RLC-1224A 12MP Dome Outdoor PoE Camera for Home Security

In 2008 I purchased a system and they worked great. When I moved to a different house I purchased another system to replace an outdated system that was on my new house. I purchased the Reolink 16ch 12mp PoE Camera system with the 4TB HDD in May of 2024. Installed all 8 cameras that came with the system and ordered 2 more cameras 3 days later due to wanted more coverage in areas I did not think about. The system work great. Easy to setup, great picture, very user-friendly. The extra cameras joined in just like the ones purchased in the system. In July 2026 I had a power surge and that made the NVR (hard drive) not to power on. I contacted Reolink and asked for troubleshooting procedures. After trying different things Reolink said since they were on warranty and I purchased them on Amazon through Reolink directly they would give me a refurbished unit. I shipped them the old unit and within 5 business days I had another NVR to connect. After setting it up and connecting it, I found out the power surge must of damaged 4 of the cameras that came with the original system. After contacting them using the same code they issued 4 cameras. The 4 cameras that were damaged were no longer in production and they could not give me refurbished cameras. So they shipped me 4 brand new updated cameras. I can say enough good things from the brand. Quality, Use, Customer Service all have been top notch. Very pleased with purchase. Will be buy more cameras for this system in time. The entire time I was waiting on the items to ship to me I had someone contacting each day to check on the progress.

This Reolink RLC-1224A is an excellent outdoor/indoor security camera. The 12MP resolution delivers sharp, detailed images with a nice 97° wide-angle view that covers a good area without distortion. Color night vision with the 700lm spotlight is bright and vivid, and the human/vehicle/pet detection works reliably with very few false alerts. Two-way talk is clear, PoE setup was simple, and the dome design looks clean and sturdy. Highly recommend for home surveillance — great quality and features at a solid price!

This is a great camera. I wanted something with local storage or that I could connect to my own cloud and this is fantastic. I bought this 8 months ago and the 256GB hasn't been used up yet. It has great picture quality, is no 8k, but for a security camera it's perfectly fine. Talkback, alarm, and spotlights are great. Playback and recording are good. Live feed is clean with little to no latency. I can also have Google pull it up on my Hub and that's pretty nifty. My setup is the camera wired to switch, wired to a Wi-Fi repeater. I'm using Cat8 cables and a Netgear switch. I also have the white door camera routed the same way and that one is great too. The biggest thing is to get the non-detecable zones set up as well as the delays and sensitivities. Once those are set to your needs it's smooth sailing.

I have 2 of these now and am about to round out my needs with 2 more. A few comments. I've watched s few reviews of prior releases/firmware perhaps of the 1212A from 2022 (nearly a year before I write this on 03-JUL-23 and can say the reviews were thorough BUT the camera has apparently evolved since the 2022 timeframe. Those items that held it back int he reviews are mostly gone and very much improved. First let me state that your milage will vary based on your surroundings... my notes below are from a heavily treed neighborhood where people tend to keep lights off at night unless a motion detector triggers one... there is a single soft yellowish tree light on the stretch -- so not a brightly lit environment at night. Comparing side by side with my RLC-811A I can say the picture is sharper but I wouldn't say the differences is a "WOW" factor... UNTIL NIGHT ROLLS AROUND! The 1224A is able to run in color mode with ambient light with a usable image (motion does blur in the lowest of light) whereas the 811A just inches away from the 1224A is too dark to be useful like this even for still views. Going to black & white mode (still ambient -- without allowing IR spotlights) the 1224A pulls farther ahead with a sharp image that extends well beyond the range of the 811A which performs better here than it did in color mode. The 1224A has an extra 60-80+ feet of usable range in this scenario. Lastly turning on the infrared spotlight the 1224A leaps ahead and has a sharp image and surpasses the range of the 811A by 100+ feet. One last thing. A reviewer previously stated that the mounting is not flexible and I was almost put off by this post (but PRIME returns gave me the confidence to try the camera). I can state with certainty that this camera is every bit as flexible as every other turret cam out there. While the other reviewer's notes of the 3 positions for locking to the mount are correct there is a 360 degree rotation at a seam about 1/8 inch from the mount. It is stiff (as it should be to ensure it doesn't move under any circumstances but the turret DOES rotate completely on the mount. The camera ball within the turret moves up/dow 90 degrees and twists fully so that it can be positioned to any angle. It fits securely against 'fingers' which provide tension to hold it steady after adjustment. The camera has a good mounting system (no restrictions as another comment noted) good picture and at the price currently only a little more than the 4K cameras it is a great value.

