Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

You could use an auxiliary IR illuminator. Here's a quick screen capture of a fox on a 5442T 6mm at about 50 feet with some auxiliary IR and no IR from the camera.

fox1.JPG
 
@sebastiantombs

thanks for advice but

:D no need.. the camera is just mounted provisionally... the house is in build atm... 2 fishes were stolen by workers so the camera is mounted in a tree for now...

there will be some external lights when its finished ...

you cannot see the fishes with your eyes in this kind of darkness... its only possible with ircut filter ... it also only blurr a bit in 1 meter depth ... moving persons are minimal blurr...
 
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Take the camera off of "auto" for an exposure setting. if you haven't already done so. Then set it to "manual", scroll down and select "custom". Then set a range of say 0.05 and 16.66. That will eliminate blur. While you're in there you can play with gain to brighten it up a bit as well. 16.66(ms) is equivalent to 1/60 and will eliminate almost all motion blur.
 
Its already at 16.66 and gain of 50... tested it a few hours, but it will only get worser with different settings.. also the storage will be full too fast with too much gain, its only a 128GB sd card.. :D i can record now for 4 days with smart codec...

there is no electricity, it runs from a "power bank" aka 120amp car battery... and its mounted hidden in a tree , all very provisionally

for curiosity here a picture from dayview .. because its hidden there are some branches ... so IR-light from camera is useless ;)

day.jpg


this is full auto at night:

full auto.jpg

this is tuned full color at night:

full color.jpg


but it looks only good at still... its impossible to tune it in color mode to not get any ghosting of moving objects with this light conditions. if you want, its so dark you loose many parts... BW mode gives no/very minimal blurr/ghosting ...

just want to share it .. even with the worst possible conditions you get a better picture than any reolink ;)
 
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Guys, you can agree with HookUp or not - but he has the point - Reolink cameras may be a good fit for people that do not need a good
night camera, just want to see their yard and get notifications.
There is nothing wrong with this. I am not sure why many on this forum hate this message.

For enthusiasts that do understand the subject, 5442 may be a better fit.

It reminds me of an old discussion on DSLR forum - what is better 3/4 or full-frame? Obviously, full-frame
will get more light, have less noise. But 3/4 had its own place as well. as 1/2.8" sensors in consumers' cameras and even smaller sensors in mobile phones.
You should choose what is best for your case.
 
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Most people, one can reasonably assume, want good night time video. Reolink is not capable of good night time video. I am not a fan of YouTube reviewers like HookUp, or any of the others, because of they all leave out key factors like good night vision or only mention it in the least harmful way they possibly can. I have yet to see anyone who wants an outdoor camera that does not produce good night video. Yes, some people will use them inside or even in an area that has stadium level lighting, but they are in a small minority. Even then, the way Reolink implements their firmware makes it ureliable to use with most VMS software leaving the user locked into using Reolink NVRs.

In the mean time, Reolink has supposedly fixed the iframe problem but that has been a total fail and has been pulled from their site. That also speaks to the overall quality and competence of Reolink as a useful video surveillance tool. To me that doesn't add up to "value for the money" at all.
 
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@Shap

YOU still not understand what the problem is. Hookup and other Youtuber gets paid with free products, making fake reviews and giving bad advices. People who trust this guys will waste money on shitty products and find out when its to late to return.
Its OK if they talk about the problems so a potential buyer can decide if its OK to have all the cons with a reduced price. But they dont do it. Some of the Youtuber dont know better, but they claim to be a pro. On the other hand Reolink post everywhere fake news so no one could get the real informations easily.

When it comes to Hookup its more special. He knows it better and dont talk about it. He know that the iframe problem exist and still claim that Reolink cameras works fine with Blueiris. Its the same as Reolink "presell" team claim that all cameras (with a few exceptions) works fine with Blueiris and the "aftersell" Support give you the advice to not use their cameras with third party devices/software. Have you any arguments for this behaviour of your lovely friend?

Get notifications? Are u kidding me ? This feature dont even work on day on any reolink camera. Its not even working fine on the 5442 series.

If you want to see your yard when not at home, why not just take a picture of it and take it with you ? I dont see any difference :lmao:

The "new" 4k series has more problems. They dont even work with their own systems (!). They miss some of the motions for unknown reasons. Its not only settings.... the firmware is complete garbage. Just watch their OWN video which they posted on the amazon page... The sad is they do nothing to get it work. Their dev team is lazy and slow as fuck.

View attachment default.jobtemplate.hls1080 (1080p_aac) (online-video-cutter.com).mp4
 
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Gotta just love how the critter just disappears as he walks across the sidewalk. What "wonderful" video and very typical of Reolink "excellence".
 
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Because its sonic the hedgehog... ;)

@Shap

here is another unlisted video of your best buddy ... in this video he , the hookup himself, say that it still not working in bw mode even with the newest firmware. Why are all this information not in his listed videos? How can a BI user know better if he is planning to buy reolink? Hookup claims that everything is working... lol

 
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@Shap

YOU still not understand what the problem is. Hookup and other Youtuber gets paid with free products, making fake reviews and giving bad advices. People who trust this guys will waste money on shitty products and find out when its to late to return.
Its OK if they talk about the problems so a potential buyer can decide if its OK to have all the cons with a reduced price. But they dont do it. Some of the Youtuber dont know better, but they claim to be a pro. On the other hand Reolink post everywhere fake news so no one could get the real informations easily.

