I'm watching you...
Pros
POE (Power Over Ethernet)
Pan and Tilt
Built in Web Server
Cons
Impossible for most people to setup without included CD
Overall, I’m very satisfied with this camera. Read about the specs here
Here’s how I setup the camera…
Let me say that it’s worth investing in a network switch that has POE. This eliminates the need of having a 120V receptacle nearby. And if you put your POE switch on a backup UPS, the camera will continue operating during a power outage. It’s just smart to do it this way.
Usually when a a new device is plugged into my network, I am able to see it’s IP and MAC address whether dynamic or static. When I plugged in the camera, it did not show up in the routing tables, so there was no way for me to go into it’s browser setup. For some odd reason Panasonic does not provide instructions on how to setup the camera without the included CD-ROM. This pretty much cornered me into using the CD-ROM and setting the camera up in a Windows OS.
Booted into WinXP
Ran the CD-ROM.
The software detected the camera as 192.168.0.253
I then opened up a browser and entered it's IP address into the browser.
I entered the username and password I wanted and went from there.
If you buy the camera second hand and you don’t have the CD-ROM you can still set it up:
The camera bridges itself to the network it gets plugged into from it’s factory state. So, start off by factory resetting the camera. Then in a browser access the camera by using the following methods:
If your network is: 192.168.1.0
then the camera should come up as: 192.168.1.253
If your network is 192.168.0.1
then the camera should come up as:192.168.0.253
See the pattern?
10.0.0.0
10.0.0.253....
and so on.
If you want the cameras time and date to stay accurate you need to open up port 123 in your routers firewall and go into the camera setting and enter in an NTP server such as ntp.pool.com.
Something worth noting is that you should set the camera up with a static IP. If you have a DNS server on your router or network add the static IP of you camera and name the camera something easy to remember like cam1. Then you can quickly look at the camera by typing http://cam1 in your web browser
The camera has a built in microphone and a plug in for speakers. It will be nice to tell thieves they have only a moment to put the TV down gently before the Police come through the door.
A surveillance image I pulled from my server of the camera monitoring the vehicles outside the house during the night.
Night time Capture w/ Floodlight
Here is an image I pulled from the camera in the morning with no sunlight.
Daytime Capture with Overcast
I will have to reposition the flood light for a better image at night. Day shots are nice and clear.
I will setup a control sequence on my HA system such as “When the camera detects motion, turn the light on, start recording, and upload the image to my email account/cellphone also send me an SMS”.
You can also save current positions of the camera. Because this camera pans, I have it setup to have it look over the vehicles outside, and also swivel sideways and have a look at the inside of the room. So in fact the camera is doing double duty. More to come as I play with it…
You can add external sensors/triggers hardwired into the camera. Here is a photo of the schematic.
Remote Triggers