Y-cam EyeBall review

A problem we often find with dome IP cameras is the need to set up the viewing position before final assembly in the ceiling. Y-cam’s EyeBall does away with this: its unique “push and point” feature allows you to install the camera first and fiddle with the view later.

The lens sits in a sprung polycarbonate ball, which can be pushed into the housing and rotated. The camera body is sealed but not passed for outdoor use, and all feeds are piped through a short 400mm cable. This is plugged into a small distribution box that provides a network port, audio out, a power socket and an I/O connector block. The camera is PoE-compliant, too.

The top resolution is only 640 x 480, but we found the Live view reasonably well focused. The 2.5mm lens has good 100- and 75-degree horizontal and vertical viewing fields, and produces a noticeable fisheye effect. Detail at distance is fuzzy, made worse by the 2x digital zoom.

The push and point feature worked well during testing, and the top 30fps frame rate delivered smooth motion. With only MJPEG and MPEG4 codecs supported, network bandwidth usage will be higher than with cameras supporting H.264.

The EyeBall packs in plenty more, too. You get an 802.11bg wireless access point with WEP and WPA2 security, an internal mic, plus speaker outlet for two- way audio. Four user-definable windows are provided for motion detection and you can send images to an FTP server and multiple email addresses. Other recording options include direct to an internal microSD card, or to a NAS appliance share. For the microSD card, you can browse and view its contents from the web UI.

The Y-cam has plenty going for it. Push and point makes light work of installation, and while image quality isn’t perfect, it’s good enough for small-office surveillance. Add in the feature set and the package looks rather good value.