Pros: Well, I guess the first pro to mention is I actually started laughing as I opened the Newegg shipping box. For starters, I was caught off guard at how large this thing is! It has a 3.5inch diameter, and roughly the size of a softball. But, I also didn’t realize how much this thing looked like a very well-known video game character. Immediately after I finish this review, I’m going to fire up my 3D printer and make some “handles” as well as draw on a texture with marker! I may even re-paint the removable gender-biased “iris” thingy (or “Front Accent Ring” as they call it). I’m excited about this product, am I’m not even a dad (yet)!

The build is definitely quality. The base is a ball-in-socket that allows for a one-axis tilt (45° angle max one direction, ~30° max from vertical the other direction), and 360° rotation. The base has pre-installed rubber feet which get surprisingly good grip, but also wall-mount hook slots. On a desktop without additional weight, it manages to reach 30° angle without falling over, but it’d be very easy to add more weight or other mounting style to the hollow base. The socket grips the ball well enough that it’s not very easy to accidentally knock it out of place.

Do you like stickers? I like stickers! It’s got a sheet of warning stickers in 18 different languages that you can wrap around the power cord! Why?? Because why not?! Even the instructions on how to peel off and apply the sticker to the cord is a sticker! Stickers stickers stickers!

The power adapter is dual voltage and comes with an interchangeable socket, but only includes the US-style socket for some reason. It provides 1.5A, which is funny because the manual suggests 2A. It has an extremely long cord though, which was awesome for me as I mounted it on the roof.

I’m rather impressed with the picture quality and the colors, especially for only being 640x480. It’s clear and very responsive. Even over the Internet through D-Link, the video has about 200ms of latency which is much lower than I expected! My ping to the D-link site makes up ~120ms of that, so 80ms at the encoder! The audio latency, however, is horrid (see cons).

While I was looking for some solutions to some of the cons, I noticed that they do provide the source code of their firmware elsewhere on their website. I haven’t dug into it much yet, but this certainly gives them a star just for doing it. Keep an eye out for 3rd party firmware, or if you know what you’re doing, add in whatever features/tweeks you want yourself! All the Cons may be easily solved (except the clicking, which is a hardware issue).

Cons: Maybe they could’ve spent less money on their stickers and advertising pamphlet and put it into their monochrome, flimsy, manual (that’s so cheap, they made budget cuts on random letters in page 7). The system requirements list a Computer with Windows & common browsers, but the set-up guide is purely for Android & iOS.

I can see why they didn’t really advertise Windows as their main means of accessing the feed. You have to use the DLink website (with ads) with your account set up (which links to your device, so you’re trusting DLink’s website security on the general public Internet to have a live feed inside your home, AND your WiFi account info). I can’t seem to find any way to access the camera using LAN only (The Android app has that option, but not Windows) - typing it’s IP address into the URL simply gives me a “File Not Found” error. Taking the risk for the sake of a comprehensive review, I load the DLink webpage and it’s using an outdated Java App as the viewer, which promptly dies and crashes the page on the latest version of Chrome & Firefox. Internet Explorer works, after it installs an ActiveX control (haven’t seen this since the 90’s!), a plug-in, and firmware update. The firmware update didn’t allow me to use other browsers or create a web interface (even though it obviously has web server capability by serving the error page). This thing requires an Internet connection to use, even within your own home, and if I did want to view the feed outside my home, there’s no way to set up my own VPN or such - it has to go through D-Link’s services and honestly that kinda creeps me out.

While the video looks great and has awesome latency, the audio is horrid. It has >2000ms latency coming from it, and any audio transmitted to it is very quiet (though has ~1000ms latency). It’s also extremely spotty with noticeable gaps in the audio stream. The lullabies are decent quality sound and good volume, but voice/sounds from a PC or phone/tablet are rather quiet and require max volume to make out what’s being said even when standing next to the camera. Audio is a neat feature, but definitely not the main selling point!

It makes a loud click when going from night to day mode or vise versa. Loud enough I’d suspect to wake a baby. Loud enough to make my dog jump, investigate, and growl at it.

You can mount it onto the roof or wall, but there’s no way to flip/orientate the video feed. Seems that feature is reserved for their actual security cameras.

Other Thoughts: My dog groaned at the lullabies.

Pros: With the night vision you can ‘see’ over 20ft in distance... not with great fidelity, but the IR LEDs do a good job projecting IR light into the room.

Motion and sound detection with email notification. Can pick up pretty quiet noises.

Very easy to use and setup. I’ve setup Belkin wireless devices and they have a similar setup process – you use an adhoc Wi-Fi network.

I liked the micro SD recording. You must have the micro SD cards/adapters to read/write from this device.

It has two-way audio with a bit of lag.

The device has lower power consumption and can run off of a battery

Can manage multiple cameras from the same app

Cons: Small resolution (640x480) – you really have to position this well in order to see things with fidelity

I suppose there is a trade-off here because streaming a larger image would waste EVEN MORE of your phone’s battery

Reasonable amount of lag between event that is actually happening and seeing it on the phone (this should be expected with this sort of device). Over the cloud, the lag is even greater.

