Compro IP55 Review ( Price )

£75 inc VAT Contact comprousa.com/en Read more tinyurl.com/3te87au Specification IP camera; 1/4in CMOS sensor; up to 1280x1024 resolution; 15fps framerate (30fps at 640x480); dual Motion Jpeg/Mpeg4 video streams; 1.0 lux minimum illumination (colour); 46-degree horizontal view; fixed-iris lens, 0.5m to infinity focus; mic input; audio output; 84x125x92mm (including bracket)

The IP55 is a compact IP security camera for use with Windows PCs, although you won't be able to control or record video until you've installed additional software or an Internet Explorer ActiveX plug-in. The camera is a basic model that uses a wired ethernet connection. A USB socket on the rear accepts an optional WL150 wireless adaptor. On one side is a microSD slot for storing recordings. A handy table stand with a ball-joint mount works well to allow secure positioning at any angle. You can also screw the Compro to a wall or ceiling. Setup is best conducted using the iWizard, which finds the camera's IP address for you. You can then use the bundled ComproView software to view the camera's output and set up recording. But there's scope for viewing through some browsers, too. In Firefox, for example, you could try installing the VLC plug-in. We found this liable to crash in Windows, and it didn't work at all in OS X. You can also access the video feed from an iPhone using the Seedonk webcam-sharing service. Log in with your username and password, and this ad-supported app lets you view low-resolution output from the Compro. You'll need a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) router and to enable 3GPP streaming in the configuration page. We were also able to see a live picture in QuickTime X by using an RTSP link, which we spotted on the Internet Explorer configuration page. The camera is set to a OVGA (320x240-pixel) resolution. When we tried to record footage through Internet Explorer, it reported that our video-quality setting was too high for the internet bandwidth, and that we must lower the resolution to OOVGA (160x120 pixels). This is too low for practical use; images at OVGA were already pixellated. Image quality was hard to judge due to our difficulty in recording a stream with the ComproView software at native resolution. C»IVO •M« PHv %O . Ultimately, we found the software hindered our use of what could be a cheap-but-cheerful IP camera. Verdict Like most such devices, reasonable results may be available if you've got IP camera experience, or plenty of time and patience. We found the browser and ComproView interfaces rather hostile. The Compro IP55 looks well made, but the bundled software prevented us from judging its video quality.

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