Tapo SolarCam 1080p Outdoor Wireless Security Camera - Battery Power with Solar, Person Detection, Subscription-Free Local Storage or Optional Cloud, Works with Alexa & Google Assistant, C403 KIT

I did a lot of research to find the perfect security cameras. I have to admit, I am very impressed. Solar powered, weather proof, motion detection, great night vision, records to SD card (and you do NOT HAVE to have cloud service). Not to mention the setup was super easy with all the instructions right on the app. Also the app is very easy to navigate and understand and even adding other users to the household was super simple. I bought two of them and can't wait to grab more. I have already told everyone at work about these. Great functionality, easy to operate, simple app, all of that at a great price. I love them.

Easy to install and the camera is great. Ties in perfectly with my IPhone. Solar panel keeps it charged and the SIM card captures everything. Great value for the money, sound and pictures are awesome.

Well designed and well made. Two bases additional cable provided so there is an option to install as one or unit or tow separate the camera and solar panel by several feet. All the parts needed for intallation either way are provided, including adhesive templates to stick on the way to ensure the drilled holes are perfectly positioned. I charged the battery, connected the camera to my network, and tested before the install. Was very easy. After mounting all I had to do was turn it on and wait for it to say "Camera On". Video quality is good, camera and panel are staying in position during high winds. There are 3 options for video storage - cloud, hub, or sd card. Alarms, alerts, detection types, and detection zones are all configurable and seem to work well.

Update after a week of use: Still going strong. The person detect and vehicle detect trigger recording reliably about 95% of the time. More good news - the Android app runs on a laptop PC through Bluestacks so you can use a Windows PC to control and view the camera. One odd thing was that the recorded videos disappeared briefly when viewing with a PC but later returned. They always showed up on an android phone so they were always there. Finally, the solar charging feature and some of the other advanced battery use monitoring features turned out to be beta versions that appear but don't work yet. All in all, still a great camera. Hardware: The camera is sensitive and the image sharp. The method for sealing the solar panel cable to the camera is just a rubber boot which looks like one day it will leak. The camera can illuminate night scenes with IR for a B&W picture or with white light for a color picture. Incredibly, all of the mounting hardware is high quality stainless steel which is quite unusual for such a product. The App: A little quirky but very much full featured. By quirky I mean, for example, having the delete option for video clips located under the category "downloads" which makes no sense. By full featured I mean that it offers a lot of useful tools such as an amazing battery monitor that includes current state as well as graphical displays of battery usage by day and solar charging by day. Another useful feature lets you define the areas of the scene to which the detection (recording) algorithm will apply. You can also set the time of day window during which recording can occur. It can be set to only record if people or vehicles are detected. Most of the features are local and do not require any kind of monthly fee. Only had it running for a couple of days but so far it looks like a great product for the money.

Why did you pick this product vs others?: I really loved this camera so much I bought 2 of them and their doorbell for my house. The doorbell has been working flawlessly. The first camera IN installed with the solar panel worked fine until the first rain storm where it went offline and I could not get to it for a couple months as it monitors a vacation home. Once down there I was able to get the camera down, plug it in and after a couple chances it finally rebooted. Now the camera is is all fogged up and will not clear out. I reached out to Tapo support and after several AI generated emails from Tapo asking me about the solar panel I was able to get some traction with support where they told me I had to go through the RMA process of which they asked all the same questions that support did. I did put up my second camera in the same spot and it is working fine and I love the fact that it is solar powered. I would give the camera a higher review as I understand sometimes things break, but their support process was very painful to work with. Would I recommend this camera to everyone? Yes I would and I may buy more of them for my main house as well as back yards as I love the solar option... but I am very weary of dealing with TapoSupport again. Ease of setup: The set up was very easy to do and their instructions make it seem like it is harder than it really is. Recording capability: you can either use their paid cloud storage or I bought Micro SD cards from Amazon and just use those to record and save Storage capacity: The 512 microSD cards are great and cheaper than subscribing to their cloud storage View angle: I love the fact that I have it on top of my 12 foot shed and I can see clearly down the side of the house and a nice wide angle to the bakc of the house and driveways. I love the AI feature where i can exclude animals from detection as we have a lot of wildlife in the area, mainly deer, fox, and other small creatures... but can also set the detection zone of where I want it to alert to motion or people.

Good product. Solar keeps camera at 100% charge. Clear pictures and easy app to navigate.

Facile à installer. Se recharge très bien grâce au panneau. Qualité vidéo parfaite

Excelente Dura muchísimo la batería

الطاقة الشمسية لا تعمل 😒

when there is motion, does not activate. gets vehicle and person recognition wrong.