Foscam FI9826W (Black) 1.3 Megapixel (1280x960p) 3x Optical Zoom H.264 Pan/Tilt Wireless IP Camera

Great camera for the price I paid (I did not pay the listed price). This camera should be around the $100-130 mark, honestly, which I think is still high for todays technologies that this fails to offer. It works great, but the response time isn't great on a wireless network since the camera is still only 2.4ghz. You'll get far better results if you can hard-wire it. I wish it was PoE, or at least 5ghz wireless, but it's not. But the image is good quality and features are good.

What a piece of junk! I bought this camera as a way to not only monitor my home but to also monitor my cat while I was in the UK. Here I am in London now and the camera is no longer working. The problems started when the camera stopped recording video alarms. In fact the last recorded video alarm was captured when I was leaving my house on this trip. The second, and most critical issue, was that I lost the video feed---just a blank screen (see link below). I can log into the the VMS, check settings as well as accessing old video clips but no picture whatsoever. I'm absolutely iivid that I bought this camera for a specific purpose and it has failed! I received this camera in June and I had been testing it (locations, lighting, setting up alerts etc.). Everything was good, until I arrived in the UK. I've contacted Foscam support and I have heard nothing from them at this time. I also have to mention that when I was testing the wireless function of this camera, it frequently lost the connection. I ended up using the network cable which runs ok, so it seems that the wireless feature is flakey.I'm also using a Astak Mole camera (which I bought in 2010) so that I could monitor another section of the house. This camera has been the most dependable and stable camera that I've used.Anyway, if I get a chance to speak with Foscam tech support when I arrive back in the U.S., I will post an update here.This is a snapshot of what the live video feed looks like: https://app.box.com/s/x97apm2s69mf2f6ao7sjUPDATE (9.8.2014)----------------First, with regards to Foscam support, I would recommend contacting them through their email address. I called the 800 number and had to queue for 25minute. After I finally got through, I found the support person to be arrogant, rude as well as providing me with misinformation. It was extremely difficult to understand him due to his very thick accent. I then contacted Foscam through their email address and they were great. They were very friendly, extremely helpful and very responsive. In fact when I sent the camera back, I failed to remove the SD card. I contacted them and asked if they could send the card back. When I received the replacement camera the SD card was attached to the Invoice--Kudos to them.Back to the camera. I allowed Foscam support to access the camera (via the WAN). They determined it was indeed a problem with the camera and they told me to send the camera back. Their return process was very efficient--they sent me instructions and labels and I sent the camera back. A week later I received a replacement camera and I now have it up and running. Just a side note, if the camera you purchase has down rev firmware (which most likely it will) then be prepared for several steps to upgrade the system and app firmware--(Don't bother using the camera until you do this). If you are technically challenged, be very careful or you will brick the camera.So overall, I was impressed with Foscam's email support (NOT the phone support). I can't say that I have confidence in the camera and I can't say that I would recommend the camera, yet. Only time will tell. I'll keep updating this review if I experience any problems with it. If you have any questions, please let me know.UPDATE: 6-22-2015------------------------------Great! just passed the warranty period and not only does the camera no longer recognize the microSD card, now the motion detection just stopped working. I was able to set up the ftp capability to address the microSD card issue, and it was working great, but then it just stop detecting any motion--ugh. So now what? I can view things live from the camera ok, but it's useless if I want to capture video or snapshots. Kind of defeats the purpose if a surveillance camera doesn't it

This is a good camera. It has worked without issue. the picture is good, the audio is good. The pan and tilt work smoothly.I also found that the set-up is not too difficult. And foscam does have good support for that. I had to give it 3 stars based on that. The only issue that I have, it is new and a biggie; It is no longer compatible with firefox. Although foscam promotes it as compatible, the pluggins are unsigned and unverified so firefox disables them for security and foscam has not fixed that (which they easily could(. My newer foscams don't have the problem......yet. But I would like to be sure that foscam would continue to support their products. I can no longer view my cameras on firefox, I choose not to use less secure browsers. What an irony Foscam won't take care of an internet security issue for their security cameras!I am not sure what other browsers no longer work but you can no longer take the product description as accurate.

Out of the box, the FI9826W is a sleek little unit. About as big (mass/shape) as a small jar of peanut butter, it is by no means stealthy, but the color/texture of matte black makes this unit both appealing and able to be hidden nicely in shadows in the top shelf of a bookcase, or out in the open beside a TV. This unit's design is VERY appealing to even geek-savvy individuals like myself.The features of pan/tilt/zoom are only minorly laggy, as it takes approximately .75 seconds for a directional adjustment to execute, but not worth bringing the rating down. One of the MOST appealing features of this product is the alarm's motion sensitivity. When setting the motion sensitivity alarm for individual days AND individual hours within days, a grid pops up for "coverage area" that overlays the current view, and you can select the whole screen OR specific blocks within the grid. If, for instance, you have the camera positioned to survey a room wherein the door to that room is visible and you ONLY want to trigger movement in the doorway area - negating movement elsewhere in the visual field, the FI9826W handles that extremely nicely. Again... VERY useful over the standard "whatever moves in the cameras lens triggers the alarm".The picture quality is sharp and excellent, and the IR quality is very good (but still a hint blurry). Unobstructed wireless range is exceptional too. Others have stated the motor's function being loud, but honestly, you wouldn't be able to hear it at all over the ambient sounds (like a refrigerator across the room) present in most dwellings. so "noisy" is a non-issue in my opinion.The only "bad" feature I found that led me to return the product was that the firmware update and desktop "exe-to-browser" app is precarious and ANYTHING but friendly. The guidance from the support page may have been re-translated to English, so the directions on updating the firmware are harder to read and execute than most other firmware updates. Get it wrong, and the possibility of bricking the FI9826W are pretty good. Another software issue that has cascading problems is the desktop exe file's communication with the browser's application. I observed random sync issues that were not obvious until certain (and random) features failed.The software/firmware issue was the only issue that lowered this product from 5 to 4 stars.