REOLINK E1 Outdoor Pro 4K PTZ Outdoor Security Camera WiFi Plug-in Power

The Pro is definitely an upgrade in clarity from the standard version but still not good enough to read license plates or see faces clearly from my house to the road. Now I wonder if I should have gone for the 16MP version. I’ve seen a bunch of users say it takes forever to get the Wi-Fi connected in initial setup, I was having the same issue. Top Tip: connect the camera via a LAN cable to your network to get it initialized and fully set up, then switch it to Wi-Fi. This works every time for me in a minute or two. The APP isn’t the greatest so I hope they are planning upgrades in the future. Overall, solid cameras. Just do your research on the feature you really want and spend the money one time, than upgrade later at additional cost.

Edit: Two years later and these cameras still work well. I really love the Timelapse feature. See my video. Was looking at something to improve on my ring setup at home. Wanted something with better definition and where I had more control over the video, storage, and overall quality. Not to mention the other cameras I have are really troublesome for connecting to my home network. I got this set up late today, but loving it so far. I coupled it with a 256 Gb Micro SD card and have the settings up at 8MP 4k. I even got it set up on my home FTP server to upload the files there every 10 minutes automatically for a backup. Pros - Price - Great image quality even over Wi-Fi - Adjustable from video settings, to notification settings, to storage settings. - Quick to connect and easy to set up Cons - Doesn’t always respond to pan/tilt commands right away or sometimes needs multiple presses to register, however, this is less of an issue in fluent mode (low bitrate stream view) - I wash the camera was a bit better at getting true-to life video coloration in auto mode - Was also a pro, lots of customizability, so if you want the easiest interface this is not it, however, most things are intuitive and easy to learn inside of a half hour—and you’ll want to play with them. - Only 3x zoom… but at this price point, that is more than fair considering others in this price range have zero optical zoom. Ultimately, I’m very satisfied. I wish I had more money to try some of Reolink’s other products. Maybe one of these days. I would say for the price and quality of the image you get, as well as the ease-of use and setup, it’s hard to imagine a better buy at $105 than this PTZ camera. Also a prior reviewer was using the video arrows for playback of a recorded video not the pan/titl/zoom function which explains why he couldn’t move the camera.

update: add 1 star as customer support is very responsive. camera working well after shaving the rubber cover As a few other reviews have noted, there is a design flaw. The rubber cover for the SD card slot is on the camera "ball" that articulates, so it gets caught on something on the inside when it pans up. This causes it to occasionally get stuck and you need to manually move it to to free it. To fix it, I took the cover off and used a razor blade to shave off the slight hump that protrudes slightly above the camera. This seems to have resolved the problem. It is still a nice camera and form form. I assume Reolink included this hump to make it easier to remove the cover, but it is the core problem. The rubber cover is easy enough to remove without it. I liked the size of this camera as compared to the other pan/tilt models, but getting stuck makes this a poor choice. I am still happy with Reolink overall, but would recommend a different pan/tilt model, unless you are ok with making a mod. Reolink support has been great and sent this design issue to their production team, so hopefully there will be an update for future versions.

Easy to connect, two mounting options, clear picture, good price per value.

