Six dollar video cam. OK it is $6.49 (plus $5.99 S+H) over on “evilbay”. Then you need to get a mini-SD card. I heard about this on the radio, Leo Laporte has a weekend electronics show and talked about it. He said that compared to the price it gives a very good picture. He called it a “spy cam” because it is so small. I’m thinking about putting it inside the car or engine. Here’s a pic (hint it looks like a car key remote.)
I’ve got one on order, and will post a sample of how well it works. I’m thinking it might make for interesting point of view shots as the train passes by, like inside the house looking out the window, inside the cab of the delivery van, inside whatever.
OK folks, skip past all the disparaging remarks on this and the next page. Go to page three of this thread, Jerry Barnes has posted a very good instruction sheet for this camera. It was a battle understanding the “ChinEngrissh” but someone was able to produce a very clear instruction set. It works very well.
Pixel :2000000 color CMOS High resolution image with 2000k pixels Min. illumination:1 Lux (min) Support USB1.1 and USB2.0 Support AVI video format Video decode use motion JPEG, recording for AVI format VGA (720 x 480 @ 30fps) Recording can be sound or manually activated Working time: 2 hours Standby time: 250 hours Store consumption:1GB per 40 min Support 30 fps for 720x480 With LED indicator Support Micro SD (TF) card: 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB(max.) Support Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista/WIN 7
How to charge:
Please charge the mini DV before using for the first time. 1. Can be charged by connecting to PC USB port; 2. Can be charged by connecting to adapter with USB cable.
Long story: I ordered it on Saturday, put this post here on Sunday. On Monday evening I got an e-mail dated Tuesday stating that my package had been delivered to Hong Kong Post! With the following “The estimated arrival time of your item is from 2010-03-24 to 2010-04-02.” Guess I should have done a bit more reading before I paid for it.
This is one time where the phrase “it took a slow boat from China” is a correct statement. As you can clearly see, there is no screen on this thing, so aiming it is a “by gosh by golly” hope it is pointed in the right direction. You can look forward to seeing a sample of the video quality around mid April.
Tom, thanks for the up date and you took the words right out of my mouth. I bought some tress from a company in China and it took the same time frame. By the time I got them I as done with that section.
OK: It arrived in the mail today. Probably too dark outside for a true test, Plus I need to go get an Micro SD card. Here is a pic of the true size, it is inbetween my cell phone and wireless mouse for the laptop. I get home around 12:30 tommorrow afternoon and will try my first vid then.
Yes, I have tried it. Trying to understand the “Chinglish” (Chinese-English) is a bit rough. I have tried it about six time on the RR and all I get is about 4~6 seconds of video. I have a 5 minute segment where it recorded while I was walking around the yard. It is just that I need to figure out what buttons I pushed then. It will take a bunch more experimenting to get a video of decent lenght. As for the quality of the video, it is great.
Example of the instructions, (exact reproduction)
Enter the video mode in turn off status, long time press OFF / ON button till yellow light on, long time press (video camera button) tillyellow light flash three time, light off enter into video mode, then click (video / camera button) yellow light on for stop and saved ,long time press OFF /. ON switch off.
There is no paragraph 2. Once I figure out how to use it I will be posting a vid.
Every time I think I got it figured out and put it in a streetcar I get about 10~15 seconds of video. I know it will do more because I was just putzing around with it hanging out of my pocket while cleaning the chicken coop and got almost 20 minutes worth of video of my feet. Now I just got to try to figure out what the devil I did! The picture quality is a hundred times better than I was expecting from a $6 camera.
Seems as though the small scalers are having fun with this thing as well.
So, what’s the big deal about having a chicken coop? Advantages to having chickens, 1. They clip the lawn so lawn mowing is reduced by 50%, 2. Natural weed control, 3. Natural insect control, 4. Sweetest eggs you ever had, the yoke is more orange that the friut we call orange, more nutricious than store bought. Major disadvantage: since they like to scratch around they have a tendancy to bury the tracks and under-dig structures out in Vine Arbor and Rosebud Flats. Plus it is just plain fun to watch them gang up on the dogs and chase them around the yard.[#offtopic][:-^]
Think I figured out what I was doing wrong. I should say “a friend showed me what I was doing wrong.” He sent me a forum link about this thing and it said that charging time was 5~8 hours. I have been charging it from my web book for only an hour or two, so it was not getting fully charged. I took the charger for an “enVue” (electronic pocket picuter frame 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch screen) and am going to let it set until the little yellow light goes out.
I got 2 PM’s tday from you guys aksing what are the two “buttons” nearest the key chain. Well, them ain’t buttons. They are a molded part of the case, just dummies to make it look like a car remote.
