Aside from one of the cameras arriving DOA and the outdoor picture quality, I have been mostly happy with these cameras.
The pluses:
- Setup is very easy if you are familiar with networking. First you install the provided small executable on your host PC to detect the camera's IP, plug in a CAT5 to the camera's port and use the built-in web server to set up all the needed features of the camera. The wireless is WEP, WPA and WPA2 compatible.
- The wireless seems to work very well through two brick walls and I have not experienced any drop outs in the two weeks that I have had the cameras installed.
- Judging from having to obtain a RMA to return the DOA camera, customer service seems to be pretty responsive at least to emails. I received the RMA within a day and returned the camera. I am waiting on the replacment and will report back later on how quickly it was sent to me.
- Easy to install. Screws are included to attach the bracket to the mounting surface. You just need to attach a power source.
The minuses:
- The phone number listed on the web site went to a girl's voicemail by the name of Ashley with no returned calls. I can only assume that the number listed on http://www.foscam.us/ is incorrect. Thus customer service is only via email.
- The bright-light daytime performance of this camera is absolutely horrid. See below.
- The lens needs to be more wide angle to make a good surveillance camera.
- The mounting hardware is not very good. If you mount on a horizontal surface like the underside of a eave or top of a post you won't have an issue but any vertical mounting surface limits the positions you can point the camera. The bracket needs to be longer to accommodate mounting on vertical surfaces.
- I don't know if it is just a software problem but despite having my Blue Iris software set to 30fps I am lucky to get 5 fps even with the camera attached via CAT5 cable.
Here are some videos of the day and night time performance:
