Foscam Home Security Camera, R2 Full HD 1080P WiFi IP Camera with Real-time 1080P Video at 25FPS, Pan Tilt 8X Digital Zoom, Motion Detection & Alert, Optional Cloud Service Available, Rubber Black

I’ve been using Foscam cameras for years. When my kids were very young, I would keep them in their rooms as a monitor. Now I use them throughout my house as security cameras. They still work, but there are many limitations given their age – close to 10 years old in some cases. But they do, indeed, still work. With this mind, I reached out to Foscam support to see if there were some firmware upgrades now which might overcome some of the limitations like modern browser support and platform support other then Windows (eg, Mac). Because I was a long time customer and agreed to write this review, they provided me a free unit to test. So here it is.I will be comparing the current (Aug 2020) model, R2C 1080P to the older models I have, the FI8910W and FI8918W. The new model offers the following improvements:• Higher resolution (1080p v 480p)• No dependence on ActiveX controls• Full control from Windows and Mac using browser other than Internet Explorer• Control via mobile app• Ability to record without application running on PC• Improved interface for scheduling motion detection• Better color reproduction• Slightly smaller and more sleekI am using the new model to record on a schedule and using motion detection. Both work well. The ability to schedule is much improved in the browser app as you can just drag the mouse across a series of time blocks to activate. The old camera allowed you to active a full hour at a time, but if you wanted it on the half hour, you’d have to click to deselect. So, setting a schedule at 1230a means I activated 12a to 1a, but then Id have to click 7 days of blocks representing 1200a and 1215a. With the new camera, the mobile app just uses a slider to set the time, and the browser interface allows you to drag to deselect. Nice.I never used the email settings or the FTP settings on the old cameras. I tried setting up the FTP today on the old camera, and I never got it to work. With the new camera, I wasn’t going to use FTP or mail, either, but then I thought about this: why do I need an app running all the time to capture motion detection? The old models required Internet Explorer open to capture the video. Shouldn’t the camera just capture it and store it or send it somewhere? Well, in fact, the new one does. There’s no storage built into the camera that a user has access to, but it does have the ability to either use a micro SD Card or FTP. With the SD Card, the file is stored on the card. With FTP, it’s sent to an FTP server. Since I don’t have a spare Micro SD card laying around, I decided to use the FTP server. Windows 10 has an FTP server built in, but it’s not turned on by default. There are numerous places you can find on how to setup the FTP server. Once you have it setup such that you can access from another computer on your local network, you just use the same parameters for the camera. Put in the IP address (or hostname), the user name and password, and you’re good to go. You don’ t NEED to buy cloud service if you can setup the FTP server. If you can’t, then perhaps you should look into buying the cloud service to store your images and videos. In the end, it’s nice to know I can turn on the camera and have it FTP over my files to my PC (which is on all the time) without having to keep an app running on my PC. You may think I’m splitting hairs since leaving my PC on 24x7 with an FTP server is the same thing, and perhaps I am. But if you have storage connected to and an FTP server running on your router, which stays on all the time, you won’t need your PC left on 24x7. I already leave my PC on 24x7 so it’s a no brainer for me.I was wondering how well the IR light would work since the old camera had a ring of IR lights around the camera, and I can’t see any on the new one. The new camera has a better picture, of course, and the IR lights are not as obvious, but they’re there. Picture quality at night is very good.The color reproduction is clearer and more accurate on the new camera. The video produced is really nice and not as grainy as the old ones. It will never replace your DSLR for video quality, but in terms of security it works.I can use Chrome now to access any feature I want. The old cameras required I use Internet Explorer utilizing ActiveX if I wanted to record videos or use voice function. ActiveX is 25 year old technology full of security risks, so it’s nice to see I don’t need it any more. ActiveX only runs on Windows, so Mac was out. Now it’s not. Yay!There are lots of feature I’m sure I’m missing, but this covers what’s important to me. I have the old cameras which do what I know, and now I have the new one which has improved on the old ones in many ways. If it lasts as long as the other ones, this is going to be an excellent camera!

This is a great camera. I have several cameras set up around home and at work. This is the first 1080P camera and i bought it specifically because I needed a higher resolution and wider view angle for the back doors of the office. I use this in conjunction with ContaCam, a free security camera monitoring product that records to HD and sends email videos when movement is detected. This camera worked well with the software.I like this camera because it was easy to set up. The android app does not expect or require unreasonable access to your phone and the wide angle lens allows me to position the camera in a fixed position and capture everything I need to capture. I mount this to a support beam in our shop to look at the back doors. Prior to this I was using an old Tenvis JPT3815. The Tenvis has been a reliable camera but needed to be on the second pillar which is 80 ft from the door in order to get a wide enough view in a fixed position. This Foscam gives a wide enough view that I was able to move the camera up one pillar which is 40ft closer to the door and still have a wider field of view.This camera has voice guidance when you are setting it up that tells you it has connected to the network and it is ready to view. I have mixed feelings about this. It is too loud to set this up at my desk but not loud enough to hear in the server room. I would have been more pleased with a blinking LED that showed connection. At the very least there should be some way to turn the sound off or reduce the volume so it is not disturbing if setting this up in a non private setting.The controls when you log into the web interface are very similar to the Tenvis which has my favorite web interface. That may be because that is what I am used to but I have used about 6 different camera brands and always prefer this interface. It is easy to set up preset positions. You can monitor multiple presets or track a path. If the power is lost to the camera you can easily set a default preset that the camera will move to on startup. That is one of the reasons I like these for monitoring doors.I can definitely say that this is the nicest WIFI camera I have used to date and the price is reasonable for the features and quality.