Excellent All Around
I've always been curious about what goes on at home when I'm not there. What do my dogs do all day? Can I watch my new little baby play and maybe take its first steps while I'm at work? This product is one of the simplest electronic products I've ever set-up. All I had to do was plug-in the camera, attach it to my home router and log in to the Astak site. My cameras were...
Worked for a While
When i recieved the cam, set-up was a breeze and worked as defined. However, a few weeks later i noticed that the camera could not longer pan more than 25%, and would start to pan (only 25%) and tilt endlessly. Finally i contacted the manufacture who recommended that I restart the until. That seemed to work well, but only for a few days. Unfortuntily, I was forced to...
This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
I've always been curious about what goes on at home when I'm not there. What do my dogs do all day? Can I watch my new little baby play and maybe take its first steps while I'm at work? This product is one of the simplest electronic products I've ever set-up. All I had to do was plug-in the camera, attach it to my home router and log in to the Astak site. My cameras were up and running.
This product can be used for so many different purposes: to be a video security/surveillance system, check on things at a business or home, or whatever else you can think of doing. Check out the stuff posted on You Tube. People actually caught people robbing their business.
This is what I like about this product:
1. Setup was a breeze
2. Only one wire to plug it into an outlet for power.
3. I can move the cameras around as needed. For example, some days I put it in my garage to watch the dogs while I'm gone. On other days, I have the camera sitting on the dresser in the babies room.
4. They are linked to your internet wirelessly
5. The website and camera functions are very easy to use
6. The image quality is great and the night vision works awesome.
7. I can share my camera with my family anywhere so that they can see whats going on. (Even my Brother-In-Law in the Army)
8. The range of my camera seemed just as good or better than my wireless home phone.
9. Works great with my iPhone to check in via the web.
10. The Yoics software program is very easy to use and easy to see other family members camera on a secure network. ( Many additional features also for remote desktop applications)
11. Directly posts videos to You Tube
12. Email alerts, motion detection, scheduled recording times, etc.
13. 270 degree turning radius with full tilt
14. Audio- so you can remotely hear what's going on
15. Remote viewing,sharing, and controlling
This is what I wish the product would do better:
1. Provide me with an iPhone app soon so that I can quickly check-in with one push of a button
2. Have a way for me to zoom into an area to get more clarity.
3. Have a battery back-up
Overall, I think the product is excellent for people that want to see what's going on in places when they are not there and they are not tech savy enough to hook up more difficult systems. I would recommend this for anyone and plan on buying more cameras in the future.
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
This camera delivered as promised with sheer ease of setup. There are cheaper wireless IP cameras out there but guaranteed they can be very frustrating in the setup process. I tried couple of other brands but they all require that you have technical knowledge about network protocol, port forwarding, dynamic DNS, etc. By comparison, the Mole's instruction was easy, non-technical and I was viewing the camera within a few minutes. Works well with the iPhone so that I can view the camera from anywhere.
Prompt tech suport is another plus. Many reviews of products neglect to examine and report on a company's tech support. What takes companies like Apple from good to great is their outstanding tech support.
There are a lot of extra bells and whistles with this camera (video recording, motion activated capture, email alerts when motion is detected, etc.). Since I use this camera as a "granny cam" I haven't had the need for the extras but it's good to know they're there should I need it in the future.
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
When i recieved the cam, set-up was a breeze and worked as defined. However, a few weeks later i noticed that the camera could not longer pan more than 25%, and would start to pan (only 25%) and tilt endlessly. Finally i contacted the manufacture who recommended that I restart the until. That seemed to work well, but only for a few days. Unfortuntily, I was forced to return the unit to Amazon. I did like the camera and it's functioanlity, but the pan feature was critical for me. Hopefully they can get that corrected.
