Mini Wireless Color Camera with Microphone
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Our Price: $24.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $20.49 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Mini Wireless Color Camera with Microphone
Customer Review: ALMOST great, but 2.4 GHz interference is a problem
Summary: 2 Stars
I had bad interference until I unplugged the cordless phones in the house, then the reception became very good. That's fine, if you don't plan on using your phone while you use it.
Reception through the house into the garage was very good, even under modest lighting conditions (two 100W bulbs in a large garage). Sound is pretty good too, like our old Sony camcorder.
Under ideal circumstances (no phones on, close proximity) there is occasional flicker, but certainly acceptable.
I bought it to put on RC trucks to drive around remotely, stuff like that. It will work for that, it is small and light. I duct-taped it to a baseball cap and used it to film various activities, and you hardly know it is there. Next up: the cat-cam...
It eats up 9V batteries pretty quick, maybe 30 min on an NiMH rechargeable. I would not use this item if I did not have 9V rechargeable batteries for it.
Pros:
easy to set up
cheap
decent picture
good quality for the price
very small
Cons
phone interference (cost 3 stars, ouch)
pivot points are rivets, may wear out...?
rechargeable 9V batteries a MUST for remote active use
Maybe the 1.2 GHz would work better, might be worth a try. Still, if you can turn off the phones while you use it, its pretty darn fun.
Customer Review: Not much more than a toy.
Summary: 2 Stars
The camera is very small - a 3/4" cube - but it is permanently attached to a mount. It has a small cord that can be used to plug into the 9 volt battery connector or a power supply. One of each is included, so you can decide whether you want the camera to be on batteries or the receiver.
The receiver is a lightweight box - weighs less than the camera and mount - with a standard RCA video and mono audio connection. There is a light that shows power (no status on the camera) and a knob that allows you to - gently - tune in the video signal like an old style radio.
In testing, my reception without obstacles was about 30 feet, less with walls in the way. There was a lot of interference and loss of sync. This probably would have been better with an old TV; before loss-of-signal turned to static rather than just turning the screen blue. Even when I had the camera in a static position, I found I had to frequently fine tune to keep the picture halfway stable.
I had planned to test this as a "doorbell cam", but I ended up just attaching it to my son's R/C car and we had fun looking around the house - fuzzy, blinking picture and all - and imagined we were driving one of the rovers on Mars.
Customer Review: 5 stars for what it does for the price.
Summary: 5 Stars
Unpacked my new camera and had it up and running in no time at all. The tuning is challenging but you can get a solid clear color picture with NO interference if you have a delicate touch.
I've got it monitoring my porch outside mounted under the eave. Probably 60 feet away and next to my hot rodded PC the picture is clear. Every so often there is a graphic glitch but it goes away and it is rare. Definitely from random interference.
The only negative is the clarity - its kind of fuzzy and lacking fine details. You are not going to get a lot of lines of resolution with this setup. It is primarily good for confirming the presence of something or something happening etc. If you hope to identify a villain using this camera setup by facial features alone that likely won't be happening. Also it has no means to dial in contrast etc. So light areas in the field of view are very washed out.
However, every tinkerer needs one of these in their arsenal. And it is well worth the money!
Customer Review: Good value for a basic system
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this setup for birding. Installation was a breeze. One bit of confusion was the manual which stated the power adapters for the camera and transmitter should not be interchanged and could damage the equipment if hooked up wrong; however, the adapters were identical. I installed everything and had it working in less than 10 minutes. There is some interference as others have pointed out, i.e., occasional lines and jitters, but all in all a very good color picture for the price. I do not see a problem with low light conditions - I have a robin who built a nest under my deck, and was hoping to watch the babies hatch. Today they did within half an hour of my installation of the camera. The camera is tucked up underneath the joists and there is no direct sunlight, yet the picture is clear and bright. This may not hold true for dusk, but for use in normal daylight, I'd highly recommend this system if you're on a tight budget. I couldn't ask for more considering cost/performance ratio.Customer Review: Disables my macbook's WiFi and uses batteries at an insane rate
Summary: 3 Stars
I have this camera mounted about 10 ft from the front door, focused on the bird feeder so that my visually challenged parents can better see what birds visit the feeder. When plugged in, or when using a 9V battery, my macbook's WiFi no longer works. As soon as I unplug the camera, the Wifi works again.
Otherwise, I like the camera okay considering the affordable price. Video quality is decent.
BATTERY HOG. Unless you have a rechargeable 9V battery and are willing to recharge it every day, OR can afford to use a new disposable 9V EVERY DAY and don't care about the environment; then battery power is not an option, so plan on plugging it in to the wall socket or using a solar panel to power it. The specs state that the battery will only last 8 hrs, so they were honest and not deceptive; but i was hoping it wasn't true.
If you have no WiFi to worry about, and AC power readily available, then it's a nice little camera for the price.