Today we are checking out a totally wireless security camera from Reolink.  It the Argus 2 and has an optional solar panel.  I’m super excited about this setup because it allows me to install a security camera pretty much anywhere as long as I’m in WiFi range.  We’ll see what’s included, add it to the Reolink app, install it in a bunch of locations inside and out so you can get a good feel as to how this camera could work for you.  I’ll show tonnes of daytime and nighttime footage, do a water test, WiFi range test and whatever else I can think of.  Basically, everything you need to know to understand this camera’s flexibility, so be prepared for a lot of information!

Starlight Night Vision: With a starlight CMOS sensor, 1080p Full HD high resolution presents up to 33ft crystal and sharp images and videos even at night. Free Rolling 7-day Cloud Storage: Event videos are securely uploaded to SD card or Reolink clou...
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #1
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #2
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #3
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #4
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #5
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel
Starlight Night Vision: With a starlight CMOS sensor, 1080p Full HD high resolution presents up to 33ft crystal and sharp images and videos even at night. Free Rolling 7-day Cloud Storage: Event videos are securely uploaded to SD card or Reolink clou... read more
(as of May 14, 2024 08:25 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

So, you can pick these up for individually or together as a package. The camera is about $100US or as a combo for $120.  They go on sale, so keep an eye out for that.  I have a link to coupon codes in the description below for even more savings that can be stacked on top of their sales, so do check that out.

In the box:

  1. A quick start guide, give it a read or keep watching this video.
  2. Mounting templates so you know where to drill your holes for each of the two mounts.
  3. Surveillance sticker to let others know of the presence of cameras.
  4. A strap in case you cannot make screw holes in your installation surface. Let’s cut away and look at a few examples.  Here is the strap used to attach the camera to a downspout.  Now on the railing on my deck.  This is now a quick shot of what the camera sees from the rail.  You could attach it to a fence that you don’t want to damage with screws.  Another quick view of what the camera sees here.  Lastly, I strapped the camera into this tree.  Ideally, you would install it in a bigger tree and away from the branches, but you get the picture of how it works.
  5. Next, we have a small lanyard.
  6. Micro USB cable to charge the battery.
  7. Screws for attaching the wall mount to your install surface.
  8. A reset pin to reset the camera back to factory defaults.
  9. The outdoor wall or ceiling mount. The plate can be removed from the bottom and attached to a mounting surface by screws or the strap.  What I like about this is, there is only one tightening point to control your camera’s direction.
  10. This is a skin to protect the camera from the elements, especially around the seam where the battery fits into the camera. It also has a little sunshade to protect the lens from overhead sun and rain.
  11. Rechargeable battery. It has a micro USB charging port for wall or solar power.  The contacts are on the bottom to power the camera.  More battery specs are listed here on the back.
  12. Here is the camera, with a magnetic wall mount attached. The battery contacts are spring loaded and more camera details on the back.  Let’s peal away the film.  The camera is surprisingly heavy and feels like a quality build.  It’s plastic and actually pretty slick looking.

Camera specs:

  1. The indoor wall mount is simply a ball of metal and the magnet is located in the camera body. It’s very powerful and no need to worry about it shifting.  I like this because it allows you to adjust the camera’s point of view without loosening and tightening screws.
  2. The battery drops into the back of the camera. Between charges, the battery will last up to 6 months.  But of course, that will decrease, the more motion that triggers the camera to record and the more you access it from the app.  When the camera is not active, the 120-degree PIR sensor on the front is responsible to picking up motion.  That’s because PIR sensors require very little electricity.  We’ll test its wake-up and record time to see if we lose any footage from when motion is detected.  Below the charging port, the is an LED indicator.  When it flashes orange and green, there is an issue with your charger; mostly likely not powerful enough.  When it’s orange, it’s charging and green when it’s done charging.
  3. Like I mentioned, this camera is wireless and needs to be connected to a 2.4GHz network. Most routers are 5.0GHz and 2.4, but double check to make sure your router or access points will broadcast at 2.4GHz.
  4. There is a card slot on the side for a micro SD card up to 64GB. Plenty of space for months of motion clips.  So yeah, you can record motion but not continuously.  You can also record onto your phone using the movie camera icon.  Normally in my videos, I would connect the camera to my PC and record footage there using Blue Iris.  It is technically possible but not recommended by Reolink since it places a lot of strain on the battery, streaming its feed continuously.  We’ll skip that for now and tackle it in another video.
  5. Next to the card slot, we have the reset button. Insert the pin until you hear, “Factory reset succeeded”.
  6. On the bottom, there is a hole for mounting the camera with the security mount. Here is a quick time-lapse of how to set this up.
  7. The camera does have night vision up to 33ft. We’ll test that too.
  8. The little spot above the lens detects the environmental lighting and tells the camera to switch automatically between daytime and nighttime modes.
  9. The little hole below is a mic and allows surrounding sounds to be recorded and for 2-way audio.
  10. There is a speaker near the base for speaking and for the alarm.
  11. The lens has a very wide field of view, meaning it would work great in an enclosed area, like a greenhouse, porch, a small garage or a 2-car driveway. We’ll check out a bunch of locations.
  12. Lastly, the sensor. The 2MP – 1080p Starlight CMOS sensor records at 15 frames/sec, which is common for WiFi cameras to save on disk space and decrease lag.

