Review of the:
Panasonic BB-HCM381
Pan Tilt Zoom indoor network camera
"Panasonic have managed to produce a smart, unusually compact PanTiltZoom camera, without compromising on performance or features" |
| Overall Score | 9.5 / 10 |
| Pros | Excellent picture quality |
| Cons | Lacks a screw thread for attaching filters |
| Summary | The Panasonic HCM381 beats all the competition in its price bracket by a wide margin. A real bargain. |
The Package
The camera was supplied to Miniaturereef by Isec-solutions.
This was the first time we had dealt with this company and we have to say how very impressed we are with them and their service compared to other suppliers that we had contacted. The camera was due for delivery at the time heavy snow hit most of the UK. Isec-solutions contacted Miniaturereef to let us know that there would be a delay due to weather conditions preventing the courier service from collecting the package from their despatch. Imagine our surprise therefore when the package arrived the next day! We've never had such good service and Isec-solutions are definately top of our list of network camera suppliers.
The camera comes complete with a ceiling mounting plate and collar, audio lead for attaching a microphone and amplified speaker, power supply, setup software, supplementary software for viewing and recording directly to your computer hard drive and instruction manual.
You can see the brilliant results that we are getting from the camera on the video clip. We are thrilled at the improvement over the video clarity which we achieved previously with a lesser network camera. We thought at the time that we were achieving very good results, but this Panasonic is way ahead of the game especially for its price bracket.
Should you be considering the purchase of a network camera or are looking to set up a security or home automation system, then we'd recommend that you contact Isec-solutions for their full range of products.
Introduction
The Pansonic BB-HCM381 is a wired 10/100 ethernet network camera, and as such does not have wireless capabilities.These are available with the wireless version of the same camera for a few pounds / dollars more.
Panasonic have sucsefully resisted the 'trendy' urge to use MPEG4 compresion. Instead the camera uses MJPEG video, alowing for superior quality jpg snapshots to be taken at will. As this cameras shows when coupled to good optics and sensor MJPEG compression is capable of providing an excellent quality image.
To make use of the great video quality the camera has been blessed with an impressive 10 step zoom function, divided into 9 steps of optical zoom, up to 21X, finished off with a final 2X digital zoom. Unusually for a digital zoom function, you don't get the traditional picture deterioration, effectively giving you a crisp 42X overall Zoom.
Wide Angle View |
Maximum Zoom through 7ft of water |
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The example above is particularly impressive, as at the time of taking the snapshot, (using the in-built snap shot function) the aquarium water was far from crystal clear.
Automatic focusing is very effective and surprisingly fast. This is extremely impressive considering that the web cam is focusing through a 10mm pain of glass, and aquarium water that has suspended sand particles, and minute bubbles in it.
All this superior imaging is complimented by a 350 degree pan with 120 degree tilt function, which is delivered at high speed with minimal noise.
Frame rate is a perfectly adequate 12fps (frames per second) at the maximum resolution of 640 X 480, although this increases to a highly impressive 30fps if you only require 320 X 240 or lower resolution.
Although not needed for the Miniature Reef webcam the Panasonic BB-HCM381 provides the opportunity for unattended security style monitoring. This is described in greater detail later, but suffice to say it comes with the choice for external triggering, multiple timed recordings or an internal motion detection system that is easily configured for sensitivity and triggering threshold. Plus it has a 'video recorder' style function via the use of either an SD card (2GB max), ftp (file transfer protocol), or the email sending function. To top it off, it will send images to three different addresses in case you aren't good at opening your emails.
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