D-Link Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi Camera (DCS-5020L),White, 480p

I use several D-link cameras (DCS-930L) that were not pan and tilt and lacked infrared capabilities. My first foray into this type was the DCS-5010, which is all black and lacks the wi-fi-extender. When Amazon put these on sale in the fall, I bought three of them. I expected it to perform identical to the 5010, but find that the 5020 is more sensitive to light, meaning it goes into daytime mode at lower light levels.Maybe it's just the individual camera, but I set them both up side by side and the 5020 went to daytime much earlier in the day.But this review is about the 5020, so let me get on with it. I am very impressed with the video quality of this camera. It is far superior to the 930's that I use. While the pan and tilt is nice, I find I don't use it much. I would use it more if the myDlink software allowed for pre-set camera shots. If you are doing remote viewing, it takes several seconds for the camera to act, and moving it one step at a time is tedious at best. When you go into the advanced settings, you can set multiple presets, but presets cannot be used with mydlink.This camera really shines when use use the night mode. It has almost double the range of the 933 series fixed cameras, I can actually see out the window and into my yard with it at night. It has a manual focus adjustment on the lens so you can fine tune it for better clarity. But it is not autofocus, so if you plan to use a wide range of distances in your viewing, I suggest you set the focus for an intermediate distance.Setup was simple. I use the myDlink software on my Macbook, and it took me about 10 minutes to have the camera running on wi-fi. A word about myDlink. The software for OS X is finicky at best and while good for setting up the camera, I prefer to view my cameras on my iPad and iPhone apps. I really like the ability to view four cameras at one time on the iPad.I constantly get Java errors on the Mac, and if they do a firmware upgrade, you cannot view the camera until you do a hard-wired upgrade, which is impossible from 5000 miles away. D-link has the uncanny ability to know the day I am departing to announce the upgrade (it's happened twice now). But I am still able to view the cameras on my iOS devices. I would be interested in learning about other monitoring software, so if you use another package, please leave a comment.Other features include motion and sound detection, and the camera can be set to send you an email when certain events are triggered. My experience with these is limited so I cannot comment on them. I do like that you can put a time/date stamp on the screen, which is helpful if you use the camera with a DVR.Based on my experiences I would definitely go with the 5020 over the 5010, even if you don't need the wi-fi extender. I wish it were all white so that I would blend in better on a bookshelf, but that's a minor point ( I call them R2D2). What's not minor is that both the 5010 and 5020 come with a black power supply and cord. Why, I don't know, but the black cord is hard to disguise. On the positive side, they are much longer than the 900 series, giving you more flexibility in placement.If you want a boatload of features, good video, and don't mind the quirky myDlink software the DCS-5020 is a real bargain.I've see it offered for as little as $69.95, but most commonly it is $99.95 (retail is $119.95). If you find it for less that $100, I'd snap it up!

Any device like this runs with firmware embedded inside of it. It is basic due diligence when producing a device for the end consumer to ensure that firmware updates work. The user can go to a device admin page, check for updates, download updates and install those updates.This device fails at all three.1) Once on the admin page it will tell you what firmware version it is. But it won't be able to check for updates. It does not even give a link to the produce support page. It gives you a link to the general support page and you have to dig down to find the product. Ever been on a site and tried to figure out if you have product version A or product version B? Guess what happens when you get the firmware wrong.2) Lacking a check for updates there is also no way to download the updates. You have to browse around the support page. You end up on a document page where there are multiple download links. You can select one, hope it is the right one. Once I downloaded the firmware I got a zip file. What do I do with the zip file? Do I install the zip file into the device as is or do I extract it and then install the resulting files.3) Updating the firmware with updates. Lacking any basic instructions in the zip file, on the device's administration page, I was left to my own devices to figure out how to update the device. First I tried uploading the zip to the device. But that did not work. Second I tried extracting the zip and uploading the resulting bin to the device. That also did not work. At this point a normal user will not be able to update the firmware of this device.Note: I got a ASUS (RT-AC68U) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router and it does a fine job checking for, downloading, and updating updates all by itself. It is a very fine piece of equipment.

First off I think rating the camera a 4 Star is being a bit generous. I would have liked to rate it a 3 1/2 star. But oh well..Somethings about the camera:- Easy Setup. Granted I have a bit of Tech Knowledge but overall I found the product to be easy to set up and pretty easy to navigate the menus.- The wireless distance is pretty good, and that is without the Extender feature enabled. I have 1 camera in my garage and my router is in the basement. This is probably a distance of 30 feet with a floor separation. I did purchase a "No-Name" Chinese brand and found the wireless to be horrible on it! So I was happy that I was able to get a good signal.- DAY VISION - Inside during the day I get a good picture. I also get a good picture when pointing the camera outside during the day, going through 2 windows. Granted the image distance isn't the greatest. But you are able to make out a car model and description if need be.- NIGHT VISION - Inside with the night vision set the image is decent. With tweaking you can get a good image up to 10 feet. The Night vision going through a window is useless! The IFR lights reflect back from the glass and produce a total useless image. But that is to be expected. I have found that when going through the glass at night (depending on how much outside light there is) if set to Day Vision the camera can produce an ok picture.- I have not done much with the dLink Software. Most of the reviews kind of pan it so I have yet to try it. From my Android Apps I have been pretty lucky using IP Cam. There is a freeware and paid version that works pretty well with the dLink camera. I am also using it on my DCS-930L Camera.- My biggest gripes are the optics. The optics on the camera are a bit to be desired. You can manually focus the lense on the camera. But I have found that to be a real pain in the butt! Just the slightest touch throws the camera out of focus. Changes to either video or image quality also seem to be a bit tempermental. Most image changes will cause the camera to go out of focus (or in focus) and then after 30 seconds the lens will reset itself again. This is going on a wireless connection. I will have to try it on a wired network to see if the camera replicates the problem. Beyond 5 feet the image will start to lose some of its clarity.- While using compression h.264 and switching back to mjpeg my browser will crash on me. I am using IE 10 on Windows 7.- I have not used Sound detection yet. The motion detection seems to be ok. But it will cause a flood of images to my FTP server when it does detect something.I am hoping that some of the bugs dLink will fix with their next firmware upgrade (I hope) And maybe add some additional changes, such as -Being able to change the default admin account. Knowing the login name is half the battle in cracking a system. A camera uptime status would be nice. As well as log features. Logins, Logouts, Auduting changes, device changes, etc.Overall its a nice little camera that has some pretty decent features for the price. Some of the things that I want out of a camera this just won't meet the need. But for a inside security camera it works. After I play around some more and get it permanently fixed I will update my review.