Best *cheap* alternative to Reolink RLC-520?

C

cdone

n3wb
May 19, 2021
6
5
Seattle, WA
So, I made what might have been a mistake, and bought 8 Reolink RLC-520s on Amazon today. At $38/ea, they just kind of screamed "buy me!" so I did. And then I started reading more about them...

My use case is kind of an easy one - I have a 12 y/o who likes to take things that aren't his from around the house, and make them his, so I need to be able to monitor when he's home alone, or middle of the night when we're sleeping, etc. and see what he's getting into. Not looking to ID anyone here, because the ID is already known. :-) Really, it's all going to be short-distance observation of cupboards, my desk, etc. I have a synology NAS, but rather than paying for their NVR licenses I plan to use BI (I also have a bunch of Lorex IP cams, and a couple Dahuas and Amcrests for outside).

So the questions I have:
1) Will the Reolink cameras work sufficiently well with BI for this type of use?
2) If no, what are the best cheap alternatives? The ones I've found so far that seem semi-close are:
- Annke C500 ($41 on Amazon right now)
- Amcrest IP5M-D1188EW-28MM ($59.50)
- Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW-28MM ($57.50)

I know the Amcrest are probably quite a bit better camera, but not sure if they're worth paying 50% more (for this use case... for other purposes I'd do so in a heartbeat), and I know nothing at all about the Annke cameras. Any others I should look at in the $40-$60/ea range?

Thanks!
 
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cdone said:
So, I made what might have been a mistake, and bought 8 Reolink RLC-520s on Amazon today. At $38/ea, they just kind of screamed "buy me!" so I did. And then I started reading more about them...

My use case is kind of an easy one - I have a 12 y/o who likes to take things that aren't his from around the house, and make them his, so I need to be able to monitor when he's home alone, or middle of the night when we're sleeping, etc. and see what he's getting into. Not looking to ID anyone here, because the ID is already known. :) Really, it's all going to be short-distance observation of cupboards, my desk, etc. I have a synology NAS, but rather than paying for their NVR licenses I plan to use BI (I also have a bunch of Lorex IP cams, and a couple Dahuas and Amcrests for outside).

So the questions I have:
1) Will the Reolink cameras work sufficiently well with BI for this type of use?
2) If no, what are the best cheap alternatives? The ones I've found so far that seem semi-close are:
- Annke C500 ($41 on Amazon right now)
- Amcrest IP5M-D1188EW-28MM ($59.50)
- Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW-28MM ($57.50)

I know the Amcrest are probably quite a bit better camera, but not sure if they're worth paying 50% more (for this use case... for other purposes I'd do so in a heartbeat), and I know nothing at all about the Annke cameras. Any others I should look at in the $40-$60/ea range?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Welcome @cdone

we have some posts and reviews on those cameras.

iirc they are well liked for more affordable ip poe cameras which meet standards.
 
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Blue Iris and Reolinks do not work well together, but the same principles applies for almost any low end consumer grade camera. It is just Reolinks is one of the more consumer end cameras people buy and come to this site as to why it is pointed out often about. I have a cheapo camera for overview purposes so it doesn't matter, but it exhibits this same behavior even though in the settings I can set an iframe...

This was a screenshot of a member here where they had set these cameras to 15FPS within the cameras (and look some of the sub FPS were dropped to 5 and KEY of 0.25 which is a recipe for missed motion):

1638062375197.png

Now look at they key - that is the iframes ratio. Blue Iris works best when the FPS and the iframes match. Now this is a ratio, so it should be a 1.00 if it matches the FPS. The iframes not matching (that you cannot fix or change with a reolink) is why they miss motion in Blue Iris and why people have problems. This is mainly why people are having issues with these cameras and there are many threads showing the issues people have with this manufacturer and Blue Iris. It is these same games that make the camera look great as a still image or video but turn to crap once motion is introduced.

