Thank you Reolink for sending us this camera to review!

Home security cameras are an increasingly popular consideration for many families, especially as crime increases and more people steal packages. Many people have been saved from costly court battles or vindicated when video footage proves that a crime was committed or someone defended themselves. The reasons we might want security footage around our house varies widely. It's kind of funny though; I am perhaps one of the most technical people I know, in that I work on servers for my day job and have ran ethernet cables through my basement, and run a home server with around 100TB of raw storage. And yet, I never did set up a home security system.

One may ask the most obvious question: Why? For me, this comes down to two things: for one, the easiest and cheapest systems are ran by big tech companies, and they either have direct control of your data, or charge you for the privilege of accessing it. This includes things like Ring. They may be popular, but I will never allow a Ring product into my house. I am not paying a company any fees for access to my own devices or video feeds, and I also don't want an external company being able to access my recordings without my permission. This requirement of mine has significantly limited my choices, but that's okay - my data privacy means a lot to me.

The second reason I have not yet setup a security system is one that is far more mundane: to do it right involves a significant investment of both money and time. The cameras are just a part of it; the main part is actually running ethernet to the places that I would want a camera. You see, the most secure system possible is one that has the smallest attack surface. My ideal security camera system would be to run a dedicated PoE (Power over Ethernet) network with cables that go to wherever I need a camera, then have the data and power ran over that same cable via PoE. Then I would have these cameras and streams connect to a server in my house that then manages and stores the video, all while keeping that network separate from my normal internet and data. In an ideal world, I would use an open source monitoring platform, since again, I want complete and total control of what happens with my data.

As you can probably tell, this is a big job. Buying the cameras is an important expense, but, those cables are arguably half or more of the costs. Either I drill holes in my walls and run the cables down to my wiring closet in my basement myself, or I pay someone to do it; this expense can be upwards of a thousand dollars or more. While it's certainly worth doing, it is still a huge task. That is why I haven't done it; there are always more fish to fry on my 'TODO' list that seems to be more important than difficult ones like drilling holes in my walls and fishing cables.

For those like me, who prefer to have some control over their data, Reolink is one of several vendors who offer products compatible with open standards, like PoE and RTSP. If I end up running that ethernet everywhere like I want to, Reolink makes cameras to meet that need. Unfortunately, the Argus 4 Pro isn't for that use case, but as a battery-powered Wi-Fi camera with a microSD card slot, it does fit neatly into a middle ground that offers many of the modern conveniences of cameras that can connect to the internet while also offering much more control over your data. And perhaps the best part is, you get all of this without being charged a monthly fee.

You see, the Reolink Argus 4 Pro's microSD slot means that your data is stored right on that card, rather than on some remote cloud server, though that option is available for purchase. I put a 128GB card in mine, which is the maximum size, and it works great. I would encourage any user of this camera to budget a microSD card, since then you can be sure you have a copy of all recent recordings. It does eventually erase old ones as the card fills up, but you should be able to go back quite some time with a large enough card.

In order to access your recordings (outside of taking out the microSD card) you need an app to connect to it. This app is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. The lack of a way to connect via a web browser or some other open means is regrettable, because I can't use it from my Linux desktop. (I dual boot, so I have been able to test the Windows software just fine. I'm sure a virtual machine would also work.) Reolink offers two ways around this; the first is via directly uploading to an FTP server from the camera. This is just so cool. You enter a server IP, a login, and remote server path, and set some other options, and it will upload the video files to the server you specify. This is a great way around concerns that your data is 'stuck' on the camera. Great job Reolink in offering a way to do this automatically!

Another way around this is via their Home Hub, but I cannot speak to that device's capability outside of the marketing material. What I know from research is that Reolink's Wi-Fi cameras can connect to it, and collate their footage on the Home Hub for easier access. It also acts as an access point for the cameras rather than using your home Wi-Fi, and offers the footage via a web interface. It is supposed to offer RTSP video streams as well through the Home Hub. It seems like a useful device, but since I do not have access to one, I cannot confirm its feature set one way or another.

If you are security conscious, and don't want to let the camera's data leave your network, there is a way to do this if you have the right router like I do. In my case I have an Asus router, and with those you can block internet access for any device with a simple click in the router's interface. I tested this, and I was able to confirm that I could access the camera just fine from the house, but as soon as I was on mobile data, I could no longer access it. If you have the right setup like I do, but are concerned about privacy, this could be a great way to mitigate any privacy risks while still taking advantage of its wireless and easy to setup nature. Of course, if you don't have the right router or hardware, this might not be an option for you, so plan accordingly.

The Reolink Argus 4 Pro camera can be accessed from within your home via your local network, or from outside of your house as long as you paired the camera to your phone first. When you set it up for the first time you connect via Bluetooth, but after that it's mostly via Wi-Fi as far as I can tell. You set an administrator password that prevents someone else from trying to take over your camera without permission. I don't believe setting up the camera is possible without a mobile phone, but I could be wrong. The Android app is snappy and responds well, and I have been extremely happy with it.

