Reolink = Marmite ?

Tempest

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As I'm still on the fence/up in the air, things I've bought and another thing on order, and seems destined to never have one thing that does it all....

The question..... Reolink.

It seems a very Marmite product. Some people love Reolink for their performance, ease of use, reasonable app and good price for the specs.
Other people seem to scream from the rooftops, never ever to buy any reolink product.
It's very odd.
I know reolink stuff only really wants to work with other Reolink stuff, and I understand that upsets many who are really into this topic.

I will always try and keep an open mind on these things, and not hate.
Looking at some individual YouTubers Reolink reviews, with footage, I will admit, in general it looks pretty reasonable.

Just been looking at a review on the indoor 4MP model, for around £50 with pan/tilt and looks much better image quality than from the typical home big name cameras at twice the price.

Currently struggling to know why so many seem not to like the brand.
 
I got a reolink for the front my my house. A 5mp. Think it was the 420 model. It was on amazon for 39.99. I've got to say, for the price it's excellent. Nowhere near as good as my darkfighter turrets, but as I said, for the money and ease of installation (just connected it to my synology), it's great.
 
I got a reolink for the front my my house. A 5mp. Think it was the 420 model. It was on amazon for 39.99. I've got to say, for the price it's excellent. Nowhere near as good as my darkfighter turrets, but as I said, for the money and ease of installation (just connected it to my synology), it's great.

Thanks for that.

I don't want to mess companies around, but I would love to have say a 8MP 4K Hikvision and Reolink side by side and see what they are like for comparison.
 
I’ve always been fairly impressed with their kit. I currently only have one of their cameras, the Argus 2 rechargeable. Reliable, great WiFi range and battery lasts months. App is better than most.
 
I’ve always been fairly impressed with their kit. I currently only have one of their cameras, the Argus 2 rechargeable. Reliable, great WiFi range and battery lasts months. App is better than most.

Thanks for that.
Reading posts over time this is the feeling I get.
You have people who seem to really like Reolink, it's range of camera's, it's quality and price.
And you also have a group that says don't go anywhere near it, and all the good reviews are fake.

I get part of this may well be due to the fact that you are locked into buying Reolink camera;s for the Reolink NVR.

It's just piqued my interest, and I'd be interested in getting say a Reolink and Hikvision camera and the apps, and see for myself.
I would expect Hikvision should be better for image and flexibility, but Reolink for price and ease of use.
I guess it depends how better or worse either is to see what's most important for you.
 
Just wanted to add a comment.
I was looking around at indoor camera's and out of the blue I thought I'd email Reolink just with a couple of questions.
I will admit to being VERY impressed with customer service.
I ended up sending 3 emails to and fro, and each time within half a day ish, I got a very polite reply exactly answering my questions.
This is in stark contrast to another firm where It's been like getting blood out of a stone getting any replies back.
Whilst I have to concrete plans, I will say, having someone correctly answer emails directly back to you, with actual proper replies (not just cut/paste out of some manual) really counts for a LOT.
 
I have 2 x Reolink 410-5mp I believe (POE). For what I paid I am very happy with them, day and night recordings are in my opinion very good but I have nothing to compare them to as they are my first and only CCTV cameras. The motion detection is not great, even on the lowest setting I get false alarms. I have them connected to my Synology NAS but find due to the age of the NAS it is very slow especially in reviewing recordings.

I actually started a thread hoping someone could recommend a POE NVR, did not realise that they will only work with Reolink NVR's though.

I will possibly buy a couple more Reolink's to mount internally (WiFi) once I get an NVR sorted.
 
^I've seen these on sale, and they look amazing for the price.
Oh and yes motion detection on many.most cheap? cams seems hopeless as they are just detecting pixel changes.

I purchased my 1st Reolink indoor wifi camera, specs are great, but not sure if I'm going to keep it due to other issues.
Very basic one. In the Reolink app, unless I'm missing it. I can't find any obvious way to turn the camera off and be sure (or as sure as you can with modern gadgets) that's it not still recording and streaming.

Another brand I have has on/off button in their app, but seems nothing in the Reolink app.

Anyone know?
 
^I've seen these on sale, and they look amazing for the price.
Oh and yes motion detection on many.most cheap? cams seems hopeless as they are just detecting pixel changes.

I purchased my 1st Reolink indoor wifi camera, specs are great, but not sure if I'm going to keep it due to other issues.
Very basic one. In the Reolink app, unless I'm missing it. I can't find any obvious way to turn the camera off and be sure (or as sure as you can with modern gadgets) that's it not still recording and streaming.

Another brand I have has on/off button in their app, but seems nothing in the Reolink app.

Anyone know?


As far as I know I cannot turn my reolinks off but I can reboot them or stop the recording.
 

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As far as I know I cannot turn my reolinks off but I can reboot them or stop the recording.

