REOLINK 2K 4G LTE Wireless Security Camera - No WiFi Needed, Rechargeable Battery & Solar Powered, 4MP Night Vision, 2-Way Audio, Smart Person/Vehicle Detection - Ideal for Home, Farm, and Outdoor Surveillance

I must confess, I am delighted with this camera. It is a nicely engineered camera which (so far at least) has done exactly what I wanted. I bought one, tested it, was quite impressed, and have purchased two more.[9-23-24 update] My original review was December 4, 2022; and I added edits 9-23-24. I remain delighted with this camera model and now have six of them.I am using these cameras for border monitoring on a rural property where it has been difficult (impossible!) to install conventional wire-free cameras because of line-of-sight issues from the base station. These cameras have successfully functioned in all locations I have placed them (which is amazing, given my past attempts). I am using the cameras in the configuration where I have the micro-SD card installed and the client program on my laptop, and it permits me to view the cameras either live, or view stored recordings from the micro-SD.[9-23-24 update] During the time I have had these cameras there was one lengthy T-mobile outage that was so lengthy that 4 of the 6 cameras disconnected. As excellent news, 3 of 4 reconnected within 48 hours with no assistance from me after the outage was resolved. It wasn't instantaneous, by the way (they did not recover immediately after the outage ended) but they got there eventually. The key point being I did not need to retrieve and reset them. The 4th was more interesting. Apparently the act of reconnecting after a major outage is power consumptive - as the 4th camera (which is in a shady location) briefly recovered when I manually charged it (I intentionally did not reset it, to see what happened) and then disconnected again. However, as amazing news; it eventually reconnected (on its own) about a week later without my help, which I attribute to a sunny spell which allowed the battery to stay charged from the solar panel while it reconnected. The key message? These cameras can likely recover on their own after a major outage as long as they have sufficient power.Each camera requires a SIM card and I strongly recommend you take the camera (and a charged battery) with you when you arrange for the SIM card and the cellular service. The camera has both an audio and visual indicator that the cell service has connected correctly and you want to check that while still in the store (there are a variety of errors possible with installation of the SIM card, and it is best to reveal those errors in the store where they can be easily fixed). You do not need the micro-SD installed to do this.I am using the T-mobile pre-paid data plan for this, and the most economical solution (for me) was to have one data plan per camera (this may change if you have high data usage). There are a number of price points and what I'm finding is that the 500M/month plan ($5/month as I write this) is probably fine for places where you expect few or no incursions (most of the 500M will get chewed up just checking the the camera from time to time), but the 2G/month plan ($10/month as I write this) is probably the best starting point for locations where you expect low-levels of periodic motion-capture.[9-23-24 update] The 500M/month plan is no longer available where I live. I have never run over the 2G/month plan on even the most busy camera.Note that you are charged for data only when the camera is accessing the 4G network, so if you are running motion detection and viewing the motion captures, you are only going to be charged for the videos that you actually view. (An example of this is a wind event, where you figure out at the first image this is wind ... you can skip past all the sequential videos without viewing them and picking up data charges.)The micro-SD is not required for live action, but is required for storing motion videos. It was a little unclear what was the maximum size for this camera. I am running 128G and I did need to reformat the SD (which is straightforward) to get it to work.[9-23-24 update] I now believe 128G is the maximum and is what I am running on all six of my cameras.Overall, the camera is very nicely engineered. The entire camera is egg-shaped (no exterior antenna) and unscrews to access the battery compartment, the micro-SD and the SIM card. The camera can be protected for exterior use with a stretchy weatherproof camouflage sheath (tightly-fitted) that pulls over the camera to protect the seal where it screws together, AND the camera can still be charged with the shield in place. It is a Major Step Forward in engineering elegance in comparison with my Lorex wire-free base-station cameras, by the way.[9-23-24] I have all of these outdoors in a Pacific Northwest forest and there have been zero issues. They are, by the way, the ONLY cameras I have outdoors that haven't suffered some issues. This sealed egg-shaped design works amazingly well in a wet forest.As some tips for operation with the Client program on the laptop.(1) Make sure you turn auto-live view OFF (in the Client program settings, not in the camera Settings). This keeps the cameras from accessing automatically when you run the Client program (and chewing up data). This is probably not a big deal with one camera, but with multiple cameras it is easy to have one running and cheerfully chewing up data while you are distracted with another one.(2) For each camera, if you are operating in discreet mode, double check that you have the Audio turned off, the volume turned all the way down, and the siren off. The camera will come with the Audio turned ON by the way, so accidentally leaving it ON is easy to do.As things to be aware of:The camera comes with a mount, a solar panel and the solar panel mount. The camera mount is white, so it must be painted if you are using it in a exterior application where you want the camera to be somewhat discreet. The mount also comes with a bracket and a strap for use on a tree. Some re-engineering is required on the part of the purchaser for these accessories, as the strap is white and the bracket is only for the camera not the solar panel.