Customer Reviews

Toshiba IK-WB21A IP/Network Camera, PTZ, Megapixel, 1280x960, 4-8mm Lens, 22x Zoom

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am giving this camera a bad review because of the support from toshiba.

Pros
the camera is an amazing camera for image quality, speed and range of PTZ, optical zoom... note all this is hardware related..

streaming over the internet over an average highspeed connection the activeX control is very fast and responcive. However note that this camera is only viewable from IE on windows.. Firefox, Macs, Linux need not apply, it wont work for you.

cons
However note that this camera is only viewable from IE on windows.. Firefox, Macs, Linux need not apply, it wont work for you.

Toshiba support is cursory and for the most part does not exceed the "this is where this option in the interface is" level of support. Even at this low level of support they are not very responcive to getting back to you. I have on average in a two year period and 4 camera installations for different clients contacted Toshiba 8 or 9 times for advanced help in implementing web integrations, as well as some basic problems with bugs in the firmware. The first level support is friendly but very slow to help. I would get the I need to look that up, can i call you back responce.. 4 to 8 days later I might get a call back. Developer support which the first level refers you to for anything other than interface help, is useless. they might email you the sdk but other than that responce is non existent to monosylibic. I have multiple times asked very detailed questions and 4 out of 5 times got no responce at all. The time i did get a responce it was not oh this is how you do that but a one line reply that was not in context to my question. For a product that costs as much as this I expected more documentation and examples of integrations and also expected at least a minimum of support from toshiba in implementing these solutions.

So my end summary is that it is amazing hardware but if you want to do more than watch a live image on a windows computer with internet explorer I would look elsewhere.
To date I have been unable to implement succesfully a web integration with this camera due to how the firmware is setup and based on the SDK tha was supplied to me. Toshiba support has refused to help.. well maybe refused is to strong... lets say it has been apathetic and non responcive. I have even filed a review of my support with them complaining about not getting support and got no responce to that.

Toshiba 22X Optical Zoom Ptz Netcam 30 Fps 2WAY Audio with Sd Card Slot

I bought this camera to use in the laboratory to allow remote viewing of samples by customers and experts from other laboratory sites around the world. Some times, there is just no substitute for a visual inspection by the expert or to get the customer to show you what they need analyzed. The fact that it has its own web server was crucial, but the 22X optical zoom is what sold me on this camera. I was able to read a telephone list from 20 feet away.

Setup was easy on our internal network. We were up and running within 30 minutes of receiving the camera. The fact that the web cam has the built in web server allows me to move it from lab to lab cutting the cost to us because it can be shared.

The IK-WB21A has the best specs in its class (at the time of this review), but has a lousy interface with no alternate browser or mobile device support. The optics are excellent, but the IK-WB21A is designed only to be accessed from a Windows desktop or laptop computer with Internet Explorer, with pop-ups enabled. Forget accessing the camera from any mobile device unless you purchase a third party application (ViewCommander for PC or Live Cams for iPhone) and accept limited functionality. Toshiba advertising states "[Using an] Internet-ready cell phone, a user can remotely view video and control the camera's PTZ and multiple presets without additional software or plug-ins." Since no compatible cell phone exists, this is simply false advertising. [...]

The interface consists of a parent window with a camera pop-up, and another control pop-up. So three separate windows on your screen, inefficent and cluttered. While the interface supports multiple connections, it's a one-setting-fits-all, so you cannot set-up more than one generic user login. Even the most basic IP netcams exceed this. I previously owned a cheap Panasonic PTZ netcam, and never dreamed the Toshiba, which costs five times as much, would be a step backward. If you like a simple camera interface, don't buy the Toshiba. I certainly would not again.

Beyond the interface, the IK-WB21A has a lot of excellent features. You can set-up as many presets as needed, and the camera speed to each preset is amazingly fast. You can move from a normal wide shot to a 22X optical zoom of a preset within a second or two. A comparable PTZ can take several times as long. The sharpness is so good you can literally zoom in and read printed text from an open book 30 feet away. This would be great to watch a quarter mile in every direction on a large property. Depending on your needs, this could be the best camera for you. Since I need mobile access and a clean interface, the IK-WB21A's interface shortcomings are a deal-killer and I will be making a lateral move to another PTZ in the future.

