0ur opinion:

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What happens when you're not around? Life is precious and valuable. View the things you value when away from home or when you're at another room in your home. View your property, your pets, even your children. You can even listen in! You can add extra eyes (through your computer) by adding the Panasonic BL-C131A Wireless Network Camera. lt works with 802.11g wireless technology and it lets you monitor its 'view' (what its lens sees) from virtually anywhere. Just log on a specially designated lnternet site using a PC and instantly access camera images. You can even control the BL-C131a using your web browser to move the camera's pointing direction and modify its digital zoom to bring objects of interest into close view. Place this plug-and-play camera in your home, office, vacation home, or almost anywhere else you'd like to keep an eye on things, with no PC required at the location. Check your property, check your children, check your babysitter - from any location using your PC or an lnternet equipped cell-phone or PDA. And the camera can be easily hidden from view. 1 Lux Color Night View Mode Simple plug&play mode Built-in Microphone - listen as well as view Privacy Mode- Privacy mode can be controlled remotely using your administrator password Camera can be set to automatically record video at certain times and certain speeds With optional, external sensors attached to the camera, it's possible for the camera to email5 or record when triggered by motion, sound, light, timer, or even a push button Compression Format JPEG (3 levels), MPEG4 Picture Sizes - 640 x 480, 320 x 240 (default), 192 x 144 Frame Rate (speed) - Max. 30 FPS (640 x 480, 320 x 240, 192 x 144) lntegrated F2.8 fixed-focus lens - set for 20 to infinity Panasonic 1 Year Warranty Connecting the camera to the lnternet requires lnternet access and may require that you obtain additional hardware such as a cable or DSL modem,









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Buyer's feedback: - * Outstanding Product -- Lots of Features ...
I installed this product a couple of days ago and I am thrilled with it. I am using it at my vacation home in Tahoe to check the weather remotely, so that I can monitor my driveway / deck melt systems during snow storms. What's good about this camera is that it can be totally controlled remotely through Panasonics hosted free web site. You can view, pan, set pre-sets, and make many adjustments remotely. A great feature is the ability to set up a trigger event, using its built in motion sensor, so that it sends me an email -- including multiple pictures when triggered. That's really good for security purposes.

It does take some time to get this unit to communicate properly through your router, but with some patience, the effort is worth it. If you have a secured network, you need to put its two MAC addresses in your router -- there is one for the camera and one for the wireless module. I cut and pasted them to the router MAC list.

There is so much that you can do with this camera, and the Manual on the CD is very helpful in this respect.

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Buyer's feedback: - Great Camera
I wanted a webcam so I could see my new baby from work. After looking at all the options and reviews on Amazon I went for this one and I am very impressed. Easy to set up and use. I can get live audio and video on my desktop at the office and can get stills on my BB wherever I am ... yes it costs a little more than the others but so far it is worth every penny.

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Buyer's feedback: - * I really recommend the Panasonic BL - C131A Network Camera and here's why: ...
First off I have to tell you that I have never posted a review of anything prior to this purchase from [...]
I feel obligated to assure you that this is the best network camera for home or small business use. After reading and researching all the reviews I could find for this camera, I felt very comfortable with my decision to make this purchase. Well....I am here to tell you that was a very wise choice on my part. I don't mean to sound self serving but I recommend everyone should research any product they are considering purchasing. That having been said please let me tell you the Panasonic BL - C131A Network wireless camera is outstanding and the technical support was just as impressive as the camera.

I placed a call for Panasonic technical assistance to help me make the right connections to my wireless router and the Technician had me up and running within 10 minutes. NOT A PROBLEM!! I know you will really enjoy this camera and all the fun associated with it. My wife and I breed and show AKC registered show dogs. We are using this camera to show all the people on our puppy list the growth and well being of our pups from the whelping stage right up to the time they go home with there new owners. This is an added plus for the customer and us. I know you will enjoy your new Panasonic Bl-C131A network Camera as much as we do. Rest assured in knowing you have made the right choice.

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Buyer's feedback: - Just follow directions and pay attention...
This camera works as advertised. Just follow directions and pay attention. My router defaulted to an IP pool of 50. My camera was automatically set to 192.168.1.253 by the auto-config program; it wouldn't work. So, I decided to use DHCP (not auto-config) and let the router do the IP assigning, and the camera was assigned as .14, within the valid pool. Also, you will want to use the WEP security setting, not WPA. With my router (DrayTek 2910VG), I couldn't get the wireless connection to properly authenticate with WPA. {I may give it another try in the future.} Also, make sure your SSID for the camera matches your router's SSID. The tendancy may be for a user to give the camera its own SSID, such as "NetCamera," etc. But, successful authentication into the router's wireless network necessitates that the camera's SSID matches the router's.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Overpriced and Overhyped ...
I've had my hands on a number of different "IP" or "Internet" cameras and I was excited to see this one after the positive reviews, compact size, and pan-tilt-zoom capabilities. However after setting the camera up I was sorely disappointed.

First and foremost it all comes to the picture quality- at 640x480 mpeg-4 I was expecting quality approaching that of a real video camera- DVD's after all are 720x480 pixels... Even with the camera hard wired into the local network video quality was marginal at best- it looked like a zoomed 320x240 video, or worse.

Color was poor, even in a decently lit room... Contrast was also extremely poor- I'm not sure what is the ideal setting for this camera- too dark and you see nothing, but with a bright light the image is washed out.

The install software is primitive, definitely not optimized.

On the plus side I was able to set it up relatively easily and got it connected to the Internet without having to call Panasonic tech support, something many other reviewers complained about.

The power cord is also on the short side- for a security camera I'd expect a much longer cord.

Overall I'd say skip this camera... Toshiba makes a PTZ Internet Dome Camera with much better picture quality, and Linksys makes non-PTZ cameras for a third the price with as good or better video quality and better recording software.