TP-Link C200 Tapo Pan Tilt Wi-Fi Camera

Purchased a set of these as they were one of the best priced products on the market for a simple to set up home security system. Easy to instal and set up with a voice directed guide and easy to use app, it is a great addition to the home security. Being a wi-fi ready product, it it easy to access from anywhere and is highly customisable for notifications and recordings. Once a microSD card was installed, the recordings are of high quality and simple to access from the one app. Would recommend! The only con is that if you set on a shelf, you can't get a low view with the range. I installed another on the roof, and this gives you the full range of viewing, so would strongly recommend, and then you just 'invert' image in the settings for that camera via the app.

Camera works well, good resolution, relatively easy app. A bit fiddly to get it onto the wifi, but worked, and better than the no-name Chinese one I had before. However, after 3 days it stopped booting when powered on - the wifi ready indicator just never lit up. Web research suggests they can brick themselves when doing a firmware upgrade (I didn't do a firmware upgrade, but perhaps it did one itself). TP-Link support were very very slow, but once chatting to them they agreed it's bricked, and gave me a code for RMA. RMA currently underway. So I think the answer is that it's technically a good camera, but the software/firmware is not as good as it could/should be.

Best Purchase I’ve Ever Made!

I bought this camera to use in my living room so I could keep an eye on my dog whilst we were out and left her on her own. I honestly didn’t expect the picture quality to be so good! I’m more than happy with this. The day time and night time picture qualities are crystal clear - I have mine placed on my windowsill facing in to my living room so it covers the whole room. You can hear noise in the room also. It pans round 360 and then also right up and down too. You can speak through the camera and also there’s a call option where you can have conversations if someone is in that room also. I have bought a memory card for it but you only need a memory card if you’re wanting to record (so maybe if you’re getting one for CCTV type purposes then you’d probably want a ... MoreI bought this camera to use in my living room so I could keep an eye on my dog whilst we were out and left her on her own. I honestly didn’t expect the picture quality to be so good! I’m more than happy with this. The day time and night time picture qualities are crystal clear - I have mine placed on my windowsill facing in to my living room so it covers the whole room. You can hear noise in the room also. It pans round 360 and then also right up and down too. You can speak through the camera and also there’s a call option where you can have conversations if someone is in that room also. I have bought a memory card for it but you only need a memory card if you’re wanting to record (so maybe if you’re getting one for CCTV type purposes then you’d probably want a memory card) but if you’re using it for similar purposes as I am as a pet watch etc then it streams perfectly fine without the need for a memory card - it does have some internal memory as I’ve taken pictures and short videos on it without a memory card. The app was really easy to download and set up (I have an iPhone XR just for reference). It’s all free to use and you get notifications of movement. There is an option to sign up and pay for more service where I think you get other more detailed notifications such as sound alerts and recognising people, but I don’t need that so I’m using the app free. Honestly, it’s a fabulous camera and 100x better than I expected it to be.