The solar panel, is very straight forward.  It comes with another window sticker, mounting template, setup guide, metal mount, screws and 4.5m (almost 15ft) cables.  The connector has a water-tight seal.  As you may know, the panel doesn’t power the camera but rather keeps the battery topped up and the camera uses this power bank.

Starlight Night Vision: With a starlight CMOS sensor, 1080p Full HD high resolution presents up to 33ft crystal and sharp images and videos even at night. Free Rolling 7-day Cloud Storage: Event videos are securely uploaded to SD card or Reolink clou...
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #1
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #2
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #3
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #4
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel #5
REOLINK Outdoor Security Camera System – Wireless, Rechargeable Battery, 1080P Video, Night Vision, Motion Detection, 2-Way Talk, Waterproof, Support Cloud Storage | Argus 2+Solar Panel
Starlight Night Vision: With a starlight CMOS sensor, 1080p Full HD high resolution presents up to 33ft crystal and sharp images and videos even at night. Free Rolling 7-day Cloud Storage: Event videos are securely uploaded to SD card or Reolink clou... read more
(as of May 14, 2024 08:25 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

App setup:

I have already downloaded and installed the Reolink app.  Since I already have an account, let’s add this camera.

  1. Click on the plus sign in the upper right.
  2. Scan the QR Code on the back of the camera.
  3. Connect to Wifi and enter your password.
  4. The app will give you a QR code to pass the WiFi information back to the camera and finalize the connection between the two.
  5. You’ll be asked to give your camera a password. This is not your Reolink password, but a password to access this camera.
  6. Then give it a name.

Your done.  Reolink has perfected this linking process and I love how it talks you through the process.  For me, this easy setup is a huge selling point.

Let’s bring up the feed and do a quick lag test.  Not bad.  Less than one second.

I’m going to up the quality to “1080p”, so I am seeing the best image possible since I know I have a strong WiFi connection.

Here is the icon of the movie camera I was referring to so you can record video to your phone.  You’re limited to the space on your phone as the footage goes directly to your camera’s video storage.  I have also noticed on a couple occasions, the audio gets out of sync with the picture when recording footage like this.

Where to install the camera:

  1. How about on a shelf when you go on vacation to keep an eye on the front door? Here is a quick view of some footage in the day.  Now at night.
  2. Maybe by your pet’s food bowl to keep track of their eating habits?
  3. Outside, over a door to keep an eye on who is approaching?
  4. In your vegetable garden to see who’s hanging out in there?
  5. So many options and no wired restrictions.

Let’s go through the install process here, inside my garage.  The solar won’t work here obviously unless I run a wire outside.  The camera just sticks onto the magnet which is super convenient.  Let me rotate the image here.  Here is a look at some footage.  Let me open the garage door to see how the camera deals with the light change.  Looks like it handled it very well.  Now at night with nothing but the camera’s IR lights.  Very impressive and no ghosting or trailers.  Perfect footage.

My next location is here over the front door.  I’ll fast forward though the install and point the camera towards the driveway.  Let’s also install the solar panel and plug that in.  I love the seal it creates around the solar plug.  Totally weatherproof.

The view is perfect.  Wide enough so I can see the whole driveway.  I can even see my garage doors and I can see if they are opened or closed.  Nice colors and good image quality.

Let’s do the license plate test, starting at 75 feet away.  It isn’t until I get to about 25ft away, that you can easily read the plate.

At night, it’s pitch dark in this wide-open space, it isn’t until I’m 20 feet away before you can easily see features.  This is impressive.  Other cameras often have blinding IR lights that wash out the scene at this point.

Let’s format that SD card and setup motion recording.

  1. Go to more settings
  2. Select Storage
  3. Format the card
  4. Now back on camera recording, we’ll select 15 seconds of footage when motion is detected.

We’ll need to turn on the PIR sensor here.  Under Alarm – PIR Sensor – PIR Settings.  You can change the sensitivity from High, Med to Low. You can also turn on a 3 second alarm, and even get an email (with a picture) when motion is sensed.  Lastly you can tell the camera to turn on and record the event for a custom length of time.  Let’s make sure push notifications are on, so I get notified when the PIR is triggered. This is what it looks and sounds like.

