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Panasonic BB-HCM371A Outdoor Wireless Network Camera
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$849.00
$608.20*
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| Part No: | B0009PD0ZI |
| Manufacturer: | Panasonic |
| MFG Part: | BB-HCM371A |
| Customer Rating: | 3.5 / 5.0 |
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- Two-Way Voice Communication
- CCD Sensor for Enhanced Image Expression
- SD Memory Card Recording
- Simple Ethernet Connection - No PC Required
- One Year Warranty
This camera can be viewed and controlled from a standard Web browser, video display, or even a compatible cell phone or PDA. Place it in your home, office, vacation home or almost anywhere else that you'd like to keep an eye on things, with no PC required on location! It is easy to install and operate and require no additional software for the PC that you're viewing them on. The camera also comes with a free Web address, which can track the camera automatically. All you need is a regular Web browser to view it on your PC, as all of the other required software, including control software (TCP/UDP) and e-mail software (SMTP), is already inside the camera. This camera can communicate wirelessly with standard 802.11b/g wireless devices, allowing the flexibility to install and operate the camera without running network wires, and utilizing SSID filtering and powerful 64/128/152 bit WEP encryption helps to protect your wireless network from illegal intrusion. Since the camera is attached through an Ethernet connection (or router) and power source, you don't need a computer at each location you want
| See everything when you can't be there | 2008-11-03 | 5 / 5 |
| | This Panasonic outdoor camera is a great little product. It is used outside our condo and it has operated in temperatures of -5 without any issues. An attached SD card allows many photos to be saved on a chip and the zoom lens allows us to see things pretty close. The only issue is finding a powered outdoor speaker for use with two-way communications. Panasonic wasn't able to provide a vendor and we haven't been able to find one on our own. Except for this issue the camera works as advertised. |
| Software Has Problems | 2008-08-20 | 3 / 5 |
| I purchased this camera because I didn't want to run Ethernet cable to my router. If this is not a problem for you, I would recommend you check out the BB-HCM311A. Note that with the BB-HCM371A, you still have to run wire for power, which sort of defeats the wireless concept.
Be warned that you still need an ethernet cable to plug into your router for set up.
Speaking of setup, if you don't know your network settings, this camera will be a pain to setup. For example, if you don't know the IP to your DNS, you're in trouble. Fortunately for me, I managed to configure it successfully and I'm no system administrator.
Physical installation was straight forward. I mounted my camera high and I was afraid I was going to drop it while threading it to the mount. Panasonic really should have come up with a safety system where you can tether the camera while you screw it in place.
My biggest gripe is the web-based software. It's feature-rich, but I cannot capture images the way I like. For example, I cannot acquire a time lapse movie of an overnight shot. I either get the first few seconds or the last few seconds. If a prowler saunters into camera shot at 2:00AM, I wouldn't see him. There's also a bug when you play the time-lapse motion image. Once you play it once, you cannot play it again. :-(
Also, downloaded images are in PCN form. What the heck kind of image format is that?
Another gripe is that night vision isn't great. In this day and age, a camera like this should perform better in terms of night vision.
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| Excellent webcam | 2008-07-27 | 5 / 5 |
| | The BB-HCM371A is easy to setup if your router supports Universal Plug'n'Play (I'm using a late model Linksys 54G). If you're using several other cameras in addition to this one, you may have do some manual configuration of the router ports. Panasonic's setup instructions are adequate but clearly they've been translated from Japanese. Picture quality is good for a camera in this price range. Camera is best mounted out of direct sunlight... underneath a roof overhang is ideal. |
| I've used this camera for the better part of a year now. I've used it in a variety of locations and conditions. It's presently mounted outdoors and transmitting wirelessly to a router sitting indoors 340' away. I use dynamic DNS to access the camera remotely via DSL. The framerate is decent, but still-picture quality (clarity) could definitely be better -- especially when the subject is moving. The motion detection is good and triggers reliably to upload images to an FTP site. The camera is very configurable, but best-suited for the tech-savvy. Plus, it's evident that a lot of the instructions written into the camera firmware were done by a non-native English-speaking individual. I've successfully viewed the camera remotely via my Motorola Q. Sound quality from the camera is very good. I can hear the frogs chirping in a nearby riverbed right now.
For what it's worth, I also own a very expensive Axis camera. The bottom line is that, although this camera has room for improvement, it still comes pretty close to justifying its cost. |
| Too PC-dependent and lacks WPA for wireless security | 2007-10-10 | 2 / 5 |
| I just received this unit and have to state that I'm rather disappointed. First, we are an all-Mac household with a SonicWall firewall but this unit is so heavily PC-dependent that it would not work out the box with either.
Another reviewer said it would work with the Macintosh but I couldn't even see the unit in the ARP cache or the DHCP leases of the firewall. The only way I could initially talk to the unit was to dig out an old PC and use the enclosed CD. It would be nice if there was a switch that could be flipped manually to tell the camera to use DHCP instead of UPnP (which I don't find "that universal").
The second thing that really surprised me was that this unit only supports WEP wireless security instead of WPA. For all the talk about security in the documentation and in the setup tools, WEP is a very poor choice. To use this unit wirelessly in my network, which is why I bought it, I will have to gut the security of the rest of my network. This is a serious shortcoming, in my opinion, especially for such an expensive camera.
Finally, I'm finding the Panasonic support site clumsy and limited in scope and utility. This product has potential but it its shortcomings get in the way of its utility. Until they add WPA, I can't recommend this unit. If you're a Mac user, make sure you have access to a Windows machine to get it out of UPnP. I think it defaults a 192.168.x.x. address. |
* Current Price/Avail/Qty displayed on website may be delayed by up to 24 hours. Items added to cart and into the checkout process will reflect current price and status of product. |
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