D-Link DCS-2121 review

Network surveillance cameras have become widespread in the past few years. They're now a viable alternative to costly, proprietary CCTV-based systems and the technology continues to progress.

D-Link's DCS-2121 stakes its claim with a very high maximum resolution of 1,280 x 1,024, resulting in sharp and detailed images. Most are unlikely to use this top resolution, however, as motion detection isn't supported in this mode and you're forced to record to MJPEG. Move down to 1,024 x 768, at which picture quality is still perfectly acceptable, and more features become available. In this mode you can use motion detection and record footage in the more efficient MPEG4 format.

Low light performance is pretty good, too. Using a standard 1/4in CMOS sensor, the camera can handle light levels right down to 0.5lux, though there's no infrared facility for use in dark conditions. Live video feeds can be monitored on one of three streams, either RTSP or 3GPP for access via mobile phones.

Apart from the high quality resolution and pictures, this camera is packed full of other useful features too. The DCS-2121 can not only record footage to shared Windows folders on your network, but it also has an SD card slot on the side so you don't even need to have a NAS or a computer live on the network to record. The motion detection features are flexible, with email alerts and multiple detection zones available.

The camera has a built-in microphone for capturing audio, and it supports two-way audio so you can have a conversation with someone at the other end. There's no built-in speaker, though - audio has to be piped out via a 3.5mm output. There's wireless networking on offer, via 802.11g, and the device supports PoE too, so if you have the infrastructure there's no need to use the supplied power adapter.

There are problems with this seemingly high-spec camera, however. At the highest resolutions the supported frame rate is only 10fps - you have to drop into 640 x 480 to get 30fps - and even with a high speed 16GB PNY class 4 flash card, recordings take a while to finalise after they've been initiated.

Aside from that, though, this effort from D-Link is a solid one. There are plenty of useful features, picture quality is good and the price isn't extortionate. We're not too keen on the slow 10fps frame rate at the higher resolutions, and infra-red would be good, but the rest of the package is just good enough to compensate.

Author: Jonathan Bray