Panasonic BL-C131A Network Camera Wireless 802.11

I own 6 webcams from two different manufacturers (Toshiba, D-Link). This Panasonic blows them all away. Setup was a breeze, Image quality is great (although it doesn't do as well as my Toshiba in low light) and the performance of it's "streaming" video mode is 2-3x better (frame rate) than my other cams. I thought the motion-detect/store would be a "throw-away" feature, but it's turned out to be very effective. I'm planning on gradually replacing my other cams with more of the Panasonics! Very highly recommended!

Nice product, but the documentation could be a little better for a Mac. Once I found that the default IP address was 192.168.0.253 I was able to get into the unit and configure all the options I wanted. So you can basically toss the diskette they send since is PC only. In general the documentation is useless but who reads that stuff mostly anyway. Got it configured to do wireless communications with my Apple Airport nicely. Haven't set up a DDNS yet, but that will be next. The triggers are a little odd, not sure I understand them but I'm sure I'll figure them out. The main thing is it works with Safari over the Internet. I'm a happy camper.

Overall, this camera is a good buy. We had tried a Linksys camera before and everything everyone says about Linksys is true. Bad idea. This panasonic camera was easy to set up, about 2 hours with a call to technical support. Techinical support is excellent by the way. The only downside to this camera is a little bit of false advertising: it says you can access it from anywhere in the world. There are many computers I have not been able to access it from due to some type of firewall. It seems like it only works on personal computers, not public computers like at the public library or at work.

I'm very pleased with this camera. I did a lot of research for the best camera to serve as a baby monitor and decided to go with this one per reviews. The quality is the best in the price range, the setup was an absolute breeze, and the features are many. Not quite good enough to see the baby breathing or anything, but good for other viewing. I may still need to get an audio monitor that can be carried around the house. Even the more complex aspects of setup are well documented and easy to understand. I'm able to get streaming video on XP, OSX, and an iphone without any issues. I was even able to give extended family access (via the cool, free web server) in a matter of minutes.

Great product but difficult to set up with Airport Extreme. The good news is that Panasonic has the best technical support line I have experienced. Low wait time and very helpful with a good, patient attitude.