Kasa Smart (TP-Link)
Kasa Spot EC60 Indoor Camera, 1080p, Night Vision, microSD Recording
$19.99 on Amazon, in stock, read via the Creators API on 2026-10-27. Add a microSD card, which is not included. The free alternative is the voice recorder on the phone you already own, which hears a night but cannot see it
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Best for
A household that hears an old dog moving at night and needs a week of recorded nights to show the vet, rather than a memory of the one night someone happened to be awake
Try the free version first. Put your phone's voice recorder on a shelf for one night and listen to the stretch between midnight and 5am at double speed. If what you hear is nails on the floor, panting or a dog turning round and round, and you need to see which, this is the cheapest branded camera we found that records to a card all night with no subscription. Its job is evidence for one vet appointment. It is not a baby monitor for a dog who cannot move, and it cannot turn him or tell you why he is awake
What works
- Records around the clock to a microSD card ("24/7 Local Recording," TP-Link's product page), and "will overwrite the oldest files when the microSD card filled." So it can run every night of a one-week log without you touching it, and without a subscription: TP-Link's Kasa Care plan stores clips "detected by motion or sound" in the cloud, and you do not need it for this
- Infrared night vision "up to 30 feet" and "even in total darkness" (datasheet), which covers a bedroom or a kitchen from a shelf. You do not have to leave a light on, and a light on changes the night you are trying to record
- Motion and sound detection with phone alerts, if you want to know when he gets up instead of reviewing the footage in the morning
- Made and supported by TP-Link, a large networking maker, not an unbranded seller, and it publishes a full datasheet, which is where every figure on this page comes from
What doesn't
- The microSD card is not included. Without one, the only way to keep footage is the paid cloud plan, so budget for a card. TP-Link disagrees with itself about the size: its product page says cards "up to 64 GB," its US datasheet for hardware version 4.0 says up to 256 GB. Buy 64 GB and you are inside both
- 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only (datasheet). Some home routers broadcast a combined network that a 2.4 GHz-only device struggles to join. Check your router's settings before you buy
- 1080p at 15 frames per second, and infrared night footage is black and white. That is enough to see a dog stand up, turn round and lie down again, or pace. It is not enough to read his gums or his breathing rate from across the room
- Mains powered, with a plug-in adapter and no battery. It has to sit near a socket, and the cable has to be out of reach of a dog who chews
- Amazon did not serve us any review text when we read the listing, so we cannot report what its owners complain about most. We have not tested it. Everything above comes from TP-Link's own datasheet and product page
Specifications
- Materials
- Plastic body; 1/3-inch image sensor; 850 nm infrared LEDs; built-in microphone and speaker
- Sizes
- 2.3 × 2.0 × 3.5 in (59 × 49.6 × 88.6 mm), datasheet
- Warranty
- Not stated on the datasheet we read; check the listing before buying
- Made in
- Not stated on the datasheet we read
What it is for on this site
We recommend this camera for one job: recording the nights of an older dog whose owner hears him moving, so that a week of nights can go to the vet as evidence instead of a guess. The three most widely used validated owner questionnaires for canine osteoarthritis pain ask nothing about nights. The standard checklist that does is the cognitive dysfunction one. A recording is how a household brings the night into the consult room without deciding in advance which form it belongs on. The full argument, with the forms read item by item, is in Is my arthritic dog's night restlessness pain, or just age?
Who should not buy it
- A household nursing a dog who cannot get up. He needs turning and his bladder emptying on a schedule. A camera shows you he is awake. It does none of the work. See where a dog who can't get up should sleep.
- Anyone whose router is 5 GHz only. The camera is 2.4 GHz only.
- Anyone who already owns any indoor camera that records to a card. Use that one. Nothing about this model is special to dogs.
The free version first
The phone on your bedside table records sound all night for nothing. Sound tells you a lot: nails on a hard floor mean he is up and walking, a long run of panting has a start and an end time, and whining has a time stamp. What sound cannot tell you is the difference between a dog who gets up, turns once and lies back down, and a dog who walks the same loop for twenty minutes. That difference is the reason to spend $20.
Frequently asked
- Do I need a Kasa Care subscription to record my dog at night?
- No. TP-Link's product page describes 24/7 local recording to a microSD card and says the camera overwrites the oldest files when the card is full. The Kasa Care plan stores clips detected by motion or sound in the cloud. You do need to buy the card, because it is not included, and a 64 GB card is inside the limit on both of TP-Link's pages.
- Will the night vision show my dog in a completely dark room?
- TP-Link's datasheet says the infrared night vision detects activity up to 30 feet away even in total darkness. The image will be black and white. That is enough to see whether he is lying still, repositioning or pacing, which is what a vet needs from a night recording.
- Where should I put the camera?
- On a shelf or table at the height of a standing person's chest, facing where he sleeps, with the floor he walks across in the frame, so you can see where he goes as well as when he gets up. Keep the power cable out of his reach.
Where we recommend it
The articles this product earns a place in, and the context it earns it for.
