Ive used the search bar, but it is difficult for me to tell if the recommendations people have made is based on longer-term use or more recent. I am hoping to install (DIY) some cameras around my home, mostly outside but possibly one or two inside as well. I’ve looked at a few brands (Swann, Reolink, and some others I don’t recall the names of right now), and I keep coming back to Reolink. Partially due to their 2-year warranty over what seems to be a common 1-year for other brands, and that they have something called Power over Ethernet? Which I think (from what I can gather in understanding it), would mean I don’t need to get battery-operated, solar-powered or wired into power versions?

However, with Reolink, when I look at online reviews, ther are some that are less than promising. Some indicate they die within a few weeks or months, and a couple have inidcated that you’re forced into signing up for their cloud services after 12 months? I would rather not have cloud backup, partially for cost, partially because I have no real need for it when I can store it on the large hard drive included with the package. It’s unclear whether their advertised motion sensitivity is legitmate or not as well. I’d prefer something I can check on an app when I feel unsafe or am unsure if something has happened/ is happening outside of my home.

I am also up in the air on whether having a spot-light turn on at the time of motion detection is needed, the model of cameras I am looking at is the Reolink RLK16-820D8-A (unsure if I can link it due to sub rules).

If it makes any difference, I live in Australia in a location we don’t get extreme low temperatures often (maybe just below freezing on the odd occasion in winter), but we do get hot days, sometimes a few days in a row (40C-ish).

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Is there something I am missing? Has anyone had these cameras for an extended period of time and had problems or successes? Is there a better alternative I am missing (bearing in mind we can’t get everything in AU, but we can get most things)?