Foscam FI8904W
Just to confirm this camera also works - tested with Zoneminder 1.25 on a box running Centos 5.7 x64
My Camera purchased via Amazon for £65 in December 2011 arrived with
Firmware Version 11.25.2.38 Embeded Web UI Version 2.4.9.15
Note that the Firmware available from Foscam support appears to be much older than this.
The details on the Foscam page were a very useful, especially in passing your username and password.
The below assumes you have setup a new user on the camera and are using that account to retrieve the snapshots or video.
Use with Zoneminder
You can either use the snapshot stream, or video stream.
If the IP Address of the camera is 192.168.1.100 then the monitor settings for each are:
Snapshots :
For a 640 x 480, ~ 7 frames a second stream :
Protocol : HTTP Mehtod : Simple Remote Hostname : <your camera IP>, eg 192.168.1.100 Port : 80 Path : /snapshot.cgi?user=<username>&pwd=<password>&resolution=32&rate=6 Colours : 64 Width : 640 Height : 480
I found the camera maxed out at 10-11fps.
The only other issue is your Zoneminder box will be quite busy decoding jpgs - the jpeg-turbo MMX libraries do help here if you have a modern CPU. Alternatively, switch to the videostream method below, this helped on my installation.
Video Streaming :
Config as above, but the path changes to
Path : /snapshot.cgi?user=<username>&pwd=<password>
To get a stream running about 10-12fps. I found that the stream wasn't entirely smooth, with a small pause every 2 seconds - so specifying the frame rate does help :
Path : /snapshot.cgi?user=<username>&pwd=<password>&rate=6
Gives a framerate for me of 7.5fps.
Changing the Lens :
I understand the camera uses CS format CCTV lenses, which can be swapped if you don't mind some disassembly of the unit - there are a few videos on
The camera I have has come with a 3.6mm lens which gives a wide field of view, but I've got 6,8, 10 and 12mm lenses coming which give more of a 'zoom' as the lens gets 'longer'. They're easily sourced via eBay for £3-5 from suppliers in Hong Kong.
