PLANEX CS-W04G Wired/Wireless Network Camera

by Planex

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• ASIN: B0015RB1QO
• Item model number: CS-W04G
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,296 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 16, 2009

Product Description

CS-W04G is a network camera which has web server function and enables to connect to the Internet itself. Since it supports dynamic body detection and has an alarm notification, it will be suitable for anticrime, security monitoring. Use web browser for monitoring your house from outside the home or set up at the front door to monitor. Moreover, IEEE802.11b/g compatible wireless LAN enables to set up on the ceiling or the wall that is hard to make a wire connection.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent features and quality for the price! Planex CS-W04G, June 18, 2010

By 

merlin "merlin" (erehwon) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: PLANEX CS-W04G Wired/Wireless Network Camera (Personal Computers)

Length:: 1:42 Mins

Because of the little product details offered on this page, I was initially hesitant, but the low price of $52 for a wireless IP camera was too irresistable. I'm glad I purchased it. My review would be based on comparison with a few other brands of IP cams that I have used in the past few years.

1. Wireless - it is much stronger than all my other brands. It reaches my router which is about 60 ft at the other end of the house, and it has to go thru 6 walls. It provides wireless security WEP and WPA2. When replugged into the power outlet, give it about a minute, and it will automatically connect with the router.

2. It was a breeze to set this cam up by using the included CD, much easier than the Panasonic or Asante Voyager.

3. Very simple to set it to send you snapshots by email when triggered by motion.Also can send video clips triggered by motion by FTP to your website or by email, but I haven't tried configuring to send video as I don't need it. You can record videos at the console while watching live action at the cam.

4. Motion Sensor page - very simplistic compared with the more expensive brands that give two or three zones for you to set up different degree of sensitivity. This Planex cam provides only one zone, but this is sufficient for my need.

5. It allows you to set to "outdoor" mode, which avoids the wash-out look when facing a sunny street. Indoors at 60Hz or night at 50Hz which brightens up when using indoors. Pointing this cam outdoors at night will be just a black screen unless you have street lights, or headlights of vehicles rolling past your screen. This cam is good only for indoors with daylight or some dim light, but not for outside night view without street lighting. Perfect for a nanny cam. However, if you run more than one cam simultaneously, you will need to subscribe for a stronger broadband.

6. The cam gets warmer than my other brands, but the top and bottom have vents. The casing is slightly bigger than all my other brands.

7. My only complaint is that the stand should be a quarter inch higher as the power plugs into the slot under the cam, and the plug makes it hard for the cam to face horizontal, but if you tilt the cam slightly upwards, then the plug would not jut into the surface.

8. I have made a demo clip with this cam for this review, showing a park on a very windy sunny day. You will notice the dramatic change in brightness on the grass as the clouds move quickly. This video was made in "outdoor" mode.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great IP Camera For The Price, March 26, 2010

By 

S. J. Chinn (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: PLANEX CS-W04G Wired/Wireless Network Camera (Personal Computers)

Honestly, I was a bit nervous after I ordered this product. I never heard of Planex and of course it is not a familiar name with IT products. I considered cancelling my order but it was too late. The shipper would not allow it as they were processing the order. So I took the chance and thought at $51.99, I could return it or toss it and take a beating from my wife for wasting money.
When the product arrived, the first thing I noticed was the great packaging. Something you would expect from the bigger name companies. I thoroughly read the instructions and commenced installing/setup. Okay that was easy. It connected and worked immediately with my LAN. I then started to configure the wireless connection and that was pretty easy as well especially for a person that does not do this kind of stuff. I use my Network Camera for security purposes and to catch that dog and his owner that leaves surprises on my front lawn. It is setup capturing images from inside my front window. Image quality is very good during the daytime but a little grainy at night and that was expected. Setting up the recording schedule is very easy as well as playback. Installation, setup, and configuration was all easy to do. Quality is great. I rate this product an excellent value and at $51.99 + Free Shipping, I would defintely order more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad for the price, February 8, 2010

By 

Adam Beguelin (Incline Village, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: PLANEX CS-W04G Wired/Wireless Network Camera (Personal Computers)

This is one of the cheapest WiFi cameras I've found. Once you get it setup it works pretty well. Getting it setup is the hard part. The setup software only works on Windows (and I'm a Mac user). I had to borrow a laptop to get the camera up and running on my network. Even after you set it up, you can't view the images with a Mac. You can configure the camera, just not view it.

I'm using the camera [...]. I set the camera to FTP images once an hour and when it detects motion. This gets around the Mac problem in that I view all the images on the [...] site instead of going directly to the camera.