for 6+ months now
camera is powered powered by tplink poe switch
in overall:
good night vision,
good motion detection
good quality
works with qnap/qvr pro
requires Flash … guys, its 2020 and MS will not support it from December
-1 star for technical/hardware related to protector/sleive/plastic cover that covers RJ45 connector, inner diameter of the rubber ring is a bit too big, so not really IP66 at this point, had to use an electrician’s insulating tape
I got this on special offer and am very pleased with the product. The night vision and quality is way better than expected. POE is definitely the way to go for simple cabling, even if you don’t have an expensive POE switch, an inline POE injector is way simpler than running power and ethernet to a camera.
Be warned that it does not have WIFI, and it is not motorised. The design does make it very simple to point it where you want it though.
I initially just purchesed one of these to test it out before jumping into CCTV and it was a breeze to setup. The PC software is quite good and it was easy setup.
After testing I bough an NVR from Reolink and hooked them together. Some cameras are on the NVR and use that POE, others further away use a seperate PoE switch but all work flawlessly with the NVR and are super quality.
It comes with a poe port, a seperate power port and reset switch. My only gripe would but that these are not detachable at the camera but I understand that though would make the camera more expensive.
I converted to this system from an Arlo wireless system to ensure I had 24/7 recording and no longer missed events being captured. The system is incredibly simple to put together – single POE is the way forward and simply plug into the NVR and the system just works. I had a problem with one camera that had damp inside, but support was very fast and resolved the issue immediately, so very pleased with that too. The motion detection is limited to be honest; moving foliage or flies etc set it off, and if you turn the sensitivity down sufficiently to stop that, it no longer picks up humans! However, with 24/7 recording this is not an issue, and overall I am very pleased.
My Reolink camera has worked great from day one. I have it setup to monitor my car at the front of the house and use the motion detection function. During the day it saves the recordings to my laptop and at night it also sends me an email to say when something has been recorded.
The recording quality is brilliant day and night but I don’t use the night vision setting as I want the camera to be discreet without the LED lights visible. I have a street light directly outside my house anyway so that provides sufficient light for a good image.
I have recently been having problems with the Reolink software on my laptop closing down randomly and therefore not recording anything but an email to customer support quickly sorted that with them sending me a link for some different software to try which is much better than the previous one anyway.
I would highly recommend anyone to purchase Reolink cameras.
It was important to me to have a POE camera, for solid connectivity and a single feed that also powers the camera, plus having a decent video quality. The 5MP lens doesn’t disappoint and while I wasn’t sure how the 80 degree lens would look vs a 120 degree wide angle lens, I was more than happy with the results, giving total coverage to the front of my property. Setup of the camera was easy and I use a Synology NAS for recording. The Synology didn’t have this newer model listed, so I opted for the RLC-420-5MP in the settings and will update it to the correct model when its made available by Synology, but this hasn’t caused any issues. Also the mic on the camera is very good too, which took me by surprise.
I got this on a lightening deal for 42.50 and you can’t go wrong at this price point, for a branded camera such as this. I will be adding more Reolink hardware in the future.
The camera is really good and if you use it with the Android App and a Micro SD card it works fine and does everything you could need. This issue is the mounting bracket uses 3 prongs and a twist mechanism that isn’t thick enough, so when the camera is placed on the mount and twisted, it doesn’t stay put too well, it can freely rotate! I solved b placing a small amount of hot glue around the lip of the mount and camera to stop it rotating of its own accord.
There is a microSD card slot in the camera body to store video/images on board which means that you can run this camera completely standalone without additional recording equipment. Although bear in mind that if your cam gets stolen, you lose your video data too. Constant FTP upload to a NAS is supported as well as connection to a DVR or software (e.g. BlueIris) for external recording.
Once you are connected to the network, you just browse to the ip address of the cam and setup/view using the onboard webpage. From here you can view the cam feed, watch recordings and access settings for a host of features:
– Network settings
– Motion detection
– User management
– Video quality
– Sensitivity
– Brightness/Contrast/Saturation/etc
The night vision is excellent with a long range although be aware of close proximity to light surfaces that can reflect light back and blow the exposure. A ring of red leds are visible around the lens which can act as a useful deterrent in itself by making the cam visible at night.
Motion detection is very sensitive but can be adjusted in the setup page and you can mask off areas to be ignored which seems to be quite effective.
