Panasonic BB-HCM511A Network Camera with Two-Way Audio Review
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I've tried four different Panasonic webcams as well as some from other vendors, and this one is the best and well worth the price. I put a 16GB SDHC Trancender memory card in it, and can buffer 3964 20-sec 320x240 video clips or 2615 10-sec 640x480 clips. I have three motion triggers set up: the first buffers local video clips; the second sends me an email with a 320x240 image with a 10-minute time-out between emails; and the third buffers 640x480 still images. The last one has already buffered 111,321 640x480 images in addition to the stored video.
The night color vision option is fantastic. It automatically switches to a more sensitive mode when the light level drops. I can place small nite lights around the house rather than leaving the main lights on all night.
I also have a log of all camera activity from each camera emailed to me every day at midnight. A problem with the logs is that only the last 50 events are stored and included in the email. A single pet-sitter visit can easily generate more than 50 triggered events. Since you can only have one copy of the logs emailed to you each day per camera, the number of events in the log should be enough to cover the entire day. I called Panasonic about it and they told me that the alarm logs were limited to 50, and that I could change my trigger settings or have each trigger email me. I explained to them why both of those options would not work for me. This is a serious design problem with this camera.
I recently took a trip and found out that my pet-sitter was not doing the job I hired her to do. Since I will be traveling world-wide quite a bit in the next year, I am going to expand my system to the full 16 cameras to monitor my entire house while I am gone. I have 8 cameras now, and have not experienced any problems with bandwidth.
I also have a Brinks/Broadview system with entry and motion detection, but it's really nice to be able to look at any part of my house and know what is or has gone on there from anywhere, anytime.
I do wish this camera was a little less conspicuous, but otherwise it is a great security camera! My biggest fear is that someone will break in and steal my cameras, along with their internal memory; however, I am working on a way to send the buffered videos to an offsite location, in addition to the current emailed images.
Panasonic BB-HCM511A Network Camera with Two-Way Audio Feature
- Two-Way Voice Communication
- SD Memory Card Recording
- Power over Ethernet
Panasonic BB-HCM511A Network Camera with Two-Way Audio Overview
Network Camera with 2-Way Audio. Use of the built-in microphone and a separately purchased amp-equipped speaker enables two-way voice communication2 (transceiver system) between the network camera and a PC used to monitor the camera image. In addition to conventional monitoring of images and sound, voice messages can be transmitted from the PC to the network camera. Voice transmission and reception can be switched easily from the PC used to monitor the image.
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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Feb 18, 2010 13:46:25
