The camera works well pretty much as advertised while it has a few annoyances and weaknesses.

First, the good: 1. Excellent video quality. 2. Easy to install and set up. 3. Prompt and reliable notifications to the app. 4. Solar panel does an excellent job, even in the mostly shady area where it is installed.

Second, the annoyances: 1. If the battery level is low, the solar panel seems to give up and just show the green full charge indication. This comment is not fully verified, except that when I first installed the solar panel, the battery was at 30%. It charged it briefly and then went to "green" indicating full charge and stopped charging. I tried numerous ways to fix this; unplugging and re-plugging in the solar panel; repositioning the solar panel, etc., all to no avail. I finally got the solar panel to work by dismounting the camera, taking it into the house, and charging it up to ~60%. Then it worked fine and has ever since (with the exception of the following annoyance). 2. After the above episode, the charging indicator in the app now shows it as plugged into a wall charger, not the "sun" icon indicating plugged into the solar panel.

Third, the weaknesses. 1. The temp specs are wholly inadequate for anything above the southern tier of states. 14° F. Really? Outside of the extreme south, no area of the USA has winters that stay above 14° F. 2. The camera's motion sensing is slow. It will sometimes completely miss the cause of the motion trigger, or only catch a brief glimpse. 3. Without the solar panel, the battery life is borderline pathetic. 2 months, maybe. And that's in the springtime months; who knows about the winter (the solar panel, though, saves the day here).

Discussion. I bought this camera as a learning exercise; my first try at a DIY home security setup. I am extremely well satisfied with the overall quality of this camera. The video quality is excellent. As a security camera, reliable notification is important, and it does an excellent job with this, too. The solar panel does an excellent job. I have the camera mounted under my front porch roof, and have a very shady front yard. The sunniest place I can mount the solar panel is in full shade for most of the day, with patches of sun through the leaves for a few hours, and only an hour or so of full sun late in the day. Even so, the solar panel more than keeps up with battery drain, increasing the charge level of the battery by several percentage points every day.

No further comment on the annoyances... they are just annoying.

The late trigger on motion sensing, though, is a real weakness. I have the camera pointing at my front porch and down the sidewalk. A person walking at a normal pace up the walk will be within a step of the porch before the video starts recording. (The "other vendor" I mentioned in the temperature spec discussion does a significantly better job here.)

Temperature specs, though, are apparently where Reolink really saves money on components.

C'mon, guys, make outdoor cameras for the real outdoors, won't you? You have a "testimonial" on the web site about a Canadian customer who verified it would self-heat to actually operate at temps well below spec. NB: this is for a wire-powered camera left on 24/7, not a battery powered camera operating on motion-sensing. Hopefully, being mounted near the house, this camera will work through most of the Minnesota winters where I live, but I have my doubts. Even Reolink's line- and PoE-powered cameras have this inadequate temperature spec. Likely, as I speculated above, due to the use of cheap components. (Which also gives me doubts about how long this camera will last.) Due to this, and this reason alone, the remainder of the cameras on my property are from a different vendor who takes outdoor temperature specs seriously for real-world use. The remainder of my outdoor cameras are spec'ed to operate at -22° F - that's BELOW zero. And, they were in the same general price tier as the Reolink line.

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The Argus Eco Ultra Solar Cam does NOT accept an Antenna, nor the $14.99 Antenna Cable Extension. Yet the Antenna Cable Extension is shown as being compatible on the Reolink site. It is not. I mistakenly purchased the Cable with the ECO Ultra Cam, tried to explain to Reolink Customer Support that it does not fit and I would like a full refund. Pretty simple request, I thought, until I was told that the Antenna does fit and would I like to file a "Warranty" claim. Customer Support did not understand, or believe me when I insisted that there was NO Antenna on my Cam and therefore no place to attach an Antenna Cable Extension. I left a "Bad" review and was then offered the opportunity to return the Cable Extension, at my cost, change my Review to "Good", and then possibly get a refund. I am done with this company and their ridiculous manner in which their Customer Support treats its Customers.

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