Tapo 2K+ Indoor/Outdoor Wired Security Camera - 2024 PCMag Editors' Choice, Person/Pet/Vehicle Detection, Baby Monitoring, Color Night Vision, Subscription-Free Local Storage or Optional Cloud, C120

For the price I think these cameras are pretty awesome. The expensive part was getting memory for each camera. I also bought extension cables for some depending on placement. They have a fair amount of features that are useful. You also have control over them. The company does offer a service similar to competitors cameras. I went with the memory on each instead. Memory is detected and sets up by itself. I have had mine for almost 2 years. Very few problems. The problem I did have was with the extension cable going out. I would recommend for DIY’ers.

I am NOT new (12 YEARS and TWO other brands) to the home camera arena for sure. I came to notice how many models of the Tapo’s there were. I then dove in and figured what was best for me. One of my criteria was that it didn’t force cloud storage and subscription service on you, an SD card would be all you need. It also had to have Motion and Sound detection, and higher resolution than what I was used to was an extra treat. I decided upon the indoor/outdoor Tapo C120’s knowing they would be for indoor use as all my others in the past were. This gives me an option to move any outdoors if I ever had a need. I use a couple of them, instead of being outdoors, on windowsills or on door glass pointing outside. So that you know, if you plan to use in this way, you can not have night vision on. You would get a glass reflection of the night vision sensors. This way has worked fine for me for every model in my past 12 year line-up, as long as there is a porch light, street light, entry door light, some kind of light you are fine. There were several incredible, unexpected surprises after I installed 4 of these. The image quality is amazing, super sharp and clear. The App is super fast and responsive compared to my old... You can easily and instantly swipe between cameras, or just as swiftly look at recorded events (alarms). You can even put the camera’s in grouped batches of 4-up on a screen together. The flexibility in mounting options make it super easy to put wherever you would like. I am amazed at the difference and how far the technology has come in such a short time. Oh and did I say the price is a fraction of all the other I purchased in the past ? I can buy four Tapo C120’s for the price of ONE of either of my old brands. Right now I am running all 4 Tapo’s remotely in another home and plan to purchase more for primary home and do away with my older inferior brand. My situation was kind of unique and I had some questions, so I reached out to Technical Support. I have to give a shout out to Cliff as my main Technical Support contact. The team went over and above any expectations I ever could imagine from a support standpoint. I have passed my knowledge onto friends and family about these, as you can’t beat these cameras all in all. The price point, the quality, no nagging monthly bills, you can’t go wrong ! Tiny investment with a huge bang for your buck. I am not writing this review for promotional purposes or any of the such…. I am writing it because when I come across a stand-out product and customer service together, I want to tell my story for others.

I have previously owned other cameras, where I have it inside and point out my front window. However, this is the absolute best I have had so far! Other models require a subscription - this one doesn't! (You can purchase an SD card that will record everything - and it holds a lot, too!) It takes a little bit to navigate the app, but I have it set up to record everything on a loop, and then identify (over the course of the whole recording) when a person passes by the field. I bought a 250GB card, and so far it has recorded 3 weeks of video. I previously had a camera that would upload to my google drive, and that only recorded up to 1 week. This video is also higher quality, and much cleaner than the old camera. Others cannot identify anything across a window - this one does! Granted this is much newer and technology has gotten TONS better over time. It will "tag" every person in the field, and then provide markers in my recording indicating when a person crossed the field. This is far more data-rich than my other cameras (across a window). As far as "night vision" - I have found that if you set it on night vision, this will not work across a window. It will only reflect a light on the window and back to the camera. However, the low light sensitivity is excellent on this camera, as it will take the low level of light on the street and boost the video signal so that it can actually see ok at night on its own. Pretty good! It isn't as clean as my ring camera's IR night vision, but it is still good. And definitely worth the sacrifice of not having to pay for a subscription. The one thing I would appreciate for the camera are some accessories to help extend the stand (make it taller) and make it more stable, as I currently have it balanced right at my window. But it has been doing the job, pretty well, as is. Highly recommend!

Great little cameras with a generous length cord. Setup is easy if you're even slightly tech savvy. Detection is good; mine are set for people only otherwise they tag everything. I don't need tons of squirrel videos. Lol. Local storage is a huge bonus. I use a 512gb Team group micro SD in all 4 cameras. Videos are easily downloaded to your phone over wifi. I only use 1080p to conserve copacity and it's clear enough to make out faces across the street. Best part is that the cameras work as individual units and not as a central system. If one ever fails, it's easily replaced. Mine are all mounted indoors facing out windows so I don't use the IR night vision (the glass just reflects it back and you get nothing); Even so, night activity is thoroughly visible from just street lights. Magentic mounts are strong. Sticky mounts work well on glass.

