Reolink Video Doorbell PoE Review

Wiredcharlie

Provided by Reolink for review.

Initial thoughts and impressions:

Doorbell button and plug in chime appear to be of good quality and are well presented in the box. Whilst there are four Declaration of Conformity papers for the camera and chime, instructions are sparse.

Users should be aware that once the protective plastic is removed from the lens, the lens is then the most prominent surface on the front face of the doorbell unit. There is therefore a significant risk of damage to the lens during installation, if the protection is removed.

Testing:

This button unit is designed for Power Over Ethernet but also provides screw terminals for an AC or DC power supply up to 24v. For testing, this method was used and power consumption was measured at around 2W. Although wires are provided in the box for this powering method, documentation is somewhat lacking, with an information sticker on the back of the doorbell filling in the gaps. The chime was already paired and sounded when the button was pressed.

App:

There is a QR code on the back of the doorbell button which allows for easy connection to the app. I was using the IOS version which already has two other cameras installed.

The app is good and allows for control over the camera settings and ability to view live and recorded pictures. It is possible to have a two way conversation with a person at the door.

A nice feature is that a blue illuminated ring appears around the doorbell button when it detects a person at the door, thus drawing their attention to the button!

The doorbell camera also worked with the Mac Computer App and additionally provides a similar web interface if you navigate to the doorbell camera IP address.

Picture Quality:

It is possible to view the picture at three quality levels. Lower quality is useful where mobile coverage is poor. In the best quality mode, the picture is superb. It is extremely wide angle with some fisheye distortion. Focus is sharpest between about 10cm and 4m. It is best to fix the doorbell button a little higher than a conventional doorbell button in order to get a better view of visitors' faces.

It is important to note that if the doorbell camera is installed outdoors, people facing it will be in the shadow of the building and may appear silhouetted once they are close to the camera. This is a limitation of all such cameras and could only be solved by providing a bright light source next to the camera during the DAYTIME! Paradoxically this means that in many installations, best images of visitors will be obtained at night when illuminated by the built in infrared LED. Another reviewer (not me) has provided video which clearly shows this issue: https://youtu.be/SME3H9PN4hI?t=396 (See suggestion in Conclusion).

Recording:

A Micro SD slot is provided within the doorbell camera for local recording that can be viewed from the app. Recordings can be viewed at the three resolution levels. There is also the ability for recordings to be automatically uploaded to a remote FTP server.

Conclusion:

The Reolink POE Doorbell Camera provides exceptional video resolution with excellent app features and all without the need to sign up to a paid service. The problem of visitors appearing silhouetted when close to the camera could potentially be solved by allowing the user to select infrared mode all the time. This is currently not implemented as an option. How about "auto-silhouette detect" that automatically switches the camera to infrared mode?

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Thank you for this solution. 9WSYR Forecast