Kasa Cam Outdoor by TP-Link - 1080p HD, 2-Days Free Cloud Storage, Built-in Siren, Stream Anywhere, Works with Alexa Echo and Google Assistant (KC200)

These are pretty nice little cameras. Nice picture. easy to set up.
I put them near windows and ran the wire through the window and to an outlet.
I had to trim off a little bit off the trim so the window could still shut but you can't tell.
The Bad:
They are way too sensitive. I have both at level 1 sensitivity and they go off every two minutes.
I had to turn off notifications on my phone.
The sound is horrible. If there is any wind it gets muffled and you cannot hear or understand anything.
I will update my review if this changes otherwise I will be sending these back.

Update. Snow and mist set these off. I have 3 outdoor cameras. I really like these. Just need to keep adjusting the sesetivity to the weather.

When I purchased this camera I expected to have to wall mount it, but was delighted to discover it can be ceiling mounted under an eave, which trivialized my installation since an eave is much easier to deal with than a wall. All I had to do was drill a hole in the eave for the cable (which is about 8' long), mount the bracket, thread the cable through the hole and stick the camera into its bracket (where it is held securely by a very clever magnetic ring, a superior design that makes it really easy to make small adjustments to the camera view). To finish my install I simply connected the cable and its supply to an extension cord from the light socket in my attic and was good to go (I spent more time verifying the camera worked than in installing it). Since I did a ceiling mount, the camera was upside down, but the Kasa app has a setting to turn the image upside down, which corrects for that. Resolution is excellent, night vision is surprisingly good (much better than both my Ring doorbell and a couple of older Samsung cameras I have indoors), and lag is less than my previous experience with wireless cameras (I would guess about a second). Response is a function of bandwidth, so you have to take that into consideration in selecting where to install this or any other wireless camera. As an outdoor camera, it should be able to easily handle the indirect weather under my eave, but I can't say how well it would do in a more exposed location.

The Kasa app is designed for use with smart phones and simply adds the camera to whatever other TP-Link Kasa devices you already have. With the app you can set up to 4 motion detection inclusion zones by dragging the corners of a quadrilateral to set each one. That allowed me to block off the curved street in front of my house to keep passing vehicles from triggering alerts. The alert screen (bell icon) on the Kasa app gives you access to the most recent 2Gb of recorded video triggered by alerts (you set alert sensitivity according to time persistence of movement). You can run the Kasa app on a PC if you install one of the Android simulator apps on your machine (I went with BlueStacks 4), which brings up the look and feel of your smart phone on your PC display. When the camera goes live, you get a widget in the lower right corner that allows you to switch from portrait to landscape, taking the image to full screen, which sure beats the heck out of using a smart phone to catch details. The camera has audio and a "siren", which are perhaps nice to have, but which I don't anticipate using (although if I spotted a perp I would certainly fire them up). I verified those features work, although the siren is not one that would wake the neighborhood, and the audio quality is about what you would expect from a wireless device. The audio pickup is quite good, maybe even too sensitive since I can hear leaves rustling.

Durable, easy to set up, great image. Ability to customize image quality to save bandwidth. I set mine to 720P that is fine. Ability to customize motion sensing areas. Does really well almost zero false positives. Night vision mode is great, can set to auto or leave it off if you have perimeter lighting at night and it’s not needed. Can set green LED status light to on or off...I keep mine off as I don’t want cameras too easy to locate. Magnetic mount for the camera is awesome. Makes it really easy to set the camera to the angle you want. Heavy duty water resistant. I have two of these installed now, they have been working great. I like that there is no charge for 48 hours of cloud video clip storage. Which is plenty. If you have alerts set on your phone (easy to set on or off), if you see something of concern you can download it to save it. 48 hours is plenty of time. Built in alarm siren that you can activate is plenty loud enough and you can set it to different durations. Live mode works great to see what’s happening. You can talk/listen as well in live mode and hit the alarm as needed. Sound that it picks up...mic is very sensitive. You can set auto record based on sound or motion or both...I keep sound notifications off. Too many cars, etc going by that trigger a sound event. This is a great security camera for $139 and no subscription fee. Take your time on set up, do it inside and follow directions, then take it outside for install. It takes about 10 minutes to activate camera and then it immediately does a firmware update if needed. I highly recommend. Like it better than nest cameras I hav head that require a paid subscription.

The camera has a very wide image area and great video quality. It was very easy to mount, although I would have preferred drilling a smaller hole to thread the USB cable through. The cable doesn't disconnect from the unit, probably to maintain a water right seal, so the hole had to accommodate the large USB end. I suppose I could have cut it and soldered it back together after fishing it through the wall, but this was a minor issue.

