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Panasonic BL-C210A Internet Security Camera |  | Brand: Panasonic
Category: Photography
List Price: $199.99
Buy New: $129.00
as of 9/8/2010 20:41 CDT details
You Save: $70.99 (35%)
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  17 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7 x 3.9
Legal Disclaimer: We do not in any way represent that any part we sell is legal to possess in your jurisdiction. Check with you local authorities to ensure it is legal for you to possess before buying!
MPN: BL-C210
Model: BL-C210
UPC: 037988845682
EAN: 0037988845682
ASIN: B002JLZMN8
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| | Image Sensor: 1/4" CMOS, 320,000 pixel | | | 3x Digital Zoom | | | Up to 30 Frames per second | | | Max. Video Resolution: 640 x 480 (VGA) | | | 82?pan, 42?tilt F2.8 Lens brightness |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The BL-C210A is Panasonic's full motion video network camera. It features a proprietary one-wire, plug-and-play installation and is suitable for a home or business setting. The integrated internet connection allows users to view camera output in real time full motion video from anywhere in the world using a personalized secure web address (provided for free). It is even possible to pan, tilt and zoom remotely. The camera employs H.264 video compression which provides higher video quality and uses half the amount of bandwidth compared to other formats. Built-in sensors detect body heat, sound and motion. The sensor settings are customizable so they can be used separately or all at the same time. They can also be set to be active at specific times of the day. When a sensor is triggered, an image is captured and can be sent via email or to a VIERA CAST enabled TV. There is built-in memory to store images and the included recording software connects up to 16 cameras
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
 Low light viewing is completely UNUSEABLE September 5, 2010
NeoEngineer
the night mode on this sucks REALLY BAD, pretty much unuseable, but the day mode is decent. the built in server is fairly easy to setup. the layout and gui are atrocious though, not very user friendly. a weird, unknown plugin is required to be installed on all browsers for the streaming to work. luckily, the server inside the camera sends it to the client browser so you don't have to google it. if you don't install the plugin, all you get are image refreshes.
the panning feature is cool. the built in power over ethernet adapter is cool. the h.264 codec is the smart way to go. you can view this camera on any Android or iPhone flawlessly but it won't stream cuz it's not using Flash. but there may be an Android version of the weird @$$ plugin the server software uses to stream h.264 video. they should've just used flash media server, it supports h.264 video and you can easily find Flash in the Android Market and install it.
panasonic should make an sdk for the server software because individuals can use flash media server for free to stream video, but companies have to pay for the license which is $$$. but that's how it is for almost all software, companies subsidize the cost. it would be cool if i could install flash media server on this and have it stream to my Android phone (iPhone doesn't support Flash yet).
4.5/5 stars if you don't care to see things at night.
3/5 stars if you care about night view.
 Sucky for Mac OS September 5, 2010
HDoug
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this on the strength of the very high rating here but I have to warn Mac OS and AirPort users, especially if they want to use this cam via the internet. But first off, the camera requires TWO ethernet cables. One goes from router/switch to power adapter, and the second from there to the camera. The setup program requires a Windows machine. Luckily I have a Windows machine and was able to set up the camera. The setup has different modules depending on what you want to do. There is one to get the camera onto the network where you can continue the setup on the camera's embedded web interface. There is another module for recording video and images on your computer. They are typical inelegant and confusing Windows style apps. If you like older Windows apps, fine, you'll like these. So there are multiple apps and multiple pieces of documentation in different places -- on paper, and on disk, etc.
You cannot register for the [...] internet portal if you are using an Apple Airport because they are not UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) compatible. At least the older flying saucer models aren't. I am not sure about the new square 802.11n models. I even tried manual port forwarding, and that failed. I did solve the problem by plugging the modem ethernet into a D-Link Broadband Router, then plugging both the camera and AirPort into the router. (I bought another ethernet cable when I got the D-Link router, but it came with one! Plus one for them.)
I can now see and operate the camera via the internet, but I can't hear anything without IE on a Windows machine. Also can't zoom without IE and Windows.
I tried programming the camera to email alerts at a certain time or under certain conditions, but I failed. That's up for tomorrow along with figuring out how to program the movement programs.
So, okay, I can get it to work, and by the end of day tomorrow it will be able to do what I expected. But I was expecting it to work better under Mac OS and an Airport, and I was certainly NOT expecting to put as much time into it as I have. Maybe the problem is with my own expectations, but I submit this review to moderate the expectations of others.
 Best you can get at this price September 1, 2010
Brian Gouge (Salt Lake City, UT USA)
The MPEG-4 and H.264 are very clear (as clear as 640x480 can be). If you need more than 2 people to be able to watch it, you'll have to not use H.264. The MJPEG is quite a bandwidth hog on LAN, so if you expect to monitor this remotely you would best try to use the more efficient H.264 or at least MPEG-4.
If it bothers you to have to switch resolution every time you open it, then set it the way you want it (640x480, etc), then create a favorite and/or desktop icon with the big long address box contents and it will open that way every time.
