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I find it appalling that a camera this expensive only supports the flawed WEP WiFi encryption protocol.It leads me to believe that it is an older model that hasn't been updated in a while.I returned mine.
The panasonic BL-131A is a newer model that comes with better software. 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 only issue is finding a powered outdoor speaker for use with two-way communications. This Panasonic outdoor camera is a great little product. Except for this issue the camera works as advertised. Panasonic wasn't able to provide a vendor and we haven't been able to find one on our own. 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.
For example, I cannot acquire a time lapse movie of an overnight shot. What the heck kind of image format is that.Another gripe is that night vision isn't great. I purchased this camera because I didn't want to run Ethernet cable to my router. 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. :-(Also, downloaded images are in PCN form. I mounted my camera high and I was afraid I was going to drop it while threading it to the mount. It's feature-rich, but I cannot capture images the way I like.
Once you play it once, you cannot play it again. There's also a bug when you play the time-lapse motion image.
Fortunately for me, I managed to configure it successfully and I'm no system administrator.Physical installation was straight forward. If a prowler saunters into camera shot at 2:00AM, I wouldn't see him.
If this is not a problem for you, I would recommend you check out the BB-HCM311A. I either get the first few seconds or the last few seconds.
In this day and age, a camera like this should perform better in terms of night vision. For example, if you don't know the IP to your DNS, you're in trouble.
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.
Picture quality is good for a camera in this price range. The BB-HCM371A is easy to setup if your router supports Universal Plug'n'Play (I'm using a late model Linksys 54G). underneath a roof overhang is ideal. Camera is best mounted out of direct sunlight. 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.
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