If you’re using the microSD card for storage, a 32gb card will provide around 10 days of recording before it overwrites but this can be automatically saved to a remote location using scheduled FTP uploads.
Integration in Home Assistant (or other home automation software) is very easy using an RTP feed direct from the cam and email/mobile push notifications can be quickly enabled to receive alerts of motion detection. I would make sure you have your trigger sensitivity setup correctly before you do this though as you don’t want your phone going mad over every twitchy blade of grass!
Overall, this is an excellent cam. Either as a replacement for an older unit or as your first dive into home security if you don’t have other recording on your network. Highly recommended.
Set this up with Synology Surveillance Station and it works right out of the box, very easy to configure without instructions providing you know the IP address that it has been given. The title does not do it justice as its not just HD its actually higher res than full HD and it shows particularly in daylight.
I cannot speak for the SD card ability as I do not use it, nor do I use the camera built in motion detection (rather I use the synology to do this), however for the price I really cannot fault it. Compared with a Ubiquiti G3 Pro camera 6 times the price I find the clarify better, the only downside is the field of view is a bit lower so less image is show on a single page.
The only other negative I have is the colour is ugly white, I wish it was in black and hence be less visible. Also not keen on the very much visible branding on the camera.
I paid 39.99 on deal which is excellent value.
Good Camera BUT be aware – if you are hoping to use these cameras with Alexa then think again – the Alexa skill is only available on the US store NOT UK – Reolink Customer services says they are working on it but obviously not quick enough !
Bought this for monitoring the premises and it was a doddle to get it connected to our home network. But drilling a 30mm hole in the brick wall 44cm deep was another matter 12ft up a ladder.
The motion detection takes a bit of trial and error to get right as it seems to trigger when shadows are cast in changeable sunlight. Rain also sets off the motion tracking too along with insects and spiders.
The app is dead easy to set up and use though. Just needs a bit of time adjusting the settings.
This camera gives very good quality video in day and night and works reliably, it is crucial that resolution is very high so can see all the details and optical zoom is not necessary. The only thing I had to change to get 100% reliability is to alter video settings (resolution stays as maximum as 2560×1920, but frames per second I reduced to 22, and maximum bitrate to 3072), otherwise I was not able to download all videos in Android app, but, I am not sure what was the reasons, maybe my network cables not very good or other camera issues. With this setup I am getting almost 3 weeks of hi-res recordings alerts on the 64GB card, which is just enough for my needs, but I will install FTP server in the future to increase storage.
This camera is working both methods POE and power adapter works fine and recording video on 64GB SD card no problems, but the real problem is that motion detection is quite poor, I can obtain two disappointing results: first scenario is at about 20% sensitivity detecting only cars movements on car park but not humans despite excellent good view and proximity, second scenario is at setting around 40%, then humans are detected but also I am getting constant alerts and (video recording to the card) in daytime it is mainly from shades on car park surface from nearby trees or moving clouds at but at night is not much better, I think at night it pickup mainly the dust from the air and flies to trigger the alarm very often. I would like to have the camera which require the same setup but have more reliable motion detection. I think I would need camera with human detection algorithm and with proximity sensor.
Also I noticed during installation that camera cable could restrict its movement range by colliding with the hinge so it is in this case necessary to rotate camera housing by about 45 degrees during installation process in order to avoid interference between cable and hinge mechanism.
Application for Android and PC works fine. But I had to restrict motion alerts area and switch off all notifications about the motion alerts in order to have reasonable setup.
Bought to use with a synology diskstation – works perfectly with brilliant picture quality, and a very good mobile app too. Night vision works very well out to about 40 feet away from the camera.
Notes:
– it’s a metal camera body and base (with plastic mountings instead – really solid look and feel, I was surprised how weighty it is).
– I used a TPLink POE injector to supply power so it only needed a single externally rated Ethernet cable run out to the mount point.
– There’s a single cable out of the camera that splits into 3 – power, Ethernet and reset. A small cheap junction box allows you to conceal all of these in a 4in by 4in box.
– Get the camera set up on the app first so you can check the position before you mount it. Then tack the cable back into the house.
– On the synology Reolink is selectable on the Surveillance Station but doesn’t work – use ONVIF and it’ll detect it no problem. I don’t know why!
