TP-Link VIGI C320I 2MP Outdoor Bullet IP Camera, 2.8mm Wide-Angle Lens, PoE, IR Night Vision 50m, Human & Vehicle Classification, H.265+, IP67, Built-in Microphone

The TP-Link VIGI C320I (2.8mm) is a professional outdoor IR bullet network camera built for dependable day-and-night surveillance in business and commercial environments. It is designed for sites that need stable Full HD video, practical smart detection, efficient video compression, and rugged outdoor protection. Typical installations include shopfront exteriors, office entrances, warehouse perimeters, parking access points, loading zones, corridors between buildings, and general outdoor areas where a wide view and clear event recording are required.

At the imaging core, the VIGI C320I uses a 1/3" progressive scan CMOS image sensor and delivers a maximum resolution of 2MP (1920 × 1080). Full HD is a proven standard for multi-camera systems because it provides clear visual coverage while keeping storage and bandwidth requirements manageable. This makes the camera suitable for continuous recording, scheduled recording, or event-based recording setups depending on the security policy of the site. The camera supports multiple frame rate options up to 30 fps, enabling smoother motion capture in active areas such as entrances, sidewalks, or driveways, while still allowing configuration for bandwidth or storage optimization.

This specific variant is equipped with a fixed 2.8mm lens (F2.2) designed for wide-area coverage. The field of view for the 2.8mm lens is listed as H 88.2°, V 48.6°, D 106.5°, which helps cover a broad scene with fewer blind spots. This lens choice is especially practical when you want to monitor a wider area such as a storefront approach, a building entrance zone, a small parking section, or a general outdoor walkway. Fixed-focus design keeps installation straightforward and stable once positioned, which is ideal for standard CCTV deployment requirements. For planning guidance, the camera also provides DORI distance values for the 2.8mm lens: Detect 45m, Observe 19m, Recognize 9m, Identify 5m. These distances are guidance values used in surveillance planning and can vary based on mounting height, viewing angle, lighting, and the real-world scene.

For night-time and low-light monitoring, the VIGI C320I uses infrared illumination (IR) with two IR LEDs. The IR system is rated for up to 50 meters at 850nm wavelength, enabling reliable visibility when the scene is dark. The camera includes an IR cut filter and supports unified, scheduled, or automatic day/night switching, which allows the installer or operator to align day/night behavior with the site’s lighting pattern and operating hours. Smart IR is included to help prevent close objects from being overexposed at night while still keeping distant subjects visible. This is important in real outdoor scenes where reflective surfaces, nearby walls, or passing vehicles can cause infrared hot spots and reduce usable detail.

Image clarity is supported by a set of image enhancement functions designed to improve performance under challenging lighting. These include DWDR (wide dynamic range) to help manage contrast between bright and dark regions, and 3D DNR to reduce noise and distortion in low-light scenes. Additional features include BLC (backlight compensation), HLC (highlight compensation) adjustable by client software, prevention of overexposure to infrared light, and image rotation (90°/270°). The camera also includes standard adjustable image settings such as brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, exposure, WDR control, and white balance. For operational use and compliance, it supports privacy masking (up to 4 masks), ROI (1 region), and OSD setting, allowing certain areas to be masked while keeping the rest of the scene visible and recorded.

For modern storage efficiency, the VIGI C320I supports advanced compression. The main stream supports H.265+ / H.265 / H.264+ / H.264, and the sub-stream supports H.265 / H.264. H.265+ is designed to reduce bandwidth and storage usage compared to older compression approaches, which is especially valuable when multiple cameras are recorded continuously on an NVR. The camera supports CBR and VBR bit rate control, enabling tuning based on network capacity and recording goals. Video bit rate ranges are listed as 256 Kbps to 4 Mbps for the main stream and 64 Kbps to 512 Kbps for the sub-stream, which helps administrators match image quality to available network resources. Supported main stream resolutions include 1920 × 1080, 1280 × 960, and 1280 × 720, while the sub-stream supports 704 × 576, 640 × 480, 352 × 288, and 320 × 240. This allows a high-quality recording stream and a lower-bandwidth viewing stream for remote monitoring.

Smart monitoring features are included to make alerts more actionable. The camera supports Human & Vehicle Classification, which helps distinguish people and vehicles from other moving objects for more accurate event notifications. Smart events supported include intrusion detection, line-crossing detection, region entering detection, region exiting detection, object abandoned detection, object removal detection, abnormal sound detection, people detection, and vehicle detection. For baseline security operation, it also supports motion detection, video tampering detection, and exception alerts such as illegal login. For notifications, message push is supported, allowing alerts to be sent to compatible client apps or platforms depending on how the system is configured.

Audio monitoring is supported via a built-in microphone. The camera supports audio input and audio compression with 8 kHz sampling rate, environmental noise filtering, and an audio bit rate of 64 Kbps using G.711 alaw. The built-in microphone is specified to record activity within approximately a 15-foot radius of the camera. This can be useful for entrances, staff access points, and other locations where audio context helps review incidents or verify events. This model does not provide a built-in speaker for two-way talk.

For networking and integration, the VIGI C320I uses a 10/100 Mbps RJ45 Ethernet interface and supports ONVIF (Profile S), which supports compatibility with many ONVIF-capable NVRs and video management systems, in addition to TP-Link VIGI systems. Security features include password protection, HTTPS encryption, IP address filtering, and digest authentication. It supports simultaneous live view of up to 3 main streams and 3 sub-streams, and can be managed through VIGI App, VIGI Security Manager, VIGI NVR, or a web interface. Protocol support includes common surveillance and network protocols such as TCP/IP, UDP, ICMP, HTTP/HTTPS, DHCP, DNS, RTSP, NTP, UPnP, SSL/TLS, FTP/SFTP, RTP, IPv4, and ARP. Note that IPv6 is not supported on VIGI C320I.

For outdoor durability, the camera is IP67 weatherproof, designed to resist dust and water ingress. It operates in temperatures from -30°C to 60°C, supporting deployment in demanding environments. The housing material is plastic. Manual angle adjustment supports pan 0° to 360°, tilt 0° to 90°, and rotation 0° to 360°, helping installers achieve accurate framing for wall, ceiling, or pole installations.

Power and installation are simplified via PoE (802.3af/at, class 0), enabling single-cable power and data over Ethernet. This model does not have a DC power port, so PoE should be planned as the power method for deployment. If you need a wide-angle outdoor bullet IP camera that delivers dependable Full HD recording, long-range IR night vision, smart detection with human/vehicle filtering, and efficient H.265+ compression for daily security operations, the TP-Link VIGI C320I (2.8mm) is a strong professional option for business surveillance.