If you could ...... [Archive]

Mikey

01-30-2006, 11:57 AM

Have a total day/night camera that has the option for still pics or 15 second vidoe bursts (or whatever lenth you want as long as your media was up to it) the camera weighs about 4 pounds and the housing is about 4.5" by 4.5" by 4" high ...plus cables to a remote power source and recording device. the recording device would be a mini DV recorder of some sort. The power source life span of course would be dependant upon the amount of activity ... But if on could harness a solar panel to recharge the power source during the day ... The camera has little power drain ... the major drain would be the recording media

would you like to use such a camera?

say an image that looks like this at night

Just some stuff I have been tinkering with

druidsacrifice

01-30-2006, 12:59 PM

Just my opinion, but I think the still camera aspect would be more interesting than video. Having to have a miniDV tapedeck and power it could be a bit cumbersome. A still cam could just write to a card. It would be really cool to have solar panel recharge though, that's pretty good idea.

Grunter

01-30-2006, 02:11 PM

Awesome idea Mikey... and I completely agree on using the mini-DV tapes... recording video (mpeg4) to digital memory isn't a good way to go unless you're willing to compromise the lack of quality in resolution and only want to playback the video on small screens.

Mikey

01-30-2006, 02:51 PM

ya thats the trouble I have been running into ...unless I wanna get a big unit out there then it becomes cumbersome ...resolution sucks after the data has been compressed ... the cameras I am using are actual security cams that typically record to a DVD ...but to get the data onto a smaller disk and use not so much power .... the data needed to be compressed pretty hard .... I am triing to create a system that uses less than 1 amp to do everything so one can leave a unit out longer than a couple days before its dead ... and use milliamps to be passive....

I think that datacard might be a way to go ...but I want vid .... so I can see the critters come in and leave ... to pattern them alot better