Color Night Vision PoE Security Camera Review 2024 - Reolink, Annke, Dahua, UniFi, Axis

Which Color Night Vision Security Camera is the best in 2024? Let's find out.

Best Overall: Annke NC800

Best Value: Reolink CX810

Other Good Performers:

Other cameras tested:

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00:00 Introduction
00:22 Security Camera Basics
01:42 Sensor and Pixel Sizes
03:38 Field of View Testing
04:00 Daytime Image Quality
05:09 Night Image Quality
07:22 Image Quality Rankings
08:24 Blue Iris Compatibility
08:55 Supplemental Lighting
09:15 Wide Dynamic Range (WDR)
09:27 Microphone Quality
09:52 Person and Vehicle Detection
10:07 Conclusions

[LadyRenira]

It's been 3 years? Geesh. Time flies. Thanks for your awesome in-depth reviews!

[VortexRadar]

Killer video yet again! I love your presentation style, comparisons, format, and pacing. :)

[toddh]

It's great seeing a camera vid again. Would love to see more on Blue Iris updates, maybe a follow up to that getting started vid a year ago. Especially with any tuning for the Reolink CX cameras and information on alerting and triggering.

[hemabe]

Amazing content. I love, that you go the extra mile. One of the best youtube-channels if it comes to security cameras, if not the best.

[Hisflock]

Thank you for doing these videos. You're keeping our families safe man! God Bless!

[KeyBored]

This is amazing as always, the time it must take to make such videos

[martyb]

Your timing is impeccable. Just when I am in the market for a color night vision cam. I haven't watched the video yet but this is just perfect!

[dhanzibi]

Awesome, thanks for that updated comparison!

[Draconis]

So very welcome and needed info as I'm in the market to replace my system. Thank you so much! Always appreciate your data driven reviews.

[billm]

I just installed several reolink cameras yesterday including two CX810's. Very hard to beat for the money. I also like the trackmix cameras. Last house I had the duo cameras which I liked but clarity on the trackmix are better.

[ChrisMajestic]

Great video Rob as usual. For the past 2 years I've been bouncing back and forth between the Color4k and the NC800 and I've found that I personally prefer the Color4K compared to the NC800 at night even though they appear to have very similar specs. The Color4K seems to let in more light than the NC800 resulting in a slightly better image at night at my home but the key factor is that WDR is a must. Enabling WDR on the Color4k at night helps to even out some of the highlights which might have been a bit more helpful with the night sign test. Have you tried enabling WDR 50+ at night on the color4K? I gotta admit it's splitting hairs and highly subjective between these 2 IMO.

[jamesblois]

Thank You for this video. Hopefully in the next month or two you will give us an update on how to use Blue Iris in a way that newbies can understand and actually use you teachings.

[supperka]

I'm very happy with my CX410 for that price is nice nigh color camera.

[cloudysky]

I just want to hint at something I noticed during my research on these Cameras.
Compare focal length and sensor size with the field of view. Either the focal length of the lenses are labled wrong by the manufacturers or the sensor size does not match!
A 1/1.2" sensor should have a wider view with an 2.8mm lens compared to a 1/1.8" sensor with the same 2.8mm lens.
I find it rather strange that the sensors have almost the identical horizontal and vertical view with the same focal length. I'd really like to open them up and see if just the focal length is given incorrectly, or that they lie wih the sensor size. From my experience I suspect that they don't use a 1/1.2" but rather a 1/1.8" sensor.
Amcres, Dahua, HikVision and even Annke are manufactured by the same company anyway ;-)
Once they use a "good" 1" sensor like the ones used in the RX10 and RX100 camera series from sony the quality will make a big jump until then I am happy with my 1/1.8" (even though they are labled as 1/1.2") cameras.
Anyone else stumbled upon this? Btw if you use the maunfactureres data sheets you will notice that i.e. a 2.8mm lens with a horizontal field of view of 102° actually would mean that they use a 1/2" sensor. You can check the data by using a caluclator or do the math by hand ;-)

[CraigMullins]

That kind of sucks 4 years later nothing any better. :(

[JackReacheround]

I think the G5 Turret would have been a better option than the dome.

[valramos]

Rewatching The Hook Up videos in preparation for Amazon Prime day. Adding items to the cart to see if they’ll go on sale. 💸

[jdaniele]

Really a great video! Thanks for the impressive effort and for sharing it!

[cyclomiha]

I have external IR illuminators, with sensors for movement and darkness. The illluminators also attracks spiders and the spider nets are build onto illuminators, instead of my cameras.

[username-mcjw]

"There will probably never be..." Well, if you have the money - ICRealtime has been making the cameras 'that will probably never be... ' for many years. I recently saw some of their stuff at CEDIA 2024 in Denver. They are AMAZING cams with rock solid license plate and face recognition, as well as trip line, and tons and tons of other pro features. The drawback? They are priced WAY out of the range of 'normal' home owners.

Having said that, I don't have the cash to put in an ICRealtime system, so I do have a Reolink system at my house instead. I DO appreciate your thorough and honest reviews very much. I just bought a CX810 to compliment the 15 other Reolink cams I have scattered around my property.