Great review! I have a house in the Philippines I am monitoring here in the US. I am using Tapo- 2 outdoors and 1 indoor camera. So far, I am really satisfied. Best part is No subscription needed. Subscription is optional. I bought all 3 cameras online from the official store of Tapo in Lazada Philippines (it’s like Amazon).
Yeah i like that camera. The 520W it seems is just the starlight version of the 510. (And a resolution bump) I had logged down the 510W was running 2304x1296 . this new one Looks like its 2560x1440.
Hi, I'm thinking of getting the C510W. Please does the floodlight only come on when motion is detected and how long does it stay on for? And can the floodlight stay on when you put it on yourself from the app without any motion detection? Thank you
@@MissTlash Yes, the floodlight comes on when motion is detected in low light situations and stays on for a short while after motion has stopped, also the light can be turned on through the app. Hope this helps.
I'm surprised this camera doesn't have a "home" position that it can return to after no detection events for a period of time. I have the C211 and that one DOES have a homing position. Also, the audio pickup test was pretty bad. Maybe it was due to wind? Again, the C211 seems to have a much clearer audio recording ability. Update: I now own this camera and it does indeed have a homing function in which it returns to the home position after a short period of inactivity. Maybe they did a firmware update since this review was released. Again, loving the Tapo line of cameras.
@musicalprithwi8833 There isn't an on/off setting. Once you set a view, and enable tracking, it will follow the subject until the motion stops then, after a short amount of time, it just returns to the position it was in before following the subject.
How would you rate the video quality and tracking ability of the Tapo C520WS vs the Eufy E340? The C520WS would be mounted near a standalone Flood Light with motion sensor.
I have tried some Tapo cameras but so far I have returned all of them back to Amazon. Tapo cameras have a weird exterior design. When it comes to performance the night color pro looks good until there is movement in front of the camera, a lot of ghosting. Hopefully soon Tapo will release a software update to allow users to trigger camera siren from the app. Pricing for Tapo subscription isn’t great compared to Wyze and even Nest cameras.
In future reviews could you cover if camera's included power equipment (cables, mostly) can be routed through an exterior wall into an interior space like a garage to an outlet therein? My old nest IQ cameras came with instructions specifically for this use case, and I have not seen any other camera brands addressing it as directly.
I reviewed the other version. the 510W. (Non starlight version). Overall it was a pretty solid camera overall but i felt the spotlights on it were a bit too warm tone for me, and I wish it had Pet/vehicle detection. At the time it only had Motion and Person (Not sure if they updated that via software). I agree that their motors seem to be VERY Quiet which is great. I did get on them that the overall motor speed is kinda slow, but it'll move really fast when going to a way point so i wish they gave you speed controls.
Nice video review. 2k is nice but thats only live or? Save to sd storage is reduced to 720 or is it 2k in tapocare? So picuturequality on stored videos that I think are most interesting in a surveillance point of view is poor? Think it will be hard having good readings of licence plates with 720? Another thing to think of is that only the camera is ip66 not the poweroutletplug itself but it should of course have been too. To use the camera outside safely the poweroutletplug should have been ip66 too, but u actually have to buy and put it inside a ipxx proof box not to shortcut in heavy rain and moisture. I DO Like the line crossing feature but missing LPR licence plate recognition. Have u tested some LPR cameraes too? When will color pro version of cam be available and what's productname of that cam? Would also be nice in review video to see how much of the licenceplatenr it's possible to see in dark and not only in daytime light.
Wired Tapo cams have ethernet ports but mostly for wired connection to your network (they are not PoE cams) and not really for NVR. Tapo doesn't make NVR yet for their cameras. They have a hub but mostly for their compatible battery cams.
I installed one on my yard. However, the power cable design is simply a short cable without any protections. It could be easily unplugged by anyone and your camera would shut down immediately. Any good suggestions?
Hi, I totally agree with u. This is a bit stupid solution with this powercableplug. Either u have to have an outlet high on the wall not reachable from ground or u have to an outlet that's r lockable. Where I come from norway u can get some lockable poweroutlet think they have that in other places too. But even then it's a bit vulnerable since u can just drag the cable apart from each other or just cut it over. The powercable itself should have been better designed and thicker corded with a steelwire protection around the be more secure. And the two cables should have some kind of screw connection also to prevent easy unplugged be anyone. What I have done is that I used some gaffatape on the cable joint itself and to secure the whole cable I used a bit stronger waterhose around. But it should have been produced better and smarter from the producer. Also be aware that the power cable plug it's not watersafe allthough they call the cam ip66 proof. But if u place power plug in a moisture rich or rainwater rich area it can shortcircuit so either install that power plug in a dry area or connect it to at least a ip44 proof outlet I think. If u use it outside in garden connected to a extension cord u can use a ip44 proof or better box to connect powerplug so it doesn't shortcircuit.
You pay for the cloud system. However, when you want to share the camera with other family members, they can only see it momentarily, which is unfortunately a huge shortcoming.