Thanks, yes, that's the same as what I see.
That setting stops the camera recording to the SD card you fitted inside, but does it stop it streaming your video across the internet?

For an outdoor cam it's not so important I guess as for the most part as you'd wish them recording all the time for security reasons.
Apart from your naked sunbathing in the back garden in a few months time! ;)

But for indoor camera's IMHO this is a bit different.
I have Living Room, Dining Room, Hallway and Conservatory camera's running during the night, and when the home may be empty, but when someones home, you generally don't want the cameras live as you sit naked on the couch, scratching your arse, whilst eating cheesy wotsits! ;)

Recording to the SD Card in fact would be fine, as that's local, but it's the internet streaming I don't know about.
On my indoor reolink, I guess same as your's you can set a shedule for when you want it active, so to speak, but the IR lights still come on/off, even when its not active.

Options would be to unplug them, but that's just daft to need to do that.
Of course, just a plastic drinks cup popped over them would give 100% security.

Just seems daft they did not consider people would want a simple off or offline button, that in effect kills it, for use when you are home indoors.
My other cam make has this.
 
Thanks, yes, that's the same as what I see.
That setting stops the camera recording to the SD card you fitted inside, but does it stop it streaming your video across the internet?


Might be worth speaking to Reolink support and suggest an on/off button. are you recording to sd card/nvr/cloud?
 
Might be worth speaking to Reolink support and suggest an on/off button. are you recording to sd card/nvr/cloud?

Reolink tech support/sales info I'm finding to be outstandingly excellent.
I have asked a few questions about camera's and NVR's and always got an accurate detailed answer within a day or less.
I mean, you can't fault that. :)

I did put the question about turning off a "Indoor" security camera.

I explained what I was after, and that, unlike an outdoor one, where generally people would not mind it running all the time, and indoor one would, for many be different, and people would like to have an easy way to turn it off, for when they are at home, in the rooms with the camera's for privacy reasons.

And of course would probably wish them to be on, during the night, and when they are away from home.

I was told that, it's not currently possible to turn the camera's off using the app. and that if you wanted to be sure it was off, then to unplug the camera.

Firstly, it's bloody stupid, dumb and amazing that any company would not understand the need for this for an indoor camera. So called intelligent people never thought about this...... Really?

But anyway, I was thanked and said my suggestions etc would be passed onto their development team.

If this happens, no idea, but it's weird how companies who do this for a business, miss out the blindingly obvious.
 
I’ve always been fairly impressed with their kit. I currently only have one of their cameras, the Argus 2 rechargeable. Reliable, great WiFi range and battery lasts months. App is better than most.

How do you find the notification timings.
 
It seems a very Marmite product. Some people love Reolink for their performance, ease of use, reasonable app and good price for the specs.
Other people seem to scream from the rooftops, never ever to buy any reolink product.
It's very odd.
I'm a big fan of Reolink kit, within limitations. I have a couple of their wi-fi cams doing sterling service in the garden for non-critical, non-security applications [wildlife cam and cat monitor]. But the inevitable lag makes all wi-fi cams unsuitable for security applications imho.

This apart, I love my Reolink cams and I love Reolink for writing proper desktop software for MacOs, which no-one else does. I've just uploaded a review of my recently acquired Reolink Lumus 2MP wi-fi cam with integral spotlight which I think is a belter for 60 quid.



I have less love for their POE cams - at least the two with zoom controls that I tried. I found them exceedingly slow to auto-focus and not very good at detecting intruders 30 feet away in broad daylight!

I think they should be embraced because at the very least, they give a lot of people their first experience with CCTV, many of whom will sooner or later upgrade to semi-pro kit.

There is strong antagonism towards Reolink in certain quarters because their system is closed and only operates properly in their own software and NVRs. The people who run the popular Blue Iris forum hate them for not supporting Blue Iris [or any other ONVIF-compatible system]; and most proper CCTV dealers don't sell Reolink kit so tend not to be encouraging about it.

But they do a lot of things well - and some of their cameras are unique.
 
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Most current Reolink cameras support ONVIF and work with Blue iIris. How to Add Reolink Cameras to Blue Iris

I don't use BI but I have both my RLC410 and 423 working ok/tested with ONVIF device manager. Pleased with both CAMs.
I liked your video, quite amusing whilst informative.
 
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Reolink may claim to be compatible with Blue Iris but the people at Blue Iris say it isn't true because that software requires i-frames to be set and nobody knows what Reolink's i-frame formula is.

They also dismiss the sensors used by Reolink - as I guess would most professionals who need advanced night vision capabilities.

But those folk are into cameras costing 5 or 10 times as much as the Reolink offerings. I maintain that whatever its shortcomings, the Lumus is an exceptional piece of kit for the money.
 

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