{"id":1174,"date":"2020-12-16T09:03:57","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T14:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2023-10-10T13:47:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T17:47:09","slug":"new-best-4k-poe-security-camera-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/new-best-4k-poe-security-camera-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"New Best 4K PoE Security Camera in 2021?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LZJX8CKR5KI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Today on the hookup I\u2019m going to put my previously highest rated cameras up against some newly released cameras from annke and reolink to see if we\u2019ll have some new champions in 2001 or if the Reolink RLC-410 and the Annke C800 can remain my top recommendations, spoiler alert: This thing is so good.<\/p>\n<p>Over 400,000 people have watched my PoE camera showdown videos where I end up recommending the Reolink RLC-410 camera as the best budget option, and the Annke C800 for the best value in 4K PoE cameras.\u00a0 It\u2019s been over a year since my last video and it\u2019s time to update the list for 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the cameras I tested in this video from least expensive to most: First with an MSRP of $49.99 is the RLC-410-5MP, a 5 megapixel bullet camera from reolink that also comes in an identical turret form called the RLC520 , next for $59.99 is the more recently released Annke C500 which is also 5 megapixels and is available in turret form or a bullet form called the B500.\u00a0 Then we\u2019ve got a brand new release from Reolink, a 4K PoE camera called the RLC-810A with an MSRP of just $84.99, just like the rest of the cameras if you prefer the turret form factor you\u2019ll look for the the RLC-820A instead, oh, did I mention it has on device person and vehicle detection, for $84.99\u2026 Well, we\u2019ll see if it\u2019s able to beat my previous recommendation for the best value in 4K cameras, the Annke C800, which seems to have settled at a price of $109.99 after some issues with supply and demand.<\/p>\n<p>Based on comments and feedback I did a few things differently in this video than my last ones: First, in my other PoE camera showdown videos I mostly left the image adjustment at the factory default settings because that\u2019s what I think most people will end up using.\u00a0 In this video I tweaked the settings of each camera to maximize their chances of scoring well.\u00a0 Specifically, I turned on and tuned the Wide Dynamic Range option on all the cameras which lightens shadows and reduces highlights, and I also adjusted the brightness and contrast for to increase definition in the details as much as possible without losing overall image quality.<\/p>\n<p>For the encoding, I used H265 for all the cameras except for the Reolink RLC-410 because it doesn\u2019t support H265.\u00a0 All of the bitrates were capped at 6144bps, and the frames per second were limited to 15 on all cameras even though the Reolink cameras support much higher framerates, specifically 25FPS at 4K resolution on the RLC-810A and 30fps at 5 megapixels on the RLC410.<\/p>\n<p>Another criticism that I got on my previous videos was that shifts in cloud cover created slightly different conditions for each camera, giving some an unfair advantage, so for this round I installed all the cameras at the time, so there is no difference in shadows or sunlight for any of the tests except the nighttime IR test that specifically needed to be done individually so the infrared lights wouldn\u2019t interfere with one another.<\/p>\n<p>Both 4k cameras record video in 16:9 widescreen format with resolutions of 3840&#215;2160 while the 5 megapixel cameras are 4:3 with resolutions of 2560&#215;1920.<\/p>\n<p>Lets start out the tests by looking at the field of view of each camera.\u00a0 In security cameras the field of view is determined by two main components: The image sensor size, and the lens focal length.\u00a0 Larger sensors and shorter focal lengths will lead to greater field of view but in general, larger field of view is associated with less overall detail and clarity because you are squeezing more physical area into each pixel in the video.\u00a0 In that regard I\u2019m not exactly comparing apples to apples this test.\u00a0 The Annke C800 has a 2.8mm focal length compared to the 4mm focal length of the Reolink RLC-810A.\u00a0 Their sensor sizes are nearly identical, so as expected, the Annke has a significantly greater field of view than the Reolink.<\/p>\n<p>For the 5 megapixel cameras, the same is true where the Annke C500 has a 2.8mm focal length compared to the RLC410\u2019s 4mm length.\u00a0 However, the RLC410 has a larger image sensor which actually results in a greater field of view despite the longer focal length.<\/p>\n<p>In the field of view category the Annke C800 easily earns a point for the 4k cameras, while the Reolink RLC410 just barely edges out the Annke C500 for the 5mp value cameras.<\/p>\n<p>Next lets talk about daytime clarity.\u00a0 This is an area that Reolink cameras have always excelled.\u00a0 All the Reolink cameras I\u2019ve ever tested have had amazing sharpness and detail for the price point and these cameras are no exception.\u00a0 To test clarity I held up a sign with 144 point font and 72 point font at 25 feet and 50 feet and then walked towards the camera for approximately 40 feet.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, the Reolink 4K camera absolutely blows the Annke out of the water in this category.\u00a0 Not only is the sign text clearly legible, but my facial definition is significantly better at 50 feet, and as I get to closer to the camera it only gets better.