Cisco-Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera by CISCO SYSTEMS - ENTERPRISE
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Digital camera reviews of Cisco-Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera
Digital camera Review: Decent Security Camera in Daylight
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this camera to watch my screen porch during the day after a couple of incidents of trespassing. It works OK in the day. The integrated web server and motion sensing is a necessary feature since if you don't want to have to have a computer running all day to monitor the video for motion.
The wireless network card isn't great- I get like 40% connectivity to my router that's about 30 feet and 2 rooms away. However, most wireless cameras don't offer WPA2 encryption and I'd never go back to the incredibly insecure WEP just to run a wireless camera. That said, I bought a D-Link DWL-P50 Power over Ethernet (PoE) Adapter so that I can run power-over-Ethernet to the camera because I think the wireless is a little sketchy and it's easy to saturate the limited bandwidth that the card can handle. I haven't yet had the courage to cut and splice the camera power adapter to use it with PoE. Obviously, the PoE power cord doesn't fit in the camera receptacle, which is a shame.
The email feature works about 70% of the time, the ftp feature works more often. I don't see how to enable the NTP feature so I have to manually set the time every time the camera is unplugged. Two of the best features are the ability to turn off the blue LED and the stand. The stand is highly configurable. However, the lens is useless at night. I installed a 200W halogen motion light about the porch door and the camera captures a images when the light comes on, but they're so poor as to be useless.
All in all, a decent camera on the cheap. It's no Axis, but it's reasonably priced.
Digital camera Review: Decent camera, terrible software.
Summary: 3 Stars
We purchased this camera for security reasons.
The good:
The network setup was fairly straightforward, I did one camera via the included Linksys software and one by accessing the cameras firmware directly. The camera's have fixed-focus, so if you're taking pictures through a window, it's nice to know that the camera won't focus on glare in the window instead of the area of interest. The camera's mount is adjustable and has screw mount points so you can fasten it to where you need. The picture quality is OK, we only expected basic video quality, not high-def, that would take too much storage capability for video capture. The motion capture function for video is a nice addition, though there are some issues with that.
The software allows you to monitor multiple feeds, and via the camera's firmware, allows you to set up motion capture, and FTP or email setup so that you can view your video from anywhere you have internet access. I haven't set up streaming video yet...
All in all an "OK" setup, but there are issues...
The bad:
The camera's mount only allows the camera to be mounted vertically on the stand; we have one camera mounted sideways and the software does not allow you to rotate the picture. All feed is sideways from the camera.
The software is clunky and slow and doesn't do what it is supposed to as far as storing images go. Awful. The interface doesn't allow you to select multiple files and delete video you don't need. You have to select and view each file and then delete it. If you've let the camera run for a few days, this can be easily over a few hundred video files and it would take forever to get rid of them. The .sef file format is not viewable by any other software, so you can't just open them in windows and view them in a different app that might be better.
Stored video doesn't go where it's supposed to. We have the cameras set to MPEG motion capture. There are plenty of false captures (nothing we could see moving) and the sensitivity adjustment doesn't seem to be working very well. The videos for camera #1 are stored just fine and can be viewed. The videos for camera #2 show up like they've been stored, but you can't view them! We set camera #2 up to feed to an online FTP and that seemed to work ok and can retrieve the files that way. We set #1 up to send video, but it doesn't send video to the FTP like #2, it sends still photos! All we want is to watch and store video to and from the same place.
Overall:
The camera is adequate for what we want, it does the job. If the software interface was better, we'd have given this product a much better rating, but the software is terrible. I'll probably spend many more hours trying to get it to do what it's supposed to, store the files in the same directory accessible by the viewer or storage online. If it gets sorted, I'll post the fix here. Otherwise, does anyone know of another app that works with these cameras?
EDIT: To everyone that has the camera drop out after XX hours: You need to set a fixed IP to the device in your router! Wireless routers give each device that connects a "certificate" that allows it to stay connected to the wireless network. These certificates have an expiration time, and the router may assign a new IP to the device after that time period. If that happens: no IP, no camera, no video! You'll have to figure out how to do that yourself, there are too many different routers and setups out there for me to explain it here. Try your user manual, online support for your manufacturer, or even a Google search for info.
Digital camera Review: Decent live monitoring but forget about motion detection
Summary: 2 Stars
The motion detection feature generates so many false alarms that it is effectively non-functional. I oriented it at multiple angles with multiple sensitivity settings in two different rooms and had little luck in any case. It seems that even subtle changes in ambient lighting, in my case from an average-sized window, are enough to generate an alarm. Unless you plan to monitor a well-lit window-less basement (major security concern there huh), don't buy this camera.
Motion detection capability was one of the main reasons that I purchased this camera, so I am not pleased with the results.
Digital camera Review: Disappointing Webcam
Summary: 2 Stars
It has lots of features but it doesn't work very well. Trying to add it to my existing wireless network didn't work and it took me a while to figure out a way around it. The application that comes with it is really the only way to view the video - it crashes firefox. I would really rather the device could be managed and accessed by a standard web browser. The range is very limited. I wanted it in my garage but 40 feet and a wall were more than it can handle. The video quality isn't all that good. It's hard to recognize people at any distance and once the sun starts down, you can't get a useful image. Cars going by outside are usually blured beyond recognition. It's a good learning experience for not too much money and fun in the livingroom, but if I really need to put a camera in my garage, I'll have to get something else.Digital camera Review: Does what it says
Summary: 4 Stars
It works. I am using it for a simple application, a kitty-cam, to watch the kittens while I am out of the room. I wish it had a wide-angle lens, but all in all, it does what I paid for it to do. I got it set up without help, but it had a few annoyances, so I used the tech-support chat and we straightened it out with very little fuss. You get your money's worth.