Astak's MOLE IP Camera gets exposed.

Performance -
The MOLE has good image quality and speed. Where it fails as a security device is in its lack of a stealth mode [no lights on], the loud and obvious clicks it makes when turning on the IR lights and the noises if makes when moving.  These draw attention to it in a way that is simply not acceptable in a camera named MOLE [with the indication that it is a covert item]. The MOLE does excel in one main area though. The number of IR lights gives it an excellent night range. The down side of this is at close range these lights can “white out” details. Interestingly enough as you could see in the UI section the image quality when viewing through FireFox is not as good as Through IE8. IE8 just takes more setup to get going properly.

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Day and Night Image Quality

The MOLE also tends to be more of a toy than a real monitoring device. The inability to send files to an NAS device reduces its use in a real security setup. However the social networking features do help it find an interesting niche in today’s market especially with the popularity of Twitter and YouTube. The Web UI also needs some work [especially the Java requirement]. Still the MOLE does perform well in the role of a non-security based IP Camera.


Value -
If you are interested in getting the MOLE you are going to need to shell out about $280. At this price the MOLE is at the higher end of the Pan and Tilt Wireless IP cameras. The price also pushes it out of the security role again as you can get lower prices IP cameras with the ability to capture to networked storage.  This leaves it in the realm of a high-priced toy unfortunately


Conclusion -
When we first saw the MOLE we thought it was a great looking product with promise. After all it is black, sleek and seemed to be much stealthier than other IP cameras on the market. However once we got it in place and compared it to other security based IP Cameras we saw that it did not meet our expectations.
The MOLE was still sleek and clean looking, but it was not stealthy by any means. There is no way to turn off the three activity lights, the IR LEDs shine a bright red and the camera makes way too much noise [including loud clicks when it shifts from normal to IR mode]. The MOLE also seems to be more social networking oriented with its ability to send to Twitter and YouTube automatically. But even with this we simply do not feel it warrants a $280 price tag. In the end while the MOLE is very cool looking and has some “fun” features we cannot recommend it for anyone looking for an IP camera for security or for monitoring.