Hawking Technology Net-Vision Wireless-G Network Camera review

Gallery

Verdict:

Review Date: 17 May 2007

Price when reviewed: £84

Buy it now for: £44
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.redstore.com

Reviewed By: Jim Martin

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Hawking's setup wizard is the best in the group.

It has a step-by-step process that helps you connect to the camera and make the necessary setting changes. It attempts to configure settings automatically for viewing the camera over the internet, too, but this didn't work with our UPnP router.

The camera lens has a manual focus ring which can be tilted up or down by around 10 degrees. The web interface looks good, and as it uses Java it works with most browsers. The options are limited, though. There's no way to upload images to an FTP server and there's no way to record a video when motion is detected.

Only one Dynamic DNS service is supported, and it costs $25 (around £12) per year to use. There's an online viewing service, but this also costs money. The Windows viewing utility is basic, although it allows you to schedule recording times and view multiple cameras at once. Image quality isn't bad, with decent colours and plenty of detail, but with no infrared illumination there's no hope of recording a useful picture in total darkness. There's no audio streaming.

The Net-Vision is impressively cheap, but it lacks many useful features. We recommend saving up for something better.

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