Let’s turn on the optional alarm.  It’s not too loud, but it will attract someone’s attention, letting them know they are getting recorded.

When testing the PIR sensor, I received a notification when I was about 10ft or 3m away.  I like that I can then jump into the app’s events and playback the footage that triggered the alert.  The trigger area seems to be a straight line perpendicular to the camera.  I like the quick wake up time.  As soon as the PIR senses motion, the camera wakes up, starts recording and then turns on the alarm.  Pretty cool.  By the way, I did PIR testing at night too and the sensor seemed a little more sensitive.

Back on the solar panel.  After a lot of testing, the solar panel doesn’t seem to require direct sun.  The camera is at 100% and it’s at the freezing point here for the past few days.  The camera seems to be getting the juice it needs to stay topped up.  On the other hand, when it’s below -5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit), the camera worked just fine but the battery was at 91% for most of the day (even in the sun).  The solar panel didn’t top up the cold battery.

With the camera turned around and facing the door, the wide-angle lens provides a perfect view.

At night, you can see that the IR lights are off on the camera.  When I open the door, the camera wakes up.  Let me wave to the camera.  I see my alert and let’s go back and play it.  So, you don’t see me opening the door, so it takes about a second for the PIR sensor to wake up the camera.  Not bad considering this is an awesome energy savings for the battery.

Let’s quickly install the camera here over the door.  If I have no access to power or network cables out here, this camera would solve my problem.  You can screw the outdoor mount into the soffit.  If I were to install the solar here, I would tuck the wire into the corner edge and attach the panel to the eave.

My next test is the back-yard range check.  Let’s see how far I can walk with the camera in hand and continue to keep WiFi contact.  Inside I have a Ubiquiti access points on my main floor.  I did a video on these a while back and they are still going strong.

5MP Camera Super HD and 100ft Night Vision: The PoE surveillance camera is 5MP (2560x1920) high-resolution with built-in 24pcs infrared illuminators to see up to 100ft long range decent IR night vision at dark or in low-light condition around the det...
REOLINK PoE Outdoor Security IP Camera 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus 5MP Video Surveillance, Work with Smart Home, IP Security IR Night Vision, Motion Detection, Remote Access via Phone App, RLC-511 #1
REOLINK PoE Outdoor Security IP Camera 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus 5MP Video Surveillance, Work with Smart Home, IP Security IR Night Vision, Motion Detection, Remote Access via Phone App, RLC-511 #2
REOLINK PoE Outdoor Security IP Camera 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus 5MP Video Surveillance, Work with Smart Home, IP Security IR Night Vision, Motion Detection, Remote Access via Phone App, RLC-511 #3
REOLINK PoE Outdoor Security IP Camera 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus 5MP Video Surveillance, Work with Smart Home, IP Security IR Night Vision, Motion Detection, Remote Access via Phone App, RLC-511 #4
REOLINK PoE Outdoor Security IP Camera 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus 5MP Video Surveillance, Work with Smart Home, IP Security IR Night Vision, Motion Detection, Remote Access via Phone App, RLC-511 #5
REOLINK PoE Outdoor Security IP Camera 4X Optical Zoom, Auto-Focus 5MP Video Surveillance, Work with Smart Home, IP Security IR Night Vision, Motion Detection, Remote Access via Phone App, RLC-511
5MP Camera Super HD and 100ft Night Vision: The PoE surveillance camera is 5MP (2560x1920) high-resolution with built-in 24pcs infrared illuminators to see up to 100ft long range decent IR night vision at dark or in low-light condition around the det... read more
(as of May 14, 2024 08:25 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

So, what didn’t I like about this camera?  Well, not much.  The PIR sensor zone is a little short.  I’d like to see that at a consistent 20ft or 6m.  I also found the mic picked up the slightest breeze and ruined the audio.  Maybe some internal foam or material for a windscreen could help.  I also found that the outdoor camera mount conveniently only had one tightening spot, it didn’t always fully secure the camera.

What did I like?  It’s a stand-alone device and all you need is the camera, solar panel and a memory card.  No computer or Network Video Recorder is required.  I love the image quality in the day and night, the wide view point, the fact that I had next to no false alarms with the PIR sensor including changes in lighting conditions and snow falling in front of the camera.  The onboard storage is prefect and connectivity was flawless.  The solar panel and long battery life makes this a game changer to security cameras.  Especially because it works during a power outage.  It’s a perfect, very well priced, DIY solution and removes the frustrating limiting factors of running network cables up walls, across the floor or through the yard.

Again, check out my links below for more information and check for coupon codes there too that can be stacked on top of Reolinks sale products.  I know this was a long video and a tonne of information.  As always, if you liked this video give it a thumbs up to let me know, and please subscribe for more Home Tech DIY Projects.