Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic BL-C111A Network Camera Wired

First, let me compliment Panasonic on its customer support. It may take a few minutes to get through, but they do know what they are doing. I needed them twice during setup and they came through both times.

Pros: This is a decent camera at a great price; decent low light performance; relatively easy setup; free web access hosted by Panasonic; compatible with any cell phone with a web browser (pics only); motion sensor; reliable.

Cons: slow shutter speed (anything moving is blurry) and really does not do 30 FPS as advertised.

Overall - recommended as a reasonable cost home monitoring system.

Doesn't have as good of optics as a high-end surveillance camera ($$$$), but is truly amazing for the price. I was burgled 5 years ago and haven't been comfortable since then about what I'd find when I got home. Now, while I'm at work, I just leave a browser window open to this camera, which delivers great audio as well as a pretty darn good picture, and I'm now confident nothing ugly is happening while I'm away! The ability to pan across the room is really nice. The ONLY reason I'm only giving 4 stars is that it could yield a better image, but then again I bet the images would be good enough to be able to prosecute some loser that's preying on my home. For the price I HIGHLY recommend!

I own two of the older model 311's and have recently installed one of these 111's in my house. the admin menu for this camera has more options then the 311's, which are nice. The sound feature works in Firefox, while the 311's don't. The quality of the images don't seem quite as sharp as the 311, but it's still ok for home surveillance. The 111 does MPEG video, which is better then the 311 options and means that the recorded images are very portable and readable by others. I've owned both Axis and Toshiba network cameras in the past and the Panasonic line is far better on numerous counts. The C111 Panasonic is a great choice for those looking for 1-way audio, Pan-Tilt and good recording software in the box. -Highly Recommended!

I've wanted a network controllable pan/tilt/zoom netcam for a long time, but until recently they have been prohibitively priced. This unit works wonderfully and is very stable/reliable.

Pros: great feature package, robust
Cons: Firefox can't use the zoom via mouse wheel or get audio working, at least not easily.

I purchased this camera after buying the much more expensive HCM311A which has two way audio. My plan was to use the cameras to keep an eye on our little guy and the nanny (who knows about the cameras). The C111A provides all the functionality of the 311A at just over half the price. The setup of the cameras was simple if your router does UPnP. The port forwarding and the pseudo static ip assignment worked like a charm.

After 15 minutes work I was able to access both cameras from a single web page from work. The audio is Great and if you turn the gain up all the way, it's like having the baby monitor at work with you. I do computer stuff for a living so your mileage on configuration may vary. I do have two d-link wireless DCS-G900 ip cameras as well (i couldn't pass up the price $75). Their setup was much more complicated and the UPnP implementation was flawed so I had to do the port forwarding myself.

I'm considering ebaying the two d-links and getting a couple of C111As to replace them.