TP-Link NC250
HD for cheaps.
If you just want something that’s cheap and gets the job done, the TP-Link NC250 is the order of the day. It’s about as basic as IP cameras come, but for less than $100 you’ll get a perfectly capable 720p IP camera that’s easy to set up and has a feed that can be viewed from anywhere.
The primary means of viewing the feed is the mobile app: the muchimproved tpCamera, which is useful for initial setup, viewing and locally (on the mobile) capturing live feeds. For a deeper dive into the configuration options, you have to log into the web interface. That interface is well organised and approachable, but it’s short of the options provided by the likes of Swann and Foscam.
It does provide one unique option — the wireless extender. The NC250 can function as a wireless repeater in addition to its camera functions, extending the range of your wireless network. It’s probably not something we recommend, but if you’re going that route, it might save you some money.
Like most consumer IP cameras, the NC250 links to a cloud service, allowing you to view the live feed from anywhere after registering your camera.
When it comes to image quality, we found the compression a bit much, making images a little fuzzy, but the colour definition and capture is excellent, and the wellbalanced night vision mode shows easily recognisable faces and decent definition. It should be good enough for most users, and you can’t complain when an HD camera is this affordable!