\u00a0 The picture on the C800 isn\u2019t bad, it\u2019s actually pretty good, but next to the Reolink the colors look washed out and details are blurry. Some of the differences can be accounted for by the longer focal length of the Reolink, but overall the difference is staggering at any distance.<\/p>\n<p>For the 5megapixel cameras the Reolink also produced a sharper and clearer image though not as dramatically different as the 4k cameras.\u00a0 Predictably, both of the 5 megapixel cameras struggled at 50 feet and neither produced a legible image of the large or small text.<\/p>\n<p>Clarity during movement is a bit more subjective, but in general none of the cameras had any issues with ghosting or streaking during the day. So for daytime video quality the clear winner is the Reolink in both the 4K category and the 5 megapixel value category, though again, the differences between the 5 megapixel cameras were slight compared with the differences between the two 4k cameras.<\/p>\n<p>Next was nighttime clarity, which I\u2019ll break down into two categories: Infrared Night Vision, and Nightime Low Light Color Vision.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with the infrared LEDs on and the cameras in black and white mode, I tested each camera separately with all of the house lights off.\u00a0 The tests had to be done separately so that infrared lights from one camera wouldn\u2019t influence the picture of the others.<\/p>\n<p>You can see that the surprising winner of this test is the 5 megapixel reolink which had the greatest clarity and definition throughout the entire range of the tests.<\/p>\n<p>The two 4k cameras had very different images, where the digital noise reduction on the reolink resulted in a smeary blurry image, the annke C800 image was really noisy despite having digital noise reduction enabled.\u00a0 The worst performer in this category was the Annke C500 which was both washed out and noisy, it almost looks to me like its own infrared lights are too bright for its auto exposure settings.\u00a0 Between the two 4K cameras the quality outside of 30 feet was similar, but closer to the camera the Reolink RLC810A had amazing definition, unfortunately I can\u2019t look past the fact that there was noticeable ghosting in the Reolink 810A during movement, which means I\u2019ve have to narrowly give this category to the Annke C800 for the 4K cameras.\u00a0 However, in the 5 megapixel category the Reolink RLC410 is the clear winner.<\/p>\n<p>At this point in the test I was starting to feel like the RLC410 was going to easily keep my recommendation for the best budget camera, but it\u2019s clearly not designed for color night vision.\u00a0 To test low light color performance I turned off the infrared LEDs and forced each the cameras into color mode.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out the blown out image of the Annke C500 was because the small image sensor is extremely sensitive.\u00a0 This color image is from the C500 and it was taken with absolutely no lights on outside my house, all the streaks you can see are from light coming out of my neighbor\u2019s windows.\u00a0 In contrast, the exact same conditions produced this image on the Reolink RLC410.\u00a0 The Reolink RLC-810A did a better job than the C800, but the Annke C500 is the real star of the show when it comes to low light color performance, which is surprising considering it has the smallest image sensor of any of the cameras tested.<\/p>\n<p>When adding just the ambient light from my Christmas light display the color night vision performance in all the cameras increased dramatically, but the Annke C500 still outperforms the rest by a significant margin.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking for a color night vision camera for under $50, look no further, the C500 is for you, but for me, it\u2019s not one of my must have features\u2026 although I have read that turning off the infrared LEDs on your cameras will stop spiders from building their webs in front of them, so that\u2019s worth looking into.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, for color night vision the C500 is the clear winner for the 5 megapixel cameras, while the Reolink RLC810A narrowly edges out the victory over the Annke C800.<\/p>\n<p>The last category is customizability, the web interface, and the app interface.\u00a0 The Annke cameras are made by Hikvision and as a result have the same web interface as all other Hikvision cameras.\u00a0 While you can install Hikvision firmware updates with a little bit of know how, the firmware on the Annke site isn\u2019t as recent as Hikvision\u2019s version and it shows in the fact that they the web interface still doesn\u2019t fully support chrome without downloading a plugin. \u00a0\u00a0Reolink on the other hand manufactures their own cameras and uses their own unique firmware.\u00a0 The Reolink web interface is intuitive and responsive and works perfectly with chrome and firefox. The Reolink app is the best of any PoE camera manufacturer that I\u2019ve used, and my favorite part about it is it works even after blocking the cameras from the internet, so you can use it securely by connecting to your home network with a VPN and then managing your cameras with their app, no cloud involved.<\/p>\n<p>In this category the Reolink cameras are massively superior to the ones from Annke, to the point where I\u2019d almost consider using them without a centralized NVR like Blue Iris, which is something I never thought I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n<p>So, after all is said and done, as long as you aren\u2019t specifically looking for color night vision, you still just can\u2019t beat the value of the Reolink RLC-410-5MP, and it will continue to be my recommendation for the best budget PoE camera.