// Home / Reviews / Peripherals / IP cameras

Y-Cam Black SD review

in IP cameras

Gallery

Verdict

A simple but nonetheless very likeable camera for day and night surveillance

Review Date: 13 Jan 2010

Reviewed By: Darien Graham-Smith

Price when reviewed: £154 (£181 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
5 stars out of 6

Performance
6 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

The Y-Cam Black SD is a compact network camera that'll stand guard over your home or business. It doesn’t swivel or zoom (unlike, for example, the EyeSpy247PTZ); but it has a decent 53-degree horizontal field of vision, and with its sturdy metal bracket you can mount it at any angle you choose.

It doesn’t even need to be within range of a router: slot in a micro-SDHC card and it can keep its own record of interesting sightings. Depending on the location, though, we’d be wary of relying on local storage alone, just in case an enterprising thief swipes the camera.

So the Y-Cam remains primarily a network device, and though it lacks WPS we found it very easy to connect to our wireless LAN. The web-based console is slick and usable, with settings and displays set out clearly and logically. A particularly thoughtful touch is way the software automatically determines and displays both internal and external URLs for the main feed and the low-bandwidth RTSP stream.

As you’d expect, the camera can be set to record to a schedule, or whenever movement is detected in any four definable areas of view. Alerts, images and footage can be sent by email or uploaded to an FTP server – or recorded directly to your PC’s hard disk, so long as you have the software open in your browser.

And when it comes to image quality the Y-Cam excels, with bags of detail and fluid movement in both MPEG4 and MJPEG modes. The default stream resolution is 640 x 480 at 30fps, though you can step it down to accommodate lower-bandwidth viewers – or configure a secondary feed with its own encoding settings and a separate URL. The tiny built-in microphone won’t win any audiophile awards, but it’s clear enough to catch a conversation from a good few yards away.

Unlike the EyeSpy247PTZ, the Y-Cam is also a true night vision camera, with an infrared sensor that picks up an impressive degree of detail even in apparent pitch darkness. There’s a trade-off, though: the Y-Cam’s infrared lamps blow its cover by giving off a visible red glow when in use, and the IR sensor is apt to add a purple tinge to footage recorded in sunlight.

There are a few let-downs elsewhere too. The viewer interface looks scrappy, and frustratingly only offers the full range of controls when viewed in Internet Explorer. User management is perfunctory too: either you’re an administrator with full privileges or a view-only user, with no possible middle ground.

All the same, the Y-Cam Black SD is a breeze to use, and produces lovely clean footage. As a simple camera for day and night surveillance it works brilliantly, so unless you have particularly sophisticated needs it’s well worth a look.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith

Subscribe to PC Pro magazine. We'll give you 3 issues for £1 plus a free gift - click here

From around the web

Comments

User comments

Y-Cam

I have had one of these camera's for a year now and have been reasonably impressed. I use mine outside as you can purchase a shell which protects the camera from the elements. I have had issues with setting up email triggers as it can send far too many pictures. I also have had problems with setting up wireless connectivity using encryption (works without). I therefore installed a CAT6 cable which circumnavigates the issue.Since I have mounted the camera outside of my house I have yet to have any repeats of anti-social behaviour although I do have to display a CCTV warning sign as the public footpath is in clear view.
For a live view of my camera: http://78.32.184.35:8150

By Dr_Aspirin on 17 Jan 2010

Y-Cam used externally

By Dr_Aspirin on 17 Jan 2010

£180 for a camera?

Not good quality judging by the above live view!

By skgiven on 21 Jan 2010

It depends on whether you mean day or night. The camera is mounted at 3m and therefore night vision isn't going to be great. During the day I think it is reasonably clear. Forget the pink tinge - it's normal for this camera for night vision.

By Dr_Aspirin on 21 Jan 2010

Great little device

I picked up the white version of this camera (Knight SD ) a few weeks ago and its been nothing but a god send for me - I've had a few ip cameras over the years and the picture quality of this camera far exceeds the panasonic and d-link cams I had - and with built in SD card, it means the NAS I was using to record on to has now ended up attached to my media centre ;) haha. Great camera for the money

By bonkerz on 1 Feb 2010

cant see your live view

Dr Aspirin, its asking for username password to view your live view. I would like to view it if thats ok to see the quality?

By chrisbather on 26 Feb 2010

cant see your live view

Dr Aspirin, its asking for username password to view your live view. I would like to view it if thats ok to see the quality?

By chrisbather on 26 Feb 2010

poor night vision

I have one of these cameras & can't understand how it got full marks for performance? The daytime image makes grass look pink & fuzzy and the night time picture is none existant with the waterproof shell in place! All you can see is the ir led's reflecting in the plastic covering the lens. I bought this camera on PCPro's recomendation but I'm afraid it's very poor quality & I'm sending it back. If you Google y-cam you'll see loads of people have had problems with it. If you want a good picture on any camera don't put the led's inside the case, you need a seperate infra red floodlight.

By GlidemanUK on 24 Apr 2010

Like the camera and support

I bought Y-cam black SD and a waterproof shell a week ago. I was having same problem as GlindmanUK. was so upset about the led´s reflection from the plastic cover. calling them to complain. I found out it was my installation problem. ( like most people I guess, I have not learn to read the manual before setup ;-) ). now it is working perfectly. a bit embrassing, that is why I leave this comment.

By jakie on 12 Aug 2010

Leave a comment

You need to Login or Register to comment.