Wi-fi Wireless Video Monitoring Camera (Only) Black - Pre-Owned

Absolutely awesome item! I did research for well over two months for a home monitoring camera, and while there are a ton of options available, I decided to finally pick The Dropcam as my choice. I want to say this right now, if you end up wanting the Dropcam, and you don't mind spending an additional $50.00, get the Dropcam Pro as it's everything this Dropcam is but even better with sound, night vision, etc. I did not need the Pro version, but I did want to say that I thought about it, but am still glad I picked this one and saved the $50.00. As countless others have said, the setup is incredibly easy with zero issues whatsoever. Plug it into your computer, do the setup, unplug it from your computer, and place it where you wish. The app on the iPhone (and I'm assuming Android devices) works even better than logging into their site on your regular computer. I've had no issues with viewing live footage or recorded footage from anywhere I have been. I love how you can easily make clips from their site. I've only used it twice (cats are very strange when you are not home, I have discovered!), but it allows you to make great footage to view later or send to people. I love the alert system. I have it setup to send push notifications to my phone when it detects something. I keep the camera off if I'm home, but every time I walk back in the door, my phone gets a push notification saying it detected movement, and I also get them when one of the two cats walks by. I feel completely valid in saying that if someone were to come in uninvited, it would send me a notification with no issues. I do want to talk about the one knock most people give this, and it is absolutely valid to a point. If you want seven days saved of recorded video on their servers, it's $9.99 per month. It has NO local storage for footage. This, for some people, is huge, and I respect and understand that. If you require local storage or don't want to pay the $9.99 per month, then, yes, this camera may not be for you unless you only want live footage (which is free). I truly believe that if they even lowered it to $5.99 per month, it would draw in many more people. For me, though, the $9.99 is not an issue, and I enjoy having the seven days worth of footage. I hope, as you do with a seat belt, I never need it, but I like having it. The camera design itself is far more sturdy than the pictures of it look. The camera is just the black 'puck' you see in the photos, and it comes out of the stand if you wish. The stand feels extremely sturdy and metal, and I have no issues with it moving around or sliding on the desk I have it on. If you want to mount it somewhere, you can do that, too. The only real negatives that come to mind are, first, the speaker. It does work. You can turn it on and talk through your smart phone to the camera; however, as others have noted, it IS of, at best, average quality. You can hear people just fine both live and on recorded footage, but talking through it requires the person listening to be within a few feet of it to truly be able to understand what it is being said, at least in my experience. The only other 'negative' is the actual website itself. It looks great, is easy to use the minute you log in to it, but for some reason it randomly stops displaying video from the camera even though I am sitting right next to the camera on my computer. To get the footage to come back up, I have to return to their main page and go back to my profile and pull the camera up again. This is not constant, but it does happen somewhat on a regular basis. This issue does not at all crop up on the smart phone app. I've had zero issues with that. I'm sure that I've missed some things, but I do highly recommend the Dropcam. It was worth the price, and, for me, the monthly payment is worth it. I do think they would actually end up making MORE money if they lowered the price of the monthly recording. Also, as I said at the top, if you are set on getting this camera and simply do not care about an additional fifty dollars, grab the Pro model as I've heard it's this camera but on steroids. For me, I didn't need it, but it would be worth checking out.

I received my Dropcam and tried to get working with my Macbook Air and would not search for the wireless servers in the area. I tried again on a Windows based machine and same result. I called and left emails to Dropcam Technical Support and and they shipped a second unit to me and and afterwards sent me a shipping label for return of the original system (the replacement Dropcam quickly received before shipping defective unit back to them). This was my discouraging experience with the system and a one star deduction however the customer service was extremely good. Now for the positive experience. The second Dropcam was received and I hooked it up to my Macbook Air and within a minute it found my airport express router and I entered my security code and then unplugged from my computer and attached to the 120 volt outlet with adapter. I then logged on to the Dropcam cloud service and the video and audio was working perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised since there have been so many problems reported with wireless monitoring systems (including other manufacturers) with the airport express wireless routers however this one worked fine without a need for any of the complicated looking workarounds I have seen on the web for this router. I am using Mountain Lion 10.8.2 with the latest software update on my airport express. I downloaded the dropcam software for my iPhone 4 and audio and video worked perfectly with the standard 3g network. During the first day of use I noticed several dropouts where the camera lost the signal. I used the suggested method of changing my channel on my 2.4 ghz router from channel 10 to channel 1 and for the past 3 days this has no longer been a problem and camera has been working great. The wide angle lens is a great feature for my purposes on this camera since I have a shallow field for view needed and can get more subject matter in the screen. The quality is outstanding however keep in mind as with any wide angle lens those items far away may be harder to identify. For my situation the best part of this system (other than not needing your computer on or additional hardware) is the cloud monitoring software. I can quickly watch from work on my iPhone or away on trips the live video and for the $99 a year have the 7 day recording with activities identified and easily reviewed. I know many reviewers have been disappointed with the service fee however I believe the value after experiencing the system features for me is worth the upgrade. I highly recommend this product however had to deduct one star for my original DOA first unit. Although this was extremely frustrating when I did get up and running with the replacement Dropcam I am extremely happy with the quick installation on my Mac system and cloud monitoring service.