Buyer beware that Toshiba has long ago abandoned this relatively expensive camera. You can readily confirm this on their web site. To drive the point home, their latest firmware update for this camera was released 12-19-07.

I own two of these cameras and have been reasonably pleased, but I'd definitely expect more out of any modern model. Personally (considering this model is discontinued and unsupported), I wouldn't purchase another one of these cameras unless I was rating it with 10 out of 5 stars. Therefore, I'm not going to spend more time (or waste yours) with a more comprehensive review.

I use this camera as a live nature feed to one of my websites. Bird feeders, etc with lots of small bird action.

Great pictures. Tough software. Am learning with trial and error but wish Toshiba would offer an upgrade that 's easier to use.

This is a really impressive IP camera. The pan / tilt / zoom is wonderful. In fact the zoom is practically magical. My IT department bought one to monitor some production equipment, and about two YEARS later we bought a second one. There are some great features that newer models don't have. Image quality is great.

As others have pointed out, your options for talking to the camera are limited, and it's not exactly cheap.

Overall a great solution.

I had recently bought the Cisco WVC210. I was unimpressed with the picture quality so I decided to upgrade to this Toshiba model, being confident about Amazon's return policies, I thought it was worth a shot... I am completely impressed with the image quality. I'll post some images when I get the chance, but I thought what is the point of a security camera if the details are not clear enough to clearly identify faces. The zoom capabilities are great, too. Our Christmas tree is about 12 feet from the camera, and I could read the letters on the ornaments. I haven't had much chance to play with the software yet, so perhaps my mind will change a bit if I struggle with the software, but so far, I'm very pleased with the image quality of the camera. By the way, the camera can either be mounted on the ceiling or mounted on a flat surface like a desk. That is, it provides the capability to flip the image whether it is mounted right-side up or upside-down. Unfortunately, it looks like for the alarm images, it assumes being mounted upside down. Of course, it is easy enough to rotate those images.

This leads me to one of the limitations I found. It looks like for the alarm settings (like motion detection), it only records jpeg images, not video. A bit disappointing. Due to this, I'll knock down my review from 5 stars to 4 stars unless I am missing something here.

Still impressive considering this product is at least 5 years old. I should try updating the firmware and see if there's any improvement to its capabilities...

I've had the camera for a few days now and have been experimenting with its API. Some observations and suggestions for others who may be looking at this camera with automation programming in mind:
1) Do a web search for IK-WB21 SDK. It is a PDF document that describes the programming interface to the camera.
2) The programming interface to the camera is pretty funky. It is all done via http GET commands. Also, the commands for zoom and focus are single step so to zoom in you may have to send the same command multiple times.
3) The pictures are great but it's too bad they didn't go just a little further and make 720P and 1080P available. Instead you're limited to a maximum resolution of 1280x960.
4) The "video" is in the archaic "mjpeg" format so it's really just a series of stills. I'll be transcoding to something like h264 for use on a website probably.
5) The "built in" web application for configuration and control of the camera is absolutely horrible (as others have said). It's a windows only application, requires popups, requires its own special addon, and the user interface is fairly amateurish.
6) The password protection for the camera is really bad. I would never think of making this camera accessible outside a firewall.
7) The auto focus seems to wander a lot more than I would expect.
8) All that said, I still think this is a good camera for the price and the programming interface, while not optimal, will let me get done what I set out to do.

UPDATE 12/12/10:
Another shortcoming I've run into is that the preset names are limited to 12 characters... Why? This camera is SO ready for a firmware upgrade but I suspect none will be coming. Yet another annoyance to work around.

I highly recommend this camera, however trying to integrate the video feed into your website can be tricky + use a lot of bandwidth off of your server. To solve this, I recommend using a live hosted video streaming service such as US Relay eLiveStream

I hope to upgrade this review some day but as a whole I am disapointed that I spent so much money on this thing and can not get it to do what I want it to do. Sure some guy from the "geek squad" could hook me right up but so far I am on my own.