» Panasonic BB-HCM371A Outdoor Wireless Network Camera

Panasonic BB-HCM371A Outdoor Wireless Network Camera Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Limited wireless range & older version software
Comment: I bought this camera two months ago and was very disappointed with the image quality, wireless range and software. Therefore i returned it and bought the panasonic BL-131A camera instead. The panasonic BL-131A is a newer model that comes with better software.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: See everything when you can't be there
Comment: 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.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Software Has Problems
Comment: 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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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent webcam
Comment: 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.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth it
Comment: 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.

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