Anyone tried one of those cheap ip pan and tilt cams??

[Goose157]

Hi,
Just been looking on amazon uk at ip web cams and came across quite a few ip pan/tilt cams £35-45 uk pounds. The reviews are mixed - some cant say enough good things and others are not very happy. It does look like the setting up is a bit of a pain...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-camera ... 203&sr=1-2

Any comments??

Cheers.

[RayProudfoot]

Hi Chris,

I don't know of those cameras but as I'm researching an IP camera myself take a look on Wunderground webcam section.

http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/ind ... range=intl

You will need to wait until daylight but have a look through the UK subscribers' webcams. Click on the first one - Alveston - and you will see the camera used down at the bottom. Click Next to quickly move to the next webcam.

That will give you a good idea of the respective quality of each. All those images on WU are at 640*480 although some may have been resized from larger images.

It's definitely a case of the more you pay the better the image. The Harrow webcam looks pretty good. A Panasonic BB-HCM735 but it retails around £250. It depends on your wallet and priorities I suppose.

Ask yourself if you really need pan 'n tilt etc. Your first decision is probably inside or outside.

[Goose157]

Hi Ray,
Yes I do agree you get what you pay for and compared to other ip cams the ones in the link just look too good to be true...
I am curious if any other weather station users had any experience with the said items...and how bad are they really!

Cheers.

[mcrossley]

A friend of mine bought one and it seems to work OK, quality isn't brilliant but he had it up and running quite quickly and I controlled it over the 'net - with sound disabled. Can't give you a link as he uses it for monitoring.

[rayauger]

Hello,

we dont have a tilt camera but we did buy a cheapo from Foscam. For 100$ you get what you pay for. It is wireless and we have very little issue with communication. Main problem is the color. In order to work under very low light ( night ) those camera are very sensitive to Infra-red but that kills colors during the day esp. green which will become sepia. Besides the white balance is not automatic and that means total white out if cam sees the sun.

you can see our webcam @

http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/ray ... /show.html

and just click on any day either the picture or the video to see end result

Conclusion, if you want a better camera, it must have an automatic IR filter cut-off that will come on during the day and automatic WB.

There's many out there and one of the best rated is from Sharx Security. They do have Pan & Tilt.

http://www.sharxsecurity.com/

and a live demo @ http://sharxdemo2.servehttp.com:8151/en/login.asp

Good success,

Yvan

[Goose157]

Cheers for the link and info..... Hard to tell from the images what colors would be like as it looks like you have had quite a lot of snow!!

[rayauger]

a lot of snow but melting fast. Geeeeessss March is pretty warm this year.

Wunderground allows you to go back to look at pictures/video from previous month. This link should give you last July in the morning.

http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/ray ... me=morning

[Goose157]

Hi,
thanks for the reply and OMG! Purple....washed out images... really not too good....i use a lifecam (usb) it was quite cheap but the colors are really good for the price...i would like similar quality but wifi....bound to be pricey!!
As the saying goe's 'you get what you pay for'.
Cheers.

[geoffp]

Hi Chris

I bought one of these last week, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180821424696? ... 1497.l2649 although not pan and tilt I am well pleased with it.

[Solorize]

Hi Geoff,

Have you got a link to the camera feed so we can see what its like

I may be interested in getting one too

[geoffp]

Hi Mark

I have not got it linked up to my website yet, still playing with it but I do have it on 192.168.1.67 port 80 have sent a screen shot below

IP Cam 1.JPG

[rayauger]

I dont want to rain on his parade but his camera is about the same as mine. The same camera is sold under numerous brand but apparently they all come out of the same factory in China or they all use the same components.

It could be better if it has an IR cut-off for daylight and if they WB is better. Everybody using those cheapos were complaining about the same thing and I am sure that the chineses were working on those issues and might have come up with a fix.

Looking at a live demo under different light conditions would be best for you to get a better idea

[ironeagleuk]

Just seen this thread....I've got one very similar to that one. But I bought mine for £45 from Ebay....it's a DBPower wireless tilt and pan. http://www.db-power.com/index.php/products/ip-camera

Generally it's quite good. The only issue I have is that it sometimes loses the link to my PC, but that could be because the signal has to go through 3 walls.

Here's a link to my webpage with the image (although at the moment of typing this it might be down. ) http://www.ironeagleuk.co.uk/cumulus/webcam.htm

You can see a selection of images caught here: http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/iro ... urrent.flv

[WestOz]

One thing that put me off with the camera is the physical size of the unit.

There's a Youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFh6YGgr0mA that shows how to set it up

Ian

[ironeagleuk]

One thing that put me off with the camera is the physical size of the unit.

There's a Youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFh6YGgr0mA that shows how to set it up

Ian

Not sure if you can get an IP Pan and Tilt camera smaller than that....especially for under £50