The biggest annoyance is it isn't a motion detector, it's an image change detector. Where mine is located it picks up shadows made by blowing limbs as movement. I've tried reducing the sensitivity, but windy sunny days cause many false alerts.

I did like how it interfaces directly with the app. It's fairly quick to start up. The 'motion detected' videos show a preview where the motion occurred, but record a couple of seconds before that point.

Another irritation is the need to subscribe to a specific service if more than the free settings are desired. A prior camera I had would upload to google photos, which worked very well for me. I wish minute cameras had the option to select the service to store recordings.

It was fun to be able to stream the camera to Chromecast.

Overall, for the price, I think it is a good choice.

 I work from home and never thought I'd need an outdoor security camera. But when my husband and I were finding dog poop left in the community common area despite a garbage can and free doggie bags nearby, we were determined to catch the suspect on camera.

Setup is easy. You'll need a strong wifi signal, an electrical outlet and place to install the camera. At 10 feet long, the power cord should be a bit longer but we made do using an outdoor extension cord.

Another qualm about the camera is that unless you have an Alexa or Google assistant device, you can only view footage on your phone. There's also a weird thing where you can't view things live while it's recording.

It's also very sensitive. At the level I have it, the camera is set off by rain and car headlights at night. The camera allows you to set up zones which helps cut down on notifications.

As for the free storage, it only holds up to two days worth of video but that's enough for us.

Despite all its problems, it's a neat little device that's helped us catch the poo-pertrator in action at a great discount. Looking forward to other Kasa smart devices

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Feature Product

• Free Cloud Storage - Access up to 2-days of crystal clear 1080p streaming video at no charge. Watch live or recorded video, download, and share with anyone. Upgrade options available with Kasa Care subscription
• Protect Your Outdoors - Use crisp 2-way audio to communicate with the delivery person at your front door or use the siren to scare away intruders. With motion and sound detection, the Kasa Smart app alerts you of activity of any kind
• Crystal Clear Video - Sharp and clear, wide-angle 1080P video makes sure you never miss a thing. Manually zoom in to get a closer look to what's going on, day or night. See something or someone suspicious, just zoom in and get a better view
• Easy DIY Install - Get the best angle and video with your Kasa Cam Outdoor with an easy to follow installation process in the Kasa Smart app. The magnetic camera mount and mounting wall plate make for a quick set-up and allows you to configure your camera for the best view
• Instant Notifications - Get instant alerts straight to your smartphone whenever your Kasa Cam Outdoor detects any sound or motion. Control what alerts you receive by setting customizable activity zones around areas that are important to you. Set zones for areas that matter most like your front door, driveway, back porch, or the side of your home.System Requirements: iOS 10+, Android 4.4x+

Description

Secure your home, Monitor the outdoors, Watch from anywhere, Easy installation of the Security camera. Frequency Range: 2.4GHz and 5GHz(Band1 Band4)

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We purchased two Wyze indoor cameras, to overlook our front, and back, yards. Placed them indoors looking out a window. They are really good cameras and 1/4th the price of these, but we were really trying to use them in a way they weren't designed to be used. Nigh Vision is will not work through windows, you'll only get a reflection of the light.
They were really trial cameras to see if it was something we'd want to buy nicer outdoor cameras. Very quickly we realized we did! We loved having the ability to check in on the property from just about anywhere.
I purchased two of these and mounted them outdoors. Immediately I knew these were quality products. The packaging, the weight and quality of the cameras, the great mounting options, all of that added up to an easy install, easy pairing with our WiFi and quickly up and running. i really do love everything about these cameras, but have two things I wish they had that our other cameras/software had. I really wish it had the "tracking" option where it will display a box around the area/item where the motion is detected. I also really miss being about to go back and look at video playback from anytime during the daytime. These cameras will let you view LIVE and NOTIFICATION playbacks only. You can't pick a random time and go back and view the recording then. TP-Link, if you're listening, add those two features and your cameras would be a HOMERUN! Don't get me wrong, I'm still very happy with these cameras, but it's crazy these features were available on very inexpensive cameras, but not more expensive ones.
I would also agree with other reviews, yes the alarm isn't really that loud, but not a deal buster for me. The talk feature takes a bit of practice, there's a signal lag, but not even close to a deal buster.

