Foscam Security Cameras

Wow. I’ve seen some favorable reviews on some Foscams and been tempted by them.

Been running away from the crappy, pretty much usless all-in-one warehouse club systems. (Including the so called high Rez versions.)

Haven’t figured out to what yet - thought it might be these cameras. Definitely not willing to spend into the expensive pro-category IP cameras.

But then all this stuff about Foscam continuing to spit out defective cameras. Kinda blows their future credibility. Very difficult to earn that trust back once lost.

Seems like the technology-economics-volume curve has arrived for reasonably priced high Rez IP cameras. Where is the reasonable quality product to match?

Great Fun with the HD 720p one that I bought on the last woot. Works great, but takes some time to understand all the possibilities and options. Very fun device with IR to watch nighttime animal activity.

Power thru Ethernet interests me since I have to run 2 wires. E-net and power. But this is good price and very fun device

thanks for the heads up! almost pulled the trigger.

Ok … I ordered another Foscam FI9805W H.264 720p Outdoor Wireless IP Camera.
They are awesome and I can’t wait to use the multi-cam view option on my Android.
Foscam is awesome

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Foscam Rep.

[MOD: Not a shill. If you look, they’ve been a wooter since 2006.]

I think you need to read between the lines. May I jump to “conclusions” now given this response above? I know you’re here to sell a product and clearly want people to buy the product but I think we all know Foscam’s reputation when it comes to “fixing products” that were broke out the box. The amazon reviews speak for themselves. Foscams is known for leaving their consumers high and dry with an expensive broken camera. They can play nice on the forums and pretend to be reputable, but their actions speak louder than their words. Of course they want to seem like an A+ company when trying to sell my a bridge, but once I own the bridge, they’re no where to be found.


He is actually legit it looks like. You can google his name and see he has a pretty random assortment of posts that seem rather factually based though rarely very helpful to anyone. I would not accuse him of profiting from these sales at all.

What camera is for sale at: H.264 Power Over Ethernet IP Outdoor Cam

It appears as though this listing is wrong and is mixing up the Foscam FI9805E and the Foscam FI8905E. Both models are used throughout the listing.

Under the Features it is listed as having a CCD and under the Specs it is listed as being a CMOS.

So, which is it?

The Foscam F18910W over at Newegg is being sold by Foscam directly for 64.99 + free shipping until 10/29. Here is the link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0Z2-0046-00003&Tpk=f18910w.

Hello??? Is the Foscam person coming back to answer the questions and provide help? I hope Foscam’s post was not a one post hit and run and they can answer why you have to pay to have your known defective brand new camera shipped back.

Update: Just had to do my every couple of days reboot of the camera just like noted on Amazon. Thank goodness I did not replace the wired ones I had…would have need a ladder every couple of days!

We asked them to post to address concerns of wooters.

Good catch. A typo in the title. That sale you linked is for the FI98 as reflected in the features & Specs.

Looking for more info on the CMOS vs CCD issue. That’s what the Foscam site says so we’ll have to contact them directly.

UPDATE: The Foscam FI9805E is a CMOS Sensor.

I own a pair of Foscams. One is a FI9802w outdoor camera and the other is an older FI8908w pan/tilt.

The outdoor camera is supposed to be HD, but the images it produces are slightly out of focus (and not adjustable) so it’s basically an oversized SD image. See sample image here. The camera is marketed as having a 56º field of view, but in reality the FOV is only 45º (by my own measurement). Their firmware is a bit hokey and has had some widely publicized security flaws. The mobile Foscam viewing apps all have flaws that erode your confidence but (most) get the job done.

All that said, it is a reliable imaging platform once you have it up and running. I’ve been unable to find anything better at that price point. If you want rock solid performance, a polished UI, and better support, you should be prepared to pay considerably more for the camera. It may be worth the extra dollars to some folks, but if you’re price sensitive and not monitoring anything mission critical, you could do far worse than a Foscam.

Hey MacGarage,

More than happy to offer you a free return label to get the camera sent back to us. We’ll ship it back as soon as we repair the camera, at no cost to you.

Did you get to send us an e-mail already? You can also e-mail me directly at “raheel AT foscam DOT us” if you’d like, I’d be more than happy to assist with this personally.

Thank you.

Will follow-up with email.

Thanks.

Glad to hear it took the loss of potential sales from woot to fix one out of hundreds of broken cameras. Maybe this rep should be on amazon doing damage control also.

I’ve bought bad products before from great companies, those companies kept me as a future buyer because I knew when they messed up they would fix the issue.

We all know if it wasn’t for woot, this guy would also be SOL.

Do these cameras need to be plugged in or can batteries be used?

The cameras use either 5VDC or 12VDC depending on the model. So if you have a DC power source at these voltages, you can power the cameras from it.

The exception would be with the POE camera which will take a voltage range from 37.0–57.0 VDC (over ethernet) and down convert it to what it needs.

I’ve had 2 8910s (indoor pan/tilt) for a year and they work flawlessly.

One of them is even mounted outside under my porch portico where it’s protected from rain, and it’s survived a full Chicagoland winter and summer without issue.

Just my 2c.

What a load of excrement!

I ordered a FI9805E and get sent a FI8905E. This is the low def version of the POE camera that costs much less.

So I contact Woot and they say they don’t have any replacements to send me (not asking for a replacement…asking for what I ordered) and that I will be refunded within 2 weeks after they receive back the wrong item they sent.

If they made a mistake and pulled the wrong item from the wrong bin, they should still have the physical inventory to fulfill my order.

Not a happy wooter.

@cranium: Sorry for the problem. The buyer contacted Foscam. Please check your Private Messages by clicking the envelope to the right of the Everything But Woot tab.