D-Link DCS-5030L PTZ Wi-Fi Camera Review

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The 5030L is following off much of the success of the 5020L and 5222L, both of which were solid PTZ solutions from D-Link.

Building from the 5020L, the new DCS-5030L carries a slightly modified enclosure which houses upgraded components starting with the image sensor at 1 megapixel with an F2.2 aperture and 2.38mm focal length. Coupled with a full array of IR LEDs the 5030L is capable of 16ft of night vision with a 110-degree viewing angle. Video compression is offered in both H.264 and MJPEG formats with peak resolution being 720p at 30 FPS. On the networking side, we have both 802.11n and 100 Base-T Fast Ethernet while looking at storage this device does support onboard microSD solutions.

MSRP of the D-Link DCS-5030L comes in at $129.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging is quite colorful for the DCS-5030L. Little marketing covers the box with an image of the camera to the right.

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The back of the packaging has a bit more information about the features of the camera. Including a list of supported platforms to the far right.

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The scope of delivery includes the manual and alignment sticker for mounting the camera.

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Included with the camera is the power adapter, Ethernet cable, and mount. D-Link also included screws and drywall anchors for those that need them.

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Looking at the camera, it's quite like the 5020L with a color change from black to white and LEDs moved to the front for WPS and Power. As you can see, we have ten IR LEDs surrounding the lens.

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The I/O for the camera includes WPS followed by Ethernet, microSD, and micro USB power.

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The bottom of the camera houses a standard brass mount.

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The app, seen in the previous image, is freely available on both iOS and Android platforms. I am using an iPhone 7 Plus for this portion. Setup includes a few steps but is helped along with QR codes to get all the information, you just need to use WPS or manually choose the network, and you are ready to go.

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I've set up a number of these solutions over the years, so we will skip the setup process as its largely unchanged since the 2530L, reviewed in November. Once setup is complete, you will see your camera or device listed in the menu. A simple tap on the item opens the live view mode.

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Within the main menu, you have access to live view, playback, and settings for each camera.

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In the camera menu, you can change settings including camera name, motion and sound detection along with extender setup and Wi-Fi configuration.

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View from this camera is quite clean. As with most D-Link solutions, the 5030L has a great sensor and as you can see below defaults to 720p in the app. To the left, you can enable or disable sound while the PTZ is maneuvered using touchscreen controls.

The 5030L is a solid update to the standard PTZ design from D-Link. The build along with fit and finish are quite good with this model, but it does have some software issues, sort of.

Like the 2530L, this camera too seemed to suffer from a bug that will not let you set it up if you have a microSD card plugged installed. You need to wait for setup to finish, then plug in your card. There is also a slight issue where if setup doesn't go through without issue the first time around, you must reset the camera and start over. This second issue I did not run into with the 2530L, but it has shown up with this 5030L.

Other than those, what could be classified as small issues, the 5030L performed quite well. As you seen from the images, clarity is quite good and in my own home network I had no issues with Wi-Fi range.

Overall, the issues I had could be hit or miss, but doing some research shows I may not be the only one. Hopefully, D-Link cleans up the application, taking care of the mentioned bugs because this really is a solid IP camera solution.