Top positive review
VERY pleased with image quality AND reliablity
By Huyer on Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2013
I use SKJM's iCam software on my iPhone and their iCamsource software on my Mac desktop. I had a few inside cameras, but had never done an outdoor install.After a car was vandalized, I wanted a camera over the driveway. For some reason, users on the SKJM forum gave this camera mixed reviews so I was nervous to try it. However, I have been completely happy with it. It has better color quality and sharpness than my older Airlink AICN500W cameras and is just as reliable.This item is under the eave of our high roof. We drilled a hole through the outer paneling of the house so the cable could go into the attic. NOTE: The cable that comes out of this camera is power, ethernet, and reset cable all in ONE. I think this is for weatherproofing purposes. This is important because when you drill a hole to put this cable into your house, you'll need to drill a pretty large hole -- like a 1" opening or so. You can't just cut this cable and splice it inside OR take it off the camera easily. This wasn't a problem for us. We just ran the cable into the attic and then filled the rest of the hole around the cable with clear silicon.The camera plugs into a regular indoor outlet. We ran a new outlet in the garage. I see you can also buy power adapter extension cable directly from the company. See what you're more comfortable with doing.We use ours wirelessly, and it has been flawless. Image quality is good and the wireless connection has remained strong.SETUP is a bit of a pain. Not in the sense that something went wrong and I had to spend hours trying to figure something out, but more in the sense that the interface is pretty basic. If you have trouble setting an IP address, installing software that needs special configuration, or setting up port forwarding on your router, this camera will make you crazy. However, if these are do-able in your book, you'll be all set. The website for setting up wireless connection on the camera was very basic. You needed to wire directly into the camera first to set it up for wired access. Perhaps there is a utility on the CD included to do all this, but I prefer to stay away from automated setup wizards.I did all of this on my 10.8 Mac using Safari.We have had some rain and the item has continued to work just fine. It is somewhat protected by the eve of the house, but it seemed well built to deal with the elements.The body is all metal. The view angle is smaller than I expected, but I don't do a lot of work with cameras so I didn't have a good visualization of how it would work. The item is about 16" in the air and only shows our two-car-width driveway and about 3' on either side.I tested the night vision capabilities while the item was indoors. It worked really well. Not sure how well it works outdoors, because we installed a security light right by the camera. The night vision is completely automatic -- it turns on and off on its own. Unlike some other cameras, there is not a setting to disable the night vision IR illumination.
Top critical review
1 people found this helpful
Better than I expected but not anymore once in use
By Tim Isenhour on Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2013
********************************************Update number two. My rating just dropped to one star! yes, these cameras hoovers in a major way! One has totally stopped working and the other one keeps loosing it's network connection and I am talking wired via a cat 6 Ethernet cable. And when it does work, the video changes to something one would expect if on drugs! It's like a polarized negative of the image! I'm fixing to call Foscam and ask for a total refund.****************************************************************************************Update: My Wi-Fi/Ethernet problems seem to be not from the cam but from my choice of location in mounting the camera. Yes, while it was the same distance as my other camera from the router, there was a little product that I didn't think mattered. The Power supply and meter to my home. Obviously, they have a HUGE affect on not only wireless but also wired connections! I was about ready to call Amazon and ask for a refund when I decided to move it away from the meter. Low and behold, the connection returned. I suspect that if I had a shielded Ethernet cable this would probably not be an issue, but needless to say, it was my power connection/meter causing my connection problems. I only write this as I hope it will help solve other's problems with an outside camera. Don't do as I did and automatically blame the product. But, the Wi-Fi antenna is a piece of crap! I broke one off just trying to attach it to the cam. Also, the mounting hardware is a piece of junk. Foscam, cut the price of the cam by eliminating both and allow us to purchase them separately, as we will have to do anyway.********************************************I ordered two, so this review is for both.First, the cameras seem to be of a sturdy construction. while setting them up, I compared them to my other Foscams. I have two other models (918 and 910), so I knew what to expect from this manufacturer. Both inside and outside, this camera seems to have a much better picture than the indoor models. Setup was the same, although one of them wanted to be a female dog and not accept my changes (static IP), but it finally took them.The IR is less than the indoor models though. This puzzles me as one would think that an outdoor camera would need more, but I'm not an engineer.The Wi-Fi also hoovers majorly with this model. I placed one beside of my 910 model camera and it failed terrible at sending a signal. The 910 trumped with flying colors.With all this said, this is still a good camera for the price. The daylight picture makes the other short comings seem minute.Two faults that I see almost cost this rating a star but I decided against it. Fault one is the assuming that the camera will be mounted with the base down. Second, is the quality of the mounting hardware. It's plastic! Also, hard to adjust as it's cheap quality makes it almost impossible to aim it "precisely". You aim the cam, tighten the fastener, and then it slips/moves!
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