Product rating for Reolink Argus 2 incl. solar panel

david-cslu

7 years ago • purchased this product

+3

+3

0

purchased this product

Good idea, unfortunately with crucial weaknesses

There are good and not so good things to report about the Argus Two.
First, the things that work WELL:

- Setting up the camera via the app (apart from the fact that it is not explained anywhere that you first have to enlarge the QR code on your mobile phone so that it can be read by the camera...).
- WLAN connection (in the meantime I have to relativise this a little, see addendum)
- Setting the camera functions via app
- Recording on SD card
- Automatic switching between day/night mode
- Mounting
- Power supply via battery and solar panel

Perhaps the most crucial WEAKNESS, however, is the slow motion detection and the slight delay before the recording starts. As a result, it is unfortunately quite possible - even probable - that nothing at all can be seen on the "surveillance recording" because the "intruder" was already no longer in the camera's field of vision when the recording started.
This is particularly problematic in scenarios where the intruder is moving reasonably straight towards the camera. For movements "across" the camera, the motion detection still works reasonably fast. For movements towards the camera, however, it takes a really long time until the movement is detected. Then there is another moment's delay before recording starts and you hardly have anything or nothing at all on the recording.
So if someone moves reasonably fast towards the camera (and then walks under the camera, for example), the camera fails mercilessly.
As a result, the device is unfortunately only of limited use for surveillance purposes, i.e. it cannot reliably fulfil its purpose.
At least if you want to monitor an area where the "intruder" can potentially move straight towards the camera.

It should also be noted that the camera can only store its images on the SD card. This means that if someone steals or destroys the camera, the pictures are also gone.
Storage on a NAS or similar is not possible.
(Storage in the cloud will probably be possible in the future, but not at the moment).

CONCLUSION: Although the camera does many things right, you have to consider whether you need it for your purposes. After all, a surveillance camera is of no use if you end up with no usable recordings because the motion detection was too slow or the camera and its images were stolen/destroyed. And unfortunately, these are both very realistic scenarios with the Argus 2.

Addendum: In practice, it is also annoying that the WLAN connection proves to be less reliable than initially thought. It is particularly absurd that even a camera that is two metres away from the access point without any obstacles often reports "connection too weak for smooth playback" when viewing the camera image. At this point, a bandwidth of 100 MBit or more would be realistic. more