REOLINK Smart 5MP 8CH Home Security Camera System, 4pcs Wired PoE IP Cameras Outdoor with Person/Pet/Vehicle Detection, 4K 8CH NVR with 2TB HDD for 24-7 Recording, RLK8-520D4-5MP

After doing a ton of research for a basic home security cam, I decided that POE (power over ethernet) security was the best for my use case for a few reasons. My pros for using POE 1. Wanted an always-record security system without relying on pulling out the sd-card 2. Home does not have adequate wireless coverage to ensure the best video quality at all times 3. Did not want to excessively modify my home by drilling into the walls for power My cons of using POE 1. Need a POE network switch 2. More complicated to setup than a wireless camera Now that I was determined to get a POE camera security system, I narrowed down my research to POE only and I ended up going with REOLink NVR system because, it met all my pros of using POE, and it got rid of all my cons of using POE. Setup and Install: I setup two cameras in the front, one covering the driveway/garage and the other covering the front entrance/front door. The other two camera are covering the backyard. The included 4 cameras are enough to record about 90 percent around the house, with some dead spots where I purposely avoided recording any of my neighbors. The included kit was great and all the pieces are there. I did purchase my own ethernet cables because I wanted longer cables that were easily hidden. I went with 100 feet flat cabling. Each camera ethernet cable goes up to my roof and into an attic vent then down to a hallway, into the NVR controller. This way, I only drilled a single hole from the attic to the hallway right along the wall so almost nothing is visible. I initially used a monitor hooked up to the NVR to set it up but once the initial settings were configured, I disconnected everything except the power and ethernet and control the NVR completely from my PC. Once I figured that out, I moved the entire NVR box into the attic and only have the ethernet from the NVR come through the hole and into my router. I would say the most difficult part of the install was going up to the roof of the house and routing all the ethernet cables, clip them in place, and hide them by snaking them along my roof tiles. That part took a few hours. Once all the ethernet wiring was done, the camera install was easy, taking only 5 to 10 minutes per camera. Video Quality: The 2k video quality was the best compromise for the price and picture quality. I wanted to make sure I can clearly see faces at least up to 20 feet away. The included RLC-520 does an outstanding job in the day and ok job during the night. The day quality is great, I can see faces much further than 20 feet and recorded video is clear enough to zoom pretty far. The night quality is ok, it's about what I expected for the price. It still shows good detail just not clearly able to distinguish faces at 20 feet. I have my settings at 2560x1920@30fps with 8192 bitrate, sound on, no motion detection. With 4 cameras, I fill the 2TB hard drive in about a week and then it overwrites the oldest video, like how a dash cam works. In the future, I might try to upgrade the capacity. Reolink App: I use the windows client on my home PC and it's very easy and intuitive to use. Every aspect of the system can be controlled and monitored with the client and I like how easy it is to organize all the video, taking a pic, video clipping, zooming, all very easy and intuitive. Not sure what video settings to use so I just maxed them all out. I also use the android client when not home and it works just as well and has all the configuration options like the windows client. Overall I would say the client exceeded my expectations for the price. Reolink Support: Amazing support! I had an issue with one camera reverting to default settings and I contacted support. They asked me a few questions and then immediately sent a replacement camera. Unfortunately, the camera was delayed because it was out of stock but I didn't mind, the camera was still recording fine, just not at the maxed-out settings I always set it to. Reolink support was responsive and communicative and I have faith they will take care of me in the future. Conclusion: For the price I paid, I love this kit. It perfectly ticked off every checkmark I had as a requirement. Now I have peace of mind, I didn't drill all over my house, the camera always records so I can playback, the video quality is good, and the interface is so easy to use, my kids even use it on their phone.

Very impressed with this security camera system so far. I ran my own Cat 6 ethernet for the system. I did transfer the weather proof coupler from the ethernet cables that came with the system to the cables I made. Didn't really have to do that considering all the cabling is located in the attic of my house. I used a 1" hole saw to drill a hole using the camera mounting bracket as a guide. It worked really well and made for a clean install. The NVR system is fantastic, especially at this price point. I have the Reolink app on my phone and also my laptop. Both are easy to use and intuitive. Hopefully the cameras hold up to the elements!

Why did you pick this product vs others?: I was looking at some cheaper ones that were going for like 160 but had some bad reviews so I just spent a little bit more and got these. I'm glad I did. Very high quality. There's some going for so much more. This is all you need. It has 4k video/audio recording. 2tb hard drive. Set up was amazingly easy. You only need to plug one cord into the camera itself and that singular cord (60ft) runs to the NVR. The app is done very well. Night vision is absolutely superb. The cameras themselves look quite stylish. I didn't even have to read any directions it was all so self-explanatory. Now it's only been installed for a few hours so I can't speak on longevity but the other reviews seem to say it works very well in the long term. Which was my biggest concern with going with a cheaper product. If anything ever craps out on me I will definitely come back here and update but for right now I am one happy customer and definitely recommend.

