Digital zoom is about as useful as tits on a borehog.....
The Linksys has digital zoom, hence the low price.
I am personally against any camera that can only be viewed remotely via IE and ActiveX, just too limiting in my opinion... so read the specs closely for viewing requirements.
Also, while more limiting, a wired camera will just about guarantee better framerates, versus a wireless... depends on what you want/need...
I can't recall reading anything bad about the Panasonic or Toshiba mentioned...
I've looked for a long time, and have yet come to a decision about how I'd like to provide images (when I ever finally redesign my weather page away from the standard WeatherLink template...).
In the end, cost is going to be similar for either:
1) Using analog wired cameras (like bullet cams, etc...) running into a video capture card in the computer
2) Network cam (still most likely wired for maximum frame rates)
Not even talking about PTZ yet, although available in either configuration.
What's nice about network cams is that they are standalone, usually easily accessible externally (outside your LAN), and easy to set up and configure.
Option 1 would involve not only the hardware, but software for monitoring. I've been considering a combination of using this option for home security monitoring, in addition to having one or two cams for weather pictures. Seems the big players are Geovision and VideoInsight for card/software. Using the software probably isn't as difficult as WeatherDisplay
, but probably not as simple as using a network cam.
Also, for stability, it's recommended that a dedicated computer be used for video monitoring for stability--starting to get into overkill if you just want a single cam for weather pictures... But just think, once you get a video card, adding a basic bullet cam would cost maybe around $100, you could start adding cams facing all the ordinal compass points...
I'll help you spend your money...