Panasonic BL-C121A Wireless Network Camera

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0027K2XSI
• Item model number: BL-C121A
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #61 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Webcams
  • #93 in Camera & Photo > Surveillance Cameras
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 25, 2009

Product Description

Panasonic BL-C121A wireless Network Camera

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You wont be disappointed, January 21, 2011

By 

maitai "maitai" (costa rica) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic BL-C121A Wireless Network Camera (Electronics)

After doing a lot of research on Amazon I took a chance to add this camera to my existing home CCTV system. I use 4 logitech 9000 USB cameras. Two to monitor outside, and two to monitor the second floor of my home. I wanted to monitor the first floor, thereby completing my CCTV project. I travel a lot and like to keep an eye on my home from afar. I run everything on an iMac, running "Security Spy". Security Spy supports this camera. My goal was to connect it to my wireless network, and view the camera via Security Spy, and the camera's built in webserver, if the iMac went down while I was traveling (which has happened in the past).

At first I had problems but with a bit of patience I figured it out. The first thing I had to do was to give the camera a static ip address as my airport extreme would want to change the camera's IP address everytime it rebooted, which caused me a hour of grief. Once the camera had a fixed IP my airport extreme router settled down and "accepted" the camera.

The second thing I had to do was to "disable" the Plug N Play feature in the setup menu of the camera. That caused me another hour of wasted time, as the UPnP feature caused havoc with the stability of my wireless network and prevented me from seeing the camera via the internet. Once the UPnP was disabled in the camera my wireless network was rock solid. I was able to view the camera via the web, as well as on my iphone. The camera has proven to be a great addition. The picture quality is great. It is very well made. To me, it was money well spent.

I only wish the documentation was written better, as I really felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. So detailed below is a brief overview to help other Mac users as the setup was not in the instructions, nor are they obvious.

For Mac users that have an Airport Extreme router, it helps to setup "Port Mapping" to ensure you can see the camera on the web. Go into "Utilities" in the Applications Menu, then select Airport Utility and wait for the application to open.

Once you see your Airport Extreme in the viewing pane, select "Advanced" followed by "Port Mapping". Then hit the "+" and select "Personal Web Sharing" from the drop down menu. Type in the forwarding port you want to use. Example port "80". Enter this value in the Public TCP Port field, and then enter it in the "Private TCP Port" field.

Then in the Private IP address field enter the camera's IP address. Finally give the Port Mapping configuration and name....eg. "KITCHEN_CAMERA". Hit continue and wait for the airport extreme to reboot. Once this is done the router is configured.

Power up the camera close to the router (making sure it is in range) and the blinking light on the camera should go green, indicating you have a connection established. Don't forget to turn off the UPnP in the SETUP menu of the camera as I mentioned earlier. If the camera does not work, don't worry. You are 95% complete. Just back track your steps as you may have missed something. Good luck to all.

Enjoy the camera it is a great little device. I hope this review and my mac configuration helps others.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Does the job, January 30, 2010

By 

G. Jones - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic BL-C121A Wireless Network Camera (Electronics)

I needed a "nanny-cam" network to monitor the whole house. I installed FOUR Panasonic IP cameras (one BLC-1A and three BLC-121). All function exceptionally well. I am able to access any single output or a composite of all four easily, even from an iPhone.
The wireless range and reliability of the BLC-121 was disappointing, but when hooked up in wired mode, work flawlessly. Setup with a Mac was difficult (there are plenty of "how-to's" on a google search that made it less painful). Sound for the BLC-121 on a mac is nonexistent.
Very happy with the video clarity and reliability of all four cameras in wired mode.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars decent camera, but no mac/linux support, May 18, 2011

By 

CC Yang (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic BL-C121A Wireless Network Camera (Electronics)

This is a decent camera given its low price. You should have no problem working with it if you are on a PC. However, there exists virtually no support for non-PC users. If you are not on a PC, e.g., mac or linux, the installation DVD does not work for you and you have to manually connect and set up the camera using your system utilities. If you understand how to set up local fixed IP and port forwarding, this is just some work for one time. But the real unsolvable issue is that you have to use IE to access the audio from the mic on the camera, because the program on the camera is written in ActiveX, which is proprietary for IE. You can still access the video stream with other web browsers, but forget about the audio. Unless Panasonic publishes alternative program for non-PC/non-IE users, you might want to hold up the purchase.