From the Manufacturer:
The Foscam FI8910W features high quality video & audio, pan/tilt, remote internet viewing, motion detection, night-vision, embedded IR-Cut filter and built in network video recording system. In addition, it is smartphone compatible (Iphone, Android & BB) as well as viewable over the internet using standard web-browsers. The camera functions well as an Iphone baby monitor or as part of a home or office security system with remote internet monitoring ability.
Building on the success of the Foscam FI8918W, the FI8910W is the latest camera from Foscam Digital Technologies LLC. The FI8910W distinguishes itself with an embedded IR-Cut filter providing enhanced picture and color quality. The IR-Cut filter automatically adjusts the lighting exposure via mechanical filter to provide true and accurately colored images that are not washed out. In addition, the FI8910W has an upgraded and higher quality external housing as well as an included 2 year extended warranty.
Features:
– IR cut-off filter for True Colors. *Exclusive to this indoor model.
– The IR lights can be turned off manually from the software
– Audio quality is improved, there will be no noise when speaking into the camera.
– WPA2, WPA & WEP
– Internal mic as well as jack for external mic
– Allows for remote viewing & recording over LAN or internet
– Simple to setup with a friendly graphical interface
– 640 x 480 Pixels (300k Pixels)
– Two-way audio
– Pan/Tilt control (Pan:300eg& Tilt:120deg)
– Night vision (up to 8 meters) via auto IR-LED illumination
– Infrared Motion Detection (with email notification and image upload via FTP)
– Supports standard browsers, Iphone, Ipad, Android and BB
– Wifi IEEE 802.11b/g. Wired connection also included
– DDNS
– Multi-level user management
$ 169.99
Good, though some quirks.,
I ended up purchasing this pack because it was cheaper than buying them individually, plus you get two 9dbi antennas which appear to help with the feed. For me since I’ve worked with setting up networking equipment in the past, configuring them for use on the wifi network and externally was a breeze. I can see however that users that have no experience in this area would have a difficult time getting these setup. My only difficulty was trying to find a suitable place to mount the cameras for the best angle and functionality, though not a fault of the cameras. When you look at the cameras they look very professional. A small thing I like is that when it is dark and the IR is enabled the lights have a red glow to them which makes the cameras appear ominous.
One major function I like about this camera is its ability to move around. Unfortunately however there is no zoom. I do find that sometimes the controls are tricky no matter if using the web interface or a 3rd party application to control it, sometimes a click will move it a millimeter, where as the next will move it several inches. Regardless though once you get them setup they can easily be forgotten about until the time comes to review the footage. I currently use an app on my mac which will record the footage if there is any movement detected. Now I just need to work on getting it to automatically upload to a remote location.
Regarding the IR, it works well, when it is enabled even in my large great room. Unfortunately the system only has the options of “Off” or “Auto”, and frequently, depending on the lighting, it will turn the IR off when it really should be turned on as all you get is a unusable image. There’s no way to force the IR to be turned on, at least with the current firmware.
A couple of times I have had the cameras automatically reboot themselves. They did so individually and it wasn’t due to a power failure so I’m not sure why they did it. Generally its not a problem though as it just causes a loss of video for a minute or two and they home back on their primary positions after booting.
Overall they are good cameras and based upon their current functionality I will buy another if the need arises.
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|Great camera for the price,
Great camera and the technical support is the best I have ever received on any product!
They actually, with my permission of course, took control of my bPC and walked me through the issues. Found out my DSL modem was faulty. After I struggled through the phone company replacement of it, Foscam walked me through the rest of the setup in minutes.
Awesome!
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|Good camera for the price but FPS is too low for me,
For the price of these cameras, they work pretty well. I didn’t have any issues setting them up but I am an IT professional (bachelor’s degree in CIT) and I am very familiar with networking. I thought the included instructions were good enough to allow most people to set these up without assistance but if you have trouble, there are many how-to articles that can be easily found online. The cameras have a very solid construction. I bought two of these in a set with the larger 9dB antennas included. I ended up not using the larger antennas – well because they are far larger than I expected them to be (probably 8-9 inches long). I have a ~1,300 square foot home and didn’t have any issues with signal when using the standard antennas that are about 1/3 the size of the larger ones. The two way audio on the cameras was only OK. It seemed to be better for listening than talking through the camera – which was fine for me because one of the cameras was intended use was just for a baby monitor. The audio didn’t work so well though when the IR was on. The IR lights must generate a signal interference that is picked up by the mic on the camera because when the IR was on, there was a constant noise when listening through the camera. The image quality over all was excellent in both day and night modes. The only issue I had was the IR is activated automatically by a photo sensor that detects the amount of ambient light present in the room. You can manually (through software)turn this off when it comes on automatically but I was not able to turn it on if the photo sensor detected too much light in the room and hadn’t turned it on for you. This bothered me because at the in between level of the photo sensor turning on the IR mode for low light operation versus daylight operation, I was sure that I could have gotten a better image if I could have manually turned it on sooner. The biggest problem for me with these cameras was the FPS. This camera uses MJPEG for video compression. This method of compression is not efficient at all and creates very large file sizes. In order to view the feed remotely, this large file size has to be transmitted. I am not for sure if the large file sizes are truly the cause of the very low FPS I got on both cameras or if it was some other limitation but I am pretty certain that I wasn’t getting the expected 15 FPS (VGA – 640×480 resolution) or the 30 FPS (QVGA – 320×240 resolution). I didn’t have a way to measure my actual FPS but my video feeds were very jerky and more like time elapsed still images (which is actually what MJPEG is). I would guess that I was getting at best 1/2 the FPS that was advertised. I suspect that the transmittal of the large video size was also affecting the sound quality because so much bandwidth was consumed by the video that little was left for audio. These cameras also only work on up to wireless G networks that have a max 54Mpbs throughput. With all this said, even though I have rated these with 4 stars, I am returning them. I am replacing them with the Foscam FI8608W IP cams. These are the newer model in this lineup. They support H.264 video compression, which can reduce video file size by up to 80{fa0f407a56ebf26e8755ec9e145523374db89e13015bb27dc750b111d8cc035c} over MJPEG. The FI8608W model also has wireless N support (600Mbps), a memory card slot that supports up to 32GB cards for recording, and it has a faster processor. I expect all of this to provide me with a significant improvement in both video, audio, and recording. The FI8608W models are ~$45 more though but I think that is justifiable with the enhancements. I forgot to mention, something that I wondered about the FI8910W model when I was thinking about ordering them was about the software for remote viewing. It is very functional and you can create three types of log on accounts for people that you want to allow to view/operate the cameras. You can have administrators, operators, and viewers. Admins can do anything. Operators can view the cameras and use the PTZ functions to adjust where the camera points. Viewers can just log in and see what the camera is currently pointing at. The software for the FI8910W does easily integrate with up to 9 cameras. The app IP Cam Viewer ($3.99 on the Apple App Store) from Robert Chou which is mentioned by several other reviewers really does work well for accessing the cameras.
UPDATE:
As I originally stated, I replaced these cameras with the FI8608W camers. I purchased them off from Amazon.com as well – so you can find my review of that camera online as well. Please read about my experience with the 8608 cameras before making your decision. The hardware for the 8608 is improved but the software was broken with the new firmware and web GUI interface. Depending on what you value as important, the 8910 model may be the better option for you.
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