34 OCTOBER 2019|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 380
THELASTTP-LINKcamera we tested, the
Kasa Cam 120 (Shopper378), was awell-priced
indoor camera. Now the company is back with
the Kasa Cam KC200, an outdoor security
camera that costs just £100.
The KC200 shares alot of specs with its
indoor brother,including the same 130°
wide-angle lens –enough to capture most of a
garden -and a1080p sensor.The difference is
in the camera body,with this model getting an
IP65 waterproofrating, which means it’s
dust-tight and protected against rain.
HELD CAPTIVE
To waterproofthe housing, TP-Link has opted
foracaptive USB, moulded intothe rear of
the camera. The cable is 3m long, ending in a
traditional USB Type-Aport, and needs to run
through awall intoyour home to power the
camera via the provided USB power adaptor.
It’s not aperfect solution: captive cables are a
pain, as they’re hard to replace if theybreak.
The Kasa Cam KC200 comes with a
mount that can be placed on aflat surface
or that can be attached to awall via two
screws. Its socket design gives you alarge
degree of movement, so that you can focus
the KC200 where you want it, although you
have to be abit careful as it’s also easy to
trap the cable in the mount.
TP-LINK KasaCamKC200
★★★★★
£100•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Afewissueswithmotiondetectionaside,theKasaCamKC200
isawell-pricedoutdoorcamerawithgreatimagequality
OUTDOOR SECURITYCAMERA
The Kasa Cam
is controlled via
the Kasa app.
Connecting the
camera to your home
network is easy: you first
connect your phone to the
camera’s Wi-Fi network, then follow the
onscreen instructions to connect to your
home network. This model will only connect
to 2.4GHz networks in the UK.
By default, the Kasa Cam KC200 is set to
record at 720p,but you can up this to 1080p.
This uses more bandwidth and needs a
stronger wireless signal, but the boost in
image quality makes it worth it; just be careful
if you’re on alimited broadband connection.
CARE HOME
With the standard settings, the KC200
monitors the entire image formovement and
sends you anotification if it spots anything,
recording aclip to the free cloud storage,
Kasa Care,which saves videos fortwo days.
Peculiarly,the actual range of purchasable
Kasa Care plans hasn’t formally launched in
the UK yet. Until that time comes, you get a
free trial of the Kasa Care Premium service,
which keeps clips for30days.
Outside,those settings are likely to mean
lots of clips, particularly if the camera is
focused on somewhere quitebusy,such as a
streetoutsideyourhome.Fortunately,youcan
add Activity Zones to focus motion detection
on the areas that you’re interested in.
Youcan also adjust motion sensitivity,and
set the minimum length forwhich motion
must occur in order to trigger arecording.
By default, any motion that lasts more than
0.1seconds is recorded, but you can adjust
this all the wayuptofive seconds.
While these tweaks can generally prevent
you from getting toomany notifications, we
did have an issue with the camera picking up
movement due to the sun emerging from
clouds and casting shadows. This was the
same issue as with the KC120, and while the
issue isn’t as pronounced here,westill had a
fair number of false positives.
Another of our complaints with the KC120
was that detected movement often generated
aflood of alerts. With the KC200, there’s a
feature,enabled by default, that restricts the
app to sending only one alert every five
minutes. It certainly reduced the flow of
‘pings’ we received, but even better would
have been the addition of configurable smart
alerts, so you only –for example –get notified
when aperson, animal or vehicle is detected.
There’s aschedule forcontrolling when the
camera can record and when it should be
powered down, but the KC200 lacks a
geofencing option to operatethe camera
automaticallywhenyougooutorreturnhome.
Videoissaved into the Activity section of
the app.It’s asimple app,but you can jump to
aspecific dateand you can filter by device to
make finding the clip you want easier.Each
clip also has athumbnail, which helps.
The video player,however,ispoor.Ifyou
scrub through the clip,the motion pauses,
so you can’t easily jump ahead. Youcan
download any clips to your phone foreasier
viewing and forpreserving video evidence.
FEELTHE QUALITY
Fortunately,image quality is better.During the
day, the video is alittle softand some details,
particularly in the background get smoothed
out. However,itwas easy to find aframe
where we could get asharp image of someone
walking in front of the camera.
At night, the camera uses its IR lights to
illuminatethe view.The image gets abit
softer, as is true forall cameras using IR, and
facial features were harder to make out, but
we still managed to find asharp frame.
If you spot someone live,you can use the
two-waytalk feature to warn them off.There’s
also asiren, but this isn’t particularly loud.
Afew issues with motion detection
generating false alerts aside,the KC200 is
great value,particularly as you get the free
cloud storage.Ifyou want something with
great image quality at alow price,then this is
adecent choice.Ifyou’re looking forbetter
image quality,better motion detection and
continuous recording, spend abit more on
the Nest Cam Outdoor (Shopper363) instead.
DavidLudlow
SPECIFICATIONS
VIDEORESOLUTION1080psensor•CLOUDSTORAGEYes
(twodaysfree)•NETWORKING802.11ac(2.4GHz)•
⬆The KC200’s wide-angle lens allows you to WARRANTYOneyearRTB•PARTCODEKC200
capture most of areasonably sized garden
