Panasonic Wireless 802.11 b/g Network Camera and Pet Cam (BL-C30A) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Let me begin by offering my overall experience with this camera. I had no difficulty at all setting it up for either wired or wireless operation. The included software worked flawlessly allowing me to easily operate the pan and tilt operations, and allowing me to record sessions.

For my purposes, my intention was to supplement a surveillance system I currently have in operation using two high resolution Toshiba network cameras. I was hoping to be able to get half-decent quality from a camera costing about 1/2 of the cost of the Toshibas. Unfortunately, that's what I got...about half the image quality.

In general 640x480 does not provide sufficient resolution for surveillance as you cannot make out features in any detail. For example, you may be able to see someone entering your home, but you'll never be able to identify that person. Overall clarity was ok, better than, for example, another Linksys camera that I tried, but still I was unable to identify facial features in a person standing just 10 feet from the camera (using all of the highest image quality modes). Comparing this to my Toshiba cameras operating at just 800x600 is like comparing night to day, as the Toshiba is able to distinguish relatively fine detail.

All in all, for the price, it does what it advertises, and is better than other lower cost cameras that I've also tried (like the Linksys). However, I've found no camera in this price range to be able to work as a true surveillance camera. (I suggest the Toshiba IK-WB11A as the entry point of true surveillance network cameras.)

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Product Description

Wireless Network Camera 802.11g, Automatic Network Configuration, Universal Plug and Play, Set-up Wizard, Remote Pan/Tilt Control, Built in PIR motion detector

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48325 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: BL-C30A
• Dimensions: 4.00" h x 8.50" w x 9.90" l, 2.00 pounds
• Native resolution: 32x240

Features

• Record to a Web Site or Hard Drive
• 802.11b Wireless Technology
• Receive Email from the Camera
• Compact design with hideable lens, for added comfort and privacy
• Automatically upload images to an FTP server or Web page -- images can be viewed by 30 users at once

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