Moving on to a *very slightly* higher quality camera, the Amcrest IP2M-842E PoE bullet camera. This is an older model that isn't sold anymore, but it was about $80 when it was available. A newer 1080p replacement looks to cost about $60 today, and of course today you can get a 4K model for about $100.

I wish I had an extra equivalently priced camera to compare the UniFi to, but unfortunately I don't at the moment. But it still might be useful to compare equivalent resolution cams from the same era, as I'm doing here now.

Without further ado:

Amcrest IP2M-842E PoE 1080P

UniFi G3 Bullet PoE 1080P

Nearly pitch black darkness, 1" tall letters at a distance of ~8 feet. At the time these cameras were first available, that's what a roughly 2-3X price premium bought you. Whether it's worth it for your application is up to you, but personally I wouldn't trust either the Amcrest or Reolink to make a positive ID, at least not at night.

I added lighting to the scene and the Amcrest became even more washed out. The UniFi actually improved with the added lighting.

I've also done quite a few face tests that I haven't posted for obvious reasons, but as you might imagine the cheap cameras aren't worth a damn.

Again I do not have either of the typically recommended Chinese brands Dahua or Hikvision, but the Amcrest has a Dahua MAC address, so I believe it's just a rebranded Dahua.

My thoughts so far

Clearly you would be paying a bit of a not-Chinese tax by buying UniFi gear, but you are also getting a higher quality camera. The UniFi camera seems to use a higher quality sensor, and it seems to have a more powerful chipset to process the video since it handles dynamic scenery much better. The Chinese cameras also struggle to maintain the framerate that you set, as both are about 15% too low via rtsp. The build quality of the UniFi also feels better and more sturdy, and the position locking mechanism is much stronger and easier to lock into place.

After going through all this, I would not feel cheated by plunking down $150 each for a set of these UniFi cameras. I would likely also not feel cheated by stepping up to the 1440p G4 model for $200.

TL;DR: don't trust a camera review that just shows side by side images of STATIC scenery. The low-end cameras pack in a bunch of pixels and the firmware seems to focus on slow shutter speeds and other "tricks" to let in more light to produce a reasonably clean looking image, but this only works if your subjects pause and smile for the camera. If the person is, you know, moving around, the video may get blocky and lose detail. At night, your framerates may drop to compensate further for the low-quality sensor, and moving targets may be blurry and washed out.