REOLINK RLC-1240A First 12MP Vandalproof PoE Security Camera,145° Wide Viewing Angle, Featuring Color Night Vision, Two-Way Talk, Smart Person/Vehicle/Animal Detection, Weatherproof

This is an excellent camera with great picture quality. Even in suboptimal lighting conditions, fine details can be made out easily. The construction is solid as well, with a thick outer shell and hard plastic camera cover, fitting for a vandal-proof camera. You can choose to run the power and ethernet cables out of the back of the camera, say, through a hole in a wall, or you can remove a rubber insert to divert the cable out of one side.I was worried about range of motion, but the camera can pivot along a wide range, up and down, and nearly 360 degrees around. The wide FOV allows you to see a lot from any position.This camera easily connects to AgentDVR, and AgentDVR is even able to use data from the camera's AI motion and object detection to tag videos (with keywords including "detected", "vehicle", "people", "animal") or trigger recordings. FTP recording also works very well, although I had trouble with Auto/PASV transport and had to set it to Port to get it to work properly.The only problem I've had, along with other Reolink cameras, is switching between day and night modes. I guess my porch is just a bit too dark. In the morning, the camera won't switch to day mode until at least 3 hours past sunrise. It also doesn't switch over when my porch light is turned on at night, and it's a really powerful bulb. This doesn't significantly affect clarity, it just means it doesn't show colors when it reasonably could.

I had purchased a 12mb, eight camera set with a recorder that will hookup sixteen cameras. I wanted to slowly add cameras where I need them and this one was on sale ten dollars cheaper than the non security ones. It is how ever a very nice camera. The only difference in this one and the others I got, this one is vandal proof. It does have a good picture. A person would have to carry a small Allen wrench (included with camera) to remove the dome cover to expose the camera. After you get the cover off you can adjust what the camera sees. Still have a few more to buy so I wouldn't be apposed another one of these if price is right.

Easy to set up and install

I have several other Reolink cameras and an NVR. Generally, their cameras, NVR, and mobile app work very well and are well designed.I bought this camera for an exposed location where I wanted a small, dome-style camera. I got it installed, but will not buy this camera from Reolink again.This camera does not fit on standard electrical mounting boxes. It has three holes through which you must attach it to wall or ceiling. OK fine, so maybe you don't need a box?Well, it also has a long wire tail (power as well as Ethernet), over a foot of cable. And the back of the camera, the surface that would rest on wall or ceiling, is flat. So you cannot just plug in your Ethernet and power (you don't need the separate power if you have Power over Ethernet), you need to open the wall or ceiling so the extra wire can go somewhere. (This is why fitting onto a standard electrical box would be good...)I wound up having to prepare a custom fitting to sit between wall and camera. I prepared a wood square from a 1x6 board, and used a hole saw to cut a large enough hole in the middle that I could store the extra wire from the camera there. I did not want to cut a large hole in my wall where my Ethernet wire came though.I would suggest Reolink re-design this camera so that:1. It fits on standard electrical boxes - it would be far easier to use an existing box or add a new surface-mount box than have to custom-make something.2. The trailing power and Ethernet wires are removable and I can plug my Ethernet wire directly into the camera instead of having to deal with an extra 12" or more of dual wire and bulky plug sockets.The camera itself needs to be manually adjusted. You should definitely do this before final attachment, as the camera head itself only has a limited range of rotation, so you will need to make sure you attach the camera the "right" way for your location. (Yes, this means this camera does not support any PTZ or other adjustments through the Reolink app.)In summary - the camera part itself works like the other Reolink cameras, fine there, but the installation is clunky and annoying.Side note: the Reolink cameras can be used with both the Reolink app as well as third-party systems like Blue Iris, and yes, at the same time. You just need to go into the camera's properties and enable RTSP/ONVIF for third-party NVRs - those are not enabled by default, which is good.

I haven't extensively tested night vision or motion detection, but the camera works well in its indoor application in my basement. Picture quality is quite good. The Reolink Client software works well with Windows 11 PCs, IOS devices, but fails to work with my MacBook Air running the Sonoma version of MacOS. It failed with the previous version, Ventura as well. Two different Mac's (also a MacMini 2018) showed the same result. Given that two different PC's worked fine, I can only conclude that the Mac version is not ready for prime time. The Mac problem exists with two different Reolink camera models including this one. With IOS and Windows 11 as well as logging into the camera via the web, the RLC-1240A produces good results. I have installed micro SD storage in this camera as well as a different Reolink model - storage works well. In all, a good camera. But suggest that Reolink fix the Mac Reolink Client.

Updated my rating. The camera worked great for three months, then suddenly stopped working. I reached out to the manufacturer but haven’t received a response in over two weeks. I own two other cameras from the same brand, so I’m hoping this was just a one-off issue—but it does raise concerns about quality control if some units are failing after only 90 days.

I returned them because I wanted a wider view. This camera had a 145 degree angle . So I ordered the same camera with a 180 degree viewing angle which was better for me.Both cameras are great. The talk and speak audio is clear and good. I recommend these cameras. It depends on how wide a viewing angle you want.