My dealings with surveillance cameras go back to the days when an anologue camera on the end of a long thin coaxial cable connected to the sitting SCART socket on the family TV in the sitting room.
Many years later I picked up a second-hand D-link DCS-5300G. A motorised wifi device enabling surveillance over the Internet, its features included the possibility of controlling it remotely. The downside was: it was a headache to set up and I eventually gave up.
Now this new machine, the D-Link DCS-930L, is a doddle to set up. No need to know or care anything about routing ports, DHCP or whatever. The price has come down a lot too, at just €99. It can be used with the MyDLink system. Basically you just log into the MyDlink web site and you can watch (provided you have Java Runtime installed) what's going on back home.
There are MyDlink apps for both Android and IOS.
This camera is not motorised though. Nor does it have the snazzy features of the other machine I reviewed here a year ago, the Logitech Alert 750i, which had motion detection, could initiate email alerts in the event of intrusion and store images on a memory card.
In other words, it is a distant surveillance camera, full stop.
The Down side
It's not compatible with my netbook which is Linux based. I contacted DLink support about this. They told me to use a different computer!
The Android app installed without any difficulty on my ZTE Skate and worked straight away. But I still haven't managed to install it on a non-Google approved Android slate.
Finally, this device is really a monitoring camera rather than a surveillance camera. It doesn't work in low light levels, so it can't be used to monitor an appartement with the curtains or shutters closed while you are away - unless you leave the lights on the whole time. It is fine for monitoring a baby's bedroom, but for burglary surveillance, the other camera I reviewed earlier is a far better bet, with motion detection, recording images and email alerts, but it then it costs three times as much.
Many years later I picked up a second-hand D-link DCS-5300G. A motorised wifi device enabling surveillance over the Internet, its features included the possibility of controlling it remotely. The downside was: it was a headache to set up and I eventually gave up.
Now this new machine, the D-Link DCS-930L, is a doddle to set up. No need to know or care anything about routing ports, DHCP or whatever. The price has come down a lot too, at just €99. It can be used with the MyDLink system. Basically you just log into the MyDlink web site and you can watch (provided you have Java Runtime installed) what's going on back home.
There are MyDlink apps for both Android and IOS.
This camera is not motorised though. Nor does it have the snazzy features of the other machine I reviewed here a year ago, the Logitech Alert 750i, which had motion detection, could initiate email alerts in the event of intrusion and store images on a memory card.
In other words, it is a distant surveillance camera, full stop.
The Down side
It's not compatible with my netbook which is Linux based. I contacted DLink support about this. They told me to use a different computer!
The Android app installed without any difficulty on my ZTE Skate and worked straight away. But I still haven't managed to install it on a non-Google approved Android slate.
Finally, this device is really a monitoring camera rather than a surveillance camera. It doesn't work in low light levels, so it can't be used to monitor an appartement with the curtains or shutters closed while you are away - unless you leave the lights on the whole time. It is fine for monitoring a baby's bedroom, but for burglary surveillance, the other camera I reviewed earlier is a far better bet, with motion detection, recording images and email alerts, but it then it costs three times as much.
