Hello there,
 

I am relatively new to the world of Tapo/TP-Link and security cameras in general. I hope this is the right place for my post.
 

A few months ago I purchased my first security camera, a Tapo C500, and I was and still am very happy with how suitable its features and performance are for my purposes. So much so that when I purchased my 2nd camera this week, I intentionally decided to purchase another Tapo C500, so that I could have exactly the same features and performance, and so have the familiarity and confidence and convenience that would come with this.
 

However unfortunately when I purchased the 2nd camera I did not realise there were different versions of the Tapo C500 in circulation, V1 and V2 apparently. It turns out that my 1st camera is a Tapo C500 V2 (i.e. WITH spotlights and full-colour night mode etc) whereas when my 2nd camera arrived I realised that it is only a Tapo C500 V1 (i.e. without spotlights etc).
 

I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not realising there is such a difference in Tapo C500 offerings out there before making this error (though I have to say I'm also a bit disappointed that this difference is not made clearer more generally too, such as throughout the Tapo online and printed documentation, and then throughout resulting vendor listings too, but I guess I'll get over that).
 

I'm unhappy with this situation because: 

• 1) I find the spotlight and associated functionality to be particuarly useful for my intended application.
• 2) I don't know what other, perhaps less obvious, differences there might be between V2 and V1.

So any information anyone could provide around the second point would be useful, is there anyone who could help me on this? Does anyone know for sure what all the differences are? Or at least know of any other differences there might be? It would be ideal if someone from Tapo could comment with proper technical specification information from source I suppose, but anything else anecdotal and the like would be much appreciated too.

I've already noticed another more minor but (to me) not meaningless difference, which is that the low definition video option on the V2 is 780p whereas on the V1 it is only 360p (where both cameras only have 2x definition options, a high or low, though their high-definition option is 1080p and this is common between them, to be fair). I am less concerned by this one I suppose, though it does affect me somewhat, such as when I am using the RTSP streaming capability offered. But moreso this concerns me as it makes me wonder what other subtle but perhaps influential (to me) differences there might also be. I'm starting to imagine certain hypothetical differences between V1 and V2 such as the following (and I then wonder whether I'd be happy with the risk of such, or whether I'd more simply prefer the certainty of another V2):

• i) Perhaps there are IR bulb component differences between the versions, where some bulbs may give wider/narrower spreads of illumination than others even for a given strength/range, and/or;
• ii) Perhaps the motion detection logic/algorithm is subtly different between the versions which my particular application might be particularly sensitive to, etc.

All such information will be useful to me to help me decide essentially whether I should just plan to keep this V1 unit, or whether I should begin to explore (/ try and fight for) replace/return/refund options instead.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who read through this, and thanks in advance for any support.

Regards,
Ottila