Panasonic Outdoor Lighted MPEG-4 Network Camera

User Reviews about Panasonic BL-C160A Outdoor Lighted MPEG-4 Network Camera (Silver)

This camera has been installed for a few days. It is monitoring the driveway.

This is my second network camera that is used for monitoring the outside of my house. The first is installed inside and is a Tendnet PZT wireless. If the tendnet camera could be installed outside that would have been my first choice. To get a panasonic with PZT and outdoor capability would cost an additional $200 and still wouldn't provide the range of performance of the Trendnet.

PROS:
As with most panasonic gear this is a well built unit. Detailed installation instructions are provided and all needed parts are available. The included PoE is proprietary but it works well.

Daylight performance is good. It doesn't adjust well to an image with a wide range of brightness so there are portions of the image that are over exposed.

Motion and heat sensor performance is good.

MANY options for how to capture images and to save them. I never found any good documentation that described what all the options are intended to do. It required playing with it for a few hours to understand all the options. It supports saving a series of JPG images based on motion/sensor events. It is configurable to store a number of images before and after the trigger event.

Web Interface is a bit quirky but after a little time with it it's perfectly functional. I'm able to access it from my Palm Pre phone. The Pre can't play the MJPEG stream but does fine with the 3 second update of JPG images. I've seen comments that an IPhone plays the MJPEG stream as expected.

Provides a free internet addressable service so that the camera can be accessed from the internet. I did set this up at first, but oppted to use a Dynamic DNS service that i was already using with my TrendNet camera.

CONS:
Doesn't support streaming video to external storage based on a motion or sensor event.

Night performance is VERY poor. This camera needs a lot of light to be able to get a good image. I've got it paired with a 200W motion light to get images with any amount of detail. Even at that the quality of the captured images is marginal. In comparison the Trendnet is geared towards night vision and even support IR illumination. I've not seen evidence that the C160A is sensitive to IR.

COMMENTS:
When setting up this camera having some understanding of networking is a big help. I'm no networking person and I stumbled on some of the setup of the DDNS. The web interface provided hints regarding what was important in setting up the camera but I didn't always understand what was meant. After some tinkering it's setup and working as expected.
-- Good during the Day, Not so good at night

Install is a breeze.

Interface works well (java based so try safari for viewing).

Lasted through Dallas storm season and is now baking in the 100+ weather without issue. -- Very happy with this purchase