TP-Link VIGI InSight S485 IP camera 8 MP 4K, 2.8 mm, IP67, Full-Color

A resolution of 3840 × 2160, or 4K, means four times as many pixels as a Full HD camera. When you review a recording you can zoom in digitally, and faces, clothing or vehicle details stay sharper than with a lower-resolution camera. The frame rate is not in the supplier data, so if smooth motion matters, check it on the TP-Link VIGI datasheet.

A typical security camera switches to black and white in the dark, and colour information is lost. A camera from the VIGI Full-Color series is designed to keep a colour picture at dusk, which later helps identify the colour of a car or a jacket, for example. Night visibility range in metres is not in the supplier data, and it also depends on the surrounding lighting.

The short 2.8 mm focal length gives a wide field of view, so a single camera covers an entrance, a yard, a car park or most of a storage room. Wide-angle cameras are typically used where you need to see the whole area at once rather than zoom in on a distant object. The exact viewing angle in degrees is not in the supplier data.

IP67 means the housing is dust-tight and withstands temporary immersion in water, so rain, snow and dust do not get in the way. In a turret housing the lens sits in a ball module with no glass dome that could cause reflections at night. The white housing suits a light-coloured façade, and at 0.48 kg it is easy to mount.

The camera has a microSD card slot that takes cards up to 512 GB, so it can record straight to the camera even without a separate video recorder. H.265+ compression noticeably reduces the file size of 8 MP video compared with older codecs, which means more footage fits on the card and the network carries less load. If the camera is also connected to a video recorder, the card serves as a local backup copy.

Homeowners who want to watch a yard or an entrance with a detailed colour image; small businesses guarding a car park, a warehouse or the area around a store; and integrators building a VIGI system who need an 8 MP camera suited to outdoor conditions. The white IP67 housing lets you mount it directly on a house façade or under the eaves.