The camera has excellent quality and the pan features make it a high value for the dollar. I am disappointed in the iphone/ipad software. It does't seem to get the camera to load at all. I have tried it both with 3G and with a local wifi connection and the software still doesn't work. I don't have any problems viewing security cameras through commercial services on my iphone or ipad.
The documentation isn't very clear either. I took my relatively advanced level of networking skills to get the camera to work over the internet. They had a domain that they use, that is supposed to work, but I could not get it to work. I had to manually configure a port through the router's firewall, and finally guess at the IP address of the camera to work. Once I did that, it worked very well over the internet. IE9 version of the software the comes with it likes to crash, and the software for the other web browsers tend to be sluggish, especally when trying to pan
Bottom line is this is an excellent camera if you are looking to use it on a PC inside the same network it is on. If that is how you use the camera, it is easy to use. If you are planning on using it on a PC over the internet, it will be a test of your networking skills the you may enjoy. I don't know if I enjoyed the test, but I did enjoy passing the test. If you are planning on viewing it on your iphone or ipad, this is not the camera for you.
I give the software 1.5 stars, but the camera is a solid 5 star. If they would fix the software this would be a first class product at an excellent price.