The Blue Iris developer has indicated that for best reliability, sub stream frame rate should be equal to the main stream frame rate and these cameras cannot do that and there is nothing you can do about that with these cameras... The iframe rates (something these cameras do not allow you to set) should equal the FPS, but at worse case be no more than double. This example shows the cameras going down to a keyrate of 0.25 means that the iframe rates are over 4 times the FPS and that is why motion detection is a disaster with these cameras and Blue Iris...A value of 0.5 or less is considered insufficient to trust for motion triggers reliably...we have seen people come here where the reo/BI combo missed them pulling their car into their garage, so it would probably miss your little thief LOL.

A key of 0.25 means that if the object can be in and off of your camera view in under 4 seconds, it will miss the motion. Folks have seen the key drop to 0.10 with these cams, which means if an object is not on your screen for longer than 10 seconds, it will miss the motion.

You would be better off with the reolink NVR for your use case. Or go with the Annke as it is probably a Hikvision OEM, just like Amcrest is a Dahua OEM.
 
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Thanks for the detailed info, Sebastion. When I first clicked "buy" I was hoping the Reo was a re-branded Hik or Dahua that I could simply cross-flash real firmware onto (something I've done with Amcrest in the past), but that's when I came here searching and started seeing all the negative comments about them. It really helps to understand why they suck though, and not just that people don't like them. In the few hours since I posted, I cancelled the order for the Reolink cameras and bought 6 of the IP5M-D1188EW-28MM (from what I can tell, it's basically the same camera as the IP5M-T1179EW-28MM except you pay $2 more for the vandal resistant dome, and if I've learned one thing in the 2 years since I acquired children it's that they're little vandals!!).

Sometimes it takes me a bit to re-evaluate my miserly attitude and remind myself that time is money, and I have more money than time at this point in my life, and should just buy the better product.

I might buy a couple of the vandal-resistant version of the C500 also, looks like they're on sale for $45 at the moment and I'm curious about them... I know I've had good success w/ the Dahua cams in the past (got 15 of them running at an orphanage in Haiti, and in 6 months only one seems to have died, and that was from a direct lightning strike that took out a few switches, solar charge controller, and some other fun stuff).

Anyone know of OE fw available to cross-flash the Amcrest models listed above, or the Annke? And yeah... I know I should search before asking... I'll go do that now. :-D.
 
"Vandal-resistant" cams aren't really. It's just a dome camera. Only aspect of it that's resistant to anything is that the camera mechanism inside isn't as easily turned as a bullet. No more resistant to damage/spray paint/whatever beyond that than any others. Less so in some cases. You probably won't have any problem using the domes indoors but generally the turret cams like the T1179EW are a better way to go. Less issues with IR reflection, dust/rain on the dome, etc.

Thread below has information on using the Dahua firmware for the IP5M-T1179EW. I'd guess that the dome is the same:

How To Upgrade Amcrest / Lorex to Dahua Firmware And Get All Dahua Features

Hey guys. quick question and I didn't see the answer.. so throwing it out there again. I flashed a Amcrest IP5M-T1179E 98% successfully to the latest Dahua FW. The extra 2% being that I forgot to disable the Amcrest logo overlay first!!!!! not really bothering me much, but turning it off after...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
 
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Thanks for the link on the Amcrest! I found the thread for the Annke earlier also... I have 6 of the Amcrest and 2 of the Annke on the way to play with, will report back how it goes.

On the vandal-resistance, totally understood that it's nearly worthless, but in this case the potential vandals are 9 and 12, so my main concern is in making it seem difficult to mess with. The dome cams without the shield over them just look more inviting to someone who might want to climb on a chair and point it away from wherever they want to cause mischief (trying to think like a 12-y/o here). He doesn't generally have the motivation to go find a screwdriver to mess with the "vandal-resistant" version. :-D
 
Its not about cameras but... I use Luxriot Evo is new-generation of Video Management System it works very well with reolink and doesn't use much resources becouse server and monitor are not together. (when you dont monitor you close it and server still runs in the background)
And its free..at least i didnt find limitations yet. (i use it for good 2 weeks now with 6cams
5 of them are reolink and 2 are waiting to be plugged)

You can plug pretty much any cam on it.

Have a nice day.
 
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