TP-Link Tapo C225
VerifiedMPN: TAPO-C2252 reviews
Best value for money camera. I purchased one of these in late 2024 for the sole reason of placing it in the newborn's nursery. I liked it so much I purchased another identical camera one year later for the main bedroom to keep an eye on baby who co-sleeps with me but goes to bed many hours before I do. Included in the box is the power supply and a bracket attachment. I use the bracket in the nursery mounting the camera upside down. In the main bed, it just sits in normal upright position on the bed post of the solid timber bed. Built quality is solid. Firstly, setting up the camera through its Android app is super easy. It connected to my home wi-fi very easily. Once putting the camera in position, it is easy to fine tune its position by tilting and panning via the app. The camera can be mirrored for upside down mounting. I do not use a memory card in the card slot. I set the cameras up in my home security camera system NVR to record on the main hard drive along with all the other cameras mounted around the house. ONVIF protocol in these Tapo cameras allow you to connect to any compatible systems - most open source systems these days are up to date with all these protocols. I can view the cameras on the Tapo app or use my whole house camera monitoring app to view all the cameras. The Tapo app offers more settings adjustment and personalisation. There are no ads in the app like cheaper similar cameras that I have set up for other people. The camera quality is very good. Whether bright light or in infra-red low light mode, the picture is detailed and well balanced with the HDR processing. The QHD resolution is plenty enough for these room cameras but I use 4k fixed cameras outside. There are alerts that pop up on my phone if the camera detects sound or movement so when baby cries or stands up in her cot, I get notified. Updating firmware when required goes very smoothly. I really like these cameras and would think the whole Tapo range would be great also, although I haven't tried any of the other cameras from the range.
Purchased in at Amazon for $102.
No PC web interface to view footage online, mobile app accessibility only – First things first, this TP-Link TAPO C225 Pan/Tilt Home Security Wi-Fi Camera works fine, it records, it detects motion and sound, the video quality is decent and file size is small, and night vision is good, I used a 128GB Micro SD memory card - nowhere does it tell you what size card it needs so I still don't know if mine is to big or small but its been recording fine for two weeks and not recorded over its old stuff yet.
I disabled the motion tracking as I feel that is going to prematurely wear out the mechanical moving parts much too quickly - also after it finished tracking something, a dog, moth or human it just stops dead in its tracks where it lost site the object (this could be pointing at the roof or floor, a wall) I wish it would return to preset base position - facing the main entry door or windows I had set it at etc.
What I don't love. You cant access the recorded footage from a computer browser and this is the same deal if you buy the monthly cloud subscription even without local SD card backup installed, you can only access the footage from the mobile phone or whatever Android or Apple device you have the App installed on - No Cloud/Web Viewing Access Support (Only cloud back-up option - even with the cloud backup subscription you can only view the footage from the Phone not a computer)
As I am away for work every day and am not permitted to have a personal mobile phone in the building, however, I use a desktop computer all day long except Tapo does not offer an end-user web portal to login and view what's happening on the cameras at home or view the recorded events, so if that is important to you I propose looking at another brand, maybe the EUFY brand as they support the web browser video viewer login portal (however even that requires you to open the App on phone first and get a "code" each time you try to login - meaning you still need access to the mobile device to watch footage from your desktop browser.
This a niche problem specific to my situation, but some people may be interested in knowing this limitation before committing to the whole Tapo ecosystem over one of the many other choices - which I am sure has something to do with higher security/encryption for online cameras - so maybe its a good thing - but not for me at this point, maybe one day they will offer this service and I'll feel I haven't wasted my money unbeknownst to me on a system that doesn't offer what I expected.
Purchased in at JB Hi-Fi Retail Stores for $99.
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Thanks for your review and feedback Lee. In regards to your issue with accessing the livestream via a PC rather than the smartphone app, I would suggest speaking our technical support team as I believe there are ways to do this with some additional configuration and RTSP streaming. If possible they will be able to assist with this and provide step by step guidance. Thank you