I'll preface my review by saying that I am an advanced computer user and have a pretty good understanding of networking, modem tweaking, etc. That said, it took me nearly 6 hours to get this camera set up! There are plenty of searchable forums for helping you get it set up but it will take time! Lots of time.
The directions are very difficult to understand and written in very poor English. Don't bother with tech-support because, as their website says; "Foscam.us does not provide support or warranties on behalf of ANY Amazon, Ebay, or other resellers, whatsoever". To get Foscam's help, you MUST purchase ONLY directly from Foscam. That's an odd stance for a legitimate company to take, especially when I assume that Amazon is not selling a knock-off Foscam product. But I digress . . .
The camera itself seems to be of decent quality. I did have a problem with blurry images after it was all up and running but then found out that you can focus the lens by unscrewing the face of the camera and twisting the lens until the picture comes into focus.
The only other issue is the brightness/contrast controls. You can set them up so the picture looks perfect in the daytime but then dawn, dusk, and dark pictures all suffer in image clarity and quality. I haven't found a happy medium yet for those settings. The pictures are acceptable, but not great.
The email alerts are awesome! Anytime the camera senses motion, it captures 6 images and uploads them to your email. I set mine up so that I receive the email immediately on my smartphone and I can see what's going on. If I want to watch the live action, I just open the ip-camera app and I can see the live feed from my camera. Can't get much better than that!
Overall, for a 100-bucks, you're not going to find anything comparable. This is a fair camera for non-critical outdoor surveillance. I'm happy with my purchase, despite having to spend quite a bit of time getting it set up. Foscam FI8905W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera 12 mm Lens (22° to 40° Viewing Angle) - Silver
State of the art hardware as well as software.
Great pictures, long range with Auto-Infrared at night.
Although the English in the manual is not the best, you definitely will be able to set up the camera, IF YOU FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS STEP BY STEP.
Internet access gets more complicated for the average user, since one has to do "port-forwarding".
I recommend [...], click on your router and follow the steps. SHOULD be easy.
I also have the FI8918W Foscam FI8918W Wireless/Wired Pan & Tilt IP Camera with 8 Meter Night Vision and 3.6mm Lens (67° Viewing Angle) for indoors.
I installed IP Cam Viewer Lite ([...]) on my Sprint EVO 4G, easy setup; now I am able to monitor both cameras on my EVO.
In summary:
This camera as well as the FI8918W are highly recommended for the computer savvy. The average computer user should consider asking the neighbor's Computer Wiz Kid for help.
I have been looking for a weatherproof wireless camera for a long time and was surprised to find such a capable camera at such a low price. Was extremely easy to set up and access from the internet and my phone with the free Android App IP Cam Viewer Lite. It was also easy to set up the camera to send an email to me whenever it detects motion. The night vision was also much better than expected. You do need to have some basic understanding of your router/firewall and email server to set all of the features up but the examples are pretty good.
Overall the product was a pleasant surprise and I plan to order another one. My only concern is how long the camera will last in outdoor conditions.
First of all, I just have to say; you need to actually look at the dimensions of this baby. I really expected it to be much small, but then, what would I be able to tell from a picture of just the camera?
As others have said, the pigtail on this thing is VERY cumbersome. The Ethernet cable/Rest switch/Power leads make securing this camera a challenge. I will try to post some pics to give you an idea...
I of course refuse to use the windows software, so this review is for Linux or Mac users.
Once you unwrap the camra and get it set up someplace inside, connect the Ethernet cable to your switch or router then check the DHCP log for the new device. Open Firefox and put that IP into your browser location field. The camera will display a login screen. If you do not get the login screen for that IP, you might need to push the rest button and wait about 1-minute for the camera to reset. Then refresh your browser. Ignore the ActiveX portion at the top and select the Login button at the bottom of the display. You will get a login popup. Enter "admin" for the userid and lease the password blank. This will get you to the device status. You will also see the "Live Video" and "Device Management" tabs which you can Read The Fun Manual for.
One BIG gotcha that took a while and some googling. You can thank me later. The camera works great inside and the night vision is amazing with the Eye of Sauron LEDs shining brightly, but when you take it out into the sunlight, the live image goes totally white. On the "Live Video" page, find the "Mode" button, click on the pulldown selector and select "Outdoor". Poophtah! You have an image again. You may need to adjust the brightness and contrast a bit.
It won't do wireless and wired at the same time. Set up the wireless, unplug the wire, and reset the camera. If you leave the wire attached, it just seems to disable it.
An annoyance: the camera seems to always have a component of IR sensitivity. If you want true colors, don't even bother. Warm colors seem to work, but blues and greens are washed out to a night-vision look. For me, I can deal with it because I plan to enjoy the night vision component for watching deer and raccoons around my LakeShack.
Pros:
Good price
good nightvision
Fairly good resolution
Works with Firefox and Linux
Works with my MiniCam Android App. (You'll need to set up dynamic DNS and a port pass-through on your router...google it)
Supposedly works with ZoneMinder on Linux...Hope to try that.
I tested the FTP portion and it worked fine. (Wish it would let me change the names it uploads like Trendnet cameras)
live video without ActiveX
Cons:
Really big! It won't be discrete
IR LEDs are very red in the dark. Again not discrete
Mounting bracket is barely usable.
Poor color rendering
VERY narrow field of view. Good for distance, not great for covering a wide area close to the building.
Did I say it was big?
Power supply is one of those wall-ticks and it gets really hot.
TL/DR: Good for the price, great for night vision, works without Windows and Internet Exploder. - Outdoor Camera - Night Vision - Wireless - Wireless Camera'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
