Foscam FI9821W

Not happy – I have two cheapo IP cameras that just work.... narrow field of view but reasonable quality vision, night and day. The FI9821W promised to be so much better with much higher quality HD video from a respected manufacturer. How wrong I was. At x4 times the price, it does have slightly better quality video (sharper), has about 70 deg field of view and more accurate colours. BUT, in the last month it has lost its configuration twice, camera dates keep changing and recently dropped off the LAN requiring a reboot. It is also noisey with fine horizontal steaks appearing on the right side of the screen, which only get worse when it switches to night vision mode. Sometimes it looks to be working fine with OSD seconds ticking over, until I try to Pan or Tilt, then it either does nothing or goes to blank screen, from which it may or may not come back, requiring a re-boot. Compared to the cheapo cameras the audio level is way down, so would be good to have a gain control. The latest v1.1.1.13 firmware update hasn't helped in any way. Wide field of view, colour accuracy Time resets, configuration lost, noisey video, low audio level.

Much better than the FI9820W – There are too many improvements to count. I have bought the FI9820W a while ago and the FI9821W is definitely a class of its own. The image quality (especially low light) has been drastically improved, as well as the GUI has been completely reworked, feels much more 2.0 now. Using the Foscam supplied Android app with it and my wife also found an iOS app that works great. There is free Windows software for up to 64 cameras included. Great value for money, considering that you would need to spend over $100 more for any comparable brand with the same features (HD, IR-Cut, Wireless N, 2 years warranty). great value for money, responsive, good features currently not supported by too many applications, Mac support is much better, but not on par with Windows yet

Currently a doorstop, but will love it if they fix the firmware as promised! – Quality of the image is very good, especially at night. The night vision easily reaches out beyond 25 metres in my backyard. The camera responds very quickly to commands, and the motor controlling the speed is also much faster than previous Foscams. Unfortunately the current firmware doesn't allow for connection any way but through the camera webpage. I contacted Foscam, and they told me that it has no ability to stream to any external applications as yet, but that this will be fixed in an update this month (January 2013).

I use EvoCam and uNetCams, and neither of those will connect. The iOS apps I use also won't connect, including Foscam's own apps.

I'm in two minds about this camera. The quality is great. Picture is exceptional at this price range, without jumping up to an Axis or something similar, but my feeling is that they shouldn't have released this to market without the ability for external control.

3 stars for now, and 5 if they can sort out the issues. Image quality, fast response to commands, excellent night vision Currently you can't control it with anything other than the internal web server - no other software supports it.

F19821w – I only just purchased this camera and discovered that even that manufacturer doesn't have an application that supports this camera. The only application I have found for iPhone use is live cam pro I also cannot get the sound or microphone to work on this application. This camera doesn't auto focus which is a bummer if you want to see something which is not so close even though there is no zoom. I also can not get sound to the camera or sound from the camera using this app. Great video but doesn't auto focus App support