Fantastic little camera

I'm in a wheelchair and spend most of my day at the back of my house in the kitchen and Sunroom, as I've a large back garden where my nieces and nephews are always playing. So I bought this camera just to keep an eye on anyone coming to the front of the house as I don't always hear them from the back and It can take me a while to get to the front door. It took five minutes to install the App on my phone and tablet. I just scanned the barcode and followed the instructions to connect to the internet and within seconds of doing so I could see the kitchen, which is where I was setting it up, on my phone. I then placed it inside a front room window so it could pick up any activity such as cars or people coming to the door. I have It in the very corner of the window sill ... MoreI'm in a wheelchair and spend most of my day at the back of my house in the kitchen and Sunroom, as I've a large back garden where my nieces and nephews are always playing. So I bought this camera just to keep an eye on anyone coming to the front of the house as I don't always hear them from the back and It can take me a while to get to the front door. It took five minutes to install the App on my phone and tablet. I just scanned the barcode and followed the instructions to connect to the internet and within seconds of doing so I could see the kitchen, which is where I was setting it up, on my phone. I then placed it inside a front room window so it could pick up any activity such as cars or people coming to the door. I have It in the very corner of the window sill so it's not visible from outside unless you are up close. I have the cable tied up and tucked in behind a curtain so it's not even noticeable in the room. Within minutes of it being set up, I received a notification that movement had been detected and when I looked at my tablet I discovered the sensor had been triggered by my two black cats walking across the driveway! It has great night vision and is unbelievable sensitive, it has even recorded a spider walking past it in the middle of the night. At the moment it isn't being used to talk through, but I've tried it and it works easily and it's good to know I can do that if I put one in my porch. I have put a 128GB memory card in it, which I already had, in case I decide to start to record on it long term. I've decided I'm going to buy another couple of these as they're such good value. I love watching the cats playing outside, and I've got blackbirds and robins out the back that I hear singing in the early morning, which I'd love to see but as I'm unable to get out of bed on my own, by the time the carers come to get me up, the birds have disappeared. My sisters would also love to be able to see their children playing in the garden on their phones while they're at work. Plus when my daughters start a family they'll definitely want to keep an eye on their kids. These cameras are amazing and I wish I'd bought some years ago. My husband takes great joy in this as he's been telling me to buy cameras for years but I refused to as I didn't see the point. But when I saw this camera being demonstrated on QVC and I saw how great they were I decided to give them a go. I can now admit how wrong I was and I highly recommend them! My only negative is I couldn't get the camera to work with Alexa, but they do work perfectly well on the Tapo App and that's all I need. Thank you QVC for bringing this wonderful camera into my life!

Good value for money.

The device is well made and has good features. The app. was initially awkward and not at all intuitive, making the setup process long and tedious. The instructions that come with the camera go into much detail about how to use two screws to mount the thing but little or no substance about the important aspect of setting it up. i.e. useless. The Tap Link website is a little better so its a matter of learn as you go. The camera will need an additional micro sd card, it does not come with one. Having succeeded in getting it working, the features become much more apparent and are really quite good. Quality of video is also good.

Great all round indoor camera.

Does exactly what it is supposed to. It is easy to set it up to your wifi network via smartphone app. [Remember, like most 5Ghz wifi is not accepted] Will work with Hidden SSID after setup. App works down to Android KitKat as a minimum. Works perfect with my Android 10 os. The APP comes from TP LInk themselves, so it is made to work with their camera products, and it works. ==There are no ads or intruding permissions with the app, so confidence is applied.== There is a male set up voice that talks to you during set up procedure. Add an sd card for local storage. Alerts sent to smart phone. LQ & HQ video image options. Day & night images are very good. Switchable night vision [auto/on/day] My last cheap china camera would get confused with sunlight shadows, but this ... MoreDoes exactly what it is supposed to. It is easy to set it up to your wifi network via smartphone app. [Remember, like most 5Ghz wifi is not accepted] Will work with Hidden SSID after setup. App works down to Android KitKat as a minimum. Works perfect with my Android 10 os. The APP comes from TP LInk themselves, so it is made to work with their camera products, and it works. ==There are no ads or intruding permissions with the app, so confidence is applied.== There is a male set up voice that talks to you during set up procedure. Add an sd card for local storage. Alerts sent to smart phone. LQ & HQ video image options. Day & night images are very good. Switchable night vision [auto/on/day] My last cheap china camera would get confused with sunlight shadows, but this Tapo Camera has a better algorithm for its detection, so less false alerts. It seems to detect movement rather than change. The sensitivity can also be adjusted. Pan & Tilt with zone marker are a plus. Can be mounted upside down as the app does have an 'invert image' switch. App is smooth and has a nice layout, and has many user changeable options. My only gripe is no Dark Mode for the app - maybe something TP Link may change in the future. I would highly recommend this camera. It is good value for money and gives peace of mind. So far, it has been flaweless in its operation and I am very pleased with it. [So much better than the cheap China cameras with a poor intrusive app filled with ads]