When it comes to Hookup its more special. He knows it better and dont talk about it. He know that the iframe problem exist and still claim that Reolink cameras works fine with Blueiris. Its the same as Reolink "presell" team claim that all cameras (with a few exceptions) works fine with Blueiris and the "aftersell" Support give you the advice to not use their cameras with third party devices/software. Have you any arguments for this behaviour of your lovely friend?

Get notifications? Are u kidding me ? This feature dont even work on day on any reolink camera. Its not even working fine on the 5442 series.

The "new" 4k series has more problems. They dont even work with their own systems (!). They miss some of the motions for unknown reasons. Its not only settings.... the firmware is complete garbage. Just watch their OWN video which they posted on the amazon page... The sad is they do nothing to get it work. Their dev team is lazy and slow as fuck.

View attachment 96939

I have no idea if he is paid for such reviews or not - he claims he is not, and it may or may not be the case. We really can not prove this. He also mentioned Andy's cameras, and recommended them as well - but I do not think he is getting paid by Andy.
I see your point about telling more about the night video quality issue with Reolink. I do not know if he had the same experience with Reolink support that you mentioned, if he did and did not tell about this - it is definitely not good.
But once again, my point was - each camera has its customer. Some people need a camera to see if their kids doing homework or watching a TV. Some doing a timelapse for their garden. Some use it for surveillance - everyone is different.
Having good cameras is expensive, you easily go beyond 1k for your project :)
 
Gotta just love how the critter just disappears as he walks across the sidewalk. What "wonderful" video and very typical of Reolink "excellence".

That what bad AI does :) They probably try to remove noise, and their AI see the creature as a noise :)

P.S. Funny enough, DS sometimes claims my friend's dog (giant schnauzer) is an elephant with a 48% degree of certainty :)
 
Because its sonic the hedgehog... ;)

@Shap

here is another unlisted video of your best buddy ... in this video he , the hookup himself, say that it still not working in bw mode even with the newest firmware. Why are all this information not in his listed videos? How can a BI user know better if he is planning to buy reolink? Hookup claims that everything is working... lol

Looks like that video was posted like last night (timestamp on camera video was July 31st, 10pm). He is specifically showing that everything ISN'T working, right? How did you find that unlisted video? Does anyone have a link to the firmware he was using?
 
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I have no idea if he is paid for such reviews or not - he claims he is not, and it may or may not be the case. We really can not prove this.

I don't believe he is getting monetary compensation directly from the manufacturers of the items he reviews. However he has admitted himself that #1 - he makes his living from Youtube now, and #2 gets free devices to review and only reviews those devices. So while he may not be getting a monetary payment for his review, he is certainly "getting paid" for his videos and his reviews are biased in two ways. #1 - he limits his reviews to only devices he gets sent to him (ie he won't spend his own money for devices to review), so when he says "best 4k camera" what he really means is "best 4k camera out of the small number of cameras that I convinced people to send to me for free which are generally low cost and at least one generation out of date (which is why I got them for free)" and #2 - his reviews are designed to produce "views". Ultimately his number one goal when posting any video is to increase page views/ad revenue.

It's a sad state of the world when posting a factually accurate and educational video about CCTVs simply doesn't generate enough page views to be worth it. He would rather post headline grabbing videos like "the best 4k camera" because those generate more page views and ad revenue for him. The term "click bait" comes to mind when describing these types of "fair and impartial reviews"
 
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Guys, you can agree with HookUp or not - but he has the point - Reolink cameras may be a good fit for people that do not need a good
night camera, just want to see their yard and get notifications.
There is nothing wrong with this. I am not sure why many on this forum hate this message.
..

Hi @Shap

Thread title: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review ..

imho of course, some knowing all the cons of the Reolink cameras may still pick them - and that's ok by me. The issue I have, as do others, is the clearly deceptive and unfair reviews which lead those new to this subject area to make a purchased based on deceptive practices by Reolink ( stuffing the Amazon ballot box, as well as various online reviewers, .. ) and those who assist in that.

I would have no issues with the reviewer if he was more honest and stated "Reolink performs unacceptably in low light conditions, however if you want a cheap camera for the day which is not fully compatible with other systems ... " However, he does not state that. Instead he states Reolink is the clear winner .. which clearly can not be the case when you review the video.
 
I don't believe he is getting monetary compensation directly from the manufacturers of the items he reviews. However he has admitted himself that #1 - he makes his living from Youtube now, and #2 gets free devices to review and only reviews those devices. So while he may not be getting a monetary payment for his review, he is certainly "getting paid" for his videos and his reviews are biased in two ways. #1 - he limits his reviews to only devices he gets sent to him (ie he won't spend his own money for devices to review), so when he says "best 4k camera" what he really means is "best 4k camera out of the small number of cameras that I convinced people to send to me for free which are generally low cost and at least one generation out of date (which is why I got them for free)" and #2 - his reviews are designed to produce "views". Ultimately his number one goal when posting any video is to increase page views/ad revenue.

It's a sad state of the world when posting a factually accurate and educational video about CCTVs simply doesn't generate enough page views to be worth it. He would rather post headline grabbing videos like "the best 4k camera" because those generate more page views and ad revenue for him. The term "click bait" comes to mind when describing these types of "fair and impartial reviews"

I think Andy mentioned that he did not send him the camera from his last video, so maybe he does buy cameras as well?

actually i don't know he bought the cams from us till a member here send me the link on youtube. I focus on the product mainly everyday, too much work to follow, the new product, the bugs on currently firmware, testing work.
 
I haven't send him any cam till now, i just know him till last time a guy here told me, on his video, he said he bought some cams from our amazon shop. :)
 
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