Having used other Wi-Fi cameras including Google Nest cams (and much more expensive pro & semi-pro security hardware), as well as having a career in electronic & broadcast engineering, I think I’m uniquely qualified to give this a fair unbiased review! First off it’s phenomenal for the money. Better resolution and more features than previous generation Nest cameras for a fraction of the price. While the hardware is seemingly not as durable as some competitors, at this price they’re more or less disposable! There was one surprise for me that everyone should be aware of (that if I had done a little research, I probably would have figured out before purchasing on a whim during Amazon prime days)! Unlike other services I have used, when you use the TAPO app (which I paid for a years worth upfront for 4 cams) just be aware it only streams live, and then records segments to the cloud when there is motion detected. If you want to record continuously, every cam has to have an SD card installed. The app then uses the memory locally on the SD card to playback segments (but of course is limited by the memory of the card). Then like other systems (and dash cams), it just starts rewriting over older video/audio. The app is very intuitive and functional although I would like to be able to monitor all cameras at once (which may be possible as I’ve only played with it a couple of days). Installation was a breeze and simple. Very intuitive for non-tech people. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the performance &bfeatures. Time will tell about durability and I’m sure their app will probably get some upgrades over time. A very competitive product. I would’ve given it five stars if for the $119 for a year of 4 camera service, it would record continuously into the cloud. That way, if you have a break-in the cameras are destroyed, the full recording is remotely saved.

I've only been using a week but I already love this camera. I have been using the WYZE cameras and have refused to pay monthly for detection settings and notifications. This camera does all of this out of the box. In fact, it can distinguish between a person, pet, vehicle and general motion. Responsiveness is very timely . . . I had been using it to watch for some amazon deliveries so they don't get stolen and as a result, I was able to intercept those package by meeting the person at the door (plus I had foot surgery so I needed their help sliding the boxes inside the doorway). It also alerted me that my neighbor was shoveling my sidewalk and driveway for me. It is on point, IMO. So many more settings - it puts the wyze to shame. Quality of the image is excellent and night time vision is also great. I was also able to get an alert when and where my cat was jumping up on the counter - again, I've intercepted this "issue" and was able to resolve (lint roller tape, upside down loaded mouse traps; only took once). Mobile app is great - just had no issues setting it up. Can't be more happy. Wasting money on monthly subscriptions is ridiculous but I'm frugal.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You must purchase a MicroSD Card for physical video storage, OR you can pay a subscription fee for cloud storage. If you only want a camera that shows live footage & do not care for STORED video footage, then you will not need either. Quality is great! I have 2 cameras, one for my bedroom, & one for my newborns bassinet. I purchased it to see if any roommates would enter my room without my knowledge & I love the customizable alert zones so it’s not constantly going off. Functionality is fantastic, works exactly as I expected & then some. The view angle is very wide & captures my entire room from the corner. Camera quality is good, even in the dark with it’s night vision, & sound quality is pretty good as well (especially with how far my camera is from the rest of the room) Although it connects to my home wifi, I do have a login & I get to choose who would have access so I think security is good. Just make sure your password is not easily guessed.

I'm shocked at the low price of the cameras considering how well they work. I plan on replacing all my old cameras with these over the next couple of months. I opted to go with microSD cards instead of subscribing to the cloud service. I went with 256GB Samsung Pro Endurance microSD cards and everything works flawlessly. They are 2.4ghz only, but that has plenty of bandwidth for what they use. The motion detection is nice. It has what you'd typically expect, meaning, you can set up areas on the FOV to detect or not detect certain things plus it has the "AI" function where you can go through detected events and correct them (set a motion detection as a pet or select that there was no event) and it "learns" and applies that to future detections. This drastically cuts back on things like trees blowing in the wind and also helps to mark/record events as a pet walking by or something else. The image quality is exceptionally clear. I'm very impressed. The IR night vision has great range. I have three in total and all are outside. So far, they have held up fine through the rain and heat. I'm getting ~17 days of 24/7 recording using the 256GB microSD card. The only con I'm noticing is the audio. I've tried different sensitivites on the microphone and it just doesn't have decent audio quality. My older cameras that I'm replacing could hear, FOR EXAMPLE, someone speaking from 200 yards away. It heard what your ears wouldn't really pick up on. No, I didn't spy on people, I'm just saying. While I don't NEED that level of mic quality and sensitivity, these cameras just BARELY seem to pick up on audio. It's very bad audio quality, straight up. Everything else about them seems so top notch but the audio is horrendous, honestly. Seems to not pick up on some things at all, sometimes it sounds like it's just cutting in and out, and that's whether it's live view or checking recorded footage from the microSD card, in case anyone is wondering if it's the 2.4ghz network. Gotta update that the audio issue still isn't fixed, it's becoming more and more annoying. They can release a firmware fix but won't. I've read on their forums you have to send them videos, MAC addresses, links to your forum posts, etc. just to get a firmware pushed out to your devices. Terrible customer support. Did all that and get the "we don't offer firmware." Yeah? Well, 5 days ago you did. I'd send these back if the return window wasn't done. I'm tired of being ripped off. "Here's a camera... BUT the microphone/audio doesn't work. Deal with it." I have better luck with Temu, HONESTLY. I HONESTLY have better luck with $10 cameras from Temu. You don't get the software support, but you get hardware that works.