Foscam FI8904W

8/1/12 : BenF Just to confirm this camera also works with Zoneminder 1.25 running on a Centos 5.7 box.

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 a request for updated firmware from Foscam support offered me a much older firmware.

The details on the Foscam page were a very useful in getting this setup, especially in passing your username and password.

The below assumes you have got the camera setup and connected to your network, and use a static IP address. You will have also setup a new user on the camera and are using that account to retrieve the snapshots or video.

Using the FI8904W 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 : 24 bit

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. Forcing a frame rate just under this does help give you a smoother stream, and so better playback:

Path : /snapshot.cgi?user=<username>&pwd=<password>&rate=6

Gives for me 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 Youtube showing people doing this.

The camera I have arrived with a 3.6mm lens which gives quite a wide field of view, but I've got 6,8, 10 and 12mm lenses coming which will give more of a 'zoom' as the lens gets 'longer', but I am expecting will require careful focussing.

They're easily sourced via eBay for £3-5 from suppliers in Hong Kong.