REOLINK 12MP PoE IP Camera Outdoor, 97° Wide Angle Dome Security Camera for Home Surveillance, Human/Vehicle/Pet Detection, 700lm Color Night Vision, 2 Way Talk, Up to 256GB microSD Card, RLC-1224A

Nice Camera – Nice (fully articulating) mount.
I have 2 of these now and am about to round out my needs with 2 more. A few comments.I’ve watched s few reviews of prior releases/firmware perhaps of the 1212A from 2022 (nearly a year before I write this on 03-JUL-23 and can say the reviews were thorough BUT the camera has apparently evolved since the 2022 timeframe. Those items that held it back int he reviews are mostly gone and very much improved.First let me state that your milage will vary based on your surroundings… my notes below are from a heavily treed neighborhood where people tend to keep lights off at night unless a motion detector triggers one… there is a single soft yellowish tree light on the stretch — so not a brightly lit environment at night.Comparing side by side with my RLC-811A I can say the picture is sharper but I wouldn’t say the differences is a “WOW” factor… UNTIL NIGHT ROLLS AROUND! The 1224A is able to run in color mode with ambient light with a usable image (motion does blur in the lowest of light) whereas the 811A just inches away from the 1224A is too dark to be useful like this even for still views.Going to black & white mode (still ambient — without allowing IR spotlights) the 1224A pulls farther ahead with a sharp image that extends well beyond the range of the 811A which performs better here than it did in color mode. The 1224A has an extra 60-80+ feet of usable range in this scenario.Lastly turning on the infrared spotlight the 1224A leaps ahead and has a sharp image and surpasses the range of the 811A by 100+ feet.One last thing. A reviewer previously stated that the mounting is not flexible and I was almost put off by this post (but PRIME returns gave me the confidence to try the camera). I can state with certainty that this camera is every bit as flexible as every other turret cam out there. While the other reviewer’s notes of the 3 positions for locking to the mount are correct there is a 360 degree rotation at a seam about 1/8 inch from the mount. It is stiff (as it should be to ensure it doesn’t move under any circumstances but the turret DOES rotate completely on the mount. The camera ball within the turret moves up/dow 90 degrees and twists fully so that it can be positioned to any angle. It fits securely against ‘fingers’ which provide tension to hold it steady after adjustment.The camera has a good mounting system (no restrictions as another comment noted) good picture and at the price currently only a little more than the 4K cameras it is a great value.

Good camera at entry level price, one caveat for ipad users
I purchased three of these cameras and an NVR to create a simple network of security footage to cover my driveway / side of house. I did the entire project myself without the need of a professional (I am handy though). Overall, these are a good solution for the average homeowner.Pros – Great image quality for the price. The camera’s also have a fairly wide viewing angle. When recording on “High”, you can zoom in and read a license plate, see a face (pretty good), etc. Note that this model in particular does not have optical zoom. They sell some that do and they might be clearer when zoomed in.Installation was simple and the cameras were automatically detected by the NVR, without needing to use QR codes and bluetooth standing outside near the camera. The settings are fairly straight forward and there are a lot of options for users to tweak.The camera can distinguish between a car and a person and a pet. I disabled pet, to prevent a random rabbit or racoon from setting them off, but the camera easily tells me if it detected a person or a vehicle. You can record 24/7 or just motion.The app for playback is not insanely intuitive, but it’s good enough. You can find the footage you are looking for. On a computer, you can filter by motion types. So if you’re looking for people only, it will give you a little mark at the timestamp where a person was detected.Cons – The biggest con (for me) is there is a poor landscape mode on an iPad. This m,ay be minor for most users, but for my use case, we have an iPad mounted in the hallway that we use to control all the smart home stuff. It’s landscape. Because the Reolink app is awkward in landscape, it’s awkward on that device. Should you hold the device in Portrait, it’s fine.Sometimes on playback, the video is chopping. But it’s important to note that the RECORDING ITSELF IS NOT choppy. Just playback on a phone. You can download the clip to your device and it’s smooth as butter. Or, watch it on a laptop and it will be better as well using the Reolink Desktop Client.The cables do have a nice interface for connecting to cat6 outdoors, but there are a few extra dongles there for external power (optional) and something else. It’s not super clean looking if you have that cable outside your home. You can ziptie it together and it’s fine. For one of my cameras, I was able to drill a 3/4″ hole straight through the Hardy Board and all the connections were made in the attic. VERY clean look.Sometimes there is a SLIGHT lag when viewing livestream (maybe 3 seconds). I use this now in my office to monitor a door with a bell, so we notice the delay in that instance. For security around the home, you’d never notice.In summary, I am happy with this system. The POE is nice. Setup is easy and features are packed. The cameras record in good quality and I think it will meet my needs as a homeowner / end user perfectly. Price was reasonable for the quality. Recommended.

Beware of USED camera sold as “new”! – UPDATED with remediation
Updated review:Reolink contacted me to offer me a full refund and suggested that someone may have returned the used camera and categorized it as “new”. I have no evidence to support this but Reolink did send several messages that spoke directly to my issue. These were not “boilerplate” messages so I commend them for their efforts to defend their brand.The replacement camera I received was indeed brand new and is currently working very well. I am using it with Blue Iris and with a few tweaks to the ONVIF settings it is stable and is providing a great image. I’d recommend this camera and a, therefore giving a 5-star rating.My original review:Just received this camera. The box was sealed so I cut the seal and opened it – and found a dirty, USED camera inside! Documentation and parts were missing and all the connectors were dirty.The worst part was the seal, and if you look closely in my photo you’ll see that there was ANOTHER seal covered over by the one I saw when I opened the box!This was sold by “Reolink Direct” so they are purposely re-selling used products as new! Buyer Beware!I’m willing to give them a mulligan on this one so I’m going to return it and see what they send me as a replacement. If I get another used item you’ll hear about it here and that will be the last Reolink product for me.PS – I didn’t even get to try the camera so I gave it 1 star until I receive my replacement

The 93 angle is small but that was known. Image quality very good both day and night

I invested in reolink a few years ago and have their 5MP camera which have excellent day time capacity but sub par night use. Higher resolution cameras were not available at that time. Recently my car was broken into and the night footage was unusable. I have purchased this 12MP camera which had built in sensor spotlight, microphyand speaker and a warning siren. It is plug and play compatible with my existing Reolink NVR and the image quality is outstanding. In night b&w the image is crisp, when the sensor spotlight comes on the image reverts to full colour and is exceptional. This has been an excellent purchase and upgrade.