– I had planned on only using the synology for the alerting but the app / alerts are almost instant, so have ordered a high endurance Micro SD card to install in the camera so I can get playback directly from the app (no card limits you to live stream only)
I needed a couple of cameras to attach to my Synology NAS and it’s built-in Surveillance Software. I wanted something simple and robust. As I wanted an easy to setup solution I bought a couple of PoE Injector Adapters, so I wouldn’t need a separate power cable.
Installation was very simple, the Reolink App makes it a breeze. After that is was fairly easy to get my Synology NAS to recognize them too, as the Reolink website has simple and accurate installation guides.
Very happy now, night vision is good. From un-boxing to working took about 30 minutes total to get both cameras up and running with the NAS. The cameras seem solid and well made.
I bought one of the Reolink RLC-420 cameras i was very pleased with the build and quality of the unit after putting it up and seeing the quality of the results over the next few weeks i knew i had to cover two more spots so ordered the other two i now have all three up and working and i can’t believe what a view i have right round my house and hall in HD i can also view on my smart phone were ever i am up to the minute views around my house also via the SD card i installed in each camera i have 24 hr recording from each camera that i can review at a later time i also get push notifications right to my iPhone of any Motion Detection to sum up i am very pleased with the setup i have.
It works well and connects by POE really easily. The lense is very wide angle and where we have positioned it (under the roof of a 2 storey building) is probably too high to be useful for facial recognition etc. Also possibly because we have it pointing down on to concrete with a line of bushes to one side, when it is windy and sunny we have found iit difficult to mask and set the motion detection to teh righty level. Too insensitive and I was able to walk right across t without triggering, too sesnsitive and every leaf movement is activating it. We haven’t had these issues with a lower level camera angled differently.
So in summary great tech and we like their products overall, but this camera, in this location wasn’t the right choice.
I bought 6 of these cameras. The cameras are well constructed and feel like quality products. The video quality is great at both night and day times. The set up of these is pretty simple and streight forward for the most part.
The phone app seems to work great for remote live viewing. I haven’t had an issue with this at all.
I have a windows pc running their client which is there to record and upload to my cloud drive. The client its self is really simple, looks nice and does the job when it works. However, I get random crashes from this client and it seems to just shut off at random points. This then stops any recording. I have received good customer service trying to solve the problem, but unfortionatly have had to resort to using a 3rd party client application to get reliable recording.
Other than this, very happy with the product.
This has been a completely different experience. It was easy enough to mount and setup via POE (remember you need your own injector for this). Downloaded the app, scanned the QR code and all was setup. Internal and external access worked perfectly from day one. Quality is clear, have no issues with that.
My only issue might be the fact that the SD card slot is difficult to get access to once mounted. I had the SD card setup working then one day it couldn’t be detected and therefore had to remove it, place it back in, format it and now it is working again. Hopefully, this won’t happen again. You don’t have to have the SD card installed but it allows you to setup alerts and playback on your phone.
I also have the camera setup to record on my QNAP NAS and had no issues with this.
Motions sensors was also easy enough to setup, takes a bit of fiddling to get right, especially with the sensitivity but this would be the same on any camera.
Highly recommended.
We purchased this camera to replace HIKVISION. As we use Synology Surveillance Station the compatibility was one of the deciding factors.
Overall the camera os excellent! Great night vision, motion detection and normal light picture quality. One quibble I have is with the web based software on the camera. Why, just why, do vendors in 2019 insist on using Adobe Flash – none of our web browsers (and yes we have all installed) is enabled for Adobe Flash. That is the reason for reducing to 4 stars.
I got this on a great price from Amazon, got it home, hooked up my TP Link POE plug adapter for data to the router and bought the TP LINK Injector to handle the power to the camera whilst gathering data too.
Picture quality is good, the application is good and very easy to set up, literally a couple minutes and boom we were on the road.
I had a spare Micro SD card upstairs which I hooked up into the top and now I have the recording capability too.
I’m very happy with my purchase.
I wanted to add another camera to the system and bought the Reolink based on the reviews on Amazon. I am really impressed with this camera.
It took a while to integrate it into my existing system but that was down to me. Once I managed to add the camera I realised I should have just used these cameras on my entire system.
The quality of the picture is very good and the App is much better than the Hikvision version. The App is easy to navigate and finds the camera automatically on your network.
