A lot of the reviews mention new firmware breaking the motion sensing, some say it breaks for use against a window and some say it breaks it period. I’m interested in these for motion sensing indoors, no windows, can I get a confirmation on whether the new firmware still works for that?
At full 1280x720 resolution, these have a max frame rate of 23fps.
Odd, I know.
1- For those who say why people talk bad about Foscam, well it is true and its the company the sells these cameras in USA. These cameras are known for several random defects and Foscam wont acknowledge it. If you get a good copy, you should be fine but if you get a lemon camera (That by no means are scanty) you are on your own. 2-Their warranty is a joke and their customer service is non existing. When you call for help, first they try to figure out if you may buy additional cameras and if they figure out you don’t, you will be on hold on passed from one to another till call gets discontinued. In rare cases that people actually push the company to honor their clearly expressed warranty, even on the box of the item, Foscam will make you to pay both way for shipping of even a manufacturer’s defective that every other seller will gladly pay for to keep the reputation and customers.
3- There are many reports at BBB that after issuing RMN and you sending the item, they pretend never received the item and you are no where, in loss of both money and item!(Those who forget to send item registered to these crocks).
4- Most Foscam items have difficult set up and usually at least some of the advertised functions such as high frame rate, email notification, IR turning on or off or likewise are defective, out of box.
5- You can read enough on Amazon under every foscam model about nasty experience people have had with these cameras and then more importantly the way they were treated by the Foscam.
Then there are a small group of lucky ones that got the good camera and due to lack of interaction with the company, talk good about this company.
In short Foscam is a sort of Scam and at best a bad gamble. If you land the right card, you are fine, everyone else will suffer. So there are many bad stories out there and a few non-believers!
By the way, this particular model because has no motor for Pan and tilt, also due to more simple lens configuration and easier set up via QR code reader, is actually less problematic than bulk of Foscam’s product but even then, the competitors of foscam sell the exact same model under different skin and GU for a much cheaper price of 20 to 40 on many sites, all day long, 24/7 without iffy sales.
Also very important: Please read the Foscam’s fine prints directly from their site. Its hard to believe what you will discover! You will not receive any support, etc when you buy the camera from anyone but their direct website.
Woot sold item falls under same category.
The OP who mentioned Groupon, please just avoid Groupon as they usually sell the defective returned by prior buyer’s item, in their sale and not only you will have no support from Scam Foscam, but also you get a bad camera in first place and then Groupon is notorious for their delay shipping and other gimmicks. If you have to waste your money, you may as well do it on Amazon and in case of any problem, send it back on the first day of receiving the item through Amazon warranty (Make sure that seller is Amazon and not third party).
Oh forgot to mention, non of IR security cameras that are indoor, can work through the glass. The window or glass surface will reflect the IR light back to camera that in turn sets a lower IR out put and by no means you can see slightest data from the other side of window. This is true for all the IR night security indoor security cameras. If you need to see outside, you must buy the outside models that have waterproof casing/internal heater, much stronger IR lights etc. There are people who risk it and hang an indoor camera outside. Generally if you don’t get subzero temperature and camera is under some sort of well covered roof, it should work but again the Non-Existing Foscam’s warranty would be void, if you do so (What a bad joke)!
The only way to run an indoor camera, in use behind the glass for outside surveillance is to first hack the camera to stop the internal IR light to turn on, when camera is in night mode (The camera pre-sensor IR Filter is lifted up) and no camera has this simple feature. Then to buy and hang some external IR projecting light, outside the window, over the wall etc and to have external illumination. Too difficult for average Joe.
I’ve had these for a week and learned that you need to keep the Live View up and running on a computer all the time for motion sensing to work, but it does work.