Reasonable amount of battery drain on the phone that is streaming the image (this should be expected with this sort of device)

App isn’t exactly snappy – there could be some improvement in performance and usability. Images freeze and app can crash entirely. I think the stability of the app is always increasing over the lifetime of this product, though. App crashing could mean you don’t know what’s happening with the child!

Need to physically be with the camera to focus it – it would be helpful to have a knob outside of the field of vision focusing so that you can see things besides your fingers.

Other Thoughts: I suppose this is the real win with a device is that there is 2-way audio and motion detection which you cannot get with a standard webcam and Skype.

This would work well as it is intended, to monitor a baby. The other models are cool too with temperature monitoring and tilt/panning of the camera.

Firmware updates require a password so make sure to write that down or remember it.

Pros: Ease of use
Two Way Audio
Notifications (sound and movement)
Seamless integration
NightVision
MicroSD recording

Cons: Audio/Video Lag/Not realtime

Other Thoughts: I thought the setup was great on this device. There were some minor issues, but overall setup was less than 3 minutes total. To me, while it may not be 5 seconds, it's definitely acceptable to setup a remote camera/baby monitor.

The audio lag was anywhere from 10-30 seconds of lag, which is difficult for carrying a conversation (attempted w/ my older children), but not impossible for watching a child or giving some consolation for a midnight checkup.

The notifications where very cool, I was able to setup the camera while we went on vacation and have reassurance that we did not have any issues in the house while gone. My existing camera will record video when movement is sensed, however, I have to wait until I get home to see it. With this camera I received notifications of any audio or video anomaly while away from home.

The video quality was not HD by far, but was sufficient to know who I was looking at in my family, also was sufficient to see perfect quality in nightvision from across a 25 ft span.

When it was said & done I was able to see everything I needed...but it was not realtime 1:1 for video or audio. The audio and video delay made for a difficult conversation piece (me talking to the family while at work...another plus, as I dont need to access my VPN to see my server shares, I just use the DLINK app...)

Overall, if you are looking for a baby monitoring system, this device worked flawlessly. If you are expecting more, it's a great device, if not perfect.

Pros: - Camera quality is great for non-hd
- Audio was decent enough
- Construction was sturdy
- Night vision was very clear

Cons: - Setup was terrible. Seriously, more below.
- The manual focus was difficult to move. Also, manual focus on a camera of this price is kind of odd.
- It's really, really big. Like the size of a softball.
- Non HD, so while it is great at its native resolution, you lose quality extremely fast.

Other Thoughts: Setup on this seemed to be the culmination of terrible ideas. I was pigeonholed into using the app, which I immediately knew was going to be a terrible idea. While setting up the camera you have to drop wifi, join an adhoc network with the camera, configure everything, then hope the app doesn't crash or any number of other issues and rejoin both the camera and the phone to your regular wifi. This is after you have to hold a reset button on the camera.

I had a dlink previously and it had a wps button I tapped and the whole thing was set up in under 5 seconds. Why is something that is more than 5 times the price far more complicated?

Once I got the camera actually running it was a bit better, but I had to fight with the app every step of the way, it's slow and feels dated.

Apart from the setup woes everything was satisfactory. I wasn't blown away like I was by offerings from companies such as dropcam, which is surprising considering how close they are in price.

I still gave the product 4 eggs. My reason being that if you purchase this, it will perform its advertised functions. You are oging to have to put some effort into getting those functions to work, but after you do I feel it fills its role quite well. The quality was good, the audio was decent, the night vision was fine, and the construction was pretty solid.

Pros: The initial setup is very easy. You plug it up, download the app, go through the setup process, link it to your wifi, and you're done. You can watch it from the app, or the mydlink website.

All-in-all I would recommend this to someone who wants to use it as a remote camera for any use. It was created for a baby camera, but can be used for anything. It has lullabies and the alert functionality which is pretty neat (sound/movement). It also has a TWO way audio system. That's very cool.

Cons: When trying to save video clips/pictures, it seems like it doesn't always work. Especially when trying to save them to your phone or tablet. You have to change a setting inside the app, then try and take a video or photo. I couldn't find the photos or videos for two days. I rebooted my phone at one point, and all of the sudden they are in my photo gallery. Not sure what happened there.

Other Thoughts: The camera quality (non HD) is decent for up close. The night vision works pretty well.

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate the feedback as we take the input into great consideration and we are sorry to hear that you encountered some issues with the DCS-820L. Based upon your review, D-Link suggests that you click on the link below and fill out the necessary information. By doing so, one of our technical support specialists will be able to receive a better understanding of the issue and then will assist you in resolving the problem.

http://supportrequest.dlink.com?id=3f3981d0e098418cb58379ecf4de11cb&token=b81b74df70cf40229c0b6e00dad1d6f7

We thank you for choosing D-Link and look forward to hearing from you soon.