The camera also records sound which none of my other cameras have this facility.
The camera doesn’t need to connect to a NVR and can record directly onto a SD card then playback on the App or PC application. If a NVR is not being used then a network switch would be used that has POE.
Overall I can’t fault the camera. Just wish I had come across it sooner.
To say I’m pleased with the quality would be an understatement. The flexibility of installation with the choice between a regular 12V DC supply or PoE is a real problem solver, and the package as a whole very good.
The wires coming off the camera are annoyingly bonded together which makes through-wall installation a bit of a pain as you need to drill a 25mm hole to have any chance of pulling all the connectors through, but in instances where you’re close to the roofline and can tuck the cables through the eaves – effortless.
My only slight question is about why they give you a boot to help waterproof the network cable, when the DC connector and switch don’t have anything similar. I installed using a junction box in one site to get around this, but really the network cable boot is pointless on its own.
As mentioned these work with Synology Surveillance Station perfectly well including pass-thru of motion detection events and the like, but Reolink also have quite a slick feeling (compared to other CCTV solutions anyway) desktop client and mobile app, all of which were extremely easy to set up even by my partner be herself on her phone (sorry, not being sexist, she just isn’t anything like the geek I am).
Even so, 5* without hesitation for picture quality vs price. So good I went back and bought more.
First the negatives – which are all pretty minor.
– Pretty easy to install, although I couldn’t find the size of drill bit required for the rawlplug (I think I used 5mm) so a little experimentation required.
– On the dome cameras, it would be useful to have an up/down arrow for lens orientation.
– Weatherproof connector for the POE RJ45 is a little un-intuitive, but youtube solved that.
– The three lead pigtail is quite bulky and looks untidy. I’ll end up enclosing the end in an enclosure as there’s no way to make it look tidy.
The pluses.
– Easy to setup
– Great image quality (I can see my fish swimming in the pond at night for example)
– POE works really well. Got a cheap 16 port POE switch from a no-name Chinese brand. Worked first time.
Software wise, I want 24/7 recording and have settled on NX Witness. 4 recorder license is a few hundred quid (which effectively doubles the price of the whole setup) but it seems to be great software compared to free stuff. The client hammers my laptop, but the actual recording (to a VM) is very lightweight.
Would recommend these to anyone looking for POE cameras.
I already had the POE cable in place for the old camera (run off a cheap 10 injector) and as a bonus, even the screw holes aligned with the old one which was mounted under the eaves of my house. I have to say the one I had before was a poor upscaled picture quality but it some respects the design was more professional than this. The mounting and alignment of this was difficult due to the main POE cable being attached to main ball/camera in the middle. It depends on the angle you ran the cables at, but I found I was fighting the tension on cables when adjusting the position, so badly it was starting to stress the cable.
Its a solid feeling metal design but has the ball and socket design like old webcams, and I worry about the plastic tab on the front is all that’s locking it in position. The SD card slot has a proper screwed in weather proof cover over it and I am not using it, but its a useful extra feature. I knew I wanted a “turret” design after IR reflections inside the dome camera ruined the night time image quality. I am happy to say this has none of those problems and the IR is very powerful too. The daytime picture quality is great and there is a significant, noticeable upgrade over the previous 1080P camera. Someone I know has installed a lot of different IP cameras and commented on how good the image quality was.
Bear in mind the greater bandwidth needed for streaming and recording 2K footage. 1 or 2 cameras is fine, but if you have 4 or more like this…I know some people route a separate network JUST for their IP cameras. My router stats show my 3 IP cameras account for 50% of the bandwidth on my entire network! Note, that remote streaming 2K over your home broadband and/or 4G is usually too much, I often have to reduce the quality to 1080 in these circumstances
I didn’t use the software or the app so I can’t comment on that but I did configure the camera at my desk using the built in web interface which works well. I actually paired this with my BlueIris DVR software running on my Windows server and it discovered it via ONVIF with no issues.
I dropped a star for the installation / cable design issue (not a problem my dome or bullet cameras) and the prominent plastic securing tab on the front which I think could have been done better. Also the IR is very powerful as i said and actually glares off number plates and shiny surfaces but I suspect that is a common problem. However, its been 24/7 reliable so far which is an important difference over my old cameras.
Overall great purchase at the price, and the most important part, the picture quality is excellent.