Wireless cameras solve the cable problem and create another one: sooner or later, somebody has to climb a ladder and take them down to recharge. Reolink’s answer is a small solar panel that keeps the battery topped up, sold with the 4K camera at a lower price for Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event, where Prime members can get the Reolink Argus PT Ultra with its solar panel for $104 instead of $159 (-34%). For shoppers without a membership, Reolink’s own store has the same offer open to everyone.
4K, a Motorized Head and No Monthly Fee
Power comes from a 3W panel that detaches from the camera and connects through a 4.5-meter cable, about 15 feet. That length is useful, because the best spot for watching a driveway is often under the eaves, in the shade, while the panel needs to sit a few feet away in full sun. Reolink says 20 minutes of sunlight per day is enough to keep the camera running. The figure comes from laboratory data, and the brand itself notes that it depends on direct exposure and on how much the camera is used, so I’d expect less margin on a north-facing wall in December. For a manual top-up, a USB-C cable is included.
What separates the Argus PT Ultra from a fixed camera is its motorized head, which turns 355 degrees horizontally and 140 degrees vertically. With auto-tracking switched on, the camera follows a moving subject in real time, so a delivery driver walking from the gate to the porch stays in frame the whole way. One unit mounted on a corner can watch a driveway and a side yard, a job that would otherwise take two or three fixed cameras, and up to 64 preset positions can be saved for quick checks.
The sensor records in 4K, or 8 megapixels, enough to zoom into a face or a logo on a van without the image turning to mush. At night, two LED spotlights switch on with motion and keep the picture in color up to 33 feet away. One figure deserves a mention for honesty: video is captured at 15 frames per second, so fast movement looks less fluid than on a phone. Detection distinguishes people, vehicles and animals, zones can be drawn to ignore a busy sidewalk, and an alert can trigger the spotlight, a siren and a notification on your phone.
Recordings stay with you, and this is the part I like most. Footage is saved to a microSD card of up to 512GB, to a Reolink Home Hub or to an FTP server, with no subscription to pay. The box contents list no memory card, so one has to be added. Connection is over Wi-Fi 6 on either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz band, a welcome choice when many battery cameras are limited to the first. The camera is rated IP64 against rain and dust and comes with wall and ceiling brackets, along with a strap for fixing it to a post.
For the camera and the solar panel together, the Reolink Argus PT Ultra costs $104 on Amazon against a list price of $159, as a Prime Big Deal reserved for members. Everyone else can turn to the manufacturer’s site, which applies the offer without a membership.