Plustek OptiCam P1 review

Plustek's OptiCam P1 plugs into your wired network and is designed to be used as a security camera. It's one of the cheapest models we've reviewed.

The OptiCam can be mounted to a ceiling and Plustek provides all the brackets and screws that you'll need to do this. Management of the camera and viewing footage is performed through the product's web interface. Video was clear and well defined under office lighting. If you want to use the camera at night, however, you will need an external light source. Unfortunately, there is no audio capture.

Sadly, the web interface is a pain to use and is full of odd quirks. For example, the network setup screen has wireless network settings even though this camera does not have WiFi built in.

There are no controls to adjust the focus or angle of the lens, as to reduce costs Plustek didn't fit the OptiCam P1 with motors. Making these adjustments is a pain, as the camera's plastic dome has to be removed to get access to the focus wheel. To change the angle of the lens, you'll need a screwdriver to loosen the retention screws.

The camera can be configured with two motion-sensing hotspots. You can adjust the sensitivity of detection, although the rather arbitrary method of typing in a number from 0 upwards doesn't really make the level of sensitivity clear. When motion is detected, there are the usual options to record video and send the stream to an FTP server, via email, or save it on the monitoring PC (although this requires you to be logged into the web interface).

Once footage was captured, we couldn't get the web interface to display the capture files, and we had to resort to browsing to the Save directory manually and loading the seemingly randomly named files ourselves.

This is a cheap network camera that needs no software. However, Dell's D-Link DCS-900, which we reviewed in Shopper April 2006, is both cheaper and better. If you want a complete security system, read our CCTV equipment Labs in Shopper April 2006.

Author: David Ludlow