The Foscam FI8918W comes in at the top of our rankings for IP cameras, and receives our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award. This simple security camera offers a wide range of features and support that will suit the diverse needs of small businesses and homes alike. You can easily install this camera to monitor your small business after hours, to keep an eye on the pets at home or even to watch inside or outside a building for intruders on your property.
The FI8918W brings video surveillance to a whole new standard of operation, allowing you to securely wire it to your network for easy access from any internet browser or even your smartphone. This camera ranks especially high due to its strong feature set and its exhaustive focus on protecting against tampering. However, this camera is not TLS/SSL compatible, which means the transmission of video is not encrypted and is not as secure as some others are.
The video resolution for this camera follows the industry standard of 640 x 480 pixels with a field of view at 67 degrees, which is on the higher end of things since most other cameras tend to be between 50-60 degrees. Having a higher field of view means you have a more effective area visible through the camera and thus fewer blind spots. We would still like to warn you that the resolution of this camera, while standard, is still quite low compared to how detailed some security cameras can get. But considering the price for this IP camera, it’s about what you should expect.
The video management capabilities for the FI8918W are quite strong, enabling you to not only log in remotely via a smartphone or browser, but also to control the camera. From this management setup, you are able to pan and tilt the camera as well as zoom in and adjust the video quality. You can view multiple cameras from the same browser screen and adjust each one individually. The video feeds for this security camera are secure and require a user ID and password to access them.
Let’s be honest, it’s very likely you won’t be glued to a monitor at all hours watching the security camera feed. Foscam has taken into account the fact that you have a life outside of work and offers an email alert function. If you configure the IP camera to give alerts, it will send you an email alert whenever the motion detector is triggered, including a a picture that was taken the moment that movement was detected. This way you can find out immediately if anything critical is occurring that requires your attention in the area being monitored.
The recording feeds offered through the FI8918W suit a range of needs. Remote monitoring is a key feature among IP cameras as most small businesses and homeowners want immediate access to the feed wherever they may be. For live viewing on a web browser, this video surveillance camera supports the use of a dynamic IP address via DNS. All that is required to access your security camera through the internet is inputting the DNS hostname, which is provided with the camera. This provides an easy and inexpensive way to monitor live feeds from any location, rather than relegating your security to one computer.
Recording schedules can be programmed in so that this spy camera doesn’t start rolling until after business hours. In addition, you can program the camera to operate on motion detection and send you an email alert if it detects movement. Because the alert includes a an image taken of the moment when movement was first detected, it provides a first glimpse at any potential intruders so that you know whether to react or ignore an alert. These alerts also include time stamps on the image so that you can know exactly when something happened rather than forcing you to scan through hours of footage to find a specific event.
Video and image recording can be stored in multiple locations. Typically, IP surveillance cameras store footage on a local computer hard drive, which this one does. It can also upload recordings to a website storage location via FTP or email, depending on your settings. Both of these options should be used in tandem to ensure that you're taking effective security precautions.
Mobile viewing requires a smartphone with 3G capabilities. Otherwise you’re going to get terrible video quality. Utilizing devices like iPhone and Blackberry, you can log into the video feed via the mobile device's built-in browser. In addition to this, if you own an iPhone, Foscam offers a surveillance app that gives access to real-time footage.
Business and home security cameras are becoming more and more easy to use; many simply require you to plug it in to your network router. This plug-and-play approach is most popular, and is it one way in which the Foscam FI8918W makes it easier for you to optimize security. To add to the ease of this security camera, you don’t even need to have an external PC or software. Aside from an initial setup, you can access the camera entirely from the web via its built-in server. From the web browser you can manage your camera settings, change password access and even edit user accounts.
The main issue behind wired surveillance cameras is the need to run wiring behind walls. Unless your home office or small business is unfinished, odds are you’ll need to hire a professional electrician to run the wires. While this does result in some added expense on your part, consider how much more secure your cameras will be. Video feeds travel via a secured Ethernet line to your internet router where they can then be transferred to a network storage device or even uploaded to FTP.
Foscam offers all of the most basic support options, allowing you to contact them through both email and telephone. On the downside, however, this support is only available to consumers who purchased the FI8918W directly through them or one of their listed authorized resellers. For additional support outside these direct lines of communication, you can access resources like product manuals, FAQs and a user forum from the manufacturer's website.
The standard warranty offered for the Foscam FI8918W is one year, and all manufacturing defects and any damage sustained to the IP camera are covered during that time. Though warranties for security cameras are typically one year in length, it would have been nice to have a longer warranty simply for wear and tear.
The Foscam FI8918W ranks as our top pick for IP surveillance cameras not only due to its versatility in use, but because of the features it offers. Foscam has established this network camera as a product that dominates the competition because it is easy to use and easy to install. This security camera was designed to suit numerous needs, and it will certainly fulfill the responsibilities you place on it to monitor your business or home office.