Couple months in with mine, keeps dropping wifi signal, now can't connect. Driving me nuts...unplugged router, camera and my phone..ugg not hooking up again
I suggest doing a IP reservation and it will probably stop your disconnections That's what I do with all my Wi-Fi cameras is I give them a IP address reservation so that way they don't lose connection is easily
Hey, just saw your video and it was helpful for me and I have one quick question, in this camera can I see live footage from anywhere else like any specific distance, appreciate if you can revert me. Thanks.
Why would the pan and tilt function freezes and reboots the camera after a few presses to control the camera pan when at night / night mode. The recording and detection still works fine at night if I don’t try to manually pan control. I wouldn’t expect the wifi signal drop during night time (wifi shows good signal). During day the app control fully functional, no freezing or rebooting. Why would this be?
Great review! I've got some other Tapo cams and I have a couple questions: Does this (or the C510W) do Alexa motion alerts like other Tapos do. I LOVE this feature and not many cams do it. Currently using Wyze for this but quite frankly they suck. Also, do these suffer from the same limitation as other Tapos that only allow two viewing/recording devices at one time? Thanks!
Which other tapo do u use? On c310 and C320WS 2.0 u can watch up until 32cams at same time I think because I have used 3 of 32 at same time.. Use the + symbol in the app and add cams to splitscreen.
Is the camera consume a large amount of wifi/data if you connect it to the internet 24/7 a month? I am planning to connect this camera to my limited subscribed data plan.
@@LifeHackster and also, how many days of recording with my 512gb microSD card? (I know it is already a loop)? is it ok with other brands of microSD cards too?
Greetings from Croatia. The price of this camera in Croatia is approx75 euros. Do you think this camera is the best in terms of price and quality? Which camera do you recommend for up to 100 euros?
How did they release this product with this god-awful audio choppy and static zero noise cancellation? Do they test their products before they release them to the public?
Needs to come the newer version c525wb I don’t know when! I have this c520ws. Is all right but is not that greatest the tracking motion after recording and you watch the video is glitching moving so slow and sometimes is not catching all the moves!
same observation too much of the noise cancellation. I can barely hear the audio for this model. C110, C210 and C310 has the best microphone in my opinion.
@@LifeHackster I hope TAPO can have an update to remove the noise cancellation feature. I kept on sending feedback via Tapo App to have an option to have this NC be turned off and should sound like the C110, C210 or C310 audio. BTW I love the way you review the products you upload very detailed.
4:50 does this require that subscription in order to download the clips or does the subscription only notify you of the clip so you dont have to manually look for the clip?
We are planning to get an outdoor camera for our new home , just want to know your opinion on which one is better , this one or the 325wb ? Or do you have a comparison video of the two? Or other outdoor tapo cameras , I would definitely watch it.
I am pretty sure I didn't say PoE..but it can be setup wired (plugged in directly to your router) and not WIFI. You will need a PoE splitter if you want this wired via ethernet and not worry about the 12 volt power supply -> ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6_2QIgTwIiw.htmlsi=kj_G1BySE_CjxM9x&t=453
The camera will stay to whatever last position you set it to when you were in live view. Most cameras that have tracking features, you can set in the settings a "guard" of home position where it will go back after it tracked someone or after you changed the position during live view.
Tracking was nice and smooth but i thought the quality of the video wad poor. Wasn’t impressed with clarity of your sign and nighttime video seemed very grainy. Hoping the color pro is much better as this camera was overall disappointing
would be an excellent cam if not for spotty mic and occasional dodgy live feed. Looking at the forums, the consensus is that Tapo have throttled audio/vid bitrates down to suit their cloud service. Seems Tapo would rather give their customers a deliberately-nobbled product, just to steer customers to using their cloud service. Come on Tapo! Sort it out! It's late june '24 by now and there's still no sight of a firmware fix for this.
Everything about the Tapo camera series is great except for one thing, which TP Link promised to look at it 2 years ago!, and that is a Smart TV app so you can see your camera on your SmartTV when for example you heard a cracking sound outside while you're watching a movie!
G'Day LH ! can you recommend a POE set of security cams that record 24/7 record sound as well, and has great zoomability, I was told hikvision was pretty good but I have been told some of them can get hacked if you connect them to the internet. Oh yeah, we don't what you know who spying through the cams, I know the Australian Gov got rid of a certain... good brand of security cams because you know who was using them to spy.. Also the cams need to be weather resistant. I'd like to be able to zoom out to the road and identify anyone riding a pushbike, the arlo cams, pros and pro2s are crap when zooming in. Cheers LH
Based on the video section with multiple people, is the camera only going to keep position on the first person it detected? The other person/people at the opposite direction won't be seen at all?
Great camera for price. Question though, the mic in the app seems to keep switching back to on or open mic which is not good for privacy whilst in my home. Any ideas or put me right on this thx in advance.
The rich notification feature is one thing that needs a server to upload the snapshots to the cloud temporarily. Some companies like Eufy does this for free but those snapshots does use up server space and server costs for these companies.
