A quick compare of focus

Compared in this post
Reolink PoE IP Camera Outdoor (Pack of 2) 5MP HD Video Surveillance Work with Google Assistant, Security IR Night Vision Motion Detection Audio SD Card Slot RLC-420-5MP

Reolink PoE Camera 5MP Super HD 4X Optical Zoom Outdoor Indoor Video Surveillance Work with Google Assistant, IP Security IR Night Vision Motion Detection with Phone App RLC-511

Amcrest ProHD Fixed Outdoor 3-Megapixel (2304 x 1296P) Wi-Fi Vandal Dome IP Security Camera - IP3M-956W

I wanted to do a quick compare of auto focus vs fixed and highlight depth of field. I was upgrading the bird feeder cams from a Escam Q900 and Amcrest IP3M-956 to a Reolink 5MP. I wanted to see if the auto focus RLC-511 or the static focus RLC-420-5MP would work better. While the bird feeder is the primary thing I want to monitor having coverage of the yard beyond is a definite plus. So I replaced the Escam with the 2 Reolink models and stuck some wet floor signs in the yard to get a better idea of focus / detail, randomly placed at 26, 32 and 45 feet. There is also a license plate one the fence just beyond the barn in the shadows but that turned out to be irrelevant for this test.

The 4 cams pointed at the feeder.

Note there is a 4th cam, a Hikvision DS-2CD2142FWD-I , looking down though it is mainly to cover the north end of the walkway.

The Amcrest IP3M-956 was OK but was really too close to the feeder for good focus and too low rez for good detail of the yard. Plus being an outdoor dome it needed cleaning a lot.

Full Amcrest shot

For a better look here is a cropped version

Cropped shot from Amcrest

Oddly the flower pot seems close to the center of focus. This would tend to indicate that despite being and "outdoor camera" it is probably focused for indoors. Thinking I need to go back and test my cameras for center of focus. The outdoor models generally seemed focused around 30 feet but I had not done any real testing.

Now compare that to the view from the RLC-511 that zoomed out all the way has almost the same view angle as the Amcrest.

Full RLC-511 shot at widest view angle.

Obviously just going from 3MP to 5MP helps a lot.

RLC-511 cropped view of shot.

Cropped you can the feeder is in center focus but even the first sign looks pretty good.

Here is the same view from the RLC-420-5MP. It is running a 3.6 mm lens so it is not quites as wides as the others so you would expect it to be just a touch sharper.

RLC-420-5MP full shot

In the cropped version the signs look noticeably clearer while the feeder has lost just a bit. Obviously the depth of field on the static is the around 26 feet the first sign is setting at.

Since I set these up for monitoring the feeder it is in the center of the field and close enough to cause the auto focus to focus on it. Not to mention get in close like this.

Though obviously I need to up the shutter speed. Unfortunately The Reolink cams only allow for changing the frames/second. So I'm putting this back on 30 fps from the 15 fps in the above shot. See the matching video here showing the auto focus recovery times after various amounts of zoom.

Amcrest and the similarly functional Dahua definitely have Reolink beat when it comes to exposure options. Note the Amcrest and Dahua interfaces are almost identical.

Amcrest manual exposure settings

Amcrest auto and semi auto exposure settings.

Auto focus on zoom can be a bit laggy as in the video above and even sometimes get stuck out of focus when things pass in front of it. Generally though it is not too bad as this video shows. And just for compare here is the matching video from the static focus RLC-420-5MP,