\u00a0 As for 4K cameras, the RLC-810A is incredible, not only is the video quality one of the best I\u2019ve ever seen, but it\u2019s only $85.\u00a0 Also, one of the main complaints I got about the Annke C800 was the lack of a microphone, which the RLC-810A has, and I haven\u2019t even talked about the fact that it has on device person and vehicle detection.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately I haven\u2019t figured out a way to use the person detection triggers with blue iris, but it does work in conjunction with the Reolink 8 channel NVR or by using an internal microSD card and the Reolink phone app.\u00a0 Even without considering person detection the Reolink RLC-810A is by far the best value in 4K cameras available today and is now my official recommendation.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve already got Annke C800s I wouldn\u2019t suggest going out and replacing them, but for new setups and additions I can\u2019t recommend the RLC-810A enough.<\/p>\n<p>Inevitably people in the comments are going to say I\u2019m a shill or that Reolink is paying for my endorsement, and I can assure you that isn\u2019t true.\u00a0 In fact, the only money I make on cameras is from affiliate links, so ultimately it doesn\u2019t matter which camera you buy as long as you buy it using my affiliate link, in fact if you buy a more expensive camera I\u2019ll make more from it, but I\u2019m telling you in this case you don\u2019t need to spend more.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tested 4K cameras well into the $500 range and I\u2019ve never seen one perform better than the RLC-810A, the whole reason I started this channel was to help people get the most for their money, and I\u2019m not about to sell out and suggest products that I don\u2019t honestly think are great just to make a few bucks.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, thank you so much to my awesome patrons over at patreon for your continuing to support this channel and my unbiased reviews.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in supporting my channel, please check out the links in the description.\u00a0 If you enjoyed this video please hit that thumbs up button and consider subscribing, and as always, thanks for watching the hookup.<\/p>\n<h6>My Recommendations (Affiliate Links)<\/h6>\n<h6>\ud83d\udd25AmazonUS\ud83d\udd25<\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-410 5MP Bullet: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/34xnuVx\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/34xnuVx<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-520 5MP Turret: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3nmT13J\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3nmT13J<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-810A 4K Bullet: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2KqDO2X\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/2KqDO2X<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-820A 4K Turret: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mkn62E\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mkn62E<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>**As an Amazon Associate I earn a % of qualifying purchases at no cost to you.**<\/h6>\n<h6>\ud83d\udd25Reolink Direct\ud83d\udd25<\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-410 5MP Bullet: <a href=\"https:\/\/reolink.com\/product\/rlc-410\/?aff=50\">https:\/\/reolink.com\/product\/rlc-410\/?aff=50<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-810A 4K Bullet: <a href=\"_wp_link_placeholder\" data-wplink-edit=\"true\">https:\/\/reolink.com\/product\/rlc-810a\/?aff=50<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>\ud83d\udd25AliExpress\ud83d\udd25<\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-410 5MP Bullet: <a href=\"https:\/\/s.click.aliexpress.com\/e\/_ACbVJf\">https:\/\/s.click.aliexpress.com\/e\/_ACbVJf<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>RLC-810A 4K Bullet: <a href=\"https:\/\/s.click.aliexpress.com\/e\/_ABjrQ5\">https:\/\/s.click.aliexpress.com\/e\/_ABjrQ5<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>\ud83d\udd25Annke Cameras From this Video\ud83d\udd25<\/h6>\n<h6>Annke C500: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3gP77II\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/3gP77II<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>Annke C800: <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/37om29H\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/37om29H<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>Follow me on Twitter: @TheHookUp1<\/h6>\n<h6>Join me on Facebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/473812443269387\/?ref=share\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/473812443269387\/?ref=share<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>Support my channel: Patreon: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/thehookup\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/thehookup<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>Music by www.BenSound.com<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today on the hookup I\u2019m going to put my previously highest rated cameras up against some newly released cameras from annke and reolink to see if we\u2019ll have some new champions in 2001 or if the Reolink RLC-410 and the Annke C800 can remain my top recommendations, spoiler alert: This thing is so good. Over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3799,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions\/3799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesmarthomehookup.com\/test_install\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}