Solwise SEC-C1062W review

If you're looking for a professional-grade wireless IP security camera, Solwise's SEC-C1062W fits the bill. A wired-only model is also available for £15 less.

The camera should ideally be mounted on a ceiling, where you can make full use of its motorised pan and tilt, which can take the camera through 360° horizontally and 90° vertically.

The camera's controls and video feed are accessible from Internet Explorer and other browsers, including Firefox, but the IE version lets you view up to four compatible cameras on the same network. The IE version also lets you record video directly to your PC; other browsers are limited to taking screenshots.

A control panel lets you move the camera manually or through a predefined path, which could be useful if you want to sweep a room quickly to see if anything's going on.

If you want the camera to catch intruders in the act, you'll need an FTP server. Once you've configured the camera to talk to your FTP server, you can configure the Alarm Service settings to upload snapshots when motion is detected. You can also connect external alarm inputs into the camera's junction block so that snapshots are automatically triggered by events such as a window being opened.

Frustratingly, snapshots sent to an FTP server are saved as single-frame MJPEG files in an AVI layer. You can view these in QuickTime, but Solwise assures us that the next firmware update will allow you to save JPEG images instead.

The camera supports DDNS, so you can assign its web interface to a standard URL. It can also be connected directly to an ADSL modem, and if you've set up the camera's Mail Service Settings, it can email you its IP address whenever it changes.

Video quality is brilliant, with accurate colours and minimal graininess. Although it's not designed to work in the dark, brightness and contrast can be adjusted so that the camera can make the most of very low light levels. We recommend a light source for the best quality video, though.