Customer Reviews

Panasonic BL-C111A Network Camera Wired

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First, let me compliment Panasonic on its customer support. It may take a few minutes to get through, but they do know what they are doing. I needed them twice during setup and they came through both times.

Pros: This is a decent camera at a great price; decent low light performance; relatively easy setup; free web access hosted by Panasonic; compatible with any cell phone with a web browser (pics only); motion sensor; reliable.

Cons: slow shutter speed (anything moving is blurry) and really does not do 30 FPS as advertised.

Overall - recommended as a reasonable cost home monitoring system.

Doesn't have as good of optics as a high-end surveillance camera ($$$$), but is truly amazing for the price. I was burgled 5 years ago and haven't been comfortable since then about what I'd find when I got home. Now, while I'm at work, I just leave a browser window open to this camera, which delivers great audio as well as a pretty darn good picture, and I'm now confident nothing ugly is happening while I'm away! The ability to pan across the room is really nice. The ONLY reason I'm only giving 4 stars is that it could yield a better image, but then again I bet the images would be good enough to be able to prosecute some loser that's preying on my home. For the price I HIGHLY recommend!

I've wanted a network controllable pan/tilt/zoom netcam for a long time, but until recently they have been prohibitively priced. This unit works wonderfully and is very stable/reliable.

Pros: great feature package, robust
Cons: Firefox can't use the zoom via mouse wheel or get audio working, at least not easily.

I own two of the older model 311's and have recently installed one of these 111's in my house. the admin menu for this camera has more options then the 311's, which are nice. The sound feature works in Firefox, while the 311's don't. The quality of the images don't seem quite as sharp as the 311, but it's still ok for home surveillance. The 111 does MPEG video, which is better then the 311 options and means that the recorded images are very portable and readable by others. I've owned both Axis and Toshiba network cameras in the past and the Panasonic line is far better on numerous counts. The C111 Panasonic is a great choice for those looking for 1-way audio, Pan-Tilt and good recording software in the box. -Highly Recommended!

I purchased this camera after buying the much more expensive HCM311A which has two way audio. My plan was to use the cameras to keep an eye on our little guy and the nanny (who knows about the cameras). The C111A provides all the functionality of the 311A at just over half the price. The setup of the cameras was simple if your router does UPnP. The port forwarding and the pseudo static ip assignment worked like a charm.

After 15 minutes work I was able to access both cameras from a single web page from work. The audio is Great and if you turn the gain up all the way, it's like having the baby monitor at work with you. I do computer stuff for a living so your mileage on configuration may vary. I do have two d-link wireless DCS-G900 ip cameras as well (i couldn't pass up the price $75). Their setup was much more complicated and the UPnP implementation was flawed so I had to do the port forwarding myself.

I'm considering ebaying the two d-links and getting a couple of C111As to replace them.

I just wanted to add one bit of information that folks may find useful with regard to this network camera (and the wireless version BL-C131A). I agree with the majority of other reviews here that for the price, this is a great network camera, and the Panasonic customer service is terrific! Once set up, the camera has stayed reliably up and running *as long as you do NOT activate the privacy mode*. This may be an issue with my particular router/ISP (I am on AT&T DSL with a 2Wire brand router), but I find that whenever I activate privacy mode for more than a few minutes, it seems to cause my network to hang up and I can only clear it by resetting the router. This is the only reason I give the product 4 stars instead of 5, otherwise I love this camera for the price. Hopefully Panasonic will fix the lock-up problem in a future firmware update.

Although it works better than expected for the price, it doesn't always work.

Pros:
* The image is relatively clear, even in 640x480 mode, and although moving images are a bit blurry, it is easy to see what is going on remotely over a 500kpbs upload connection and a 1.6 mbps download connection. Accessing it locally gives a much better image.
* Works surprisingly well on an Apple iPhone!

Cons:
* It may be an AT&T DSL limitation, but every 3 days or so, it stops transmitting images, and I have have to power off/on the DSL modem and router. This is very inconvenient, as I used it to monitor a 2nd apartment, which I only visit once a week.
* A minor issue is when I disconnected the camera to move it to another location in the room, I had to reset the camera to get it to work.
* About 80% of the time, the audio/photo/full screen toolbar does not appear, so I can't hear anything. Refreshing the page a few times solves the problem. (I'm running the latest version of Internet Explorer on Windows XP with all the updates.)
* The login process is not secure, so a hacker could easily access the camera.

Overall, not too bad, but it would be a lot better if it worked 24x7.

I wanted to keep an eye on my daughter, to keep her safe. I purchased this unit. I needed an extra cable an internet and a router.

I am very pleased (for the money) with the purchase. I have a live view and also have the ability to use the motion dection to check out the last recorded frames. It is a streaming video with sound. The picture is not fluid, containing some jerks with movement.

I have no problem recommending this product to people who want it for monitoring pets, security or people.

I spoke with Panasonic's tech department and I was hooked up within 30 minutes.

It is an excellent buy for the price.

The same setup as the blc1a applies:

First, ignore the shiny Windows CDROM in the box. Plug the camera into your router with your own network cable (they don't supply one!) and plug in the power supply. Wait a minute. If your router is 192.168.0.1, the camera should default to 192.168.0.253 (or 192.168.1.253 for a 192.168.1.1 router, etc).

From Firefox on the local network just go to the IP addess of the camera (as above) followed by ?mode=local and you should get the camera's built in web server. (The mode=local is essential, to activate it). Create an admin userid/password, hit enter. That's it.

Configuring the cameras for static addresses, different ports etc is all done via the web interface after that point, so still doesn't need Windows or IE in any way.

Don't forget to open the ports on your router if you hope to see the camera from outside your LAN. (the internet looking in). You might do a search for (your router) port forwarding.

I expected the video would be the same as the blc1a. It was worse. It was a little more grainy. A little less light sensitive.

The unit works well with the other panasonic cameras on the network. The sound works well. Only minor occasional chopping of sound. Much better than Trendnets camera 201, I think.

I love having these cameras. They were easy to set up and work well almost all of the time. I believe the problem may be my router and not the cameras but I have had to reset the cameras and reset them up a few times over the last several months. Not a huge deal as it is easy but I would prefer that everything work perfectly all the time!