When you're not at home, it can be nice to be able to monitor parts of your home. There are many different reasons to be in control of the home when you are not there. Either to see that your children are getting home properly from school or to monitor the home when you are on holiday to ensure no one is trying to break in. We have taken a closer look at TP Link's indoor surveillance camera, the Tapo C225. There are two different versions, V1 without and V2 with HomeKit Secure Video.
Comprehensive monitoring
The Tapo C225 features a Pan/Tilt function which means that the camera has a motorized ability to turn both horizontally and vertically for a comprehensive coverage. The camera can rotate a full 360º horizontally and 149º vertically. You can easily control the camera via the app if there is something specific you want to check on. The camera has a digital zoom which means you can zoom in on the screen. The quality is good, but becomes slightly pixelated with digital zoom so minor details can be difficult to determine.
Ai features
The Tapo C225 not only monitors your home with a good camera, but also includes a lot of Ai features. The camera can detect animals, people and vehicles through its image-sensing. You can choose for yourself whether you want to have on all image sensors or only one specific or none at all. If you turn on the feature, you will receive a notification if any of these objects are seen by the camera.
The camera also has different sound sensors. It senses fire alarms, crying babies, broken glass, dog rattle and wailing from cats. If you choose to enable these sound detections, you will receive a notification if these sounds are detected.
In addition to sound and image detection, you can easily set up rules for the camera via the app. If you want to know when someone or something passes a certain piece of furniture in a room, you can set up directives in the form of lines in the app. So if someone crosses the line, you get notification on the phone. This can be good, for example, if you have a small child who is not allowed to leave a specific room, you will be notified if this happens.
Tp-Link will also launch gesture recognition and emotion recognition. It will initially be added to the beta version.
These are features that many manufacturers do not offer today with their cameras which makes this camera more advanced. There is a negative aspect and that is that if you want to be able to use these functions, you need to have an active subscription. However, it is quite common these days that subscriptions for various functions and cloud services are added when you buy a surveillance camera, so nothing that is unique to this particular camera.
Tapo C225 has an IR function which ensures monitoring in total darkness. This feature is essential for keeping an eye on your home at all hours of the day, and provides clear and clear images even during the darkest hours of the day. If you use the camera to monitor your baby during the night, you can easily switch to 940nm invisible LED so as not to disturb your baby when he sleeps.
Speakers & Microphone
The Tapo C225 has a built-in microphone and speaker for two-way communication, so if you need to speak to the person in the room when you're not at home, you'll be fine. There is also a function that allows you to set off a siren that is designed to scare away intruders. There are two types of siren sounds and 3 different settings on the sound level of the alarm. It is also possible to turn on a led lamp to dazzle the intruder if it is dark in the room. However, we do not think this function works as a deterrent as the lamp is not very strong. It is a flashing light that is weaker than the flashlight function of an Iphone and we do not really see the purpose of this lamp. Possibly the function attracts attention and you have everything recorded on camera in any case.
