Axis 207 IP Network Camera Review
September 18th, 2007
The first decade of the 21st Century will come to be known as the decade of the camera. Not just digital cameras and camcorders, but surveillance cameras. Axis cameras are some of the better respected and known, now in the flavor of IP camera as well.
Surveillance cameras aren’t new, but IP cameras are. If you don’t mind opening your firewall, you can install a camera and have it available worldwide via the web in about 10 minutes.
I never cared too much for CCTV cameras. The coax cable and those sometimes finicky connectors don’t excite me. Nor do the limiting cards to attach to a PC.
IP cameras change all of that. And better yet if they are PoE (Power over Ethernet). PoE means just a Cat 5e cable run to the camera is all it needs. Monitor and record anywhere you like. The limits of that coax cable are gone.
I wish I could say that the Axis 207 IP Camera were PoE, but it isn’t. It “supports” PoE but requires a $100 splitter at the camera end to do it. And, oh by the way, no one seems to have that handy dandy splitter in stock.
The Axis 207 IP camera sells for about $250, is compact, easy to install and does a great job delivering color video. Comes with software to allow for recording, triggering events and emailing a photo. (The free software only supports one camera, however. Upgrade for a fee if you want one PC to monitor more than one camera).
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The emailed photo sometimes is blurry; they actually need a delay factor between the motion and the photo in my opinion. But the recorded video should easily do the trick.
Video is viewable as either motion jpeg or mpeg-4. The mpeg-4 is fickle to get to work and keep working. I haven’t had time to trouble shoot it, the motion jpeg seems fine albeit with more bandwidth required. Internet explorer is the preferred web browser to view the camera, but nothing’s perfect. Firefox usually works, but I have had a time or two when it didn’t want to.
A multitude of independent software is available to connect to and record the camera’s output with no problem.
A heard a presentation by a bloke from the UK recently about all of the cameras on that island. About to outnumber the people it sounds like. He even had pictures of the rack of cameras across the street from his home.
The Axis 207 IP Camera is a great option for home or business; and I’m all for people keeping an eye on their stuff. I’m just not at all crazy about our “guv’ments” keeping all these eyes on us.