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
The "Mole" by Astak is very misleading. First, it is not simple to install, (it has a known quirk for not recognizing certian alpha/numeric characters in your wireless router account) second the camera has bright red led lights on it which make it nearly impossible to hide from anyone who enters the room (like a burglar). And finally and perhaps most important there is zero support from the company who makes it,- Astak, Inc. The have a phone number which in not manned by a live person at anytime, and no one from the company has ever returned my calls or emails for tech support or general questions. Astak's phone message system sounds a bit like a child's toy, which makes me question the validity of the company all together. It appears that viewing your camera image on the web will be an added charge, information that you are only given once you purchase and install the camera. I am returning my unit, I would rather spend more on a unit from a reputable company.
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
In a Word: Awful.
In a Sentence: This camera had so much promise, I wanted to like it, it looks really cool, but ultimately it disconnects so regularly from my wireless network that I can't count on it to be my eyes and ears when I am not home.
In a Paragraph: Straight out of the box this camera is aesthetically pleasing to look at, and it does setup fairly quickly straight out of the box. However, the more you use the software the more you'll hate it. The con's far out weigh any benefits that I would like to focus on. If you plan on mounting this camera to look outside, say through your kitchen window to monitor your vehicles say at night time, then you have to manually turn off the night vision, otherwise you will see nothing but brightness from the infrared light reflecting off the glass back at the camera lens. Even if you do turn off the camera's infrared lights, you will quickly see that the camera can't see much going on at all, the images becomes milky, grainy and the quality of the camera is made very apparent. This is fairly typical of cameras in the $200 range, but I will say that TrendNet does make a wireless N IP camera of which I also own ($150 range), and the night viewing aspect is by far 1000% better than that of this camera. Now I could go to the trouble of setting up and independent infrared system that turns on at night time that I could point towards areas of interest, but this requires more money and time and this is not something I feel anyone should have to do. The idea of remote viewing and controlling this camera via an iPhone is neat concept but the reality of it this in reality is a joke, the image is blurry, it doesn't move very fast and you will have the feeling that your suffering from technological hype that can't match your expectations to any degree of satisfaction. Bottom-line this is a camera that needs refinement, the makers would do well to read my constructive review and make changes that allow for the technologies that they have hyped to meet up with our ever increasing expectations.
Comparison: This camera is like expecting Windows 7 but instead they shipped you Windows Vista without any service packs updates.
Conclusion: Keep looking for something else, depending on your needs, this camera for outdoor viewing is a total nightmare. The camera disconnects from my network at least 3 times per week, and the bottom line is this is not a camera you can depend on to be a second set of eyes and ears for you when your not at home.
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
I purchased this camera to have as an additional i accessory for my business. Along with locks, heating, music, controlled from iPhone,itouch, iPad, this camera works great across the internet from your I device. Carrys audio and video, and can me pan and scan frommyour idevice accross the Internet. Would recommend to any one looking for a security cam while on vacation or just everyday use.
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
The Astak camera is a nifty little gadget that enables the user to monitor office or home safety and capture creative videos that can be posted to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc. The movements of the camera are a little noisy (thus not a 5 star review) but sharing with friends and using the camera right out of the box are as simple as plug n play. The price may be more than other off the shelf webcams but you have more control remotely to permit a touch more creativity by "hiding" the camera and being part of the action! The YOICS features to control the camera are easy to use and get your friends and family involved and they do not need the camera to help monitor - That's Great!
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This review is from: Astak Pan/Tilt Night Vision IP Network Camera, Black (Baby Product)
The camera was very easy to set up, if you are computer savvy. If you are not, them it might be a challange. What frustrates me is that I cannot get this camera to save video or take pictures. I am running Vista and when I called text support, they told me to do all these useless things, and still cannot record. If you want to use it on your Iphone, it is grand... but buyer beware, the software features lacks recording options. I might return it. Night vision works well. I gave it two stars due to software issues. For the hardware, it works well, but very noisy when the camera pans up and down, left and right. Another downfall is that there is no auto focus, you must get your subject first and manually turn and focus in. I hope they launch better software...
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