Panasonic BL-C1A Reviews

NICE camera and very fair price.
by Kenneth Sands from Syosset, LI, NY, USA, 2010-06-27

A little tricky setting up over the net and multiple cameras; had to get tech support's aid, because documentation STUNK. BUT they got me going. Great image now and great price.

This is the low-end version in Panasonic's lineup
by TomK1 from Brookeville, MD, 2010-06-26

This is the 2nd network camera I've purchased from Panasonic. The first I purchased about 6 months ago, and it is the Panasonic BL-C131A, which I rated very highly (and is discontinued).

This one isn't quite as good, but it's also less than half the price. Let's talk about what it doesn't do:
1) This is a wired camera only (obvious from the description)
2) There is no ability to remotely swivel the lens (which is obvious from the pictures)
3) It does not do sound
4) Some software options are missing, the one that I find frustrating is the time-stamp on photos which lets you immediately see when they were taken
5) The motion sensing is significantly less sensitive and you have to fiddle with settings to get it to work.

It makes up for it in that the mounting bracket is nicely designed and was easily screwed into the top of window frame with two supplied screws. It also looks decent, and not too "techy".

But for the money, all things considered, it's a great choice.

Here's my tip if you buy this: Don't use the software supplied with it. It's useless.

Instead, plug it into your internal network and type this into a browser:

[...]

Very first time only! It will prompt you to create an ID & Password

After that, access it by typing:
[...]

It does include the [...] DDNS service and uPnP (Free for Panasonic customers), which makes setting up your router a breeze and sets up the correct URL for you to access the router from outside your firewall.

I wish this camera had more features, but for the price, I'm willing to live with the compromise over the more expensive Panasonic camera.

I'm a picky person.
by E. Mattar from CA , USA, 2010-06-21

Setting up this camera was hard. I had to call customer support for it.
They were patient and nice and made it work.
Thanks.

.

DO NOT BUY Motion detection does not work!
by P. Borntrager from Ohio USA, 2010-06-02

Generates video with 3 second stills. Motion detection generates hundreds of blank files along with the ones that have motion. The setup of the camera went pretty quick. The web site setup went smoothly.
The product is useless. Software in the camera does not work and/or is poorly designed. It will not buffer images. Motion detection does not have a hot zone. Client viewing software motion detection places hundreds of small null files in the directory. Every 10 seconds. So there is no good way to quickly view motion files. Video files are in proprietary format so you cannot view them without going to their software. The software is crippled, but you cannot buy an uncrippled version. Are you serious that you could actually ship software this bad with a product. It's worse than a joke. I'll never trust the brand again.

Setup a breeze, excellent image
by Vegas user from NJ United States, 2010-05-29

Compared to previous webcams I've setup, this was a breeze. No fooling around assigning and re-assigning IP addresses and still not having them work. It took about 10 minutes to fully setup. I set it up to view over the internet using the [...] "service" that the software points you to. This was a little confusing, as it asks you to setup an account, so I assumed when I go to the url, that I need to input the username and password for [...] but it was really the camera's username and password that it wanted. It only took a few minutes to figure this out. The setup was very easy and I never had to login in the router to open any ports, everything was taken care of by the installation software. fyi, I am on FIOS.

The picture quality is really very good for $78. I plan on picking up a few more of these, or the wireless version.