Update: I just found out that this is made with plastic gearing. There is NOTHING in existence that should be made with plastic gears. This is a guaranteed failure point and absolutely unacceptable. Every single one of these cameras could fail at any moment, and Reolink knew this when they designed it. Video quality is decent, but nowhere near 4K. Actual bitrate maxes out at 5 Mbps (NOT 8 Mbps), which is slightly higher than 1080p but below 2K for H.265. Considering these are wired power and 5 GHz, this is far below what it should be capable of. There's really no good reason that this shouldn't be capable of 20 Mbps or more, though you probably wouldn't want to record at that bitrate anyways. It's got to be a matter of an under-powered processor (which is inexcusable since that's a pretty light task for a dedicated processor), or an artificial limit imposed as a band-aid for poor software design. The real issue is with the PTZ functionality. Panning is inconsistent and laggy, even when operating over the LAN with a high-end router. It's really difficult to center it on something. It also has issues focusing when zoomed in. The zoom itself tends to look murkier and lower quality. It's a 3x optical zoom, but it looks like a digital zoom. The controls for zoom are also separate from P/T, so you have to open a separate option to zoom. The whole thing is just clunky and unrefined. It also has no ability to scan an area, even though that should be a given for a security camera with PTZ ability. Apparently it's because they cheaped out on the motor and gearing, so it simply wouldn't last if it was constantly moving. At least have the option to scan every hour or something. It also can't/doesn't zoom in tracking mode, which is a HUGE shortfalling and obviously a matter of underdeveloped firmware. Overall it's not a bad camera. It seems to be pretty much standard for security camera companies to lie (yes, that's what it is. Even with compression, bitrate is the only marker of actual quality) about the resolution, but this is at least a decent resolution. Actual 1080p on a camera that's advertised to be 4K (I had Arlo before this that was less than 480p on a camera that was claimed 2K), but it's still lower than it should be. But the PTZ function simply isn't worth the price difference from the stationary cameras. If you're choosing a camera, just get the cheaper stationary ones. You can get two of them for the price of one of these, so that would eliminate any need for the poor PTZ function.

I have this camera in two other areas of my home. It is easy to set up and has a clear picture. I get notifications when someone pulls in my driveway I would highly recommend this camera.

Hello everyone, it is 12/2024 and I really wanted to like this camera but it fell sort of my exceptions. I ended up returning it. The camera itself was okay but the software app was very difficult to use. I also prefer to monitor cameras from my computer. And after a few hours I finally figured out which Reolink Client software to download on the computer and battled with it to get it to see the new camera. What they don't make clear is that the first time you use the camera in the Client software is you MUST connect an ethernet cable to the camera. It can't just be wifi connected. So there goes almost another 2 hours of my life figuring that out. As far as using it that is where the next problem comes in. They let you define activity zones but anything OUTSIDE the zone will NOT get recorded. That is such a miss design. For example if a young child runs on your lawn you will get alerted and it gets recorded. But if a child is walking on the on the side walk (outside the zone) then it will not get recorded. If this is a lost child and you want to help find them then you are unable to help. It should still record ALL events inside or outside zones. The only difference is if you get an alert or not. I ended up returning it and went back to my older NEST cameras which do ZONES correctly and you don't need the client software. You can just view your cameras from any browser and you can see them streaming ALL at once. There are other small issues that I didn't prefer but the zone issue is a big one for me.

Reolink is my go-to brand for cameras. I have 4 of them on my home, and this particular one has been on my home for about 8 years now and still works flawlessly. Pair it with a high endurance SD card and this camera will last you for a VERY long time.

It has a very wide viewing area. Images at night are a bit dull. Overall a good camera.

The camera is feature full without a need to pay a subscription. Great quality and awesome price.

An incredibly feature-rich surveillance camera. The more I play with it, the more useful features I discover. My one complaint would be the inconsistency of the Reolink app on different platforms, in my case Windows 11 PC, Android Phone and Android Tablet. Obvious features are missing or present on the app depending on the device I am using. I am forced to try all 3 devices to see which one gives me the feature I need. If I only had the Reolink app on one device, a lot of the rich potential would be lost. Also, please know that the MicroSD card is not included with the camera, and without it, the feature list is very limited, so plan on another $40 or so. Other than that, the best camera I have tried. After a week of usage, I now have to emphasize the inconsistency of the Reolink app across platforms. The Windows app is intuitive and usable. The Android phone app is awkward but usable. The Android tablet app is a bug-ridden abomination. Like many great hardware devices, it is degraded by a crappy, inconsistent app.

Didn’t survive two days installed outdoors in protected area. Moisture in camera - returned at my expense. Replacement worked well until it rained. Stopped working. Advised to dry it then try in another power point. Power unit exploded.

I have this camera mounted above my front door and really like how it can identify people and animals, seperate from basic motion. Our house is well elivated from the road, and the PTZ feature lets me swivel it around and look out over the neighbourhood and roadway. Update - I've now bought a 2nd one of these to cover a different part of my property. Really like this camera!