Reolink 833A Vs 1200D Deal

mkh1991 on 18/03/2025 - 16:05
Last edited 18/03/2025 - 23:08 by 1 other user

Hey All,

Looking to upgrade my home CCTV and I've narrowed it down to the Reolink RLC-833A (8MP, 3x zoom) and the RLK-D1200 (12MP system). I'm mainly concerned with clear, reliable footage for general home security – identifying faces, license plates, etc. Is the optical zoom of 833A overkill, or a worthwhile upgrade? Are the core functions similar? Any real world experience with either?

A price difference of $90

https://reolink.com/product/rlk8-833d4-a/

https://reolink.com/product/rlk8-1200d4-a

Thanks !

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  FrontBottom on 18/03/2025 - 19:04

  I've got th 833A down the side of the house. Clarity is great. AI features I only partly use, as I have it hooked up to BlueIris and CodeProject.AI. Zoom is really only useful if you (kinda obvioulsy) focus in on a smaller area. I reckon the 833A is a bit of an orphan though. I think there has only been 1 software update since release (last one in 2023). From what I've read, the 12MP isn't really much of an upgrade (and I suspect worse low-light performance)

  EDIT: Regarding low-light; the LED light is actually useful on the 833A at least; sometimes a fraction slow to come on, but it pretty good at triggering for people.

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  tenpercent on 18/03/2025 - 20:30

  Where's everyone living or what sort of funny business do they have in their garage/shed that they need CCTV at home?

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    klaw81 on 18/03/2025 - 20:56

    No funny business. My house is decently sound-proof so we often don't hear vehicles enter the property. And we've had a couple incidents with drunk people wandering into the yard from the pub down the road. Plus our crazy neighbours have been behaving a lot better since we put up some cameras.

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  klaw81 on 18/03/2025 - 20:52

  The 12MP cameras will give you gloriously detailed footage during the day in strong sunlight, but will very likely suffer signficantly with poor performance in the dark - this is always the trade-off with small sensors and high resolution. Unless you have strong ambient light or automatic floodlights that will ensure the camera has a decent amount of light to work with during the night, I suspect it will struggle.

  The optical zoom of the 833A isn't an automatic tracking feature that zooms into objects in motion like those fancy PTZ cameras do. It's a set-and-forget zoom that's intended to give more flexibility in camera placement without losing image quality. For example, you can use it to monitor vehicle movements at the end of a long driveway - zoom in to ensure a car will fill the frame as it enters and leaves so you have the best possible chance of capturing the plates. Or you can zoom all the way out for a nice wide shot that covers a lot of your back yard. Reolink's zoom cameras usually have a ~15 degree wider field of view than their fixed-focus cameras when zoomed all the way out.

  Apart from the resolution and zoom, the feature set will be very similar between the two cameras. Personally, I'd go for the 833A.