Pros & Cons
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- Good price.
- Free 24/7 video streaming.
- Support for multiple cameras.
- Wide viewing range with pan/tilt.
- Decent free mobile app for iOS and Android and even Windows Phone.
- Includes Wi-Fi Extender option.
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- No cloud "DVR" recording.
- No online storage.
- Not HD video.
- No travel point settings for instant pan/tilt.
The experience of using a PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) camera should be like in the movies—all that range of motion should let you see anything in the room, up close, and in startling detail. That's never the case with consumer-level PTZ cameras. I was not enthralled by the Compro Cloud Network Camera (TN600W), but had higher hopes for the D-Link Pan & Tilt Day/Night Network Cloud Camera (DCS-5020L) ($119.99 MSRP) as it has a completely different design and utilizes the established mydlink.com cloud service. Unfortunately, what you see in the movies remains ever elusive. The DCS-5020L is a decent camera at a decent price, but the PTZ adds little when compared to the high end graphics that can mimic pan/tilt/zoom in a camera like our Editor's Choice, the Dropcam Pro.
Design and Setup
The DCS-5020L has a dome-like appearance, measuring 5 by 4 by 4 inches (HWD). If you don't have it sitting on a table or shelf, it can mount to a wall or ceiling with the included plastic bracket, which ads about 4 inches to the height. When first powered up the camera goes through a full twist and turn to calibrate, then faces forward. A green LED labeled PWR on front indicates when it's ready to go.
Setup of the DCS-5020L, like other D-Link cameras such as the Cloud Camera 1150, is easiest if you own a modern D-Link router. Not only will plugging the camera into an Ethernet port on the router assign Wi-Fi info, but it'll also register the camera with mydlink.com. I don't have a D-Link router (just a high end Netgear Nighthawk), so I went another way.
The QuickStart instructions would have you think you must connect the camera to the router and launch a Windows or Mac desktop setup wizard. It doesn't even mention Wi-Fi Protected Setup as an option! (It is.) The mydlink Lite iPhone app however has a "Find Local Cameras" option—perfect for seeking out a camera plugged into the router via Ethernet. Once found, you have to assign the camera a password, then can register the camera for remote access (meaning viewing via mydlink.com or in the app itself). The app also handles firmware upgrades.
Still skipping WPS setup, I couldn't get the Wi-Fi turned on via the app. But once it was recognized by mydlink.com, I was able to activate Wi-Fi via the Web browser interface. It was a lot more hoops to jump through than it should be, making it feel like a punishment for not having compatible a D-Link router (or being able to read WPS buttons).
The Web interface and mobile app also offer the option to turn on the DCS-5020L's Wi-Fi Extender mode, which is handy if you have limited router range.
Features and Performance
As no-frills as the D-Link 1150 was, the DCS-5020L doesn't come with much more. Sure, it's got a 340 degree pan plus a 120 degree tilt, and about 10 infrared LEDs (compared to 4 on the 1150) so it's night vision capabilities are decent, rated to a distance of about 26 feet. But that's all paying an extra $20 gets you.
The DCS-5020L is still limited to streaming VGA video (which actually looks pretty great in high-light conditions). It only has one-way audio so you can't talk to those under surveillance. The "zoom" is only digital and limited to 4X—but when the source is only VGA, any zoom looks pretty bad after 1X. Compare that to DropCam Pro, which has an 8x digital zoom—but it zooms on an 1920x1080 image taken with a 130 degree wide-angle lens so you rarely need to pan or tilt to take in a room. The pan/tilt on the DCS-5020L is slow and sloppy (which is not unexpected), without swipe controls even on a touchscreen smartphone, just big arrows for directional indicators. It also lacks even the 'travel points' you can preset to whip-pan/tilt to another view of the room, a handy feature of the Compro PTZ camera.
Mydlink.com and the mydilink Lite apps are for viewing live video and taking snapshots only. To their credit, they do so quite well, making the most out of a VGA stream—when they load. I had about a 60/40 chance most of the time getting the video stream to show up. My luck was better with the iOS mobile app than with the Web interface.
What's missing most: online (cloud) video recording. While the monthly/yearly cost may bother some, Dropcam and others prove that it's worth it to have the buffer of video info for when something goes wrong, like a break-in or an accident. The only comparable option for the DCS-5020L (without buying extra hardware from D-Link such as the $99 mydlink Camera Video Recorder) is to setup motion or audio detection to send an emailed alert to you with a snapshot. The only other option for alerts is push notification on your mobile device, but those don't come with a snapshot, of course.
Conclusion
The DCS-5020L outshines even its own sibling because of the pan/tilt capabilities, working well with a VGA stream, and better night vision, all for only $20 more at retail. But without much higher quality video and the cloud-recording option (or, indeed, any recording option that doesn't require buying a D-Link Network Video Recorder, or NVR device), it's no where close to beating out Dropcam Pro for Editor's choice.
Final Thoughts
D-Link Pan & Tilt Day/Night Network Cloud Camera (DCS-5020L)
D-Link's pan/tilt/zoom camera doesn't add enough to the package to make it the best home surveillance camera, especially without online (or any) video storage. Still, the camera and mydlink service do a good job with streaming VGA video at a low cost with no price gouging extras.