I have two Kasa cameras installed, covering my front door/drive and my back door/patio. I went with Kasa for three reasons, I already have Kasa smart plugs and switches, reasonable price and direct wiring (no batteries). My front camera is mounted above my garage door and I just drilled a hole in to the garage for power. My back camera is next to my screened sun room so going in to there for power was not a problem. Video quality is excellent with a wide view that covers my front door and driveway. I can see everything in my back yard while covering my back door. Before you mount, turn on the camera on and move it around for optimal placement before mounting. I originally was going to center it on my garage, but found that I had better coverage off to one side. The zoom works well and you can zoom in to any part of the frame. This works well if you need to get a close up of a persons face. The camera is very light sensitive and will see in low light even with the infrared turned off. With infrared on it will see in total darkness. When my outside lights are on I prefer to have the infrared feature turned off. The clarity is better and in full color. Infrared is B&W only. The motion sensor works well, and you can customize four separate motion zones. Great for targeting only the areas you want to detect. The mic is sensitive, however the speaker volume is not adjustable. I can clearly hear someone outside and they can hear me, but I wish the outside volume was louder. The siren is not loud enough to disturb you neighbors, but loud enough to scare someone off. The Kasa app is tied in to my Alexi and when watching TV I can say "Computer show front door" and it pops up on my TV. VERY COOL. I am very happy with the cameras, but give them 4 stars for the following reasons. The auto feature for turning the infrared on and off is set to low. As said, the camera is very light sensitive and will give you quality video in very low light. The auto for turning off the infrared keeps the infrared on well beyond what the camera needs. When I turn on my outside lights the camera's auto will not turn off the infrared which results in B&W. When I manually turn off the infrared I get a great color picture with my outdoor lights on. Software fix? No sound volume adjustment. No Kasa App for my PC. Yes, I did use an Android Emulator to have Kasa on my computer, but it reacts slow and is a pain. Sometimes I like to watch my front door on my second screen when sitting on my computer. If you already have Kasa (and Alexi) this is the camera to buy because you can control everything with one App or with Alexi's voice commands. It is nice to see what is happening outside my home when I am away!

I read BLOGS where people say there is a lag time to notification. Absolutely there is. If I monitor from my LAN, Lag time time is nil. If I monitor from else where, we are held hostage to the WIFI connection we choose to use while away. Can't blame the camera, Blame the WiFi you are using......I purchased a hotspot while I was out of the country and was bound to the 4g technology available to me at that time. So folks that choose to save a dollar on free WiFi may experience a longer time to notification. OhBTW while I was away, my interior camera notified me that I had an interior trigger.....really scared me as I was miles away from home.....I watched the video only to find it was a moth or something flying around, thus leading me to feel secured that the sensitivity picking up movement was awesome.

The cameras are working perfectly fine and I'm really pleased with them. The pictures are excellent, and I don't even have it at the highest setting. It took a little while to get used to just seeing 10-, 20-, or 31-second clips, but that seems to be how it works. The activity zones are invaluable, unless you want to get pinged every 3 minutes as cars drive by (I had no idea our street had so many cars going by, and my desk is by the window!).

I do wish they had better instructions - write for old people who are not tech savvy. (Example: is the strongest sensitivity 1 or is it 10? How do you set an activity zone? Finding the Settings icon isn't very intuitive.)

A bit concerning - and it may simply be my provider - is that I can drive into the carport, get out of the car, and be in the kitchen putting away the groceries before I hear a ping that there has been activity at the front camera - this may be working as intended, but their advertising video implies you should get a notice within a second or two of activity coming into range.

All in all, though, I am extremely pleased with this camera.

Very impressed with the quality and ease of use of this device. I was already using the Kasa app for a wireless outlet, so adding cameras was just a matter of hitting the "+" button in the app. After reading the reviews, I was careful to test each camera near my mounting location to ensure I had adequate wi-fi reception. Everything works well for me with 3 of 4 wi-fi strength. I didn't want wires showing on the exterior of the house, so I also bought a 50' extension cord for each camera to run to an outlet in the attic. Cut one USB-sized notch in my gutter awning to access the attic, drilled two small screw holes into the siding, mounted and positioned, then ran the USB cord into the attic for power. Set-up on Kasa took about 2 minutes each. I found the default setting to be adequate, but decided to increase the sensitivity from 5 to 10 to regularly catch activity more than 50 feet away. Having free cloud video storage for 2 days is plenty for my purposes. I did notice that the camera detects significant light changes as "motion", esp. at night. So turning on an exterior light or activating vehicle headlights initiates the recording process. I especially like how the stored video starts approx. 2 seconds prior to motion being detected. Sound quality for the videos is OK, but can get sketchy in wind. I don't plan to mess with phone alerts or motion zones, but those can be used to customize the user experience and exclude certain areas. Overall, I am impressed with the quality and ease of use and am recommending these units to others.