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Tapo C120 Indoor/Outdoor Camera
- Wi-Fi
Verified September 2026
The C120 squeezes 2K QHD, IP66 weatherproofing and dual spotlights into a £33 plug-in body that works indoors or out — streaming locally over RTSP/ONVIF once you create a camera account in the Tapo app, no subscription required. Its sensor is far smaller than the pricier C325WB's, so colour night vision here depends on the spotlights firing rather than the sensor itself — switch them off and you're back to black-and-white IR. It's mains-only on a fixed lead, so plan a route to an outdoor socket or a weatherproof gland before buying. Best for a porch or side passage that welcomes a bright light, not a discreet driveway camera.
In Home Assistant
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Spotlight | Light (HACS) | On/off control for the dual spotlights; must be on for colour night vision since IR-only mode renders in black and white. |
| Spotlight intensity | Select (HACS) | Preset brightness steps for the spotlights, set alongside the light entity rather than a single fixed floodlight output. |
| Spotlight intensity (fine) | Number (HACS) | 0-100 numeric brightness control, giving finer dimming than the select preset for time-of-day or motion automations. |
| Privacy mode | Switch | Toggles the lens privacy shutter; reported to stop responding after extended uptime on some firmware until HA is restarted. |
| Motion/person detection | Binary sensor | PIR-based detection surfaced via the native tplink integration; usable as an automation trigger, but the integration has no lux/night-mode signal of its own to pair with it. |
Unlike a simple on/off floodlight, the HACS Tapo Control component exposes the C120's dual spotlights as a light entity paired with a dedicated intensity control, so automations can dim them rather than just flash full brightness. One reported gotcha: after roughly 24 hours of uptime on some firmware versions, the session to the camera can drop with SSL errors and writes silently stop applying — privacy-mode toggles, spotlight commands — until Home Assistant is restarted. There's also no exposed night-mode/colour-vision status entity, so an automation can't gate directly on the camera having switched to colour night vision — it needs a sun-elevation or external lux proxy instead.
Specs
- audio
- two-way audio with noise cancellation, built-in mic + speaker; built-in siren, 96dB at 10cm
- power
- mains (plug-in, 5V DC 1A adapter, fixed ~3m lead, no PoE or battery option)
- sensor
- 1/2.9" CMOS starlight sensor, f/1.65 aperture, 3.17mm lens — smaller than the C325WB's 1/1.88" f/1.0 sensor
- storage
- microSD up to 512GB, optional Tapo Care cloud
- placement
- indoor/outdoor
- streaming
- RTSP + ONVIF Profile S (create camera account in Tapo app); HACS Tapo Control adds full local control
- dimensions
- 67.4 x 57.4 x 44.1mm
- resolution
- 2K QHD 4MP (2560x1440), 20fps, 12x digital zoom
- night vision
- colour night vision via dual spotlights (spotlights must be on); 850nm/940nm IR modes up to 9m as black-and-white fallback
- field of view
- 120° diagonal / 103° horizontal / 55° vertical
- weatherproofing
- IP66