D-Link DCS-2120 Wireless IP Camera

*** SOLD ***

I spent a while looking into CCTV options to watch the cars and settled on a wireless IP solution, I got carried away and bought one more than I needed so I have it available for sale.

http://www.i-tech.com.au/Library/Image/Product/DCS-2120.jpg

http://www.dlink.com.sg/products/dlhome.asp?sec=0&pid=488

(Demo on there points in a silly direction and is setup in a low resolution for mobile streaming, the actual output is much better and it works well through a window and in low light)

It's brand new, still shrink-wrapped etc - I bought it from a UK company but it came with a twin Schuko "round prong" plug so you'll need an adapter to convert this to a UK 3-pin.

I picked the D-Link after reading lots of reviews, it came out very well and seems to be well rated by those in the know. It does motion detection, constant recording with decent software to review actual events and export them as video files and also lets owners of certain phones (my N95 included) watch the output wherever they are using 3G and RTSP. It can email you when movement is detected, sound an alarm, let you listen to the sound being picked up (very sensitive), FTP images to a designated location and so on - quite feature packed for the money.

Very quick and easy to setup.

Some reviews:

http://www.computershopper.co.uk/shopper/labs/113292/dlink-dcs2120.html

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/8915/dlink_securicam_dsc2120_camera/

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/1904/2928/D-Link-securicam-dsc2120-wireless-webcam.phtml

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/104949/dlink-dcs2120.html

Priced to sell at £100 all in, a small price to pay for a bit of car protection

Would make a good Christmas present!

A quick snapshot from mine through a dirty rain covered window...

A quick snapshot from mine through a dirty rain covered window...

Filthy.

Filthy.

You love it. Buy it.

Can also be used wired if you don't have a wireless network, I forgot to mention that.

One of those things everyone decides they need after someone has vandalised their car or burgled them, get in first and you might be able to put them off (bright blue light on front of unit alerts people to it but can also be turned off) or catch them at it.

Would also consider a swap for a black DS Lite with a game or two

You love it. Buy it.

I'd be tempted if I hadn't already spent all my money on Christmas presents. Mainly so I could just watch what the dog and cat get up to when nobody is in though

Picture not bad! One thing that bugs me about my (and many other) DVRs is that the resolution is something daft like 576x288, so it's like half the vertical resolution of that one of yours.

A PC camera like yours uses VGA-esque resolutions but all the analogue stuff uses crappy TV resolutions from what I can see but I don't want IP cameras because I want a good live framerate and stuff.

I know what you are saying about the resolution, one of the reasons it took me a while to settle on these was that I've been trying out other disappointing alternatives, the quality was pants compared with this.

I've added another snapshot now that the sun isn't shining on the rain drops

I don't want IP cameras because I want a good live framerate and stuff.

Is there normally a problem with them? I can't say I've noticed any issues at all, it's like watching in realtime, in fact I pointed it at the TV to see if I could watch from another room and it was pretty usable.

This is the type of adapter I'm using for the plug but I guess you could just chop the 2 pin one off and wire it to a normal one:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=19246&&source=14&doy=7m12

I know what you are saying about the resolution, one of the reasons it took me a while to settle on these was that I've been trying out other disappointing alternatives, the quality was pants compared with this.

 

I've added another snapshot now that the sun isn't shining on the rain drops

 

 

 

Is there normally a problem with them? I can't say I've noticed any issues at all, it's like watching in realtime, in fact I pointed it at the TV to see if I could watch from another room and it was pretty usable.

Well, I don't know about a problem per-se, but I think (it's been a while) I just wanted long recording to a PC so I could look back over a few days and I seem to remember not liking my options for doing that with an IP camera. The ones I played with were more targeted to sending snapshots to email or ftp, or remote watching via a web browser etc. It's all down to the quality of software at the end of the day I suppose.

I suppose that's totally different to what I said before ("good live framerate"). IP cameras are best for this I suppose. I setup an Axis one for somebody and it was great to watch remotely via a web browser. I think I meant life-like framerate recording but I can't remember what I was thinking when I posted

Ah yes, the software plays a huge part in it, D-Link seem to have covered most of the bases with this one, you can record constantly to HDD (and you can specify where unlike a lot of them), do snapshots, email pics, alerts, upload to FTP and so on, it's better than I expected and the more I type the more I want to keep it so I can have a few dotted around so I'll stop now

Maybe a very stupid question, but forgive my ignorance here. Do you HAVE to have the PC on or is there any way it will stream to another device like a HD/DVD Player? Does it have any inbuilt memory too? Thanks.

It has it's own built in web server so can FTP / email snapshots without needing a PC to be on but I don't know of any way you could make it output to a HD recorder unless the device is capable of picking up signals from it over a network.

So basically you'd have some functionality with no PC but no video recording, just snapshots.

Maybe a very stupid question, but forgive my ignorance here. Do you HAVE to have the PC on or is there any way it will stream to another device like a HD/DVD Player? Does it have any inbuilt memory too? Thanks.

Sheefa, I'm not sure how much you know about this sort of thing (so ignore me if you know all this) but a camera like this will be able to send snapshots (as michael said, not video) to a NAS device, which is basically a stand-alone hard disk with an IP address.

I was tempted to buy this myself, but I've already sorted myself out with a similar camera and I don't really need another.... (yet).

What's the picture quality in the dark? Especially as most things normally happen at night would be interesting to see the quality.

What's the picture quality in the dark? Especially as most things normally happen at night would be interesting to see the quality.

Your best bet there is always going to be to fit an IR-activated light regardless of how good the camera is in the dark. It doesn't have to be a halogen flood light, although you can get 150watt ones of those that don't frighten the neighbours, but any kind of light that lights up the area a bit will help a lot.

This is a snapshot of the driveway as of a few minutes ago - if you look out of the window the driveway is pretty much black but the camera can see more than my eyes can.

As carl0s says it's better if you can help it out with a bit of light, I'm going to put a fairly low wattage PIR activated light up at some point but to give you an idea of the difference it makes I've attached another snapshot with the 60w porch light on too.

That looks spot on with the porch light to me. Better than most.

Just a quick bump on this - still available, I had a generous offer of £100 posted but I think £110 is very reasonable so I'll stick to that. I was tempted to keep it but one seems to be enough for my current needs.

Since the original post I've purchased the plug adapter for it so this will also be included (£3.00 bonus over the first post )

If you have any questions or are interested please get in touch.

Still here in it's box if anyone fancies a dabble and has spare cash now Christmas is out of the way

Still here in it's box if anyone fancies a dabble and has spare cash now Christmas is out of the way

I don't but I'm surprised you haven't sold it yet

I discovered this again the other day - I think it would be lovely if someone purchased it from me now.

Edit: I'll knock the price down to £100 posted now.

Now sold