Cheap IP Cameras

[Gumby]

One of my friends bought one of the £54 Foscam IP PTZ cameras on eBay (from this chap)and lent it to me to try out.

With a bit of Googling for the secret information I found that it will stream video to Cortex. You need to configure the URL as:
http://<ip address>:<port>/videostream.cgi

You also need to configure a username and password on the video camera and enter those in Cortex, it doesn't seem to work with the default blank password.

QVGA @15fps, although that maxes out my poor little ITX board. No support in Cortex for the PTZ functions though. There's about 1sec of delay as well.

Allegedly there are clones of this camera about that may not work, so YMMV. I guess it would be interesting to find out if the outdoor variant also works.

[toscal]

I guess this could be the real thing or a clone???? but its quite cheap.
IP camera

[Gumby]

I'm suspicious ... the markings on the back are different and the Foscam one has an audio port on the rear (lower left hand side). Also the lens bezel is marked with "IR Night Vision f=3.6mm 0.3megapixels". But most telling is that the screenshots show a different web server (embedded in the camera) and it is the capabilities of the web server that are the critical thing.

When I get a chance I'll put up some images and screenshots.

[toscal]

I don't think the one from the ebay seller is a foscam one either. If you look at the manual there is no audio port either or mention of it. http://www.foscam.com/dow_list.asp?id=32

[Gumby]

Confusion reigns! The box that came with this one looks close, but not identical to the image on the Foscam page for the FI8908W. The manual that came with it is identical to the PDF manual from the page you linked (but that could have been copied). The software that came with it looks identical to that shown in the Foscam manual. Maybe it's an exact clone of the Foscam one, the point is that it is close enough to work.

In the manual the camera is referred to as IPCAM02 and the image of the back doesn't have the silk screening or the audio port. I guess the manual was written before the marketing department set the model number and hasn't been updated when they updated the silk screen and maybe added the audio port. On the bottom of this one it has a model number of VNT6656G6A40.

The ChinaVision one might be the same with out of date images on the website. But what makes me cautious is that the images of the browser pages and software are different, and the web server pages on this camera match the apparently old manual, implying the embedded web server has not changed that much.