Working in my home office, I often want to be able to peek out on the front yard without getting up from my desk and going upstairs.

There are multiple reasons for this:

-To see what my dog is barking at (this is the most common reason).
-To know when delivery trucks like USPS, UPS, FedEx, and Peapod arrive.
-To know when the dog walker and housekeepers come and go.
-To check on the weather (I have no windows in the basement.)

I wanted to put the camera on the second floor as that has the best view of the front yard. Unfortunately, I don’t have any Ethernet going up there, so I would need a wireless model.

I really didn’t want to invest a lot of money in this at first, so I after reading a ton of reviews around the net, I tried out the Trendnet TV-IP100W.

This camera is a very basic model with a stand. It actually worked just fine for what I needed it for, and after having it for a few days (I keep the video open all the time on a window in my second monitor), I realized I couldn’t live without it.

I found it so useful, in fact, that after 6 months or so I wanted an upgrade, which is what led me to buy a Panasonic BL-C131A. Although it costs over twice as much as the TrendNet, it brought a slew of great additional features that I now cannot live without:

• Audio monitoring
• Form factor which can sit on a windowsill (which is where it is)
• Pan and Tilt Control
• Better Browser Interface
• Better video quality
• Larger video image
• Faster framerate
• Easier setup and management

Of all of these, I would say the most important is the larger field of view, which allows me to see the entire front yard. With the previous camera, I needed to point it ‘just so’ in order to see what was going on in the driveway and front walk. With this camera, I can not only see my entire front yard and driveway, but also the street in front of the house and then some.

The pan and tilt control is also fantastic. If you can see the view by standing in the window where the camera is, you can get that view remotely with the browser as well. It can even sweep the entire left-right field of view.  I can see up and down my street.

I don’t use the audio feature much, since the camera is inside on the second floor, but it works as advertised.

The unit also comes with the ability to quickly snapshot a frame from the video, and some standalone monitoring software which can show multiple cameras at once, or record video – normally or motion-activated.

If you are looking for a great security cam, it would be hard to go wrong with this model. Panasonic does make some other similar models – for example you could save a few bucks if you dont need wifi – that are all in this quality range.

BTW – While I was writing this, I saw the UPS guy park outside the front of the house on the cam, so I went upstairs to meet him at the door. I do this all the time – he probably wonders how I know he’s there before he even gets to the door.