The unit I ordered arrived very promptly (to the UK), it was easy to set up, I didn’t bother using the setup CD, just set a static IP on a PC and communicated with the default IP of the camera.
Setting up WiFi was a simple task, all the necessary encryption methods were there, I used WPA2 AES. However at home where devices are in a fixed location I tend to use a wired connection if possible, and the camera also supports a 10/100 Mbps wired connection. So I set up wired, disabled WiFi, and set up a reserved IP address and port forwarding in my router. No problems at all with any of that.
Unfortunately the camera must have been shaken a bit too much in transit to the UK and the focus was very bad, too bad to be used. I had the option of rejecting the camera and requesting a replacement, but I decided to fix the issue myself. Since this involved opening up the camera it did of course void the warranty. I made the necessary adjustment and once focused the image was quite excellent for a 640*480 camera.
When fitted outside the house above my front door it looks pretty good, a lot like an overhead lamp so not too noticeable. The IR LEDs in two banks on either side of the lens are partly in the visible range, so glow a dim red in the dark. This is fine, and again isn’t too noticeable.
The image output in all lighting conditions is very good, at night with the IR LEDs operating there isn’t too much noise, a lot less even than cameras I have that cost 2-3 times the price. The frame rate is also excellent, most cameras will reduce the frame rate as light levels get darker but this one seems pretty much unaffected. I also have a couple of 60W visible PIR spotlights at the front of the house, when these turn on the camera reacts very quickly, other cameras would suffer for several seconds as they adjust to compensate for a sudden change of light level.
The IR illumination is just about right in my opinion. It will clearly cover a distance on 10M or so, but will not white-out at shorter distances. I have another IR camera that will lose detail at short distance and anyone in the frame at a distance of 1-2 metres will appear as a white silhouette. This Wanscam camera does not suffer from that problem at all.
Pan and tilt is good, over the local LAN it is responsive and easy to control, the zoom can be a little fiddly and I’m not sure that zoom is covered by the 16 preset positions. Over the Internet control of position can be a little more difficult, but certainly not impossible. If like me people use motion detection software with the camera (I monitor five different cameras, mostly Axis), then the use of at least one preset position will be necessary, especially if motion detection masks have been set up. The repeatability of the presets has been faultless so far, with the camera always returning to the exact same position, and not something simply close to it.
So, all-in-all, an excellent buy.
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