Panasonic BL-C10 - Network Camera

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?head=21&page=2975' target='_blank'>http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?head=21&page=2975</a><br /><br /></div><i>"When we first saw Panasonic’s BL-C10 we thought surely this can’t be right – a network camera with remote pan and tilt functions for around £200? But that’s exactly what you get as this baby camera offers these features and more making it highly affordable for home users and small businesses alike. Not only does it deliver pan and tilt controls but the BL-C10 also incorporates an infrared thermal sensor which can be linked to triggers allowing the camera to take snapshots of the area under surveillance when activated."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/1346-pic1.jpg" /><br /><br />I've gone through a couple of consumer grade cameras for security monitoring at my home. (There are a few children in our development with too much time on their hands and no parental supervision.) I've been disappointed by all of them. I may need to step up to something professional grade, like this camera. Basic features I want are Internet accessibility, night vision, ability to record only when motion is detected, and the ability to have is store the recordings for a fixed period of time and then overwrite them. Best I have gotten was 3 of those features, but the video quality was very poor on that unit. Any suggestions?

[Kursplat]

I bought this version of the camera several months ago at Radio Shack (the only place selling the camera in the states at the time). The review was pretty consistent with my experience with the camera. And the panning was pretty snappy. The camera sure can move! I used it for a while and liked it but eventually returned it. I decided I really wanted to hold out for a wireless version (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&amp;product%5Fid=25-3299). It DID exist somewhere in the world, but not yet in the states and was $100 more so I thought I would pass until the need was greater). I bought their wireless microcam (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&amp;product%5Fid=49-1060) to play with instead. It's fun to attach it to the top of the RC truck.

The review's mention of the additional features on the Sony SNC-M3 sounds really interesting. I'll have to go look that one up after finishing this post.

As for software, it's like the software that comes with your digital camera. It might be okay for the basics, but if you want a lot of features, you need to look at a full product (which probably means $). There is a particular software that my brother has used and likes. In Googling for it, I came across this interesting-looking option (http://www.visiongs.de/shots.html). Check out the PDA options at the bottom of the page. Not bad for $30.

This is way more money, but check out the features. THIS (http://www.webcam-software.com/features.htm) is the software you want (but might not want to pay for). I believe it is what my brother is using (or maybe its predecessor). Better then just motion detection, you want to be able to mask out areas that might be prone to trigger false positives (moving tree, high traffic area along edge of image, etc). I think it also has the ability to say things like "if you detect motion, start recording from 10 seconds prior to the motion and record for 5 minutes." The most frustrating thing about most of the included software that has motion detection is that it doesn't start recording until after it's triggered by motion. We've had several different net cams at our office and I can't tell you many images I've had emailed to me as a result of motion detection where someone walks in front of the camera, triggers the sensor, and is already out of frame by the time the image is captured. Being able to record from prior to the motion is really nice.

[klinux]

May be a dumb question but how do you record prior to motion triggering? Is it live Tivo where it records last 30 minutes automatically and keep that in a buffer?

[Kursplat]

May be a dumb question but how do you record prior to motion triggering? Is it live Tivo where it records last 30 minutes automatically and keep that in a buffer?

Exactly. It is essentially always recording but only retaining the last xx minutes in case it is called upon to save it off to a file. I just don't know how far back it holds or if that is user configurable based on the required disk space.

My brother was having problems with kids throwing trash over the fence into his apartment patio. He pointed a camera out the upstairs window, masked out the area outside the fence (so everyone walking by wouldn't trigger it), and set it to record a few seconds prior to the trigger and capture a couple minutes worth. This way, when someone threw something over the fence, the motion inside the patio (which was not masked off) triggered the recording.

I love technology.