If the camera has access to the internet, it does give you some nice perks. For example, you can enable push notifications on your phone, so you always know when someone or something is on camera. I find that this camera's strengths and limitations seem well-suited for being pointed at my front door and driveway. Whenever someone delivers mail, pulls into my driveway, or enters/exits my doorway, I get a notification. It uses AI to determine if the clip has animals, people, or cars, and will label the clip with that. Sometimes it will detect motion on its own, but usually it can identify the cause. This is a very helpful feature.

The camera and solar panel both include mounting hardware which you screw into the back of each device, not unlike a microphone stand. I wasn't sure if it would work for my setup, since I wasn't sure if I wanted to permanently mount them to my house before it was fully tested, but it turns out that they include not just screws and even a mounting eye hook if you want something only semi-permanent, but they also include straps so you can wrap it around a pole. I strapped mine to my gutter for the purpose of this testing, and it works remarkably well.

At the end of the day, whatever a camera is supposed to do, it's primary job is to be a camera. And the picture quality is just fantastic! It can see very clearly in the daytime, and at night it gets a remarkably clear picture as well. I admit the camera does have it easy - I have a bright light over my garage shining light onto my driveway. So the Reolink doesn't have to work all that hard. But even when I manually disabled that light, the camera worked quite well. Of course if it's pitch black, no camera can work. But if there is any light at all, like from the moon or a distant street light, I found it to be enough for the video footage to be plenty useful. The Argus 4 Pro also features a night color mode, rather than just black & white in the base Argus 4 model. I think it looks really good and never felt like I couldn't see what I wanted to. If you are using the camera in a place with no light at all, there are built-in spotlights as well, if you need to use them. I did not find that I needed them because of my garage lights that are on all night.

It offers two resolutions of video, called 'Clear', which is the default 5120x1440 resolution, while there is a 'Fluent' that I believe is half of that (720p). I see no reason not to use Clear, unless you are connecting to your house from across the world. The 180 degree viewing angle is really nice, and I am able to see my front door, mailbox, and entire driveway because of that field of view. It's very impressive. This camera offers 15fps, which is more than enough for a security camera system. Even 10fps would be just fine for this use case. It keeps power and storage requirements lower this way while still offering motion smooth enough to know what people are doing.

One unexpected but cute feature is that not only does the camera offer audio along with its video recording, but it has a speaker so you can talk over an intercom. It's not super loud, so carrying on a conversation might not be fun, but it does work in a pinch and is a nice to have feature.

Being a battery-powered camera, it does need occasional charging. It's also not meant for full-time surveillance of high-traffic areas. I was hoping to use this to possibly stream or at least watch the silly antics of our chickens, but this camera is not well-suited to this task, because the battery would not last. I instead mounted it near my front door, which is likely what it's designed for. It detects whenever someone pulls into my driveway, walks towards my front door, or delivers a package. It's really useful, and is also easy to review older events if you want to know when your teenager *really* came home last night.

One day, I was excited to wait for another package to arrive, so I had my camera app running on my Windows desktop PC. After a few hours, the battery's charge went from 100% to around 70%. While the solar panel included with my bundle helps a lot, it's not meant to handle this kind of use. It took another couple of days for the camera to go back to 100% charged after that day of heavy use. Thankfully, with a more normal usage level, every time I check the camera I always find it either at or close to 100%. With the Reolink 6W Solar Panel, the Argus 4 Pro really is 'set it and forget it', at least during the summer months. On that note, when I went to charge it for the first time from the wall, it only worked with a 5V power adapter, despite using a USB-C charging port. Keep that in mind; if you don't see a status light when plugging it into your charger, try a different one.

One thing I noticed in the specifications sheet is that the camera is rated for a temperature range of -10C~55C (14F~131F). In my area of the country, the winter months can definitely get below 14F. I am not worried about that max temp, where I live, as it would blow out all world records, but it definitely gets pretty cold in the wintertime. I hope that this camera can hold out despite bitter cold winters. Of course if you live in the deep south or in a desert climate, that max temp could be a major concern. It might do better if you can keep it in the shade, which might not always be possible. I haven't seen over say 110F even when visiting Arizona in the summer, but if it's in the sun, I would definitely be concerned it could bake under the summer sunshine. Hopefully this camera can handle those extremes.

The Reolink Argus 4 Pro is a solidly-built Wi-Fi camera that has a great feature set and ticks a ton of boxes for this freedom-minded techie. The solar panel bundle is strongly recommended, as it allows you to basically never worry about battery life, and the Android app is quite good, with tons of optional features like notifications or alarms on activation if you wish. While this camera is not well-suited to high-traffic areas, it works perfectly if used to monitor a front or back yard that is busy once in a while, rather than all of the time. Despite its limitations, I strongly recommend it if you want to retain at least some control over your video content, while being able to access your camera feeds from anywhere - without any monthly fees, ever.