We had an old system, so we just pulled the wires through using the old ones. It was easy to set up the cameras with the NVR, and the pictures are clear. It was easy to direct the cameras to capture the areas we wanted. The app, though, is a completely different story. Not at all obvious how to work it. When we set up the cameras we had to set a password, but when it came time to link the cameras to the app we had to create a separate password for the "admin" because the first one wasn't recognized. Then linking the cameras to the app required entering the password for admin. Now we find that the only time the app works is when we're at home on our own Wi-Fi network. We can't access the cameras when away from home and on cellular or other Wi-Fi. We're trying to troubleshoot that now. So right now we're not impressed with the app, to say the least.

I bought this system to put in my moms house that was going to be unoccupied. She needed to move due to medical issues but we weren't ready to sell the house. I live in another state and couldn't be checking in on the house regularly and I was worried about it sitting there with no one in it so I bought this system and set it up so I could keep an eye on things from my house. It has been fantastic, everything is still working perfectly several months later and I haven't had to tweak or reboot or mess with ANYTHING in that time. That is exactly what I wanted in a system and after researching many options I chose this Reolink system and I am glad I did. PROS: 1) RELIABLE. Like I said, this was my top priority. There is no one physically at the property to be rebooting cameras or messing with settings. I needed something I could set up and then it would just work and this system has achieved that goal. 2) Local storage, so no monthly cloud subscription required. This was also a huge priority for me. I don't want to be paying $10 or whatever per month and having all of the video sitting on the cloud. I wanted it stored locally, and have the ability to pull up and review the video remotely on my phone or computer. Again, this system meets all of those needs. 3) Good picture quality, in day and night. 4) Easy setup. Instructions were clear, and everything I needed was included. I did buy a couple of extra 100 ft ethernet cables because I knew I was going to be placing a couple of cameras pretty far from the NVR box. I placed two outside at the front and back door, and then two inside. 5) Playback is easy, I check in on my phone regularly and its easy to locate the moments when there is someone at the door, etc. It can identify pets vs day/night transitions vs people and puts a little icon in that spot on the timeline so you can go right to it and see what it was. CONS: 1) The cameras are POE only, so you have to run an ethernet to each camera (can't be wi-fi only) but at least that one ethernet cable provides the data and the power connection. However, if you are going to be installing cameras outside or somewhere else where it is going to be challenging to get an ethernet cable to keep that in mind. There is no option to connect the camera to the NVR using wi-fi only. I will say though, that having the cameras be POE adds to the reliability. It means there are no concerns about the wifi signal being weak or your wifi router doing something screwy and the camera dropping connection. 2) The adapter cable where you plug the ethernet cable into the camera is unnecessarily bulky. It's already hard enough to get a really "clean look" on these cameras since they are wired, unless you're willing to drill a lot of holes and run the cables behind your walls. Having a bulky connector on top of that just makes it look more unsightly. Luckily for my use case, I didn't care too much about the appearance since no one is even living in the house. I just needed it to work. BOTTOM LINE: If you want a camera system that can be hands off, and allows you to remotely view the recorded video, and doesn't require a monthly cloud based storage subscription... this is probably the best system you can currently buy for your money and it comes with everything you need.

