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Quick Summary: Foscam is manufacturing and selling cameras with a known manufacturing defect. If the camera is pointed at a scene with too much detail (trees, grass, wood grain, window screen, etc) the camera will fail by either freezing, displaying black or rebooting. This defect was introduced as the result of a sensor change late in 2012. This manufacturing defect has been confirmed by Foscam as the DSP and a repair procedure has been made available. However, Foscam (the manufacturer) has released themselves of responsibility for repairing this defect. To be clear, Foscam acknowledges this manufacturing problem but refuses to be responsible for repairing the cameras. Currently, 370 faulty cameras have been reported in the Foscam forums. Exchanging the camera does not correct the problem as +91% of exchanges have the same defect (also detailed in the forums). The small percentage of successful exchanges are explained as old 2012 inventory. Users also confirm that Foscam continues to manufacture cameras with this defect. It seems that Foscam simply hopes users will not notice the defect or incorrectly identify the problem as cabling or networking gear. Do not buy this camera, or any other Foscam MJPEG camera unless you want to gamble with this known and confirmed freezing/black/rebooting problem. Based on the quality of support I recommend staying away from all Foscam cameras in general. They are inexpensive, but your time and sanity are worth a far greater value.
(Original Review The contents of this review and the three updates have been summarized above)
This review is to alert potential buyers to a substantial hardware problem with the Foscam 8904, 8905, 8906 and 8910 cameras. As the image complexity increases, there is a point where the video stream fails and remains in this failed state until the video encoder is manually reset by the user. The trigger point for failure is a function of the complexity of the image; inputs to this function include the scene being recorded, the intensity of the sunlight at any given time, and the software image adjustment settings (brightness and contrast). This problem is well documented on the Foscam user forums. For more information, do a web search for "8910 hanging rebooting based on image data" (other models are documented here as well). You will find a thread where the bug is reproduced by many users with a variety of Foscam models. The power supply, firmware, webUI, and network type have all been ruled out as sources of the problem. The working theory is that this bug affects all Foscam MJPEG cameras manufactured after a specific date. Users are trying to determine the specific date that introduced the hardware change that causes the bug.
For me, this problem first exhibited itself by the camera failing every afternoon. It took awhile to isolate the problem, but it was because the sunlight was brighter in the afternoon. The bright sunlight intensifies the luminosity changes in my scene and the image detail increases. The increased detail causes the video encoder to fail.
Buying one of these cameras is a gamble. If you are lucky, then the scene you are recording will naturally have a lower level of detail. This would include walls that are a solid color, shaded areas, and large sections of solid sky. If you are unlucky, then your scene will have too much detail (grass or light through tree leaves) and you will be at the mercy of your encoder failing every time the sun comes out from behind the clouds.
I've literally spent over a month in an ongoing email conversation with Foscam's support, tech support, and the R&D team and they are unable to reproduce the problem. Many other users have been receiving the same response from Foscam. Until Foscam acknowledges this problem and provides a solution, I do not recommend buying this camera. I'm surprised by the sheer volume of 5 star reviews, and suspect some potential manipulation by Foscam.
Update:
It has now been two months and I (and other users) continue to communicate with Foscam. The cause of this error was likely a sensor change that was introduced by Foscam in late 2012. It took several months before this hardware change trickled into the consumer market. The reason that Foscam has been unable to reproduce the problem is because they have been testing on older lab units; this problem only exists on units that have been manufactured since implementing the sensor change in late 2012. The forum thread mentioned above currently contains 82 cameras documented with this problem and 14 RMA's where the replacement cameras have also exhibited the same problem. One of Foscam's resellers has sent them a camera that exhibits the problem, but Foscam has remained silent on confirming any of the testing results from this specific camera. As it currently stands, the faulty cameras are likely still being produced and Foscam continues to fail in providing a solution for current/future owners. The bad news is that it took months for the hardware change to make it into the consumer pipeline. If Foscam ever decides to actually fix this issue by changing the sensor, then it will likely again take months before the new functional hardware makes it into consumer's hands. Even then, there will probably be pockets of old hardware still trickling out to consumers.
Update 2:
After 39 e-mails back and forth, I just recieved a confirmation from Foscam of this hardware problem. The e-mail is below.
"For the issue that MJ cameras reboot when light is too bright and the environment is very exquisite, our engineers find the reason and provide the solution. The reason for this issue is that if the environment is special (light is very bright and has many grass and trees), the picture size may beyond the DSP buffer. It can solved by flash the the DSP driver of the sensor board. Please contact your reseller to have repair.
Have a nice day!"
It is unclear if Foscam plans on continuing to manufacture the cameras with the DSP bug or if they will begin reflashing the DSP as a part of manufacturing. Based on their track record, if they do plan on making a change I doubt it will be any time soon. To correct the problem current cameras need to be shipped back and the DSP must be flashed. It is good that Foscam has confirmed the problem and can provide a fix for ambitious current camera owners. But, I think we are going to continue to have new users purchasing faulty hardware and identifying this problem for a significant amount of time.
Update 3:
This update will repeat some if the information already available in the quick summary up top. Foscam has now provided a repair solution. However, they have also claimed that Foscam (the manufacturer) is not responsible for the repair of this manufacturing defect. Foscam claims it is the individual resellers, in this case Amazon, who are responsible for repairing the cameras. I wholeheartedly disagree with this, but that is Foscam's stance. Users in the forums have compiled the steps of this repair procedure together along with a list of required parts/cable as a DIY project. The DIY repair will likely void your warranty on a brand new camera, but it is good to know that this option exists. The end result of this issue is that the defect has been confirmed by Foscam and a repair solution has been provided. But, they claim no responsibility in actually performing the repair. Foscam has been the definition of difficult through the entire process and so I do not recommend buying any Foscam cameras. I recommend finding an alternative even if it costs a little more money, your time and sanity are worth it.
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