Foscam FI9928P 1080p PTZ Dome Camera Review

TweakTown's Rating: 92%

The Bottom Line

For businesses, the FI9928P is a beast offering 1080p video, 110-degree viewing angle, and full 360-degree rotation, all streaming to your browser, mobile app, or Onvif-compatible NVR units.

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Foscam is a relatively young company, founded in 2007, and in just ten years they have become a leading vendor of IP camera solutions. Even in my short time here at TweakTown, we have seen a good number of solutions come through the lab from Foscam.

The latest solution we have in-house is our first look at a dome camera, the FI9928P. It features a 2M 1080p Starvis CMOS sensor from Sony supporting low-lux color night vision with a range up to 196 ft. An Ambarella Chip optimizes streaming video from the IP camera offering smooth low bit operation, and with this being an outdoor solution, we have a thermostable camera unit that's water, dust and cold resistant.

Moving on, this solution supports up to 128GB of storage via microSD while offering cloud backup and viewing can be done through your web browser or the Foscam app on Android and iOS.

The MSRP of the Foscam FDI9928P comes in at $349.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging follows the color and design we have seen in the past. The box lists features along the bottom with an image and model number of the camera to the right.

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Moving to the back side, we find a little more detail on a few features including the PTZ features Night Vision and NVR compatibility.

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The scope of delivery includes the power adapter, Wi-Fi antenna, and ethernet cable. We also have drywall anchors, screws, and reading materials.

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At the base, you will find the serial and model numbers, along with a QR code for setup and default credentials.

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The dome on this camera is quite large. As you can see, we have the CMOS sensor in the center with large night vision arrays around it. At the top, we have a removable cover that protects the microSD slot from intrusion.

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A closer look here at that cover over the microSD slot.

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Comparing the FI9928P to a typical outdoor bullet camera, you can see just how big this monster is.

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Setup lets us use the same app as many past cameras. You will want to get the camera mounted with all wiring ran before setup. Once power is supplied, you wait for the ding or some models will talk letting you know we can continue setup.

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Again, depending on your setup method (wired or wireless), the step will be different. For us, we are using wired for ease of use, so this model will talk letting us know the connection is complete.

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Once setup is finished, we have access to the dashboard of the application. Seen above, this gives you a large preview screen and list of each camera connected. To the top left, we have additional options.

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The cloud service provided by Foscam does come with additional fees. With the purchase of the camera, they do give you a one-month trial with a seven-day memory.

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Moving to the settings menu, we have access to firmware and camera info, network and speaker settings, and further down, the motion sounds and I/O detection.

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Above, I have an image from the camera on a relatively sunny day. The image quality is quite good for a Wi-Fi connection; the bit rate is at the top right.

I have used a good amount of IP cameras over the years and to be honest, I was quite impressed with the 9928P. This camera is a tank in both build quality, dimensions, and weight, and that is matched with solid performance, given its single small antenna.

Performance as far as video quality goes was worthy of its 1080p designation, you could tell even on a smartphone screen you were getting higher quality than past cameras. The video stream was quite stable although there were a few pauses due to the Wi-Fi connection and distance from the router. For those that would decide to run this unit wired, I doubt you'd ever have a single issue.

The app is surprisingly easy to use for setup and navigation. Foscam has seemingly dialed all the controls and settings in, as this app was very fluid in use with no tutorial needed.

Overall, the FI9928P is a very expensive camera. For the price of this single cam, you could potentially buy into a full wireless setup like Arlo. With that said, this camera does give you your money's worth, with a top-notch CMOS sensor, 60 meters of night vision, and onboard recording via microSD.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IX Hero (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Memory: G.SKILL TridentZ DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Hybrid (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Intel 730 480GB SSD (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Secondary Storage: MyDigitalSSD BP5 512GB SSD (buy from Amazon)
• Case: EVGA DG-86 (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 P2 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS ROG 10G Express
• Networking: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)