I've had REOlink equipment for 3+ years now, and have waited until now to review after buying this latest system. Don't get me wrong, REOlink NVRs and computer/phone apps don't play well with other camera manufacturers and has caused me much grief over the years. But when using REOlink-ONLY equipment, their stuff is pretty bullet-proof. My latest system (NVR+8 cams) worked perfectly on the very first power-up. I have 20 cameras now, everything from RLC-423WS, RLC-423, and C1pro PTZs, to RLC-511 zoom, to 4MP bullets, to 5MP turret cameras, multiple NVRs, blah-blah-blah. I've personally wired 2000ft of CAT6 PoE to most of my systems, snaking through walls, attics, soffit, and even buried a few hundred feet of conduit to get all of the cameras and NVRs as inconspicuous as possible. That-said, here's the pros/cons to all of the REOlink stuff together, not just this item: REOlink CONS: - Doesn't play well with others - I think their inclusion of RCA-audio, reset-button, and power-socket is STUPID for an external camera that is made to be PoE (power-over-ethernet). I have to heat-shrink-seal every single one of those connectors on outdoor cameras (that's 54-connections I've had to meticulously seal) - Doesn't support HKvision encoding (used by virtually all of the doorbell cameras on the market) - Technical support is hit-or-miss; 80% want you to go away, 20% want to help, 0% actually do help - Both of my high-end recent cameras (RLC-423 and RLC-511) 4X-zoom cameras seem to have the same internal malfunction with focus... right-side is out of focus when zoomed-in and left-side is out of focus when zoomed-out - Most of their bullet and turret cameras have great quality, but such a narrow field-of-view that its hard to find good mounting locations (they are too zoomed for 8'-12' range use, which I argue is what most houses have indoors and outside for mounting locations) - Their motion-detection is based on pixels changing, not true motion-detection like Ring somehow accomplishes through infrared or other cameras with PIR-detection, so it is constantly going off for shadows and vegetation - The UUID-setup is so simple that it makes internet-security very questionable... if I can sign in from my multiple devices, other countries probably can too - Their cameras require you to turn on the active infrared-LEDs for nighttime use. They are NOT true nightvision like a passive FLIR would be. The problem with the infrared-LEDs is humans can see your camera and bugs are attracted to the lenses - There are plenty of cameras on the market with more optical zoom. 4X is frankly not enough for me in most cases, and most of their outdoor cameras start off with too much zoom to begin-with (no wide angle) REOlink PROS: - Their stuff plays well with their own equipment, better than every camera company I've tried - Their Apps magically work really well, whether on the same wifi-network or cellular or Internet-remote - UUID setup of apps is effortless - PoE setup of cameras with NVR is effortless, so are their WiFi cameras (as long as on same network) - Cameras have really good control of bandwidth-type adjustments (frame size, frame rate, KB/s) - Their motion-detection is fairly-decent; detects all movement (which is a pain with sun/shadow/bushes) - Their cameras have internal memory slots, incase you want localized non-NVR playback capability - I think their night-vision is actually pretty spectacular, but it requires the red-IR-LEDs to be on (and visible) - All of their stored videos have .MP4 codecs compatible with Quicktime and PC/Mac operating systems - All of their systems (NVR, phone, computer-MAC, computer-PC) work the same way, set-up is the same - I've had some cameras outside for 3+ years and they have held-up well to rain and sun I wish their customer / technical service people were more capable. Every time I talked or emailed them, it felt like I was speaking to an intermediary... like they weren't the company that actually designed the hardware. Frankly, I'd pay more and be more pro-REOlink if they gave a crap. Their ultimate response is basically always the same: our stuff works together and if you want to try something else, don't call us. And basically, they're right.

I had one camera dead on arrival, I contacted customer service to get a replacement, and they make you jump threw so many hoops you can’t get any help. I am very tech savvy, and had no problems setting up all the cameras myself. When one camera arrived dead, I tried to get a replacement. Naturally, they wanted to troubleshoot it first. They sent me various links to guides, I followed them all and the camera still did not work properly. Next they asked if my firmware was up to date. My unit is set to auto update, and when I clicked the manual “check for updates” button, it said it was up to date. They told me I was wrong, and sent an attachment to download and manually update it. This caught me off guard, as it seems like their auto updater should have got any available updates. This part annoyed me because I know if it was someone like my older parents handling this, they probably wouldn’t know how to manually download and update firmware. After manually updating to the firmware they sent me, my camera still did not work. They gave me more steps to troubleshoot, and kept saying I must be doing something wrong. None of their suggestions have solved the issue. At this point I figured “nothing helped, they will probably send me a replacement now.” NOPE! They wanted me to make a video recording of the entire troubleshooting process and email it to them. Reluctantly, I made the video, only to discover that the file was way too large to upload to the email. I told them this and they told me I have to upload it to a website that allows bigger uploads. After running into issues with the video, they said they need to call me to troubleshoot over the phone with me. Then I find out that they’re in some foreign country, and their business hours don’t line up with mine. So after failing to get on a call with them, they closed the ticket and haven’t gotten a replacement for the faulty camera. The motion section is horrible. I have spent way too long trying to fine tune the detection, and I finally just turned it off. I set the detection envelopes so that it had to detect for 5+ seconds, and I was getting false detections repeatedly. It got to the point where it wasn’t even worth trying to use it. I have a Ring camera as well, so I just let the motion detection of that alert me. Garbage customer service; and when dealing with security cameras it’s not worth the hassle when you spend that much on their product. Save yourself the heartache and go buy a Ring.

Very Impressive! I was concerned as I have felt security cameras could be overwhelming to install. I had had a cheap model (not that his is expensive) and they didn't last long. This time I talked with ChatGPT and it told me these would meet my requirements: 1 H.265 instead of the much larger h.264 (this can do both). 2. low bandwidth for my gigabyte limit of Starlink 3. no subscription The install was rather difficult - not because of the Reolink but because I was placing them anywhere from 10 to 14' high, running line all around my building. I didn't expect ethernet to be included so I had already planned to use my own and I'm glad I did. The ethernet included is very thin and felt flimsy. It's probably fine if it were indoors but this is for a shelter building. The kit has everything included except a monitor. It includes the mouse and HDMI cable. Picture quality is excellent. The app connectivity is great. I just got this up and running in the last day, so I'm still green.