Foscam FI8910W Pan & Tilt IP/Network Camera with Two-Way Audio and Night Vision

- I picked up one of these around black friday for $55.  They usually run for around $75.

- I always wanted to mess with a wireless IP camera but really didn't want to spend that much.  It's really more for fun and to keep an eye on our finches than for serious security.  We have a fully monitored security system for that.

- This model isn't the latest one. This is a older mpeg model that is still very full featured and cheaper but video quality suffers a bit.  Framerate is a bit low too.  This model is suppose to be the most reliable though.

- Pan and tilt a wide range of motion.

- No optical zoom but you can digital zoom with the iphone app I use.  Foscam has a free one that is very basic but I recommend this one:

http://www.foscamapp.com/

- Set it up by connecting through ethernet and point your browser to the camera IP.  It's mostly pretty straight forward: setup pw, wifi settings and if you want email smpt (gmail supported) and ftp to send pictures when it detects motion.  I tested both and it works pretty well.  You can adjust how sensitive motion detection is or just turn it off.

- You can setup a custom port.  It has it's built in dynamic dns that you can use printed on the label.  You'll need to setup port forwarding for the single port you specify.

- Once it's all setup you really don't need a computer on.

- The night vision IR LED that turns on/off automatically depending on the amount of lighting works very well except if you put it in the same room as a security system PIR motion sensor it's going to trip it and you will get false alarms.  At this point I just disabled the IR LED which is too bad.

- Not the most secure device.  It's not even https.

- Supports audio both ways.

- For more serious surveillance software you'll have to buy Blue Iris for another $50.

Recommended.  If you are interested in a relatively cheap IP camera.