REOLINKSmart 4K UHD Pan & Tilt Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Indoor Security Camera with 3X Optical Zoom, Auto-Tracking, People/Pet Detection, Crying Sound Detection, Privacy Mode, and Bluetooth Setup, E1 Zoom

The primary function I have for this camera is baby monitoring through Xeoma. I gotta say, especially for the price, this camera works well, at least once you have it dialed in. I started off with the slightly cheaper version, but found it wasn't quite doing what I needed.The pros of this camera you just won't find anywhere else for this price are:1. Fairly high resolution.2. Full PTZ functions for both movement and zooming.3. Colors are really good.4. Clarity is really good.5. Onvif compliant.6. Two way audio.7. Works well over WiFi.If you are curious what this has gotten me over the slightly cheaper version more exactly:1. Slightly bigger.2. Zoom. This is actually quite a significant feature.3. Slower response to switch between day and night mode. Actually where this is mounted in the house and with it zoomed all the way in, it is almost always in night mode, which is adequate for the need it is serving.4. Speaker for two way communication seems slightly louder.The big reason why I really wanted this camera over the cheaper version was from my cell phone it could be hard to tell if the baby's eyes were open. Sometimes he thrashes around some while sleeping, but if his eyes open, that means he is awake and I need to attend to him. However if his eyes are closed, he usually settles down and all is good for a while longer. (It seems he is dreaming a fair amount.) Xeoma allows doing a digital zoom, but an optical is much better as it can be hard to use the zoom feature right on the go. The digital zoom is really best for stationary use. Actually using a combination of optical zoom and digital zoom as the optical is good enough to have the whole crib in view and not much else while I use the digital zoom to have the baby fill the viewing area in the subsection of the crib he is in. The clarity of this combination is very good and I am able to either see if his eyes are open from a cell phone or a reasonably sized window on my desktop monitors so I can have everything up on my screens at once as I work from home.While everything is working good enough for baby monitoring so far after some tweaking of settings, it has taken some fiddling to get it to work right. For one I made sure to select TCP transport as all of this goes over WiFi. If you set / default to UDP, things will look really bad as packets will get lost and there is no way around that with WiFi except for using a TCP transport. Second I needed to turn on the back light mode when zoomed in or else the picture would be way under exposed. However these options are there, so then it was just a matter of using the motorized movement of the camera while on its mounting point to point it at the crib and zoom in. At this the wide angle on this camera is wider than the cheaper model and the aspect ratio is more squarish. This makes the optical only zoom not quite what I had hoped for, but it is good enough to see if the baby's eyes are open without having to use the digital zoom in Xeoma. As for digital zooming, it looks a lot more crisp with this camera than the cheaper version, so yeah, see every detail up close. The mic on both of these cameras is a bit lack luster, but I can make out the louder sounds the baby makes, which is enough to know if the baby needs immediate attention even if my wife has the more traditional baby monitor instead of it being with me. Really having the traditional baby monitor around is really useful as it picks up everything, so I can be deep in work and hear every little stir the baby makes and am well aware when it is time to say set up for feeding where with the camera audio alone I have to keep a close eye on the video feed to pick up hints it is getting time to do something for the baby. Really the audio on this camera is more of if the baby needs attention right now, that is when you finally hear something. Also with two way, Xeoma does not support audio in the other direction, so have to fire up the Reolink app. The two way audio deal is more of something my wife likes to use anyway where I just go into the room and do if something needs to happen.I really kind of wish I could wire this in, especially as it is mounted right next to an Ethernet switch optimized for video traffic, but sadly I can't. At least this place is heavily wired in now, I have multiple WiFi APs to provide great WiFi coverage, and I can use a TCP transport for this camera, so it should work reliably and so far has.