I purchased three of these cameras and an NVR to create a simple network of security footage to cover my driveway / side of house. I did the entire project myself without the need of a professional (I am handy though). Overall, these are a good solution for the average homeowner. Pros - Great image quality for the price. The camera's also have a fairly wide viewing angle. When recording on "High", you can zoom in and read a license plate, see a face (pretty good), etc. Note that this model in particular does not have optical zoom. They sell some that do and they might be clearer when zoomed in. Installation was simple and the cameras were automatically detected by the NVR, without needing to use QR codes and bluetooth standing outside near the camera. The settings are fairly straight forward and there are a lot of options for users to tweak. The camera can distinguish between a car and a person and a pet. I disabled pet, to prevent a random rabbit or racoon from setting them off, but the camera easily tells me if it detected a person or a vehicle. You can record 24/7 or just motion. The app for playback is not insanely intuitive, but it's good enough. You can find the footage you are looking for. On a computer, you can filter by motion types. So if you're looking for people only, it will give you a little mark at the timestamp where a person was detected. Cons - The biggest con (for me) is there is a poor landscape mode on an iPad. This m,ay be minor for most users, but for my use case, we have an iPad mounted in the hallway that we use to control all the smart home stuff. It's landscape. Because the Reolink app is awkward in landscape, it's awkward on that device. Should you hold the device in Portrait, it's fine. Sometimes on playback, the video is chopping. But it's important to note that the RECORDING ITSELF IS NOT choppy. Just playback on a phone. You can download the clip to your device and it's smooth as butter. Or, watch it on a laptop and it will be better as well using the Reolink Desktop Client. The cables do have a nice interface for connecting to cat6 outdoors, but there are a few extra dongles there for external power (optional) and something else. It's not super clean looking if you have that cable outside your home. You can ziptie it together and it's fine. For one of my cameras, I was able to drill a 3/4" hole straight through the Hardy Board and all the connections were made in the attic. VERY clean look. Sometimes there is a SLIGHT lag when viewing livestream (maybe 3 seconds). I use this now in my office to monitor a door with a bell, so we notice the delay in that instance. For security around the home, you'd never notice. In summary, I am happy with this system. The POE is nice. Setup is easy and features are packed. The cameras record in good quality and I think it will meet my needs as a homeowner / end user perfectly. Price was reasonable for the quality. Recommended.

Reolink makes great products, and this 12MP camera is excellent. I have six around my house, and they have amazing clarity, sound, and auto-detect recording options. Reliable cameras and excellent documentation and support. I highly recommend Reolink. I use the in-camera micro SD cards to record any motion, and don't have to pay a monthly fee for a Cloud storage option. Am thinking about buying a Reolink NVR to get more recording capacity, but I haven't needed it for over six years so am doubtful of the benefit. If I need to see something in the past, it's never more than 2-3 day before, which the 128-GB microSD card can easily handle.

excellent camera

I purchased the REOLINK 12MP PoE IP Camera for its high-resolution promise and smart home compatibility, and it truly delivers. The image quality is sharp, capturing fine details even in wide 97° views, making it perfect for monitoring larger outdoor spaces. Installation was effortless, and pairing it with my network was smooth, thanks to its strong RTSP support. What really stood out was how well it works with Home Assistant, allowing for seamless smart home automation. However, the exposed lens can be a hassle to clean if it collects dust or water spots, and the user interface feels a bit clunky, which might slow down first-time users. Despite these quirks, the camera offers excellent value for anyone serious about home security. Pros: - Razor-sharp image quality that captures every detail - Plug-and-play setup that makes installation a breeze - Seamless pairing with networks and smart home systems - Strong RTSP support for flexible streaming options - Hassle-free integration with Home Assistant for smart automation Cons: - Lens cleaning is a challenge if dust or debris settles - Clunky GUI that could frustrate less tech-savvy users

I invested in reolink a few years ago and have their 5MP camera which have excellent day time capacity but sub par night use. Higher resolution cameras were not available at that time. Recently my car was broken into and the night footage was unusable. I have purchased this 12MP camera which had built in sensor spotlight, microphyand speaker and a warning siren. It is plug and play compatible with my existing Reolink NVR and the image quality is outstanding. In night b&w the image is crisp, when the sensor spotlight comes on the image reverts to full colour and is exceptional. This has been an excellent purchase and upgrade.

Camera is awesome and easy to install! Very good quality for the price!

good camera with audio and spot light. works very well, poe setup simple

Great images both day and night. Easy to set up and link to the main DVR.

Swannの一回り高額なものも同じ場所につけて、補完できるように使ってますが、両方同程度…というか多分、性能はこっちの方が上かな。 夜は赤外線を照射しており、赤いライトが見えます。 また、この光が近くで反射してしまうと、白飛びしてかなり見づらくなるので、画角調整が必要です。 ここら辺だけはSwannの方が優秀感。 中華製品というだけで信用したくないけども、コスパはすごいです。 でもやっぱりネットには繋ぎたくありません。 あと、商品説明が足りてませんが、レンズの反対側からケーブルの生えた球状の本体を、土台がホールドしているだけのため、かなり自由に画角を設定できます。