Great little camera for the price

Despite a few negative points, these are great cameras for their price point. I got 2 when they were on sale to go with my 2 Tapo 310 outdoor cameras. The C200 cameras are used to watch over our chicken coop. My wife loves being able to check on our hens from the house. I'll try to be brief … it's easy to set up but you need to go through the Tapo App.The setup will connect the cam to your wifi, grabbing a free IP from the DHCP server. BUT... once you are up and running you cannot change to another wifi network, so make sure you complete set up where you will use the camera. You have to do a full RESET if you want to change wifi SSID. It also works well with Synology Surveillance Station (SSS) but SSS really needs a static IP – if the camera restarts it will ... MoreDespite a few negative points, these are great cameras for their price point. I got 2 when they were on sale to go with my 2 Tapo 310 outdoor cameras. The C200 cameras are used to watch over our chicken coop. My wife loves being able to check on our hens from the house. I'll try to be brief … it's easy to set up but you need to go through the Tapo App.The setup will connect the cam to your wifi, grabbing a free IP from the DHCP server. BUT... once you are up and running you cannot change to another wifi network, so make sure you complete set up where you will use the camera. You have to do a full RESET if you want to change wifi SSID. It also works well with Synology Surveillance Station (SSS) but SSS really needs a static IP – if the camera restarts it will probably get a new IP when rebooting and connection to SSS it will be lost. I fixed this problem by mapping the MAC network address of each camera to a static IP in the router. So far so good. I use SSS because captured footage is stored out of the camera, in case someone destroys the camera outside. You do need a micro SD card to use the recording features (not included). You can view events in the App but you cannot directly access the card unless you pop it into your computer. All the events for a day are concatenated into a single video file for that day. Remote access (ability to watch your camera from outside your house) is managed by TP-link in the App and you need to create an account, so your IP and video stream is definitely going through China. For this reason I use them for outdoor surveillance only and my cameras do not show anything personal inside my house. Yeah, I do not fully trust the security on these things so place them carefully. OK for our chickens though. The PTZ features work well. Plenty of movement range. I think they work best mounted upside down, as there is less image skewing as the camera pans. Resolution is good enough. Night vision range is quite adequate too.

Highly Recommended

For the money, this is absolutely brilliant. Crystal clear pictures especially in the dark. Knocks spots off my hard wired, very expensive, top of the range CCTV system. Set up is extremely easy, as is all the 'Tapo' range, and the APP never fails. Remote viewing and control with lots of alert and recording options. I'll be buying more cameras from this range without a doubt.

Simple Home Security Monitoring

Not just home security. Can be integrated with various third party home assistants for voice control etc. Can talk to pets while you're away from home. Good sensors. Take snapshots and videos whenever to save special moments. Pan and tilt function is good wide angles of vision. Night vision is all greys of course. Mobile app functions well.

Value for money camera

For the price this device is excellent in terms of the use we needed it for. We have a rescue cat and wanted to keep an eye on him during the night. It's helped us know where he sleeps to make it more comfortable and to work out what the thumping noise was during the night to help us get a better sleep as he was jumping off his tall scratch post! Night vision is great for the size of the room. It can switch automatically between night and day vision or you can set it yourself. You can record but you'll need an SD card if you want to record long periods. You can switch off the notification mode every time there's movement. It comes with a 2 year guarantee and is not easily knocked over by our nosey pet. You can also switch off the sound or even talk through the ... MoreFor the price this device is excellent in terms of the use we needed it for. We have a rescue cat and wanted to keep an eye on him during the night. It's helped us know where he sleeps to make it more comfortable and to work out what the thumping noise was during the night to help us get a better sleep as he was jumping off his tall scratch post! Night vision is great for the size of the room. It can switch automatically between night and day vision or you can set it yourself. You can record but you'll need an SD card if you want to record long periods. You can switch off the notification mode every time there's movement. It comes with a 2 year guarantee and is not easily knocked over by our nosey pet. You can also switch off the sound or even talk through the device. It's great for what we use it for. My only concern was related to a possible security issue and hackers that I've read about with this model but I made sure the software was updated. Thank you