The camera was very easy to set up with voice instructions and you can also watch a quick installation video that will walk you thru the process of downloading the Reolink App and getting it connected to wifi. Picture quality is very good and two way voice is communication is ok. However, the micro SD slot is in a bad location under the bottom part of the camera lens. It's kinda difficult to insert it. After inserting, you cannot take it back out again since the SD card goes all the way in and there's no way to take it back out as there's no wiggle room whatsoever. Mine just said "No SD card inserted" when the card was inserted. Not sure if it's defective or what, but I wasted a brand new 256GB SD card since I can't take it back out. I will be returning this unit. It's unfortunate since the camera is actually pretty good, but the SD card slot design is terrible.UPDATE 8/30/2023: Reolink customer service reached out to me right after leaving the above review and wanted to see what they can do to make things right. I asked for a new 256GB micro SD card as it was stuck in the camera and would not come out. They offered to send me a new 256GB micro SD card and a new camera. Both arrived really fast the next day and now all works great. The new camera's SD card slot works as designed and I was able to insert it and take it back out easily with no problem. The camera started recording right away after the initial set up (which was a breeze). So, it's obvious the original camera's SD card slot was just defective. I'm giving Reolink customer service A+++ as they were very responsive and accommodating and went the extra mile to help me. I'm very satisfied with these guys and planning to buy more security cameras from them soon. Thank you Reolink!

Adventures in setting up was a mess, but while I am still learning stuff, the picture is excellent. But the tiny booklet is worthless in how to set up, although the website has lots of info but has to look at scads of articles.I have used Dropcam for many years, which can access via Internet site. I have a Gigiblast fast Internet service. I rarely use a smartphone other than for mapping when traveling; I can not type on those tiny keys. I have six 28" monitors in front of me at my home office, and when I travel, I pack a full Logitech keyboard with a laptop. I use the camera for my large home office security, especially when traveling.I spent days researching and reading reviews wanting when traveling to view from a PC or Laptop. So decided on this Reolink E1 Zoom, and then the excitement (confusion) to set up began,The quick start guide started me on a many-hour journey to figure out.First, it says to mount the camera. Ah... isn't that like getting the cart before the horse or whatever that expression is. No, let me coddle the little guy on my desk, so I can do whatever has to be done without trying to work on it mounted (which will be on a cabinet top)Starting with downloading and launching App OR Client software. I am a nerd and read that it is either, not both. So I got the client, and, of course, I was totally lost. So I went to the app store on my PC, and it indicated it was not available on "other" devices. OK, I dug out my smartphone and found I am still trying to figure out why I already had the app. But I couldn't find the cute little guy (aka camera). Well, you have to plug it in!I had read/scanned all the reviews and remembered something about not using the little thing on the bottom to plug in since it was the tiny mic, so I could destroy it if you thought that was where you plug in power. But OK, the picture shows it's a power port. So plug it in, and some women started screaming at me in many languages; that startled me, and I didn't catch what the English said. OK, something works.Unless I am blind, nothing in the little guide says anything about the Ethernet connection. Now I go back to OS/2 days before the Windows GUI (dos screen) and back to old card readers - you know, IBM punch cards - yes, I am old.I have a MAZE router system. All the Ethernet ports are full, as are my six ports on a switch. I have MOCA for TIVO, two for NAS, and a printer, and I don't know what else since it's a mess and set up years ago and just works.OK, pull one of the NAS connections and find a spare cable - hopefully, the yellow one works, or is that a "patch" cable... well let's try it vs. some 30-foot ones! This part goes smoothly, besides turning the big Orbi router upside down and getting my magnifier to read the tiny printed password. OK, set up pw for the camera, etc.; that part is fine.The rest of the setup went fine, and we got a great video on the client both in the light and at night. Beware; however, if you are in the same room and testing, the audio may get scratching feedback or constant echoes.Now the microSDXC SanDisk 256k. The first challenge is the human-proof security packaging. I made multiple attempts with a knife, scissors, and willpower just to tear open the plastic security wrapping just to get it and the readout of the package.I recalled from the research you have to point the guy all the way up to get to the tiny port. OK, little guy, open WIDE... barely clears the tiny opening. After a few failed attempts and finding a video watching at a slow speed to be sure I was putting it in the right with almost no clearance when it closed its mouth, I think it is in! I hope I never have to get it out!Now the guy tells me that it has to be formatted. Look all over the client app setting until you give up and find instructions and videos on the website. I must dig out my smartphone again since I have to use the app. Once found from all the zillions of articles in the support part of the web, the video and directions gave good directions. This is after I searched the client's 66-page online manual and found nothing on how to format the disk.I still must learn some options and settings, but it now seems excellent. It would have saved many hours of frustration for us that are not camera geek's if some of this was in a well-organized, one-place how set of instructions.Hopefully, this review might help others as inexperienced with the camera setup as I was.