Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic Network Camera and Pet Cam (BLC1A)

The BL-C1A is listed as "requiring" both Windows and Internet Explorer. After a bit of experimenting, it seems it doesn't, and is perfectly usable with Ubuntu (or indeed any OS) and Firefox. No need for Windows at all.

So, for anybody else who wants to use the BL-C1A camera with something other than Windows here's how.

First, ignore the shiny Windows CDROM in the box. Plug the camera into your router with your own network cable (they don't supply one!) and plug in the power supply. Wait a minute. If your router is 192.168.0.1, the camera should default to 192.168.0.253 (or 192.168.1.253 for a 192.168.1.1 router, etc).

From Firefox on the local network just go to the IP addess of the camera (as above) followed by ?mode=local and you should get the camera's built in web server. (The mode=local is essential, to activate it). Create an admin userid/password, hit enter. That's it.

Configuring the cameras for static addresses, different ports etc is all done via the web interface after that point, so still doesn't need Windows or IE in any way.

With a few lines written in the manual they could drop the Windows/IE requirement.

Camera works very nicely, and so does emailing, and the viewnetcam dynamic dns service (after a bit of a battle with router settings). One warning: you can't test the viewnetcam service from the same network that the camera is on, so before you think it's not working try it from elsewhere!

Camera does the job fine for the price, one point deducted for not having any non-Windows installation instructions.

I was impressed with the quality of this camera for the price. I am currently using it as a remote baby monitor. It was cheaper than the video monitors they sell for babies, and it's more versatile once I"m done using it for that purpose. The best part of it is the back end functionality, but overall it's a nice camera. Some points:

1. Triggers - you can set the camera up to send photos via email or FTP whenever motion is sensed, or at a regular interval. I'm saving photos on my web server whenever the baby moves (with 10 minutes between each snapshot), and then I have a job that creates a time-lapse movie at the end of each day. Useful? Not really, but pretty cool regardless.

2. Web Server - The web server is solid, includes authentication, and is easy to configure for inexperienced users.

3. Image quality - The image quality during the day is surprisingly good - but remember, this isn't a large lens camera, it's a webcam. Don't expect your 640x480 images to look like they were taken with your digital camera. Instead, think camera phone but slightly better. Certainly good enough. Motion video is impressive. I don't know how it looks from a bandwidth perspective, but I'm guessing the wireless version of this camera would be comparable. "Color Night Vision" is a joke, though. It does adjust surprisingly well in low-light conditions, but overall you need light. If you have a very dim room, the image is literally black.

Again, overall I'm impressed with the camera and feel it's a good value.

Bought this camera and got it installed in no time. Camera images are clean, and low light images are very good. That surprised me giving the price. It's totally configurable by web browser, and I've adjusted settings and viewed images via explorer 7 and fire fox.

The issues I have with this camera is its documentation and remote access over the net. Documentation is weak and if you run into config problems......you're dead. Unless you are versed in network configuration etc. I thought I was until I came across this camera....boy that took awhile. Accessing it over the internet requires configuring my router to allow port forwarding etc.

As for getting emails..?....I've yet to get one with images. The only emails I obtain is its reports of how many pix it takes everyday. I really wish that I have better support somewhere for this side and I would be fine.

But again, over the local lan...its great.

I recently bought 2 BL-C1A's and 1 Panasonic Remote Video Monitoring Webcam (BL-C10A) , the big difference according to the specs is the BL-C10A can pan/tilt, the BL-C1A can't. The BL-C10A is double the price of the BL-C1A thou. But after setting up all 3 cameras I was surprised to find out the BL-C1A's have sensitivity settings for the motion detection feature, and they work Great! The BL-C10A is missing the ability to adjust the motion sensitivity. Another difference I noticed was the BL-C1A handles low light better, althought it says both handle low light the same the images on the BL-C1A seem brighter in low light.

Setting the cameras up to see each other was easy and now i can remote in and see all 3 camera's at the same time. I have sensors setup on all 3 and they work great. Now when I am at work I can alway check on my house and my family. I have images emailed to me everytime the motion sensors go off. I have also tested the image to cell phone feature and it does work fine but even with a good phone its sometime hard to see the images on a phone. Email works best in my opinion, and sense most phones can check email you can still get to the image they are just not scaled down to a phone size.

I highly recommend this camera especialy if you want to use it for motion sensing. If you must have pan/tilt the BL-C10A is also great but you lose some control on the motion sensor sensitivity.

This has been a wonderful product. We just got a 1 month old Golden Retriever puppy, and it's been a complete blast to be able to login from the office or my cell phone to see what the little guy is up to. My friends and co-workers keep stopping by to get a look.

It was extremely easy to set up, only took a few minutes and I had the camera up and running. Much easier then I expected for a fairly new technology. The motion detection and zoom make it a complete winner, and all for under $100.