The low light isn't spectacular but it's better than I get with my Logitech Pro 9000 webcam. It's better to see some things really grainy than to see nothing.
The zoom is client-side, you can see when others move the camera but not when others use the mouse wheel to zoom in, it's not an optical zoom..
The audio works great and there is a configuration for 3 microphone sensitivity levels. Programming the presets sent me to the manual but it's not hard once you see how to do it (the Program button above the presets, when logged in as admin).
I have not, and will not, install any included software, so my review is limited to what you can do just accessing the camera via a web browser.
Great for the price, other reviews accurate overall August 27, 2010
shtojo
Great camera for the price (I paid 129). Poor low light as others have said. Good picture and color in normal light. Great access and control from on-site or remotely. One thing I was unsure about from the instructions and other reviews though... I needed the trigger actions to be independent (I wanted to set it up so when motion is detected, it would send one photo to my cell phone and then send repeated photos to a different email account. Turns out you can do this and can specify unique email addresses for each trigger, so I set up two motion triggers (using the built-in pir heat/motion sensor... not the image-monitoring motion detection) each with a different email account and other settings and it works very well. I also chose this model because it supports SSL unlike most other cams and also provides free dns service for remote access.
Great camera esp if you know what you're looking for June 12, 2010
Gary H (CA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've been looking to pick up a new IP camera that supports Pan and tilt. I just recently remodeled a house in which I ran cat5e wires to every corner of the house. I did not run any power lines out to the cat5e so I wanted some kind of POE (power over ethernet) camera. I did run fishing line out with the cat 5e just in case I ended up using my old non-POE ip camera (Airlink SkyIPCam 250 and the 250W) so I could pull the power cords/jack through the wall with the fishing line, but I know I'm going to literally run into snags doing this and the line may break. We just stucco the house so getting the actual plug through the wall may be an issue down the line.
I just saw the price drop from $180 to $155 on the C210a and saw a used one being sold my Amazon. I took a chance and a leap of faith and bought a used BL-C210A. I decided to go with wired connection because I've had issues with wireless ip cams before and if you read reviews of any wireless cameras, they _ALL_ have issues. With a hardwired connection I will have eliminated the most problematic issues of wireless security cameras: video drop outs, connection drop outs, etc.
Since I did some research on this camera I know it does not have good night vision - none at all. And people have issues with setting this camera up on Macs and also setting up port forwarding. I also know it does not come with ethernet cables. So will I be disappointed?
I got this camera last night and it looked almost brand new, but I can tell it was used. The question for me? Will it work? After going through the part list it seems like I got everything. I scrambled to find two ethernet cables and I plugged one into my gigabit switch and the other end to the proprietary POE box. I plug the other cable between the POE box and to the camera. I hear some mechanical whirling noise as the camera centers itself, but I have no idea if I can view video.
I stick in the setup disk, ran the setup program and searched for the camera. It found it with ease. I decided to upgrade the Firmware so I searched for it on the web, downloaded, and extracted it and used the setup program to upgrade the firmware. That was easy. I was wondering if I will run into a snag since most people run into issues setting up this camera. I then had the setup program set up the networking and it told me how I can access the camera locally using my local ip address. I want to set up port forwarding so I can access the camera on the internet so I register on the viewnetcam site and tried setting up the camera without ip4v and ip6v. I'm all set up, but of course port forwarding is not setup so I can't get to the camera from the internet. I decided I should use ip4v to set up port forwarding. I never used this, but it worked and I was able to get on the internet and view my camera! This was just too easy. It might be because I'm in the tech field so setting up stuff on the router and devices on the network is relatively easy. I have a Macbook pro, but I did not try to set up the camera on the mac, but I'm sure I can access the camera with Safari on the Mac.
I tried accessing the my camera on my iphone and my Samsung Innov8 and they work great. You can access the mobile version of the software by appending a "/mobile" to the end of the URL.
My expectations were based on what the camera can and cannot do and I am completely satisified with the camera so I'm giving it a 5 star. I would give it a 4 star if I expected night vision, but I already know it does not have night vision and the sales literature does not mention it.
I like the fact this little unit buffers pictures so you can see action happening before the action starts. With my skyIPcam, when action is detected, you will miss a few frames. The pan and tilt is great and I will probably not get another camera without pan and tilt. I did not test the zoom, but I heard it was digitial so expectations are low here.
The included poe box is great so I don't have to buy a POE injector or router. It's funny, but I bought two cheap POE dlink router last year from Fry's for $20/ea on clearance.. I returned it two weeks later because I had no need for POE devices. If I had know I would of kept it so I can set up my security system with POE cameras. I went back to Fry's last week and the POE Dlink router was $139 (similiar to what I returned).
Since I've used it for one day my opinion of this camera may change. I'll be back to post anything good or bad about this camera like I've done with my other reviews. So far so good. Great product.
UPDATE: 7/11/10
There is a $70 instant rebate on this camera so I just bought two more! They come out to $129/ea.
Yes, I need a low light camera, but I haven't found one yet that is good at low light and good in the daylight.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
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