Panasonic BL-C131A Network Camera Wireless 802.11
by Panasonic
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Our Price: $314.99 Availability: Usually ships in 6-10 business days Buy Used: from $239.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Panasonic BL-C131A Network Camera Wireless 802.11
Customer Review: Excellent camera for Mac; SUPERB customer service!
Summary: 5 Stars
Although the camera ships with a Windows-only CD, it is fairly easy to configure the camera on a Mac once you know its default IP address is 253. Thus, if your router is 192.168.0.1, then all you have to do in order to connect to and configure the camera is to enter 192.168.0.253 in your browser's address bar.
Although I had the camera up an running (both wired and wirelessly) within a few minutes, I ended up being totally stumped when it came to setting up the FREEEEE LIIIIIIIFETIIIME (!) dynamic DNS that enables one to see the camera's picture from any Web-browser or suitable cellphone via an customer-defined URL of the form [...], where XXX is the name you choose for your camera.
Enter the SUPERB Panasonic tech support. I only called them because I was truly stumped. Usually (including this time) I work hard to AVOID calling tech support because I am so used to Indian call centers manned by worker drones who may be perfectly smart but who are forced to work off idiot scripts: 1) reboot your router; 2) reboot you computer; 3) unplug your fridge; 4) walk around your house and click your heels together three times, etc, etc, etc!
Quite unlike that, the two Panasonic tech support guys I worked with---thanks, Jeff and Ken!---were American, smart, and used their knowledge and intuition to solve the problem, NOT a mindless script. In the end [after about 30 minutes, culminating in my providing remote access to my router] the problem turned out to be a weirdness about the way my Motorola SURFboard SBG900 DOCSIS 2.0 Wireless Cable ModemGateway (Black) (an excellent combined cable modem and wireless router) handles DNS servers. I should note that these folks were helping me (with patience and good humor) on Thanksgiving day!
After this initial difficulty, I am thrilled with how well the camera works, how easy it is to control and configure remotely, and how stable its connection is.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Customer Review: You'd better be computer "savy"to get this camera on the net!!
Summary: 2 Stars
I've had nothing but "headaches"trying to get this camera to work wirelessly.Integrating the camera with my (linksys WRT160Nv2) router was a challenge,but the camera is running "wired"without problems.Following the directions explicitly,has'nt got me any closer to operating the camera wirelessly yet!!I guess I'm going wired.Facts an questions on the Panasonics web page has'nt been any help either!NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!!!I would not recommend this unit to anyone!!Customer Review: Missing Mac Feature
Summary: 4 Stars
i love this camera except if you have a mac, you don't get the audio feature. you also have to call customer support to set up the camera as the setup disc does not work on a mac. Customer Review: Good when it worked
Summary: 2 Stars
I used this web camera for 25 days (as a baby and pet cam) before sending it back to Amazon. It seemed like a nice camera with good features but I just wasn't happy with it's reliability. I have a Mac and found the other Mac reviews here very helpful as far as setup. It was pretty easy to get set up. I was able to get the camera on my wireless network (apple airport extreme), configured the DDNS (Panasonic's viewnetcam.com service), add users and configure settings. I was able to pull up the video on my iPod Touch. Other users could log in and view the video stream and use the pan/tilt/zoom tools, but overall it just wasn't stable.
The major issues which caused me to return it were:
1. It would be working one minute and then 2 or 3 mins later stop working (light would turn from green to yellow). I'd unplug the camera and then plug it back in and and it would get back on the network. Sometimes it would stay up longer and work OK, other times it would be completely unresponsive from the onset. I just never felt like I could rely on it being up and working, no matter the platform (Mac, Windows, iPod, mobile phone...i tried them all)
2. Audio only works on IE (I guess it uses Active-X controls?). I have a mac and i use Firefox and Safari, so this was annoying. I never tried to get the sound to work on a windows PC.
3. I never got the camera to work properly with my mobile phone (LG Decoy) or my wife's (Blackberry 8300?).
I will note that Panasonic's instructions don't mention anything about setting up with a Mac. The instructions in the Amazon reviews were all I needed though. I never did reach out to customer service (I usually don't for anything unless there are no other options). I'm going to try another web camera--maybe even another Panasonic. I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but this one just wasn't a good fit for me.
Customer Review: Great camera, easy to set up (mostly)
Summary: 5 Stars
We got this camera and immediately got to work on setting it up. The setup software is easy to use and network setup is easy. (Just remember to wait until the light on the front is solid green before searching for the camera on the network.
What was easy:
-Finding the camera wired on the network was quick. I connected it, turned it on, and popped in the CD. Two clicks later, the guided setup was humming along.
-Getting the router set up. It configured universal plug and play on its own, although I wish it could have forwarded port 80 to the one it chose automatically so that I don't have to add the port to the URL it provides to access it from the web.
-Video and audio work in a computer browser perfectly.
-iPhone browser even shows video in the default format from the camera nicely.
-Multiple user accounts were a snap to add.
Snags in setup:
I'm not a typical user, so I had some difficulties...
-If you're a Verizon FIOS user, the router they provide will NOT automatically configure universal plug and play. You must turn it on yourself.
-If you have a router plugged into a router, like you might with Verizon because their router is quite possibly the worst one I have ever used in my entire life, the Verizon router will block the incoming request to use the camera from the internet. You'll just get the Verizon router login instead of the camera.
-If you have a Verizon FIOS router, don't even try to use it wirelessly unless you have no encryption, or WEP only. WPA or WPA2 don't work, but you may know this about Verizon routers from your laptop or really ANY other wireless device you've tried to connect to it.
-Connecting to the internet required 2 steps, setting up the "Internet" section, and then setting up the "DNS" in Setup. If these were combined, it would be a bit easier to configure, but it still wasn't hard and you only have to do it once. (in theory)
The free access to it from the web for life is a great feature and was the tipping point for me to buy this product. You don't even have to do anything with the website. Just set up the camera, and it will be done along the way.