I have been around Foscam products and the forums for some time. I am checking everything out on the Amcrest side to see what the differences are and holy crap.
I have got to say, Amcrest, you are making an earnest, concerted effort to do things better than Foscam, and it shows.
The first thing I noticed is full HTTPS support on this site. Man, that is nice, knowing that everything transmitted is encrypted using TLS. Instead of the Foscam forum where everyones username and passwords are transmitted over HTTP in plaintext.
The next thing I noticed is the lack of a certain condescending moderator with a penchant for berating users. Instead, there are actual Amcrest employees who appear happy to assist users in the forum threads. I can not tell you how much this impressed me.
Another thing I noticed, is the CGI SDK is available on the product page, for each product. This is far more desirable than Foscam's new model of accessing the CGI SDK which involves waiting a few business days AFTER submitting a Non Disclosure Agreement.
Finally, this forum allows us to subscribe to and bookmark threads. Heck, we can even use an avatar if we'd like!
I know these things may not matter much to others, but for some they are very welcome changes.
I know this brand is still relatively young, but keep up the good work Amcrest. Your efforts are not going unnoticed!
P.S. - For those users with defective products, this company is still working things out. There are bound to be some kinks and defective products, these cameras are mass-produced and no QA program is perfect. As for the software, constructive, helpful criticisms with plenty of information regarding any problems that you encounter are what will have the most positive impact for the development team. Also, Amcrest if you are reading this, a public bug tracking system would be fantastic. Even if a user has to request permission to join and have their request evaluated before being allowed access, it would be much smoother for technically proficient users, distributors, resellets, etc. to report and track the progress of any bugs they encounter.
