Review on 📷 REOLINK 5MP 8CH Home Security Camera System: Wired 5MP Outdoor PoE IP Cameras, 8CH NVR with 2TB HDD - 24-7 Recording, RLK8-520D4-5MP by Luis Thompson

Two burglaries and one failed burglary led me to buy a home video surveillance system. A lot of the home camera systems have names I've never heard of, Reolink was one of them. For several days I searched Revain for all possible options. Cloud, NVR, resolution, form factor, camera angles, PoE, etc. In the end I ended up with this kit from Reolink with 4 RLC-420 5MP cameras in the box. I also added 4 RLC-410 5MP cameras to get other angles in the house that are important to me. The NVR is a really well thought out device. It has a built-in PoE switch. The savings from just not having to buy injectors or a camera-only PoE switch were significant. I knew I wanted to connect physical ethernet to the cameras because I didn't want to mess with solar panels or batteries. In addition, the NVR is connected to a UPS (which is required in Florida) so the cameras and NVR will continue to work for about an hour in the event of a power outage. The NVR itself was easy to set up. All I enabled in the UI was UPnP and then I used my mobile device to use the Reolink app to scan the QR code on the dashcam. Within seconds the app connected and worked instantly on Wi-Fi and anywhere I took my phone. It was so easy I was shocked. I was expecting to spend several hours setting up remote access, but Reolink did all the hard work. It was VERY safe. The quality of the cameras is excellent. While these cameras I picked didn't have the "comfortable" 16:9 aspect ratio (I think it's closer to 5:4), it's the level of detail that the 410 and 420 cameras capture that matters Wide angle, and even at a distance of 70-100 feet I can zoom in live or on tape and the objects are clear. That was important to me. We've all seen the 11 o'clock news and seen footage of the robberies and all you could really see was a criminal in the BlurryCam details. But not with Reolink. They are amazing. I couldn't be happier with that. Night vision also has no problem illuminating a very wide area like my yard or a small area like my utility room - as if a bright incandescent light were shining on that area. I also like the dynamic brightness control on the cameras - at night it does a phenomenal job making dark objects bright and light objects dark enough to see detail that would otherwise be too dark or too bright. Motion Graphics – the ability to set different motion sensitivity levels at 4 different times of the day. In addition, you can mask objects with high moving speed, such as trees, so that the motion sensor does not trigger as often. Other details that made me happy are the camera name and setting the day and time - you can set these in different parts of the screen for each camera. I also like the ability to record sound along with video. The only major change I would make to the NVR is to support hard drives larger than 4TB. Also, I want to integrate the NVR with home automation. For example, when I turn on my house alarm, I want to tell the NVR to turn on specific alarms/push notifications and turn them off when I turn off the alarm. several Revain reviews to base your choice on. However, I was happy enough to put that skepticism aside once I started using it and tweaking everything.